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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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I encourage everyone - individual or organizations - to sign onto the Nation Resolution on High Stakes Testing. It not only well help students in our schools, but I know of many schools not allowed to take field trips because they need to spend more "time on task" to get test scores up, so if we can move away from the testing craze there is a benefit to science centers. It so demoralizes teachers and students, and is not what our kids need, and not a way to proceed with quality education. It also devours time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.
You can read about and sign the petition here: http://www.fairtest.org/national-resolution-highstakes-testing
These views are also completely my own!
Thanks,
Susan
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Charlie Carlson
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 1:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Common Core Standards
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Alan,
Thanks again for your thoughtful reply. I was already familiar with the Tai study.
On May 7, 2012, at 8:17 AM, Alan Friedman wrote:
> And there is that wonderful paper by Robert Tai and colleagues showing that adolescents' expectations that they would have a career in science were an excellent predictor (better than math scores!) of graduating college with a science or engineering degree (Science, May 26, 2006). "Young adolescents who expected to have a career in science were more likely to graduate from college with a science degree, emphasizing the importance of early encouragement." The study found that 8th grade students with expectations for a science related career were 3.4 times more likely to earn college physical science and engineering degrees than students without similar expectations.
>
It was a really nice study, and many questions were raised. By my read, it was primarily directed towards the structuring of STEM course work across K-12 formal education. There is minimal and oblique reference to informal education and no reference to the impacts of science museum's per say. Quoting from the article:
Although our current analysis does not provide proof of an uninterrupted causal chain of influence, our study does suggest that to attract students into the sciences and engineering, we should pay close attention to children's early exposure to science at the middle and even younger grades. Encouragement of interest and exposure to the sciences should not be ignored in favor of an emphasis on standardized test preparation (9).
Tai and colleagues weren't writing about visits to science museum, nor extra-curricular activities directly, they were writing about the gutting of science and math curricula from the elementary school classroom in favor of standardized curricula and regimented testing under no child left behind.
That mis-directed STEM corrosive social policy is just now beginning to change. And that's a good thing.
To me, this study speaks to the need to conduct more detailed and longitudinally correlative studies of a museum visit. I'd love to see an n=3022 tracked from 8th grade through college. I haven't heard of such a study done at a museum.
Science museums are wonderful places, I love and cherish them, I work at one. Visitors enjoy them. Visitors value them, and I'm certain they play an important role in promoting the enjoyment and understanding of science and nature. Where else are people going to see and do the stuff they can do except at a museum. I do have a problem with claiming the achievement of specific measures of learning however, most impacts are subtle and hard to test for and highly variable. I'm certain most people believe they have learned something and had a good time by the end of their visit, and I'm all in favor of more study.
It is very unfortunate that science museums are as expensive as they are and typically do not have a good consistent revenue model. As it stands they are continuously forced to conform social systems which cause them to need to justify their existence in comparison to other forms of education and that's a difficult proposition.
The opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and should in no way be construed or attributed to the Exploratorium or related organization, and do not represent an institutional position.
Charles Carlson
Senior Scientist
exploratorium
3601 Lyon St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
[log in to unmask]
Tel: 415-561-0319
Fax: 415-561-0370
http://blogs.exploratorium.edu/whyintercept/
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