In National Public Radio’s science blog,\u00a0 “13.7: Cosmos and Culture,” Ursula Goodenough writes:<\/p>\n
Myth<\/strong>: The American populace is science-ignorant, lagging well behind other \u201cdeveloped\u201d nations in scientific literacy.<\/p>\n
Fact<\/strong>: It turns out that the U.S. curve is U-shaped: Elementary-school children perform as well in science-understanding metrics as their peers elsewhere, even though formal science teaching at these grade levels is at best sporadic, whereas middle- and high-school students perform abysmally even though they take required science courses. But American adults demonstrate scientific knowledge on a par or above adults in other \u201cdeveloped\u201d countries, even though only 30 percent of adult Americans have ever taken even one college-level science course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How to explain? Goodenough cites an “excellent” article in a recent edition of American Scientist<\/em> by John Falk and Lynn Dierking, Oregon Sea Grant’s professors of free-choice learning. Falk and Dierking specialize in studying the kind of learning that takes place outside the classroom – the learning that we do on our own, by visiting museums and aquariums, reading, investigating things on the Internet or pursuing our passions, from star-gazing to collecting tropical fish.<\/p>\n
It turns out that, for most Americans, free-choice learning is how we pick up most of what we know about science.\u00a0 And while Falk and Dierking support efforts to improve school-based science literacy, they also call for broadening opportunities for adults to pursue their inherent curiosity about science, technology, engineering and math.<\/p>\n
(Oregon Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning program is aiding in that effort by using OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center as a living lab for studying how people learn in informal settings. Read more at http:\/\/hmsc.oregonstate.edu\/visitor\/free-choice-learning<\/a> .<\/p>\n
Read Goodenough’s blog entry\u00a0 here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In National Public Radio’s science blog,\u00a0 “13.7: Cosmos and Culture,” Ursula Goodenough writes: Myth: The American populace is science-ignorant, lagging well behind other \u201cdeveloped\u201d nations in scientific literacy. Fact: It turns out that the U.S. curve is U-shaped: Elementary-school children … Continue reading