Here's Why Good Science Education Is So Important
Regardless of whether my children turn out to be the ones we're worried about being left behind or the ones capable of a more challenging science curriculum, a strong science education should be extremely important to all of us, and here's why.
I work for a global company that's continually restructuring to remain viable in a very competitive environment. We've always been able to use our technological superiority to justify the higher labor and overhead common in the United States and Europe. But with the cheap labor available in places where they're working hard to close the technology gap (e.g., China), it's imperative that we maintain our technological edge or many jobs in our country will be lost. To keep our edge, we need to make sure some of our students are very well trained in science and math. It doesn't have to be all students, that's a different goal. My point is whether it's my kid or someone else's, it's very important to our society that some students are trained to excel in this area.
The schools work very hard to leave no student behind, and they should be commended for that. But what are they doing for the outstanding student? Are they aware of the importance of fostering an environment where a student of Portage Schools could grow up to make a major technological advance related to solar energy allowing increased reliance on renewable energy? Or a major medical advance related to a cure for cancer. The outstanding student should be allowed to reach his or her full potential, and the science curriculum should facilitate this.
Too many changes have already been made (and now even more are being proposed) that have the effect of "leveling out" the natural differences that exist between students. The proposal that real physics can be taught in 9th grade with the mathematical background most students have at that young age suggests that these semester courses will be little more than survey courses. What's needed are comprehensive full-year courses covering a variety of scientific disciplines that prepare some of our young people not just to succeed, but to excel.
It should be remembered that creativity often comes from applying knowledge from one discipline to another. Students (and even adults) who focus too much on one area are often less likely to come up with novel solutions to problems than those who have a broad background. This is why I'm so concerned about seeing high school kids spend two and a half years on one area and only a semester on all the others. We don't need to produce students with tunnel vision; we need the types of problem-solvers capable of applying principles of physics and chemistry (eg., fluid dynamics and momentum transfer and adsorption) to biology (e.g., understanding the deposition of plaque on the interior walls of our blood vessels which leads to heart disease), or who can apply principles of biology to semiconductor engineering (e.g., designing biochips). We need to train some of our students not just to do well on the standardized tests, but to excel after they move on. Providing a good science education for some of our students couldn't be more important for all of us. Our future depends on it.
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