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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For all the good intentions of the written statements on science and
evolution, they strike me as similar to some of our explanatory exhibit labels. We
struggle to make them correct and concise, yet in the end they have meaning
mainly for those who already know what they mean. The problem is that we are
reverting to teaching by telling, and many of us are in the science center world
because we thought there was a better approach--learning by doing, developing
understanding from one's own experience. The difference between evolution and
creation is in WHY we believe either one--the process that leads to that
knowledge. As John Dewey said about 100 ago: <<Surely if there is any knowledge which
is of most worth it is knowledge of the ways by which anything is entitled to
be called knowledge instead of being mere opinion or guesswork or dogma. Such
knowledge never can be learned by itself; it is not information, but a mode
of intelligent practice, an habitual disposition of mind. Only by taking a hand
in the making of knowledge, by transferring guess and opinion into belief
authorized by inquiry, does one ever get a knowledge of the method of knowing.
Because participation in the making of knowledge has been scant, because
reliance on the efficacy of acquaintance with certain kinds of facts has been
current, science has not accomplished in education what was predicted for it.>> Or as
Bill Schmitt said, more simply, in a recent post: <<Very few schools are
helping today's students really understand science through experiences where they
are personally actively involved in construction of powerful knowledge through
authentic interactions with nature.>> This is the area where I believe
science centers can and should lead the way, and in doing so make their best
contribution to the evolution-creation controversy. Many centers have worked on
exhibits and programs with the process of science in mind, but it is not easy, and
there is still plenty to be done.
Ted Ansbacher
Science Services
29 Byron Ave, White Plains, NY 10606
Office: 914-328-5407 Cell: 914-484-8584
[log in to unmask] www.scienceservs.com
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