Five Challenges in Science Education

David D. Thornburg, PhD Executive Director, Thornburg Center for Space Exploration dthornburg@aol.com .tcse!"#$.org

The launch of Sputni" on %ctober &, #'() triggered m* nascent passion in tin"ering into a full! fledged desire to become a scientist. +* academic performance as spott* up until that time, having been identified as ,mildl* retarded- b* one ell!intentioned counselor in the da*s before .DD as recogni/ed. 0ut, ith Sputni", m* apparent .DD vanished as 1 spent hours thin"ing about hat it ould ta"e and hat it ould be li"e to spend a career exploring ne frontiers of "no ledge. For a fourteen!*ear!old gro ing up in Chicago, this as a great time to be alive. 2e had a splendid museum of science and industr*, a planetarium, an a3uarium, and a natural histor* museum. 2e ere surrounded ith resources to support an* interest that *oung people had in the sciences. 0* 4ovember of that *ear, President Eisenho er announced that our public educational s*stem as in severe need of a complete overhaul if e ere ever to produce enough scientists and engineers to "eep up ith the Soviets. 0* the time 1 started high school, the PSSC science curriculum as in place, and 1 found the educational climate needed to foster and develop m* s"ills. 1n some a*s, those ere the golden *ears of education for me. Toda* e hear a lot about educational reform, but our 3uest for accountabilit* has resulted in man* cases in the abandonment of 3ualit* educational practices and, in their place, e see hat appears to some as perpetual testing in the midst of a curriculum devoid of excitement and the uncertaint* of genuine exploration. 0ut, as President 5enned* once said #, ,%ur
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problems are man!made, therefore the* ma* be solved b* man. .nd man can be as big as he ants. 4o problem of human destin* is be*ond human beings.8oo"ing at our current economic challenges, coupled ith the loss of creative scientific and engineering or" to other nations, it seems overdue to ta"e a hard loo" at some of the challenges facing science education in the 9S, and to suggest a*s these challenges might be addressed. .s 1ntel:s Craig 0arrett sa*s$, ,.n*one ... from the 9nited States ho sa*s that the Chinese or 1ndians are not entrepreneurial, not creative, that the* don:t ant to rival the 9nited States in business startups has not been to 1ndia or China.Five of these challenges ill be explored in the rest of this short document. These challenges are b* no means the onl* ones facing us ; *ou can come up ith man* others ; but the* provide a good starting point for conversations around this trul* important topic. The Shortage of Qualified Teachers %ne of the highlights of the much!maligned ,4C80- act is the mandate that each student ill have access to highl* 3ualified teachers. .nd *et, in the areas of math and science, such teachers seem to be in short suppl*. This challenge has become so severe that some districts are importing 3ualified teachers from other nations ; for example, schools in 2ichita, 5S are securing <#!0 visas for Filipino teachers ho come for three!*ear assignments = hich can be extended> ? This experiment has or"ed ell, but it is unclear if it has bought enough time for the domestic teaching force to add enough 3ualified science teachers to the pool to meet the needs of .merica:s schools. +uch has been ritten on this topic. For example, the 4.P report Rising Above the Gathering Storm &, explores this challenge in depth. The tas" is complex, but the penalt* for inaction is to have even more teachers or"ing outside their specialties. The follo ing table from this report sho s ho big the challenge is@ Students Taught by Teachers with No Major or Certification in the Subject Taught, 1999 !""" Discipline Grades 58 Grades 912 English (AB ?6B +athematics C'B ?#B Ph*sical science '?B C?B 0iolog*;life sciences D &(B Chemistr* D C#B Ph*sics D C)B

