Science Literacy for the Twenty-First Century - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591020204 ISBN 13: 9781591020202

Publisher: Prometheus, 2002

Synopsis

This outstanding collection of essays - authored by eminent scientists and science educators, including Bruce Alberts, Howard Gardner, Margaret Geller, Stephen Jay Gould, George A. Keyworth, Lawrence M. Krauss, Leon Lederman, Sheila Tobias, and James Trefil - provides suggestions for enhancing science education in the United States and improving the standards of scientific literacy throughout the world.Unfortunately, our educational system is now suffering from a shortage of science teachers, and many of those already teaching science need to be better qualified. Furthermore, our science curriculum must be designed to teach our children to be conversant with and to think critically about the complex scientific issues they will face as adults. Finally, our high schools need to be in a position to offer all students a world-class science foundation, which prepares them to pursue scientific training at the university level if they so choose.Nobel laureate Leon Lederman is a world-renowned contributor to this book, and this volume commemorates his eightieth birthday as one of the nation's foremost scientists and a vigorous proponent of better science education in our public schools. These essays offer many innovative and thought-provoking suggestions for improving the scientific knowledge of our citizenry. If the United States is to compete as a world leader in the future, a thorough understanding of science will be a necessity for us all.

About this title

About the Author

Stephanie Pace Marshall is founding president, Judith A. Scheppler is coordinator of student inquiry, and Michael J. Palmisano is vice president for research and design of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Aurora, IL).

From the Inside Flap

This outstanding collection of essays--authored by eminent scientists and science educators, including Bruce Alberts, Howard Gardner, Margaret Geller, Stephen Jay Gould, George A. Keyworth, Lawrence M. Krauss, Leon Lederman, Sheila Tobias, and James Trefil--provides suggestions for transforming science education in the United States and improving the standards of scientific literacy throughout the world. New scientific information is increasingly outpacing the level of science education of most of the world's citizens. Nonetheless, all citizens in our interdependent global community will be called on to face many daunting questions that this knowledge will raise, ranging from the sustainability of our global environment to new moral dilemmas created by such technologies as cloning and recombinant gene therapy. As the world leader in science and technology, the United States must significantly raise the level of scientific literacy among its citizens to ensure that wise and responsible decisions about the uses and possible misuses of science are made.

Unfortunately, our educational system is suffering from a shortage of science teachers, especially in the physical sciences, and many of those already teaching science are not adequately prepared to do so. Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. Furthermore, our science curriculum must be designed to teach our children to be conversant with and to think critically about the complex scientific issues they will face as adults. Finally, our high schools need to be in a position to offer all students a world-class science foundation. This is an especially acute problem with respect to gender and underrepresented students.

Nobel laureate Leon Lederman is a world-renowned contributor to this book, and this volume commemorates his eightieth birthday as one of the nation's foremost scientists and a vigorous proponent of better science education in our public schools. These essays offer many innovative and thought-provoking recommendations for improving the scientific knowledge of our citizenry and our students. If the United States is to compete as a world leader in the future, a thorough understanding of science is an imperative for all of us.

Reviews

Without a clear understanding of basic scientific principles, it's impossible to understand, let alone form opinions about, the complex questions raised by bioengineering and global warming, to name just two of many hotly debated science topics, yet science education for American students often fails to provide the conceptual skills and facts they need to participate in science-related discourse and public policies. A shortage of qualified teachers and a lack of imagination in designing teaching techniques that cultivate a "scientific cast of mind" are engendering a dangerously low level of science literacy, but help is on hand. Nobel laureate Leon Lederman is an inspiring champion for the advancement of science literacy, and the catalyst for this unusual collection of forward-looking essays by such distinguished scientists and science educators as Lawrence M. Krauss, Mae C. Jemison, and James Trefil. Many thought-provoking subjects are discussed, including ways to bolster the science curriculum at disadvantaged schools, and the teaching of a "liberal science" that connects our fascination with the natural world to the humanities, and therefore involves ethics, and even beauty. Donna Seaman
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Edition details

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591020204
• ISBN 13: 9781591020202
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300
• Editor: Marshall Stephanie Pace, Scheppler Judith A., Palmisano Michael J.