Science for All Americans
Education for a changing future
Project 2061 began its work in 1985—the year Halley's Comet passed near
Earth. Children who were just starting school then will see the return
of the Comet. What scientific and technological changes will they also see
in their lifetime? How can today's education prepare them to make sense of
how the world works; to think critically and independently; and to lead interesting,
responsible, and productive lives in a culture increasingly shaped by science
and technology?
With
expert panels of scientists, mathematicians, and technologists, Project 2061
set out to identify what was most important for the next generation to know
and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology—what would
make them science literate. The panels' recommendations were integrated into
Project 2061's 1989 publication, Science for All Americans. Science
for All Americans defines science literacy and lays out some principles
for effective learning and teaching. In coherent prose, it articulates and
connects fundamental ideas in science without technical vocabulary and dense
detail.
What Is Science Literacy?
Project 2061 defines science literacy broadly, emphasizing the connections
among ideas in the natural and social sciences, mathematics, and technology.
Science for All Americans includes specific recommendations for learning
in the following areas:
- The Nature of Science includes the scientific world view, scientific
methods of inquiry, and the nature of the scientific enterprise.
- The Nature of Mathematics describes the creative processes involved
in both theoretical and applied mathematics.
- The Nature of Technology examines how technology extends our abilities
to change the world and the tradeoffs necessarily involved.
- The Physical Setting lays out basic ideas about the content and
structure of the universe (on astronomical, terrestrial, and sub-microscopic
levels) and the physical principles on which it seems to run.
- The Living Environment delineates basic facts and ideas about
how living things function and how they interact with one another and
their environment.
- The Human Organism discusses human biology as exemplary of biological
systems.
- Human Society considers individual and group behavior, social
organizations, and the process of social change.
- The Designed World reviews principles of how people shape and
control the world through some key areas of technology.
- The Mathematical World gives basic mathematical ideas, especially
those with practical application, that together play a key role in almost
all human endeavors.
- Historical Perspectives illustrates the science enterprise with
ten examples of exceptional significance in the development of science.
- Common Themes presents general concepts, such as systems and models,
that cut across science, mathematics, and technology.
- Habits of Mind sketches the attitudes, skills, and ways of thinking
that are essential to science literacy.
Science for All Americans also includes chapters on effective learning
and teaching, reforming education, and next steps toward reform.
The Cornerstone of Reform
Science for All Americans presents a clear vision of science literacy
that a variety of audiences can use for myriad purposes. Widely recognized
as the first step toward ambitious national standards in science for all students
and a major influence on science frameworks in many states, Science for
All Americans serves as the foundation for current efforts to reform science
education in the U.S. and abroad. Indeed, it has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and
Japanese.
Science for All Americans provides educators, parents, school administrators,
and policymakers with a sense of where the K-12 curriculum should be aiming.
It can also help K-12 teachers—no matter what grade or subject they
teach—to fill in gaps in their own knowledge of science, mathematics,
and technology. In addition, the essays in Science for All Americans
provide a coherent picture of science literacy that can help in interpreting
the grade-specific learning goals in Project 2061's Benchmarks for Science
Literacy, or in the National Research Council's National Science Education
Standards.
Beyond the K-12 Classroom
Because many college students are not science literate, higher education faculty
are developing courses around the topics in Science for All Americans.
Project 2061's CD-ROM tool, Resources for Science Literacy: Professional
Development, includes a variety of syllabi that address particular science
literacy concepts. From Brown University to Iona College, courses in evolutionary
biology, physics, technology and society, and computer music systems, provide
a sampling of the wide range of approaches colleges are taking to science,
mathematics, and technology education.
Many museums are also beginning to consider science literacy goals as they
work to support reform in the schools. Boston's Museum of Science used Project
2061's principles for effective learning and teaching to design a series of
interactive exhibits. The Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan, is redesigning its exhibits based on Science for All Americans'
description of systems. And exhibits at Science Alive!—an interactive
science center in Grand Rapids, Michigan—focus on four chapters in Science
for All Americans.
However it is used, Science for All Americans presents a unified vision
of science literacy that serves as a basis for discussions of the skills and
knowledge that our nation's students should have.
