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Science Education and Our Future. C.P. Snow.
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C.P. Snow • C.P. Snow in 1959 in his Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution described the void between scientists and literary intellectuals when they could not understand one another.In the last 50 years the gap has increased exponentially. Science has been advancing so rapidly that “I must run as fast as I can just to remain in place.”
A recent study on the state of science education “Policy Perspectives: A Teachable Moment” sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts begins as follows: “Put a group of liberal arts college presidents around the table, as one foundation did recently, and the result is likely to be a lively affirmation of the importance of liberal learning in general and science education in particular. Give this same group a pop quiz on the principles of science and mathematics, as the host foundation did on this occasion, and the result is more problematic: almost no one passes.”
Global change will accelerate in this 21st century. The population will more than double to at least 15 billion people, the energy requirements will greatly increase, water shortages, waste problems and pollution will become very major issues.We need to create a sustainable environment where the resources can be regenerated as fast as they are used. Science and technology will surely play a major and critical role if we are to solve these problems.
I worry when I hear educated people address school children and say “I want all of you to be in the top 20%”, and “Infinity gets to be a bit too long near the end,” and “We are open seven days per week, plus weekends, “ or “The census found that half the people are below average,” or in a high school exam, “Describe the Universe and give two examples.”
Many think that ‘alien abductions’, telekinesis, ESP, remote viewing, etc., etc., are scientific subjects. The historian Daniel Boorstein has put it this way: “The great obstacle to progress is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.”
It is the task of the scientist and society at large to provide public understanding – even if we all have to go back to night school! C.P. Snow warned us when he said, “Educate ourselves or perish!”
I am often asked to comment on the values of scientific research, and I find that it is a challenge to explain to the public and the taxpayer the values of our discoveries. The challenge is even greater when our work on fundamental physics – such as particle physics, neutron stars, black holes, and galaxies – cannot have immediate benefits to the public. However, recall that early in the nineteenth century Michael Faraday in England discovered electricity and the news made the 20th page of the London Times – just a few lines. • That discovery soon “electrified” the world and made night shine like day! When a politician asked Faraday what good was his discovery for, he answered, “Sir, one day you will be able to tax it.”
I think that science has created a surprisingly broad and coherent understanding of the nature of the Universe. We discuss in detail about happenings on extremely small sizes and during extremely short periods of time. We can also describe the history of the Universe in billions of years and dimensions of billions of light years.
That science does not have all the answers today does not mean that we are ignorant of the world. History has shown that, with time, our answers become better and better, and many of our scientific predictions are extremely precise.
Nothing rivals the predictive power of science today. One of the social values of science is its naked honesty. You cannot fool nature. You cannot deceive it. We cannot continue to believe in imaginary, mythological ideas – unless scientific methods prove their validity.
Nevertheless, science is under attack by society because some people feel that the misfortunes of our present civilization are primarily due to the progress of science, such as the development of destructive weapons including nuclear bombs, global overpopulation due in part to the advancement of medicine and agriculture, the greenhouse effect, the ozone hole, and acid rain. The British journalist Bryan Appleyard in his book Understanding the Present (1993), preaches that the problem with our world is that scientists have destroyed morality, and that scientific knowledge destroys spiritual values, hence science is immoral and therefore so are scientists. Scientists are the bad guys of society.
We have developed a society based on science and technology, but we now find very few people understand science and technology – this situation presents serious dangers for the happy and democratic future of our civilization. Normally very few people in politics and governments have any significant background in the sciences.
The values of our society today are severely misplaced when astrology columns populate more than 90% of our nation’s newspapers – because apparently “the public shows great interest in astrology” and because “astrology columns sell newspapers.” The values of our society are surely misplaced when a person carrying a football a few yards gets paid $10 million and a school teacher has a $30K annual salary.
To a large degree, the popular press and television decide what the public should know. However, the press and television have not taken an active role to alert the public on pseudoscientific claims, they have mostly ignored their educational responsibilities, and have concentrated on what they view as newsworthy information, entertainment and advertising. The freedom of the press is essential for a democratic society, but with freedom comes responsibility and the power of the media should be used to educate the public.
WASHINGTON – American teenagers scored last in math and well below the mean in science in an international survey whose results “pose a serious challenge to our position in the world community,” the Educational Testing Service said Tuesday. See Story, Page 7.February 1, 1989
Knowledge of Basic Facts General U.S. Survey Age 18 or Older (1988) • 28% Do not know the Earth circles the Sun • Of the rest, 55% do not know it takes one year for the Earth to circle the Sun. • In the U.S. 94 million people do not know “The Earth circles the Sun in one year!” San Francisco Chronicle Oct. 24, 1988 Associated Press
Knowledge of Basic Facts How about knowledge of: • SDI and lasers • Acid rain • Greenhouse effect • Biotechnology • Microchips How can we preserve Democracy when the world becomes scientifically more complex and the people are increasingly more ignorant of the sciences? San Francisco Chronicle Oct. 24, 1988 Associated Press
23,000 U.S. High Schools (1988) Students taking at most one year of: • Physics 15% • Chemistry 30% • Algebra 50% High Schools: • 4,200 offer no chemistry • 7,100 offer no physics Since 1955 U.S. has produced (degrees); • 1,000,000 Lawyers • 200,000 Bus. Admin. • 54,000 Chemists
Science Education for What? For National Security For Economic Security For Effective Democracy For Personal Enlightenment For Joy of Learning For Why Existence?
In spite of the amazing understanding of nature, most people are not friendly with sciences.
Aristotle accepted that the Earth was spherical more than 2000 years ago, and today we still have “Flat Earth Societies”! • Copernicus (and before him Aristarchus) demonstrated that the sun is at the center of the Solar System five hundred years ago and it took 2 to 3 hundred years for people to accept this. • Darwin explained biological evolution 150 years ago and most people today do not know what he explained. • Today’s science indicates that we are only a pack of neurons, and who knows how long it would take for people to accept this.
What should we do to improve science education? • We must devote more time to science education. • We must devote more funds to science education. • We, scientists, should be actively involved in improving the scientific literacy of the public. • We must promote the importance, usefulness, and benevolence of science. • We must begin science teaching at home and in the elementary schools. • We need qualified, enthusiastic, and well paid science teachers. • We must promote and recognize excellence in science teaching. • We must seek ways for colleges and universities to work more closely with secondary schools. • We must encourage that high schools introduce the teaching of Astronomy. • We must insure that we do not divorce the sciences from the humanities.
