MythBuster Adam Savage: 3 Ways to Fix U.S. Science Education

Related: Report on K-12 Science Education in USA (2006) - posts on science education - The Economic Consequences of Investing in Science Education - Middle School Engineers - Lego Learning - The Importance of Science Education - Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids

Engaging the YouTube Generation in Hands-on Science

Follow the link for a webcast. Somewhat ironically the NSF headline mentions YouTube but fails to take advantage of one of the things that has made YouTube (and others sharing videos: TED…) so successful. The ability to embed the videos on web sites, blog posts… The technical quality of the video is very nice (more pixels than YouTube videos).

Related: Einstein Fellowship for Teachers - Excellence in K-12 Mathematics and Science Teaching - NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education - Ministry of Silly Walks - more posts tagged: kids

The graph shows college degrees granted in the USA. This topic sets up one for criticism, but I believe it is more important to examine the data and explore the possible ideas than to avoid anything that might be questioned by the politically correct police. An import factor, to me anyway, is that women are now graduating from college in far higher numbers than men. And in many science fields female baccalaureate graduates outnumber male graduates (psychology [67,000 to 19,000], biology[42,000 to 26,000], anthropology, sociology [20,000 to 8,000]) while men outnumber women in others (math [7,000 to 6,000], engineering [53,000 to 13,000], computer science [39,000 to 11,000], physics [3,000 to 900]).

What does this all mean? It is debatable, but I think it is very good news for the efforts many have made over the last few decades to open up opportunities for women. I still support efforts to provide opportunities for girls to get started in science and engineering but I think we have reached the day when the biggest concern is giving all kids better math and science primary education (and related extracurricular activities). Also continued focus and effort on the doctorate and professional opportunities for women is warranted.
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Google, Gates, Indian Diaspora Bet on Children by Andy Mukherjee

Related: Make the World Better - Using Capitalism to Help People - What Kids can Learn

My comments on: National Association of High School Principals Takes Exception to Two Million Minutes

Thanks for saying what has to be said. I have talked on similar themes on my blog for awhile now. The USA is definitely losing its relative position as the clear leader for science and engineering excellence.

The debate now whether we are willing to invest more today to slow the decline or whether we are willing to risk the economic future where our centers of science and engineering excellence are eclipsed quickly.

There is a long lag time that has allowed us to coast for the last 30 or so years. The reality is that most Americans suffer under the illusion we are in the same position we were in 1970’s. We are not and it is obvious to me that the economic impacts are starting to have dramatic effects now and it will only increase.

It might be more pleasant to explain why the USA is fine the way it is but that is a mistake. For more on my thoughts see two categories of the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog: Economics and primary science education and 2 posts: The Future is Engineering and the Political Impact of Global Technology Excellence.

The SCImago Journal and Country Rank provides journal and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus database. As stated in previous posts these types of rankings have limitations but they are also interesting (such as the best research universities 2007). The table shows the top 6 countries by h-index and then some others I chose to list.

Read more about the h-index (Hirsh index). Country population and GDP data taken World Development Indicators 2007, by the World Bank.

via: Stat freaks, are you ready to play with the SCImago Journal & Country Rank?

Related: Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data - Views on Evolution by Country - Science and Engineering Doctoral Degrees Worldwide - Top 10 Manufacturing Countries 2006 - USA Teens 29th in Science - Ranking Universities Worldwide - Diplomacy, Science Research and Economics

Evolution is absolutely fundamental to scientific thinking. Any country, or part of a country (or those wishing to lead a country) that teaches evolution as though it is some alternative way of looking at the facts (that can be compared to creationism/intelligent design, as science, for example) is an embarrassment. Unfortunately the United States is home to far too much of this thinking - which explains why scientific literacy is so low. Luckily there are also plenty in the USA that understand science. The National Academy of Science has published, Science, Evolution, and Creationism, in which a

The scientific theory of evolution still has details that can be debated - which is what the scientists should and will do (seeking out evidence to support such details). The idea that people today can question evolution is beyond amazing to me. It is much easier to understand some people thinking you would sail off the edge of the earth 500 years ago than anyone in the USA thinking there is any serious debate about evolution (there are parts of the world where the educational system does not give everyone a chance to see the available evidence, so I can forgive some in the world for being ignorant - not having been exposed to the evidence). And I guess there are parts of the USA educational system that are nearly so poor also where a gullible student could not see the truth. But in the USA the evidence is easily at hand - you have to intentionally remain ignorant to somehow not understand the truth of evolution.

