News Articles

1. Science Education Without Research is History

   Kampala, May 21, 2007 (New Vision/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The Government recently announced that it is stopping sponsorship of Arts students in public universities in favour of Sciences. But, creating a pool of scientists without research is unlikely to achieve the desired result, writes Nick Twinamatsiko

   A UGANDAN who went to Australia for his masters degree in Structural Engineering, and then to the UK for his PhD, recently confided in me that he experienced a cultural shock when he realised that in those countries, engineering students were not considered brilliant.

   This side of the world, the best performing students at A'level usually enrol for civil, electrical and telecommunications engineering.

   Indeed, it is most probable that if Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein were cast into our educational culture, they would end up as engineers, rather than physicists.

   Whether, as engineers they would make the same mark they made as scientists, is highly doubtful.

   While scientists typically investigate to discover the universal laws of nature, engineers typically harness the universal laws of science, to find local solutions to local problems. . . .

   Copyright 2007 AllAfrica (via Comtex). All rights reserved

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2. Inquiry-Oriented Instruction in Science: Who Teaches That Way?

   Smith, Thomas M; Desimone, Laura M; Zeidner, Timothy L; Dunn, Alfred C; Et al
   Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 09-01-2007

   The expansion of the No Child Left Behind Act to include science standards and assessments is likely to refocus states' attention on science teaching and learning. Requiring teachers to have subject majors and greater funding of professional development are two key policy levers for improving instruction in science. There has been relatively little work examining the characteristics of teachers who are most likely to initiate inquiry-oriented instruction in science classrooms. Using a nationally representative sample of the teachers of eighth grade science students, the authors found relatively strong associations between reform-oriented practice and the majors and degrees that teachers earned as part of their formal schooling, as well as their current levels of participation in content-oriented professional development activities.

   Keywords: science teaching, professional development, teacher quality

   ALTHOUGH most states and districts have focused their recent reform efforts on reading and mathematics, the extension of the No CMd Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) to include assessments of science achievement in 2007-2008 is likely to pull this subject back into the policy debate. Policy makers' concern about U.S. students' performance in science has fluctuated over the past half century, often driven by comparatively poor performance on international assessments and concerns over challenges to U.S. competitiveness in technological fields (Marx & Harris, 2006). There has been concern among those in the science community that this periodic focus on improving students' performance in science has waned since NCLB was enacted in 2001, as state and local officials focused on the federal law's demand that they improve annual test scores in reading and mathematics in Grades 3-8 (Cavanagh, 2005; Marx & Harris, 2006). Recently, science education has come back under the microscope. . . .

   Copyright American Educational Research Association Sep 2007

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3. Study: Women's degrees changing: The Strand, nation see more females in science, engineering
   Foster. The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
   Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News 03-26-2007

   Mar. 26--Female students on the Grand Strand and across the country are bucking the stereotype of male domination in college- level science and engineering programs, a new national report and local colleges have found.

   More women than men are earning bachelor's degrees in science and engineering fields nationwide, according to a new report from the National Science Foundation. Officials at local colleges say their data mirrors that trend. The number of women who earned bachelor's degrees in science and engineering continues to rise every year, the report states, and some professors in Horry County attribute that to changing social views of women and a stronger focus on science early in education.

   The 2007 report, "Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering," charts data from 1966 through 2004, the most up-to-date information available.

   It says the number of women earning bachelor's degrees in science and engineering increased every year except one since 1966, reaching 227,813 in 2004 compared with 224,525 earned by men. . . .

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4. ELEMENTARY SCIENCE TEACHER USES TOYS, SCALES TO CAPTURE IMAGINATIONS
   LAURA AMMERMAN, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
   The Palm Beach Post 08-08-2007

   Claire Greene has been teaching for more than 30 years. The 61-year-old suburban Boca Raton resident has spent the past 13 years working at Poinciana Elementary School, a magnet school in Boynton Beach.

   She is the school's science resource teacher, instructing every class at the school on a rotating basis.

   "I teach every student in the school, 600 and some-odd students. They all come through my door on a regular basis," Greene said. "Every teacher teaches science in my school. (Students) come to me for extra-special things - bigger experiments that take more time out of your day."

   She holds a master's degree in education with a specialization in reading, but science is her main focus and passion.

   Greene got hooked on science in New York City, where she taught for 20 years. She remembers a specific lesson that demonstrated the subject's potential to capture children's interest: making an incubator out of a Styrofoam ice chest for a study on embryology.

   "I think I was hooked at that point," she said. "I just loved the results and the way the children got into it."

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Historical Newspapers

1. Darrow and Malone Services Are Accepted for Defense Of Teacher of Evolution
   The Atlanta Constitution (1881-2001)
   Atlanta, Ga.: May 17, 1925 pg. 1
   

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2. Scopes Trial Defense Based On Constitution
   The Washington Post (1877-1954)
   Washington, D.C.: Jun 9, 1925 pg. 1

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1. Cobern, William W.
   Professor, Biology and Science Education, Western Michigan University
   http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cobern/
   To date, science educators have not sufficiently studied what students believe about the world, beliefs rooted and nurtured in students' socio-cultural environments. If one were speaking of a non-Western, developing nation, one would speak of . . . .

2. Alvarez, Marino C.
   Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, Tennessee State University
   http://explorers.tsuniv.edu/alvarez/

3. Hiley, David R.
   Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of New Hampshire
   http://www.unh.edu/philosophy/Faculty_Pages_info/hiley_page.htm
   My primary interests are the history of philosophy, ethics, and political theory.

4. Miller, Jon D.
   Professor, Cancer Control Program, Northwestern University
   http://www.cmb.northwestern.edu/faculty/jon_miller.htm
   Public Understanding of Science and Technology.