ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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The "problem" of science education is enormous.  It spans the globe, 
as I know from my life here in Germany.

It is not a matter of creating or choosing a particular curriculum or 
method of teaching (inquiry based or "teach to the test" or based on 
"everyday phenomena" or whatever).

1.  We have to finally accept that not everyone, in fact, almost 
no-one, is interested or capable of true scientific thinking and 
working.  Just like not everyone, almost no-one is able to be a 
artistic virtuoso (in any art). We can teach a lot of people to play 
the harmonica, even the piano, but only a few will make it their 
lifetime (pre)occupation.

2.  We have to accept that the people that we are training to become 
teachers are exactly those who did not feel a particular attraction 
to the sciences -- else they would have become scientists.  I KNOW 
that there are exceptions -- I am one.  And I believe that ALL 
informal science educators are individuals who have a passion for 
science AND for preaching the "way" of science.

2a.  We have to accept the fact that unmotivated teachers will 
produce poorly prepared students, who may thus become teachers that 
are even less well prepared to teach than their teachers were... it's 
a downward spiral.

3.  We have to accept that doing real science, like doing art, 
requires PRACTICE.  We have to "teach to the test" (at some 
point):  the vocabulary and the ("grammatical") rules.

4.  We have to remind ourselves that science has never been practiced 
so widely and in such depth as it is being practiced today --despite 
the supposedly high attrition rates out of these disciplines.

5.  We have to remind ourselves that socioeconomic factors play a 
role in students' success rate:  comparing US students, a very 
diverse bunch, with, for example, Finnish or Singaporean students is 
not really fair.



What can we do?
We can help provide as many experiences of science, of natural 
phenomena, as possible.
We can be evangelical (no, I'm not a creationist):  we can show the 
people we come into contact with, just how amazed we are about-- 
well, actually everything.
We can remind people that, besides being fantastic, the work of 
scientists becomes useful technology.

I believe that most of us subscribing to this list are already doing that.

Natasha
College of Education, Ludwigsburg, Germany 

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