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1n a follo up document, Rising Above the Gathering Storm Two #ears $ater$, the authors state ,The strongest influence on the performance of students in a class is hether the* have a teacher ith a bechelor:s degree in the subEect the* teach.Fetting students through college in the sciences and engineering is a challenge that affects the pool of 3ualified teachers. 1n the area of engineering, for example, it appears that up to (6B of engineering undergrads in some schools change maEors b* the end of their sophomore *ear (. The number of 9S college graduates in ph*sics in #'(C, the last full *ear before the launch of Sputni", as t ice the number of graduates in $66&. The need to encourage teachers to or" in the sciences must cut across all those interested in a future in education. 4o group can be left out in our 3uest to address this challenge. Foing bac" to m* o n experience as a student, 1 as luc"* enough to have science teachers in high school ho had their primar* degrees in the sciences the* taught and, in some cases, had or"ed in the field for *ears before becoming educators. Learning about science as a vibrant hu an activit! Gears ago, in m* presentations, 1 ould as" teachers to tell me the names of scientists. 1n general, the names the* gave ere of dead hite men. Sometimes +adame Curie:s name ould appear, and 2atson and Cric" ould be mentioned as living examples of famous scientists =at the time>. 0ut the idea of science being a vibrant field ith participants of all genders and heritage as not reflected in most of the ans ers 1 received. 1t is as if e taught students about science ithout the scientistsH .lso, 1 encountered man* people ho "ne something about science, but not about h* an*one ould choose to spend his or her life exploring 3uestions in a field that might not *ield definitive ans ers in their lifetime. 1 even sa this in m* o n house hen, shortl* after m* marriage, m* *ounger step!daughter = ho as in high school at the time> came to brea"fast and sa a fractal pattern on m* computer screen that as a result of a forecasting model 1 as doing for a client. The graph as 3uite prett*, and she ondered hat it as. 1 told her it as a mathematical pattern. She has a strong artistic bent and shared that she never "ne mathematical expressions could be beautiful. To her math as Eust calculations ; not the exploration of deep ideas. 4o she had studied math in school, but she didn:t reali/e that there ere people ho explored deep mathematical ideas outside the classroom ; and that some of them did it Eust for funH

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0* treating the sciences as abstract topics devoid of the incitement of human passion, e miss the chance to engage students in a*s that might get them thin"ing of the sciences as a possible career path. 1n this regard, 1 as luc"*. +* father as =among other things> a bacteriologist. <e ould spend hours ith his e*es glued to his microscope, loo"ing at the pes"* critters he:d found, and experiment ith a*s to "noc" them dead. There as a never! ending stream of experiments to do, and ne discoveries to be made. 2hile 1 had no interest in follo ing in his footsteps, 1 respected the or" he as doing in his o n laborator*, and also got to meet other scientists ho ere engaged in ama/ing or" in a variet* of fields. "utting bac# on hands$on science <ands!on science education seems to be in short suppl* in our schools. The follo ing figure from the 8a rence <all of Science $666 stud* of elementar* schoolsC is sobering@

