07th Aug 2009
Way to make science look even dumber
Next year, I’m paying for grad school by participating in a program which puts graduate students in science or engineering (like me) in middle school classrooms every week, to do demonstrations which help translate often vague scientific concepts into a form that kids can understand. So I’ve been scouting around for ideas of how to present science in ways that are both fun and educational.
Here’s an example… Let’s look at the concept that “The Universe is Regular and Predictable”. This is very important to science, because it means when we discover something (such as the law of gravity), we know it will always work the same way. Stuff always falls down due to gravity; it doesn’t sometimes float, it doesn’t sometimes fly up to the ceiling, it always goes down at 9.5 meters per second squared. Science WORKS because things are predictable, as long as we can figure out HOW they are predictable.
Now, please watch this little video below, and tell me if it helps you understand that idea.
It’s all so much clearer, isn’t it?
The sad thing is, the Science Cheerleader wants to make science more relevant to public discussion and policy-making choices. That’s a goal I completely support, and something that is desperately needed — but this series of videos, even though they are posted at the Science Cheerleader blog with paragraphs describing the science concept, make science look dumb and desperate in addition to obscure and confusing. It should be able to succeed on its own merits — there are plenty of ways to make science sexy without resorting to cheerleaders. The many, many women in science and engineering are not going to like this, at all. Many (hopefully most) men in science aren’t going to like it. It doesn’t even teach anything about science. So WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?
Yikes! Hope you’re not feeling like you need to don the cheerleader outfit when you go to see your middle schoolers this fall. What a cool program! I’ll look forward to hearing about it when you get started…
The program you’ve enrolled in, placing grad students in middle school to teach science/engineering, sounds interesting. Will you keep me posted on your experiences? Curious to know which techniques prove effective, which (if any) scientific concepts are the most challenging to teach/learn, etc, in my quest to increase adult science literacy.
Thanks for considering,
Darlene
I see you’re not a fan of the Brain Makeover vids
I don’t think this sort of making science sexy type science education (Brain Makeover) is good. I may be in the minority on this one as it seems to be popular.
You middle-school program sounds interesting. I hope you write about it.
Hi Erica!
The program you’re participating in sounds quite intriguing. My son was in a program with a similar concept when he was at Penn State. He demonstrated language and writing skills by using comic books. Not only was it fun, the kids really did pick up on it. too bad they didn’t have these types of programs when I was in school. My language skills leave something to be desired:)
As for those videos, I’m sending a big BOO!!! How about making science “sexy” with food. There are some great educational sites that use food props in science education. I found this one when I was “investigating” the invention of the drinking straw. Oh my, I just remembered, August is National Inventors’ Month!