Comment What about science literacy? (Score 1) 275
While there have been quite a few negative comments regarding top science fair kids having an "in" with a university scientists or his/her graduate students, or kids "only doing it to get into a top college but being stock brokers later on," let's look at the other side of the coin here: promoting science literacy.
What better way for kids to learn about how science is done than by learning from real scienists? If some of them become Ph.D 5+ years down the road, great. Most won't, but does that really matter? What I think important is that these teens get a taste of how science works so they can become more informed consumers of scientific information. One science fair project is not going to bestow science literacy on these 16 and 17 year olds but it is a start--and a much neglected part in americas education programs IMHO.
If we had a highly science-literate population, would we really be having these intelligent design debates? I tend to doubt it. Furthermore science literacy is becoming more and more necessary just to be an informed voter, informed consumer, and all-around informed decision maker.
What better way for kids to learn about how science is done than by learning from real scienists? If some of them become Ph.D 5+ years down the road, great. Most won't, but does that really matter? What I think important is that these teens get a taste of how science works so they can become more informed consumers of scientific information. One science fair project is not going to bestow science literacy on these 16 and 17 year olds but it is a start--and a much neglected part in americas education programs IMHO.
If we had a highly science-literate population, would we really be having these intelligent design debates? I tend to doubt it. Furthermore science literacy is becoming more and more necessary just to be an informed voter, informed consumer, and all-around informed decision maker.
