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Scientific literacy

Every science curriculum must have the aim of helping the students become adults who are scientifically literate. This means that they understand the way that scientists work, have a wide general knowledge of the areas of science, are able to understand a scientific topic in the media in adult life and use it as a basis for making rational decisions about an issue related to the uses and implications of science.

A little more on Scientific literacy
Scientific literacy shows itself in the way a person uses their knowledge of science facts and processes to understand items in the news with a scientific basis – such as climate change and health issues – and to be able evaluate the items, react thoughtfully and draw conclusions from them. Using scientific literacy skills enables a person to make informed judgments on these issues and use them when taking part in local or national decisions which may affect society or the environment.

A simple way of thinking about looking for signs of scientific literacy is to see if the child can see how the accumulated data from large numbers of scientific enquiries (using the scientific method) leads to the developments of theories and laws.

Scientific laws are the most secure item of knowledge such as the laws of gravity that have stood the test of time against enquiries which might have disproved them.

Scientific theories are less secure but often held in the same regard as laws. The theory of relativity and the theory of evolution are examples or major theories but other theories are built up from the results of a series of more recent enquiries which some skeptical scientists still challenge. The theory of climate change is an example.

If a theory is found by subsequent enquiries to be insecure it is rejected and replaced with another. It is at this level of recent enquiries producing theories on which people are encouraged to act such as climate change or health issues that scientific literacy in the population is important.

If research sweeps away a theory and replaces it with another a paradigm shift is said to take place. A paradigm is a way in which people (including scientists) think about something or the way it happens. From history one of the greatest paradigm shifts was from thinking about the Earth as the centre of the universe with everything in space (including the Sun) moving round it to the Earth moving around the Sun with other objects in the Solar System. There could be paradigm shifts in our children’s lifetime. Perhaps one might be our concept of life (based obviously on our observations on Earth) when further explorations of the Solar system and exoplanets around other stars are made.

The signs of a scientist

Although the majority of the students probably will not follow a career in science they will need to be trained in the scientific method to understand how discoveries are made and how the reliability of the data is assessed. This will give them insight into science-based issues presented in the media on which they must make rational decisions about their future. With this in mind the concept of the ‘Signs of a scientist’ may be useful in curriculum planning to make every one in school a ‘junior scientist’. The following is based on ideas by Carl Sagan the cosmologist and filled out by me to apply to any science curriculum.

Scientists are observant, curious, imaginative and creative. The children enter primary school displaying these attributes and the curriculum must foster their continued development.

Scientists are disciplined in their work. They follow the scientific method in their work and the curriculum must introduce the students to this and make them proficient in its stages.

Scientists can analyse the data they collect and the data provided by others. The curriculum must be designed to provide many opportunities to carry out scientific enquiries. By becoming familiar with investigative processes and their own data collection the skill of analysis will develop. There must be a focus on the purpose of the investigation and how the data relates to the purpose. Once they are competent at analyzing their own data they could examine the data of others and analyse it.

Scientists can construct rational explanations from their data. Students can build up this skill by explaining what the data means.

Scientists draw conclusions. By considering the purpose of the investigation and the explanation of the data they can draw a conclusion about their findings and the suitability of the investigative procedure to the task.

Scientists are skeptical of their work and that of others. Students may develop this skill through the study of anomalous results which they may record in their own investigations or presented in the investigations of others. They should aim to reduce their skepticism by the repeating of investigations a number of times they think appropriate.

Critical thinking

As a child grows there is also cognitive development – the development of the ability to think and understand.

Benjamin Bloom directed a research team whose work culminated in a book edited by Bloom, which became known as Blooms Taxonomy. In this book, cognitive development is examined as the acquiring of six intellectual competences, also more popularly known as critical thinking skills, which are arranged in a hierarchical order as follows starting with the lowest level skill.

Knowledge (now often called Remembering)
Understanding (originally called comprehension)
Application
Analysis
Evaluation
Creativity (originally called synthesis and placed immediately after analysis)

There are many ways and questioning words that can be used to test each skill. Here are just a few that you may like to use when testing thinking skills in science.

Download and print the Critical Thinking Skills Posters

Science at home and school

All of my science books have activities in them. If the children are reading them at home they may like to try some. All the activities can be done with simple equipment and materials that are usually found in most homes or can be purchased locally.

The activities in the books are traditional ones that have been used by many generations of children, or are variations on them. They may stimulate your children to try other experiments, and while we should encourage creativity and imagination it should be tempered by a consideration for safety which involves common sense, adult supervision and guidance from such sources as Be Safe! fourth edition by the Association for Science Education. For more details about the Association of Science Education and its activities visit its website at www.ase.org.uk

Setting up a laboratory at home or at school

Your children may want a place to store their equipment of investigations or display their photographs or collections of rocks or pot plants. If there is space let them set up a laboratory. They could print off the posters about the scientific method from my site and stick them up around their lab to remind them of how to investigate.

The lab will need shelves for display of equipment, a cork board for display of photographs, a table for carrying out the experiments, a drawer in which to keep the lab book where a record of each enquiry is made.