George “Pinky” Nelson, an astronomy researcher who served as a NASA astronaut for 11 years and flew on three space missions, frequently made this comment, which we’ve paraphrased here. Throughout the decades after his time at NASA, he branched out into a wide range of responsibilities in the fields of physics, engineering, and scientific education. He served, for example, as the director of Project 2061, a long-term R&D program aimed at improving science education. According to Nelson’s informed perspective, improving science education is extremely difficult.
Since the 1970s, efforts to enhance science literacy and science education have encountered a number of obstacles. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 stressed a high-stakes testing program that weakened and hindered long-overdue changes in scientific teaching practices in the United States, for instance Scientists are beginning to see the usefulness in participating in educational activities, which could lead to a shift from this current tendency. They will feel good about themselves, and their organizations’ relationships to their communities will be strengthened as a result of their participation. Moreover, these efforts can fulfill the “broader impacts” requirements required by NSF and other donors, or meet institutional obligations to spread knowledge of scientific methods and outcomes, as well.
Physicists throughout the world are becoming more involved in initiatives to improve science education and learning. Despite the fact that these tendencies aren’t new, scientists and their organizations are once again paying attention to them. There is an emphasis on a wide-ranging systems-based approach that understands the complexity of the science education environment in its whole. Physicists can take on leadership roles in schools, extracurricular programs, conferences around the world, and other initiatives aimed at enhancing students’ knowledge of science by using the most up-to-date research-based pedagogies.
We have decades of expertise in planning, implementing, and assessing innovative science education programs that help us understand the problems of educational reform. Teachers, museum educators, educational researchers, and educational development teams have cooperated with us to reach audiences ranging from preschoolers to adults. With governments and nongovernmental groups around the world, we’ve also worked with a wide range of science, engineering, and education professional associations. We’ve learned a lot by working with scientists at national laboratories, universities, and industrial research centers, and we’ve applied these lessons to our work.
Physicists who have worked in the field of education know that they are most successful and have the most fun when they are familiar with their audience and their specific demands. There are many scientists who are unfamiliar with the best techniques for teaching and learning in preschools, primary and secondary schools as well as after-school clubs and museums. High-quality free materials sum together the considerable research on learning in a variety of contexts. Fortunately, these resources are readily available.
We recently finished a review of the evidence on best practices for supporting and interacting with the section of the scientific education ecosystem that encompasses preschool to high school learners.
Most of our recommendations are applicable to all domains of science and engineering education, even if our analysis is focused on astronomy. In this essay, we’ll discuss some of the most beneficial best practices for scientists.
Many scientists find it easier and more familiar to work with undergraduate and graduate students than with younger ones. Older students, who already have a solid foundation in math and science, have chosen to take science courses. As if you were shooting an arrow and then placed the target at the exact spot where it would hit, you’d be teaching them. While it’s still gratifying to hit the target, this brings up a question about how much of an impact a teacher can have on a more mature pupil. Introducing science to children at a young age might be difficult, but it can open their minds to a wider range of ideas about the world around them.
At Harvard in the early 1960s, Jerome Bruner laid the groundwork for many of the contemporary scientific education reform efforts. For him, early learning and a “spiral curriculum,” in which each subject is studied in greater depth each year rather than being “saved” for an age group, were his primary goals. As far as Bruner was concerned, he was certain that every scientific principle could be applied to any age. When it comes to teaching younger pupils, hands-on science activities and demonstrations are more beneficial than verbal or quantitative explanations. When it comes to learning how to ride a bike, Bruner said that the best way to learn is to actually do it.
He also proposed a strategy for improving primary school science education in his work at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California in Berkeley in the mid-1960s. For him, working with young people was equally demanding and satisfying as his work in theoretical quantum electrodynamics research and teaching at the university level. A learning-cycle paradigm championed by Karplus has proven successful for learners of all ages. There are three parts to this cycle: exploration, innovation, and discovery. These phases can be cycled over and over again. Rather than relying solely on textbooks, he emphasized hands-on learning. Knowledge of the scientific investigation process reflected in Karplus’s learning-cycle model has been updated by many others subsequently. This methodology provides rigorous student participation in science explorations, learning, and applications.
Typically, teachers in elementary school focus on teaching students the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy. Despite their knowledge of the finest teaching methods, including those acquired from Bruner and Karplus, it is difficult for them to apply their expertise to teaching science because of the pressure to focus on other subject areas. Furthermore, many primary school instructors doubt their own scientific understanding and their ability to properly incorporate science into their core curriculum.
The NSF Graduate Fellows in K–12 Education and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Family ASTRO and Project ASTRO programs can help scientists work with teachers to tackle these challenges.
