Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 15, 1991 TAG: 9104150309
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX LENGTH: Medium
A scientist put that question to 23 college seniors in 1987, and got a disheartening response. Just two of those polled gave the right answer: Earth is tilted on its axis.
American high schools and colleges are turning out science illiterates, people who may have memorized the periodic table or dissected a frog but cannot explain why the hole in the ozone layer is dangerous, say two professors at George Mason University.
In a new book that has rattled cages at American universities, the professors place the blame squarely on science teachers.
"We scientists have gotten so warped in our priorities," said Robert M. Hazen, himself a Harvard and Cambridge-trained geophysicist.
High school science courses teach kids to memorize what they need to pass a test and college courses teach a very tiny percentage of the population how to be scientists, Hazen and physicist James Trefil contend.
"Somehow the system got broken. The citizenry is coming out of the educational system knowing less about what is important in science in their everyday lives than at any time in history," Hazen said.
As technology increasingly defines Americans' lives and futures, fewer and fewer Americans grasp the basic framework of their physical worlds, they contend. Americans' scientific ignorance is a major factor in declining productivity and the quality of the workforce, they say.
"Every major issue facing the American public has some component related to science. Environmental problems, the space shuttle, AIDS, these issues all involve science," Trefil said.
"Science Matters - Achieving Scientific Literacy," published earlier this year by Doubleday, grew out of an experimental course at George Mason.
The two designed the interdisciplinary course around a handful of simple scientific principles - sort of a science Top 20.
by CNB