16%

20%
No time 60 minutes or less 60-180 minutes

64%
This chart sho s the number of minutes per ee" spent on science education in 5!( schools in the San Francisco 0a* .rea in the *ear $666. The fact that #CB of the students receive no science instruction at all in the heart of California:s high technolog* enclave should be ta"en as a serious a"e!up call. Even in classes here science is being taught, too much of it seems limited to lectures based on textboo"s. 4o 1 admit to being one of those eird people ho treats math as an experimental, rather than theoretical, science, and enEo* building complex computer models to explore topics as challenging as anticipating the emergence of ne trends in technolog*. +* approach comes from tin"ering, and from a solid grounding in lab!based science in high school and college. 1 am saddened each time 1 al" the exhibit halls of a conference and see soft are that supports computer animation of experiments that should be done ith real apparatus. Titrating a solution to neutralit* is best done ith a burette, not ith a piece of
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soft are that simulates the process. To me the maEor benefit of doing actual experiments comes from observing those inevitable variations in experimental results from those predicted b* theor*. Experiments also allo students to observe non!intuitive phenomena the* can then stud* in the course of resolving the gap bet een their intuition and the underl*ing ph*sics or chemistr* of an experiment. 1n this setting, a ell!e3uipped laborator* can ta"e advantage of versatile probe! are and hand! held devices to capture real data that can be transferred to a computer for further anal*sis and inclusion in a report. 1n other ords, students benefit hen the* do science, not Eust learn about science. 1n addition to hanging out ith m* father, 1 as motivated to explore hands!on activities outside the classroom. 2hen 1 as a "id, the Science Service produced and distributed Things of Science ) ; a monthl* "it of hands!on activities that as mailed to thousands of home subscribers. This product started in the #'&6:s. +* subscription started at Christmas in #'(), a fe months after the launch of Sputni". +* first slide rule as delivered b* them the follo ing *ear in one of the computation units. Each blue box, featuring a different topic, as eagerl* a aited ; it contained artifacts, and a manual of experiments to do ith the enclosed items. 1 remember one month getting a box of fossil shells, getting a bendable plastic hinge another time, and a ide variet* of other things to explore. Each box as eagerl* a aitedH Tragicall*, "its of this sort have gone the a* of the old chemistr* sets. .t least one can still purchase Erector Sets ; but man* of the other hands!on "its of m* childhood have disappeared and, along ith them, the chance for man* "ids to explore science topics ith their hands and brain. Science as process of in%uir! and real pro&ects 1t seems to me that too much science instruction is based on imparting a bod* of "no ledge to the students and then having them appl* this "no ledge to some pre!defined problems =complete ith ans ers in the teacher:s edition of the textH> The process of having students
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explore ne 3uestions on their o n falls outside most State standards, and thus gets left out of the curriculum. 1 thin" this is a mista"e. 1:d rather see students use a foundational "no ledge of a field as a springboard to as"ing =and ans ering> their o n 3uestions. To start ith, this is hat real scientists do ; the* spend their lives ans ering 3uestions that the* as" of themselves. This move to a more student!directed approach is not trivial for teachers to ma"e. To start ith, there is still a need for basic "no ledge to be shared. The challenge comes in finding the place for teachers to stop lecturing and the open the class up to student designed proEects based on 3uestions the* as" themselves. To assist in this process, there is a rubric students can appl* to their o n 3uestions to evaluate if the* are orth spending time on to ans er. =This rubric can be found in the in3uir* handout on the Facult* page at .tcse! "#$.org>. 2hat "inds of 3uestions are orth* of student in3uir*I 2ell, let:s ta"e an example@ 2e "no that e onl* see one side of the +oon from Earth ; our +oon rotates on its axis at the same rate it revolves around the Earth. 2h* is thatI 7ather than providing a canned ans er, students ill learn far more if the* research this 3uestion themselves. %f course, this is an example of a 3uestion that has a "no n ans er. . more complex 3uestion is based on the follo ing t o images@

The image on the left is the face of the +oon seen from Earth. That on the right is the ,far side- of the +oon. There are stri"ing differences in these t o images ; most notabl* the virtual absence of mares on the far side. <o did these differences come aboutI 1t turns out that this is still an open 3uestion. 2hile a teenager ma* not come up ith a definitive ans er, this proEect provides a great deal of opportunit* for research, and is sure to
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result in students learning far more about the +oon than the* course.

ould in an* textboo"!driven

. maEor challenge in transforming science studies into the in3uir*!driven proEect!based learning domain is staff development. %ur experience has sho n that support needs to be provided on a regular basis until the teachers and the students become comfortable ith the shift in methodolog*. The re ards, ho ever, are ama/ing. 4ot onl* do students go be*ond the material provided in their textboo"s, the* also develop an appreciation for the "ind of or" done b* real scientists ; perhaps leading more of them into the field. The importance of this shift is reflected in a stud* done at %hio State 9niversit*A in hich students in China and the 9S ere tested on science ,facts.- The Chinese students outperformed the 9S students. 0ut hen both groups of students ere tested on scientific reasoning, both groups failed. 1n other ords, the "no ledge of textboo" delivered science facts does nothing to develop the capacit* for scientific reasoning. "onnecting science to other sub&ects 1nnovative educators have al a*s made connections bet een science and other topics. Some science fiction provides a good starting point. 2hether it involves reaching bac" to Jules Kerne, or exploring more contemporar* authors li"e the =late> Philip 5. Dic", or 4eal Stephenson, science fiction has al a*s triggered some great ,what if%- moments in our minds. Expanding be*ond science fiction, the fine arts provide alternate path a*s to thin"ing about science ; and man* scientific phenomena are estheticall* pleasing b* themselvesH Toda*, for some ver* solid reasons, e are hearing more and more about the need for STE+ s"ills =Science, Technolog*, Engineering and +ath.> 9nfortunatel*, much of the or" in this area treats these four topics as stovepipes, functioning independentl* from each other. 1 thin" this is a mista"e. .s 5ristina Johnson from Johns <op"ins 9niversit* has said$, ,Toda* the problems are more complex than the* ere in the #'(6:s, and more global. The*:ll re3uire a ne educated or"force, one that is more open, collaborative, and cross!disciplinar*.Students should be provided opportunities for cross!disciplinar* or" before graduating from high school. <ere:s the challenge@ 2hile math, science and =some> technolog* are taught as separate subEects in school, the po er of treating the STE+ subEects in an integrated fashion strengthens the understanding of each of them. This is essential because technolog* and engineering are more li"el* to be found in
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career academies than in purel* academic high schools. The benefit of this approach is that, hen students see =and understand> the interconnectedness of these four fields, the* ma* find themselves more motivated to explore the individual subEects in deeper a*s than the* do no . Consider the follo ing chart@