Teachers are well-versed in how children learn, just as scientists are well-versed in their respective fields. A better knowledge of how young pupils learn science can benefit both parties. It is easier to teach science concepts if teachers are aware of their students’ science misunderstandings and simplistic theories. It’s also gratifying and productive for scientists to work with primary school teachers.
In addition to classroom talks and demonstrations, scientists have a lot more to give to schools. Based on their own childhood experiences or a short-term involvement in their child’s school, scientists have traditionally assumed school roles based on their assessments of the class or school’s deficiencies. Scientists should collaborate with teachers to determine the most effective strategies to solve the most pressing classroom issues. As a result of this, the scientists are more sensitive and respectful to the demands of the teachers who are on the front lines of education every single day.
Greater training in online teaching methods, access to high-quality interactive-learning resources, and more information about contemporary scientific discoveries and approaches are frequently expressed as needs by science instructors. As part of their professional support system, they also want a scientist who can explain concepts and words, assist them in finding appropriate activities, and encourage and support them. Most teachers of science at the primary and secondary levels claim to lack the necessary educational foundation to do their jobs well in the physical sciences. It has been a long-standing problem, and it seems to get worse with each passing decade, from our perspective.
Become a scientific ambassador, and you’ll be able to help instructors meet their needs. Scientists play an important role in bridging the gap between the scientific community and the education sector. A university or research community can be a source of educational resources and equipment for teachers. An ambassador must grasp how the formal education system works: how educators are trained, what demands they face, and how pupils learn science topics at each age level. Professional organizations, such as the American Astronomical Society, provide training for conferences ambassadors.
In many school science classrooms, scientists are astonished to see that pupils spend very little time actually performing science. We, too, have noticed that elementary-age students are increasingly reluctant to engage in even simple physical science projects, despite their established ability to pique their interest. At all levels, students are taught science vocabulary, the scientific method, and the importance of reading or discussing scientific concepts or laws.
In effect, pupils are deprived of the opportunity to play science games because of the emphasis on science preparation calisthenics. The consequence is a combination of boring and pedantic science lessons, which is a bad thing. It’s a lot more fun to do science, according to Robert Yager, a past president of both the National Research in Science Teaching and the National Science Teaching Association.
The difficulty is that our kids rarely get the opportunity to play—to study a problem they have recognized, to construct various answers, and to devise tests for individual theories. School science, on the other hand, entails 13 years of learning the rules of the game, conducting verification-type experiments, and acquiring accepted explanations developed by others.
Typically, talented children are most disappointed when they are unable to participate in scientific questioning and exploration, according to our experience. After being classified as difficult and disruptive by his science instructor, one of our very bright students was on the verge of failing out of junior high school altogether. What had he been up to before this? He’d pressed his teacher for proof that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and she’d obliged. Such questions and challenges are welcomed and applauded by scientists rather than viewed as a threat. IBM today employs a prominent engineer who was once a student. When students participate in scientific research instead of simply memorizing facts, they become enthusiastic about the subject.
Physicists tend to lean toward teaching science in schools and classrooms when deciding on a career path. As a result, there is a wide range of after-school and out-of-school activities that can help students. After-school clubs, natural history and science museums, planetariums, libraries, hands-on science and technology centers, and visitor centers at research institutions are all examples of informal, free-choice venues where students can pursue their interests. These include street fairs, county, and tribal fairs; community and summer camps; science cafés; festival talks in restaurants and pubs; and any other location that attracts a science-interested audience.
Examples of what scientists can do at these venues include helping to design a museum exhibit, creating a scientific program for children’s discoverry centers, and giving a talk at a local library, among many more.
It is extremely beneficial for scientists to encourage their audience to actively participate in informal settings such as pubs, science nights for teenagers, and scientific festivals.
It is possible to increase audience attention, engagement, and satisfaction by making a talk shorter and less formal and allowing for a lot of conversation, debates, and questions. The pedagogy in informal education is based on extensive study, much like in other fields. Informal education experts can play a variety of roles in this highly skilled and advanced field.
Scientific capital, a term used by the 2013 significant UK science education policy study ASPIRES: Young People’s Science and Career Aspirations, Age 10–14, is at the heart of many creative science education initiatives. Science capital is the full total of an individual’s science-related knowledge; attitudes; experiences; and resources, including what they know and how they think about it, and how they interact with those who are interested in it. Partnerships that allow students to learn about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in school or other settings and that urge systemic change to support learners are encouraged by a capital-based educational ecosystem.
Worldwide, innovative techniques of reaching or serving new groups have been undertaken with scientists as essential team members, often with great success Scientists, for example, have made contributions to programs that promote scientific design and visual thinking. Children with an interest in art and visual thinking might be encouraged to pursue careers in science and technology through STEAM programs.
