Educating future scientists

I'm going to comment on everyone's comments at once.
It seems, for the most part, everyone thinks science is important. We are all on the same page that it can only benefit us to know what's going on all around. Weather or not people think it's important to them, everyone has said that it's still important for the purpose of understanding. Human nature is to want to understand. We always want to know what is going on...science or gossip. People learning science in high-school might not be saying "I'm just dying to find out what's up with those hydrogen and oxygen molecules," but someone wanted to know in the beginning, and that's why we know these facts today. Someone wanted to know something other then gossip. They wanted to understand the world around them. So it's important for someone to want to know in the first place, or else we might not know half of what we know today.

You guys are being so earnest that I just can’t help but attempt to play devil’s advocate.



It is important to learn science for those who are going to use science in their future professions. The rest of us can live a million years without science. For example, as long as my doctor is able to accurately diagnose and treat the diseases when I get sick, I’d trust her to do what is right for me and advise me accordingly.

Similarly, I don’t need to know how my car works in order to drive it. Nor do I need to know how to fix it – that is why I hire car mechanics. I don’t need to understand the chemical composition of the drugs I take as long as there are competent people working for the pharmasutical companies who design those drugs. And I certainly do not need to know how to calculate the forces describing motion – things will continue falling and moving the same way regardless of what I know.

Thus, instead of spending money on people like me, who obviously do not need to learn science, our science education dollars would be better spent teaching science to people who plan to make it their future professions.

So, here you go – discuss this.

In response to Prometheus – bringing light to the world!!!

Copied from the original post:
While I agree on many of the reasons for which others say it is important for us to learn science there is one in particular that I believe is important: science teaches us analysis.

Now one could respond to that by saying that other subjects teach us analysis as well, and I am certainly not disputing that nor demeaning these subjects, but I think that sciences teach us a different type of analysis than subjects like history or english. I view sciences as teaching us a more observational method of analysis whereas other subjects may teach us to analyze thoughts and themes. The reason that this makes sciences so important is that the type of analysis they teach is needed in everyday life for such simple tasks as observing and considering our surroundings and reacting to what we see or learn(for example observing or learning that throwing a rock at a beehive can get you stung and thus reasoning that throwing a rock at a beehive is a bad idea.)

It is learning this sort of analysis and being able to apply it to our world that I think makes science important.

In the perfect world that is perhaps exactly the purpose of science education – teach students how to analyze data and draw conclusions from factual evidence. Science education should be about creating critical thinkers, capable to rationally analyzing evidence before them.

However, I wonder, is that what you are learning? Let’s assume that the content of the Regents Exams provides a summary of all the material and skills NY State expects you to learn. How much of the content of these tests is factual knowledge (which, given need and time, could easily be looked up books) and what percent of these exams are questions testing problem-solving and data analysis? Are you in fact learning critical thinking and analytical skills? Or perhaps the more dangerous (for me) question: Am I in fact teaching you those skills?

Is learning science important/valuable?

Write a response to some of the questions below:

Why do we learn science? Is there a value in learning science? If you are not going into a scientific field, is there still a value in taking science classes?
or
Is all science relevant to everyday life? If it is not, does it matter? Do we still need to learn it?

Remember: you are expected to write one response and reply to 2 responses of your classmates.