What Everyone Should Learn:

Related: Understanding Evolution (from Berkeley) - Teaching Evolution and the Nature of Science - Evolutionary Design - Real-Time Evolution - Evolution at Work with the Blue Moon Butterfly - 200 Million Americans Are Scientifically Illiterate - Evolution In Action - Retroviruses - Evolution in Darwin’s Finches - Two Butterfly Species Evolved Into Third - Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance

The Science Education Myth by Vivek Wadhwa:

The study certainly sounds interesting. I can’t find it (update Vivek Wadhwa provided the link - which will work Monday, also see his comment below), but found an article (which wasn’t easy) by the authors of the report: The Real Technology Challenge. The main point of the article, The Real Technology Challenge, seems to be that the USA should focus on globalization (and focus on educating scientists and engineers to work in a global world).

As I have said before I disagree with those that believe the USA is producing more science and engineering graduates than the market demands. Smart leaders know the huge positive impacts of a large, well educated science and engineering workforce.

Countries that succeed in producing more quality graduates while creating the best economic environment to take advantage of technology innovation (follow this link - it is one of the most important posts about what makes silicon valley so powerful a force at doing just that) are going to benefit greatly. My guess is the USA will be one of those countries; not by reducing the focus on science and engineering education but by increasing it. If not, other countries will, and the USA will suffer economically. The USA also needs to continue to push the economic and entrepreneurship advantages - doing that well is very difficult to achieve and the USA maintains a stronger advantage in that realm - but I will be very surprised if other countries don’t continue to make gains in this area. Even so doing so is much more challenging than just improving education (which is difficult itself just not nearly as difficult) and the USA can continue to benefit from this combination with the right policies.

Related: Economic Strength Through Technology Leadership - House Testimony on Engineering Education - Filling the Engineering Gap - Best Research University Rankings (2007) - Most IT Jobs Ever in USA Today - USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates - Science, Engineering and the Future of the American Economy - S&P 500 CEOs - Again Engineering Graduates Lead - Highest Paid Graduates: Engineers

There are several rankings of universities. They can be interesting but also have obvious limitations. I find Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University’s the most interesting (especially the international nature of it). Their real focus seems to be in providing a way for China to get a feel for how they are progressing toward developing world class universities (interesting slide presentation on their efforts). The methodology values publications and faculty awards and is provides a better ranking of research (rather than teaching). Results from the 2007 rankings of Top 500 Universities worldwide showing country representation of the top schools:

China has 1 ranked in the 151-202 range as do Taiwan, Korea and Brazil. Singapore has one in the 102-151 range. The other country without any in the top 101 with representation in the next 101 is Italy with 3 schools in the 102-151 range and 2 in the 152-202 range. India has 2 in the 305-401 range.

Top 10 schools (same schools as last year, Cambridge moved from 2nd to 4th):

• Harvard University
• Stanford University
• University of California at Berkeley
• Cambridge University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)
• California Institute of Technology
• Columbia University
• Princeton University
• University Chicago
• Oxford University

University of Wisconsin - Madison is 17th My father taught there while I grew up.
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Great report - The Atlas of Ideas: How Asian innovation can benefit us all by Charles Leadbeater and James Wilsdon:

Excellent reading, the report is full of useful information I have not been able to obsorb yet.
Related: Diplomacy and Science Research - The World’s Best Research Universities - Engineering the Future Economy - Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data - USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates - Increasing American Fellowship Support for Scientists and Engineers
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Watch a video of Richard Baraniuk (Rice University professor speaking at TED) discussing Connexions: an open-access education publishing system. The content available through Connexions includes short content modules such as:

What is Engineering??:

and: Protein Folding, as well as full courses, such as: Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering I and Physics for K-12.

Related: Google technical talk webcasts (including a presentation by Richard Baraniuk at Google) - podcasts of Technical Talks at Google - science podcast posts - Berkeley and MIT courses online

Today more and more locations are becoming viable for world class research and development. Today the following have significant ability: USA, Europe (many countries), Japan, Canada, China, Brazil, Singapore, Israel, India, Korea and Australia (I am sure I have missed some this is just what come to mind as I type this post) and many more are moving in that direction.

