Science Education Solutions

Understanding and recognizing our environmental problems are the keys to solving them.  Last time we looked at some of the basic scientific and environmental topics that our younger folks do not understand.  Realizing that many adults are also unaware of these things, it would be easy to be pessimistic about the future.  Yet, there is some good news amidst the doom and gloom.  Though scientific literacy is not increasing as educators believe it needs to, it has been slowing improving among both students and adults.  For this and other reasons, increased environmental literacy does not have to be an insurmountable challenge.  Here's how we might turn the tide.

• Teach the geography.  Despite a proliferation of computers and other technological gadgets that could actually make it fun, we do a lousy job of teaching our kids basic geography.  Whether we do it with a computer game, a map exercise on a piece of paper or by drilling in the classroom, we have to teach students of all ages where our important mountains, rivers, water bodies and planetary objects are.
• Let no child inside.  Firsthand experience is the very best teacher.  Let's insist that our kids do a bit less electronic socializing and spend more time outside.   They might also find some enjoyment in that run, hike or bike ride. 
• See the places.  Let's experience the amazing things beyond our backyard.  Besides just traveling more, our children and teenagers would be well-served by trading trips to theme parks for visits to our National Parks.
• Tell them why.  We need to explain why things happen in ways that can be easily understood.  Many of these things are not that complicated and effective teachers find clever (and even entertaining) ways to explain them. 

• Make it relevant.  Students (of all ages) are more open to learning when the lesson seems relevant to them.  It is much easier to engage students when a local connection can be made and they sense that it means something to them.  Help them understand where the water from their own neighborhood goes.  Compare Central Pennsylvania's climate to other regions' climates to better understand what factors influence weather and climate.  Standard textbooks and curricula don't do this and teachers must find those local and regional connections and teach them.
• Build a foundation before you try to put on the roof.  When education doesn't work, non-educators often say it is because we don't challenge our kids.  So in an effort to "challenge" them, we make the work harder.  Instead of building on simpler concepts, we "challenge" them with things that most cannot yet grasp.  We would never try to teach alphabetizing before we taught the alphabet, yet we seem to do such things in Science education.
• Teach them about the natural world they can see before you try to teach them about the microscopic world they can't see.  Kids are much more interested in Brush Mountain than they are in the chemical reactions that made the minerals possible in the rocks they usually can't see. 
• Make them think.  Facts are important but analytical thinking is more important.  Gathering facts with the intention of drawing conclusions is an important skill, both for science and for life.