Why People Resist Science

Here is an interesting article, adapted from a recent article in Science. The authors discuss why some people resist science, addressing not just the American debate over evolution but how children and adults learn and how this impacts general views of science. For educators, the discussion about misconceptions is useful. Children (and adults) have difficulty with ideas that conflict with experience, e.g., the world is a sphere, yet objects don't roll away. The article concludes with a discussion of trust and deference to authority. Complex ideas often require us to trust an authority. When people do not trust scientists, they will be less likely to believe in scientific findings. Trust and mistrust can also spread (if you have two friends who don't believe something, you may start to question it as well), which helps explain recent figures showing major differences among nations in public acceptance of evolution. As the article concludes: "one way to combat resistance to science is to persuade children and adults that the institute of science is, for the most part, worthy of trust."

Science Demonstrations

The Discovery Center of Idaho is hosting a new wiki designed to share demonstrations of science. This is a great place to find or share the type of activities that you might use in a museum (or any informal science setting) to demonstrate a science concept. Let's hope lots of people share their ideas. Perhaps there will be some good video links as well - see my previous post on videos for ideas.

Student-Centered Learning

Students learn better when they are directly involved in problem solving, scientific experiments, or following their own lines of inquiry. However, achieving this type of learning is difficult even for experienced science teachers. These comments won't come as new or innovative to those who have worked in science education for a while. Yet, they continue to be central to achieving high quality learning.

A new study on physics education finds that students engaged in interactive courses outperform their peers who received traditional, instructor-led lessons. ASCD Research Brief / Study

In my own experience visiting after-school programs where youth workers are trying to lead inquiry activities, there is a difficult balancing act between student-centered activity and science content. If you asked them to teach drama or basketball, these experienced and trained after-school leaders would presumably put the students at the center - letting them play and experience the activities. Yet, with science, the staff revert to their own experience with science, attempting to spew facts or take the children through programmed experiment steps.

Overcoming the preconceptions about science education as lecture-led starts with the staff. NSTA and others have been helping teachers with this for many years. Now we have to reach a new group of science education staff in after-school programs, camps, and other informal settings.

New Reading on Out-of-School Time

There is an interesting new article called "Beyond the Classroom" about out-of-school time by Rhonda Lauer of Foundations Inc. In addition, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time has published its latest fact sheet. The article provides good thinking about the state of our education system and the role of OST institutions (especially for urban youth). The fact sheet offers a summary of the information that you may find yourself thinking about after reading the article.

Informal Science Social Bookmarking Site

For those who work in the informal science or museum worlds, you may want to check out sciencecentr.org, a new social bookmarking site for science centers and museums.