ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions. ***************************************************************************** "Just tangentially, Scientific American has a piece this month that suggests that very young children use controlled experiments to learn about how things work. Given their natural propensity for doing simple, controlled experiments, the question was why school age children seem to lose the knack to evaluate such evidence." Jennie Dusheck This is the meat of the issue as far as I am concerned. It seems like schools are focusing on the products of science and not the processes of science. In order to be able to evaluate what you are told [be it the product of scientific research or the product of a politician's pen] people need to be able to evaluate the process by which the information was gathered and interpreted. Therefore, I think our education systems should be emphasizing and encouraging practice of the processes [of 'simple, controlled experiments'] and not the practice of memorization and regurgitation for tests. On the other hand, as long as we know that the earth is flat and is the center of the universe, we could just memorize scientific 'facts'. Eric Meyer Explorations/Special Projects Manager Explora www.explora.us 1701 Mountain Rd. NW Albuquerque, NM 87104 [log in to unmask] 505-224-8386 phone 505-224-8310 fax *********************************************************************** For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org. Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org. The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html. To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to [log in to unmask]