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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 06/17/2003 : 22:19:26
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This from CSICOP:
Who's Getting It Right and Who's Getting It Wrong in the Debate About Science Literacy?
Opinions clash over the best way to bolster public support for science.
Matthew Nisbet
Ithaca, N.Y.
http://www.csicop.org/scienceandmedia/literacy/
June 2003
Scientists consistently worry that the public just doesn't know enough about science, and that this general lack of public understanding carries with it dreadful consequences, jeopardizing everything from government financing of research to social progress. Recent controversies in the U.S. and Europe over therapeutic cloning and agricultural biotechnology have brought fresh concerns from the scientific community. Many scientists assume, for example, that if the public knew more about human genetic engineering, then any moral or religious reservations about cloning-for-medical-research might be tempered. Or, if the public better understood the science behind the genetic modification of crops, then few would take seriously the hyperbolized risks associated with the technology.
To read the Entire Column Visit:
http://www.csicop.org/scienceandmedia/literacy/
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Darwin Storm
Skeptic Friend
87 Posts |
 Posted - 06/18/2003 : 09:22:33 [Permalink]
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I think the vast majority of the problem is people's attitudes towards science while in school. I have often heard math and science scoffed at with the comment, " its not like I am ever going to use this stuff.". Additionaly, most people never take a course in logic either. However, most people consider themselves logical. That isn't to say a person can't be logical without classes, but I find it interesting that people assume they have skills without much any critical thought or training. A person doesn't become a good at basketball without lots of practice, sweat, and more practice. However, many people figure they know more than enough about science and logic without ever really putting in the effort.
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2003 : 01:18:23 [Permalink]
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I'm finding it real hard to to find a reason to believe that it's an either/or situation. I find science literacy and involving the general public equally important. Science for the masses probably won't be a reality unless the masses have an interest. First, the debate must interest the public. Then, communicating science will become much easier.
As Darwin S. mentioned, it begins at a young age. We make science a game for grammar school kids, only to turn it into a discipline for teen agers which have little interest in someone else's rules. Teaching why science is important, and how to think is just as neccessary as hitting a tenth grader over the head with the cold facts from a Biology book.
Plus, there are other ways to interest adults, and kids. We don't really have to write books like Sagan's, which are great, by the way. There is the world of fiction, magazine articles and television. Use real facts to introduce the dilemna a young Christian couple may face if their child can only be saved by the use of some proceedure involving stem cells. Now, the public is engaged in the debate, begins to understand the science, and will show more interest.
Hard questions that may relate to our own lives always go a long way in interesting us in the science. And, as the article infers, once understanding increases, so does acceptance.
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"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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