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Date: | Wed, 30 May 2007 12:24:10 +0200 |
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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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Dave, Bill,
You both hit the nail on the head re science education and teachers
in general...
Schools today , despite their high-tech facilities, are failing to
provide the kind of science education necessary for the 21st century.
We are turning out kids and future teachers who have not been taught
to think. I believe this lies at the heart of the problems we are now
facing. Because we still have a formal educational system which
continues to define “science” as a set of disciplines, and a body of
to-be-mastered facts, rather than as a powerful thinking and problem-
solving tool; a tool by which to perceive our world, explore it,
understand it.
The future is grim, unless we start treating “science” as a
fundamental human mental skill that can – and must - be trained;
unless we make “scientific thinking” an integral part of what
education is all about, from pre-school to university, and beyond.
This is what “scientific literacy”, is really all about; I personally
prefer to call it “scientific intelligence”.
So Bill, back to your question
> What is it about an exhibit that
> explores weather or a demonstration to explore electricity that
> will help
> kids be able to reason about evolution?
It depends on IF and HOW an exhibit topic is contextualised in order
to promote reasoning: just as the principles behind electricity/
weather/gravity/you-name-it don't "lie" and are not a matter of
faith, so do the principles behind radiometric dating not "lie"
about placing a dinosaur fossil 60 million+ years before the
appearance of man....
Cheers,
Diana
– –
Dr. Diana C. Issidorides
Senior Scientist & Exhibition Developer
Science Center NEMO
P.O. Box 421
1000 AK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T: +31205313201
[log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]
www.e-nemo.nl
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