What is Science? Science is not a collection of facts, nor is it - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transforming science in the 21st century Inspire – through transformative research/teaching Support – scientists as they seek to learn Innovate – new partnerships for success Advance – via positive/negative results of high-risk/reward research

What is Science? “ Science is not a collection of facts, nor is it something that happens in a laboratory. Science happens in the head; it is a flight of imagination beyond the constraints of ordinary perception ”

The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure Nature hasn’t misled us into thinking that we know something we don’t actually know. Perhaps that is the main reasoning why scientific and mechanical information sounds so dull and so cautious.

STEM Education Priorities • Approaching half a century of education priorities – Elementary and Secondary Education Act 1965 / No Child Left Behind 2001 – Higher Education Act 1965 / Higher Education Opportunity Act 2008 – Rising Above the Gathering Storm (2007)

STEM Vitality K-12 and Beyond • Robust teacher training and support for K-12 STEM • Ecological change of how STEM is fostered, encouraged, and optimized at post-secondary institutions • Attracting, retaining, and preparing students for their future in a STEM-savvy workforce

Where is Science Going? • Problem centered on issues that transcend disciplinary boundaries • Mother nature is winning (i.e., she does not have academic departmental structural constraints to what she offers the world) • Tools of science transcend disciplines • Even more information will accrue within traditional areas of study • Moral and ethical issues will abound • New knowledge in science is exploding

Who Are Our Students?

Science is a Team Sport !

Physics Geology Math Comp Sci Eng. Biochem Chem Nursing Biology The Universe of Science Majors The Universe No College Science College Non Science The Universe of All College Students The Real Universe of Education

The Dawn Of Education 2.0 • In the shift from an intellectual economy of push, to one of pull • the evolving participatory media are making their impact felt • It is no longer enough to pump out information like gasoline and expect authentic learning to take place • the new generation of learners demand to be engaged, active and part of a collaborative knowledge building community.

Here’s Why • '' The online MySpace community has ballooned to more than 160 million members in just a few years. • The social networking site of choice for most students is Facebook.com, which describes itself as a social utility that helps people better understand the world around them. ''

Why Continued……. • The generation weaned on television may have been happy to sit back and passively consume information fed to them from above, but those days are over. • Armed with a set of tools that make always-on collaboration, ideas-sharing, personal expression and information gathering an engaging, socially-driven experience today's learners have high expectations. • Now that students can network with contacts through sites like MySpace, broadcast their presence to the world with Twitter, and create and remix media with YouTube and Jumpcut, it's unlikely that they are going to be content to sit through a lecture delivered in the one-way, top-down tradition of old media.

Scientific Teaching • the content should be scientific • the classroom should reflect the process of science • the classroom should capture the rigor, iterative nature, and spirit of discovery of science at its best • the approach to teaching should be scientific Handelsman et al., 2004 Science 304:521-522.

Educational Challenges Universities Comprehensive, Fast (4 years), Cheap • If it is Fast and Cheap it will be hard to make it Comprehensive • If it is Comprehensive and Fast it will not be Cheap • If it is Good and Cheap it will not be Comprehensive