.t a high level, it is useful to thin" of science as the stud* of the ,found,- and engineering is the stud* of the ,made.- Scientists concern themselves ith the advancement of "no ledge in the realm of natural phenomena. Even the most abstract theoretical scientists are concerned =at their core> ith the explanation of natural phenomena that might be observed under the proper conditions. Engineers, on the other hand, use scientific "no ledge for another purpose@ the design and fabrication of obEects for the advancement of man"ind. 2hether it is the design of a ne telescope, or crafting a more flexible space suit, engineers generall* have a specific goal in mind hen the* start their proEects@ a goal that relates to having something fabricated =rather than discovered as naturall* occurring>. .t the core, science involves the ,scientific method,- a process of h*pothesis formulation and verification that is taught to students at multiple grade levels. Engineering, on the other hand, has at its core the more flexible notions of creativit* and innovation ; attributes that are harder to 3uantif* and teach, but that are essential in the engineering domain nonetheless. The creative process can be nurtured, but it ta"es a special effort and classroom climate to
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stimulate creativit*. This does not mean that the scientific method is not of value to engineers, nor that scientists can not benefit from creative insights. 8in"s of this sort are legendar* in both fields. 1t is Eust that, at the core of these fields, each of these ideas has a strong role to pla*. Science benefits from engineering, and engineering applies science ; the t o are lin"ed. 1n fact, the lin"ages bet een these topics and the remaining STE+ areas =technolog* and mathematics> are d*namic, highl* interconnected, and constantl* evolving over time. +ath s"ills are essential for both scientists and engineers. 0* the same to"en, advances in science and engineering can stimulate the development of ne mathematical techni3ues. For example, 4e ton:s contributions to ph*sics and the calculus are tightl* lin"ed. Calculus provided the computational frame or" through hich the la s of motion could be 3uantified and applied. This has al a*s been the case. Feometr*, for example, literall* derives from ,measure the earth.- 2hile there are branches of mathematics that have *et to find application in science and engineering, this does not mean that applications ill not be found at some time in the future. To ta"e a recent example, the foundations for chaos and fractal theor* ere laid at the end of the #'th centur* hen Peano sho ed it as possible to build a space!filling curve ' =a tas" that as previousl* thought to be impossible.> <is thoughts ere resurrected over a half!centur* later as a conse3uence of the active development of chaos and complexit* theor*. These branches of mathematics ere helped along b* the invention of the digital computer, and have since found application in science and engineering, as ell as fields as disparate as economics. 9nfortunatel*, man* students don:t see a strong connection bet een mathematics and the other three STE+ topics until the* ta"e advanced math classes in college. For man* students, this is too late ; ithout the re3uisite math courses under their belts in middle and high school, college!bound students are bloc"ed from stud*ing STE+ subEects, thus contributing to the shortage of people in these fields. The relationship ith technolog* is similar. For example, the <ubble Space Telescope =<ST> is a technolog* that has advanced our scientific understanding of the cosmos greatl*. This telescope as the result of a huge engineering effort that relied heavil* on science, and is providing ne insights that not onl* advance science, but have had an impact on the engineering of ne er, more po erful, telescopes. 1n fact, the <ubble ne s coverage in $66$ represented &&B of all stories emerging from programs of the 4.S. %ffice of Space Science #6.

