Education Focus
the scientifi c community and it is vital that our children are captivated and inspired by this.
With all these dramatic advances, it is important to educate children so that they are motivated by science and retain an interest in it when they leave school. To do this it is essential that we stress the relevance of science and its importance to everyday life. A component of the public exam system is an assessment of “How Science Works”. It is fair to say that this approach has taken a bit of a bashing in the media with examples of questions quoted in the press that my fi ve-year-old grandson was able to answer. T ese fl awed questions should not be allowed to detract from the fact that giving science a context is important. School children respond well to this approach and a recent example of how this can be developed is a consideration of the science behind the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima. T is has to be done with sensitivity, but an investigation into why there are issues with the damaged nuclear reactors and what this might mean to the
people of Japan and the rest of the world highlights the importance and relevance of science if important issues are to be fully understood.
Science used to be taught in a much more abstract way
and it was not unusual to see exam questions that had little relevance to the real world. T is style is something of
President Kennedy set a challenge to the scientifi c and future scientifi c community saying: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...” T e lesson we learn from this is that we must not dumb down science, it needs to be rigorous and relevant if we are to retain the interest and enthusiasm of the brightest minds. To do this, we need children to feel that they have an input in what they are learning; their opinions are important they are not just empty vessels to be fi lled with knowledge. T e best scientists are extremely creative people and what we teach and pupils learn needs to refl ect this.
Schools must shake off
the dreary perception of design and technology, and promote the innovative and
Andrew Copson, managing director of Sharpak Yate,
Bridgwater and Holland a turn off and what we need is an approach that
promotes that fact that science solves real and important issues and is a discipline that requires creative thought. Too often pupils have seen the subject as one in which their heads are simply fi lled with facts and that little input comes from them. We need to provide pupils with a science education that enables them to have informed opinions and the ability to problem solve using scientifi c method.
T e curriculum also needs to be rigorous if we are to retain the interest of our brightest pupils. In the 1960s,
36 FirstEleven Summer 2011
T e boundaries between the individual sciences have become blurred over the past 50 years and the overlap and common goals of Physics, Chemistry and Biology should be an important feature when setting out the aims and objectives of what we teach. T e curriculum should also
exciting elements, so more opt for this subject at GCSE level.
accentuate the links between fi ne arts, applied arts and science by fostering collaboration rather than competition
between disciplines. Children feel more connected when
real-life experiences are used as sources of knowledge to compliment what may be found in a textbook. It is important to encourage a love of learning by fostering refl ection and questioning rather than passive memorisation of facts and this is every bit as important in a science curriculum as it is in the humanities.
T is liberal arts approach to education has been successfully developed at some of the more prestigious universities in the United States and their graduates provide convincing evidence of how successful this procedure can be in producing well-informed, educated young people. A similar philosophy was evident in a recent science debating competition for schools organised by Imperial College. T is event challenged competitors to present cogent, informed arguments supporting or opposing motions connected to
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