D. Woodie Flowers "Why change, Been doin' it this way for 4000
years!" ASME Mechanical Engineering Education Conference: Drivers and
Strategies of Major Program Change, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March
26-29, 2000; on the web as PowerPoint plus video at
<http://hitchcock.dlt.asu.edu/media2/cresmet/flowers/>. (Download the
free RealPlayer.):
Slide 42, 43: BBC videotape Simple Minds showing MIT graduates having
trouble getting a flashlight bulb to light, given one bulb, one
battery, and one piece of wire. This is the MIT counterpart of
Harvard's "A Private Universe," a videotape showing Harvard
graduating seniors confidently explaining that the seasons are caused
by yearly variation in the distance of the Earth from the Sun! And if
such occurs at MIT and Harvard, how about Podunk State?
For "A Private Universe" consult
<http://www.learner.org/resources/series28.html>. For an equivalent
of the Simple Minds videotape go to Minds of Our Own at
<http://www.learner.org/resources/series26.html>. The latter gives a
description of three Minds of Our Own videotapes available, including
the MIT footage: "Why is it that students can graduate from MIT and
Harvard, yet not know how to solve a simple third-grade problem in
science: lighting a light bulb with a battery and wire? Through the
example of an experienced teacher, the program takes a hard look at
why teaching fails, even when he uses all of the traditional tricks
of the trade. The program shows how new research, used by teachers
committed to finding solutions to problems, is reshaping what goes on
in the nation's schools."
But why should one be concerned about the science illiteracy of the
general population? Because life-threatening science-related societal
problems [e.g., terrorism; overpopulation (doubles about every 35
years); threat of weapons of mass destruction; human welfare
(starvation, homelessness, unemployment,
drugs, epidemics, AIDS, etc.); pollution of air, water, land, food;
global warming; ozone depletion; deforestation; loss of biodiversity;
etc., etc., etc.] cannot be resolved when a scientifically illiterate
society elects scientifically illiterate leaders.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"The global population is precariously large, and will become much
more so before peaking some time after 2050. Humanity overall is
improving per capita
production, health, and longevity. But it is doing so by eating up
the planet's capital, including natural resources and biological
diversity millions of years old. Homo sapiens is approaching the
limit of its food and water supply. Unlike any species before, it is
also changing the world's atmosphere and climate, lowering and
polluting water tables, shrinking forests, and spreading deserts.
Most of the stress originates directly or indirectly from a handful
of industrialized countries. Their proven formulas for prosperity are
being eagerly adopted by the rest of the world. The emulation cannot
be sustained, not with the same levels of consumption and waste. Even
if the industrialization of the developing countries is only
partially successful, the environmental aftershock will dwarf the
population explosion that preceded it."
E.O. Wilson in "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge" (Knopf, 1998)
REFERENCES
Berger, D. 2005. "Re: Should Randomized Control Trials Be the Gold
Standard of Educational Research? online at
<http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=edstat-l&T=0&O=D&X=5892603D63E947357B&Y=rrhake%40earthlink%2Enet&P=6741>.
Post of 18 Apr 2005 21:52:50-0700 to EdStat. The encyclopedic URL
indicates that EdStat is one of the few discussion lists whose
archives are closed to non subscribers :-( - WHY ??. However, it
takes only a few minutes to subscribe by following the simple
directions at
<http://lists.psu.edu/archives/edstat-l.html> / "Join or leave the
list (or change settings)" where "/" means "click on." If you're
busy, then subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option under "Miscellaneous."
Then, as a subscriber, you may access the archives and/or post
messages at any time, while receiving NO MAIL from the list!
Hake, R.R. 2000. "The General Population's Ignorance of Science
Related Societal Issues: A Challenge for the University," AAPT
Announcer 30(2): 105; online as ref. 11 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> or download directly by
clicking on <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/GuelphSocietyG.pdf>
(2.1MB).
Based on an earlier libretto with the leitmotiv: "The road to U.S.
science literacy begins with effective university science courses for
pre-college teachers." The opera dramatizes the fact that the failure
of universities THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE to properly educate
pre-college teachers is responsible for our failure to observe any
signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Hake, R.R. 2005a. Re: Should Randomized Control Trials Be the Gold
Standard of Educational Research? online at
<http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504&L=aera-l&T=0&O=D&P=2100>.
Post of 17/18 Apr 2005 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-G, AERA-H, AERA-J,
AERA-K, AERA-L,
AP-Physics, ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Phys-L,
PhysLrnR, Physhare, POD, STLHE-L, & TIPS.
Hake, R.R. 2005b. "Attacks on Education (was Random Thought: Leave
Them Asking)" online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0502&L=pod&P=R20579&I=-3>.
Post of 21 Feb 2005 10:33:05-0800 to AERA-J, AERA-L, AP-Physics,
Biopi-L, Chemed-L, PhysLrnR, Phys-L, Physhare, Physoc, & POD.
Snow, C.P. 1959. "The two cultures and the scientific revolution."
Available in a 1993 "Canto" edition tiled "The Two Cultures,"
illustrated by Stefan Collini and published by Cambridge University
Press. The publisher states "This reissue of Snow's controversial
Rede lecture of 1959 and its successor piece 'A Second Look' has a
new introduction that charts the history and context of the famous
debate on the cultural split between the humanities and the sciences."