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The bul" of these stories related to scientific discoveries made ith the <ST technolog* ; discoveries made possible b* the tremendous applications of mathematics, and engineering re3uired to design, build and maintain this telescope. . problem ith traditional curricula that treat the STE+ topics as separable and, in fact, separate subEects is that po erful connections among the topics are eas* to miss. 1nformation on curricular connections are sometimes seen as supplemental, rather than l*ing at the core of the overall enterprise. This brief paper set out to identif* five challenges facing 5!#$ science education toda*. .s *ou loo" at these challenges, and identif* more of *our o n, 1 hope *ou ill thin" about a*s to address them in *our o n schools. 'eferences( #. Luote Details@ John F. 5enned*@ %ur problems are man!made,... ! The Luotations Page. at Mhttp@NN .3uotationspage.comN3uoteN?$C(.htmlO $. 7ising .bove the Fathering Storm T o Gears 8ater@ .ccelerating Progress To ard a 0righter Economic Future. Summar* of a Convocation. at Mhttp@NN .nap.eduNcatalog.phpIrecordPidQ#$(?)O ?. Filipino teacher experiment a success R 2ichita 4e s ! 5ansas 4e s R 5ansas.com. at Mhttp@NN ."ansas.comNne sNstor*NC'$(&?.htmlO &. 7ising .bove the Fathering Storm@ Energi/ing and Emplo*ing .merica for a 0righter Economic Future. at Mhttp@NN .nap.eduNcatalog.phpIrecordPidQ##&C?O (. STE+.pdf. at Mhttp@NN .purdue.eduNstrategicPplanN hitepapersNSTE+.pdfO C. 8<S R 7E. R 0a* .rea Stud*. at
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). A. '. #6.

Mhttp@NN .la rencehallofscience.orgNreaNba*areastud*NO 7ediscovering Things of Science. at Mhttp@NNecg.mit.eduNgeorgeNtosNSunitsO Stud*@ 8earning Science Facts Doesn:t 0oost Science 7easoning. at Mhttp@NNresearchne s.osu.eduNarchiveNscireason.htmO Space!filling curve ! 2i"ipedia, the free enc*clopedia. at Mhttp@NNen. i"ipedia.orgN i"iNSpace!fillingPcurveO The <ubble!J2ST Transition@ . Polic* S*nopsis Papers per *ear R Space7ef ! Space 4e s as it <appens. at Mhttp@NN .spaceref.comNne sNvie sr.htmlIpidQ''#6O

)bout the author David is the Founder and Director of Flobal %perations for the Thornburg Center. <e is an a ard! inning futurist, author and consultant hose clients range across the public and private sector throughout the planet. <is ra/or!sharp focus on the fast!paced orld of modern computing and communication media, proEect!based learning, $#st centur* s"ills, and open source soft are has placed him in constant demand as a "e*note spea"er and or"shop leader for schools, foundations, and governments. .s a child of the %ctober S"*, David as strongl* influenced b* the earl* or" in space exploration, and as the beneficiar* of changes in the 9S educational s*stem that promoted and developed interest in STE+ =science, technolog*, engineering, and math> s"ills. <e no is engaged in helping a ne generation of students and their teachers infuse these s"ills through the mechanism of in3uir*!driven proEect!based learning. =For details, visit .tcse!"#$.org.> <is educational philosoph* is based on the idea that students learn best hen the* are constructors of their o n "no ledge. <e also believes that students ho are taught in a*s that honor their learning st*les and dominant intelligences retain the native engagement ith learning ith hich the* entered school. . central theme of his or" is that e must prepare students for their future, not for our past. David splits his time bet een the 9nited States and 0ra/il. <is or" in 0ra/il also is focused on education, and he is currentl* part of a team redesigning curricular practice for some schools in and near 7ecife, his home cit*.

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