The continued increase of viable locations for significant amounts of cutting edge research and development has huge consequences, in many areas. If paths to research and development are blocked in one location (by law, regulation, choice, lack of capital, threat of significant damage to the career of those who would choose such a course…) other locations will step in. In some ways this will be good (see below for an explanation of why this might be so). Promising new ideas will not be stifled due to one roadblock.

But risks of problems will also increase. For example, there are plenty of reasons to want to go carefully in the way of genetically engineered crops. But those seeking a more conservative approach are going to be challenged: countries that are acting conservatively will see other countries jump in, I believe. And even if this didn’t happen significantly in the area of genetically engineered crops, I still believe it will create challenges. The ability to go elsewhere will make those seeking to put constraints in place in a more difficult position than 50 years ago when the options were much more limited (It might be possible to stop significant research just by getting a handful of countries to agree).

Debates of what restrictions to put on science and technology research and development will be a continuing and increasing area of conflict. And the solutions will not be easy. Hopefully we will develop a system of diplomacy that works, but that is much easier said than done. And the United States will have to learn they do not have the power to dictate terms to others. This won’t be an easy thing to accept for many in America. The USA will still have a great deal of influence, due mainly to economic power but that influence is only the ability to influence others and that ability will decline if diplomacy is not improved. Diplomacy may not seem to be a science and engineering area but it is going to be increasingly be a major factor in the progress of science and engineering. (more…)

National Governors Association - Science Education. On their web site the associates pledges to:

This is a very small step but at least they are discussing the topic. And some action is being taken, for example: Excellence in K-12 Mathematics and Science Teaching - Texas Invests in Science Higher Education - R&D Spending in USA Universities. More, could, and should, be done.

University Tries to Make Texas a Science Force:

Related: How to cultivate Your Own Silicon Valley - Universities Focus on Economic Benefits - Economic Benefits of Engineering - Singapore Supporting Science Researchers - $1 Billion for Indian Research University

Student summit set on vehicle design by Deborah Halbe

Image by Mitchell Joachim and William Lark, sketch of a concept solar car was created for the MIT Vehicle Design Summit.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress from the United States Department of Education is the definitive report on k-12 science education based on testing 4th, 8th and 12th grade students. The report provides a huge amount of data on testing results. At first look, it seems basically things stayed the same over the last 5 years.

Various differences are shown (for example: “Most states showed no improvement at grades 4 and 8. Five of the 37 participating states, however, did improve between 2000 and 2005 - and did so at both grades.”). However, I remain a bit skeptical of reading much into such claims. Even if you changed nothing (just retest the students the next month say) and then look for differences between the two sets of data it is possible to find seemingly interesting differences. It is very easy to be fooled when you have a large pool of data and search for any differences that seem interesting.

We commented on one example of why it is important to be careful in making conclusions based on data recently (in our management improvement blog). Most often people look for the differences to highlight the differences. That creates a bias to find such differences, which leads me to be a bit skeptical of such claims without an explanation of why the data is convincing that such a difference is significant and not just variation in the data.

The data from the test does provide a resource for those interested in exploring these matters, which is good.

The Department of Education provides sample questions online. Try them yourself: they are interesting. Unfortunately, for some questions requiring written responses, they don’t actually provide what the answer should be.

Science scores up in grade four, stalled in grades 8 and 12

News stories:

• Test Shows Drop in Science Achievement for 12th Graders by Sam Dillon
• Top of the class: Virginia a model for science education
  Forty percent of fourth-grade students and 35 percent of eighth-graders in Virginia’s public schools have a solid grasp of physical and life science, the NAEP reported.

  Nationally, the proficiency percentage for fourth-grade students is 29 percent, and 30 percent for those in eighth grade.

• State pupils improving in science tests - but 4th- and 8th-graders still not doing as well as their peers across the nation
  In fourth-grade testing, only Mississippi scored below California, while California’s eighth-grade scores ranked 42nd out of 44 states. Of California’s fourth-graders, 17 percent were proficient or better in science, and half scored below the basic level. Among California eighth-graders, 18 percent were proficient or better, while 56 percent were below basic.

  Wide achievement gaps persist for California’s economically disadvantaged students, with 73 percent scoring below the basic level, and among its ethnic minorities, with 74 percent of black eighth-graders and 73 percent of Hispanic eighth-graders scoring below basic.