Transcript Science Education - Fayetteville Freethinkers

Science Education
in America
John and Jackie Knill of North Vancouver
Wake Up Call!
Science Education in America
Among 24-year-olds in 2001
Percent of BS/BA Degrees that are engineers:
United States
China
South Korea
Taiwan
Japan
BS/BA
1,253.1
567.9
209.7
117.426.6
542.3
BS
59.5
219.6
56.5
23%
104.5
%
5%
39%
27%
19%
Engineering & Science Degrees as a %
of all Bachelor Degrees
Singapore
China
S. Korea
Taiwan
68%
58%
36%
34%
Germany
U.K.
Sweden
Belgium
USA
31%
28%
24%
22%
17%
Ph.D. in physical science and
engineering
US citizens receiving Ph.D’s in 1987: 4,700
Asians: 5,600
US citizens receiving Ph.D’s in 2001: 4,400
Asians receiving Ph.D’s in 2001:
24,900
Also declining,
Asians getting Ph. D’s in US:
25 percent fewer Asians got such
degrees at U.S, universities in
2001 than in 1996
--Robert J. Herbold, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology
“By 2010, 90 percent of
all Ph.D. physical
scientists and engineers
in the world will be
Asian living in Asia.”
R.E. Smalley, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
from Rice University
Why is this important?
Traditionally, it has been our technical human
talent that has driven our industrial success.
Basic science, technology, engineering and
mathematics knowledge is vitally important.
With expertise in these fields declining in the
U.S. while rising in other parts of the world, the
US industrial leadership will weaken.
--Robert J. Herbold, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology
It already has.
How do our 12th graders stack up?
In science:
2% are rated advanced
16% percent are rated proficient.
34% percent are partially proficient
Almost 1/2 are below partial proficiency.
4th Grade
8th Grade
12th Grade
Science Math
Science Math
Science Math
Advanced: 4%
Proficient:
26%
3%
4%
5%
2%
2%
23%
28% 22%
16% 14%
43%
29%
34% 48%
Partial
Proficiency: 37%
38%
Results of International Math and Science Study (2000).
Relative Rank (percentile) U.S student achievement:
4th Grade
8th Grade
12th Grade
Math
54
32
10
Science
88
59
24
6
0
12th Grade Advanced
Math & Physics
Note: in mathematics, our 12th graders rated at the
10th percentile. In other words, 90 percent of the
countries did better than the U.S., and only 10
percent performed worse.
The United States once ranked first in the world
in high school graduation rates.
We have slipped to 17th (New York Times, Feb. 1).
Why so poorly in Science?
56 percent of high school students taking
physical science were being taught by “out of
field” teachers – meaning the teacher did not
major or minor in the subject in college.
In mathematics, this figure was 27 percent.
--Robert J. Herbold, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology
Middle school is worse
93 percent of science students and 70
percent of math students were taught by
“out of field” teachers.
Only 30 percent of students who enter a
science track in grade 9 are still interested in
science as a major when they graduate and
enter college.
--Robert J. Herbold, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology
Teachers not expert in their subject?
One-third of US biology teachers support the
teaching of creationism or "intelligent design" (NYT,
Feb. 1)
Perhaps they would rather be teaching
theology in church
than biology in school?
The text books
In 2003, the American Association
for the Advancement of Science rated
less than ten percent of middle
school math books to be acceptable,
and no science books.
The United States is now 49th in the world in literacy
(NYT, Dec. 12, 2004)
Perhaps it is…
Weak Curricula
The National Commission on Excellence
has recommended public high schools
require three years of mathematics and
two of science.
45 % of high schools meet that standard
with respect to math
24 % with respect to science.
Where does the money go?
Basketballs?
“The Department of Education points
out that only 53 percent of K-12
education funding is currently spent
on instruction.”
--Robert J. Herbold, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
The Chickens have come home to roost:
Sixty-one percent of Americans
"believe the biblical story of
creation is literal truth"
(ABC, World News Tonight With Peter Jennings, Jan. 18)
1993 International Social Survey ranked 21 Nations
on Knowledge about Human Evolution
(Free Inquiry, Fall ’99, pg. 55)
The US came in last.
“Forty-three states have debated teaching
evolution in the last three years”
(ABC, World News Tonight With Peter Jennings, Jan. 18)
Scopes trial 1925
Top primate says jury still out
Bush does not accept evolution, the central
coordinating concept of modern biology.
According to the New York Times (October 29,
2000), he believes that "the jury is still out" on
evolution, and moreover, the Times reports, he
"doesn't really care about that kind of thing."
Faith based from the top down
As [Christie] Whitman told me on the day in May
2003 that she announced her resignation as
administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency: "In meetings, I'd ask if there were any
facts to support our case. And for that, I was
accused of disloyalty!"
(Ron Suskind article: Without a Doubt)
Hostility to science exists at the highest
levels of our government. "With rising
intensity, scientists in and out of
government have criticized the Bush
administration, saying it has selected or
suppressed research findings to suit preset
policies, skewed advisory panels or ignored
unwelcome advice, and quashed discussion
within federal research agencies"
(NYT, Oct. 19, 2004).
At a time when the public needs to make
decisions about bioengineering, mapping the
human genome, environmental problems, global
climate change, cloning, the increasing extinction
rate and the depletion of energy resources…
a national survey developed by the California
Academy of Sciences (and Harris Interactive),
reveals that the American public lacks basic
scientific knowledge.
What did they find?
A startling number of Americans cannot answer even basic
scientific questions:
More than half of all American adults (53%) do not know
that the Earth goes around the Sun once a year.
42% answer incorrectly when asked if the earliest humans
lived at the same time as dinosaurs.
Geography
The National Geographic–Roper 2002 Global
Geographic Literacy Survey polled more than 3,000
18- to 24-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the
United States.
Sweden scored highest
Mexico, lowest.
The U.S. was next to last.
The Pacific Ocean's location was a
mystery to 29 percent
58 percent: could not find Japan
65 percent: France
69 percent: United Kingdom
About 11 percent of
young citizens of the
U.S. couldn't locate
the U.S. on a map.
We
found
one of
them.
We have a Tsunami coming…
but it doesn’t look like this:
It looks like this:
If we don’t heed the wake up call
It’s going to be Taps, for America
The End
Dar’s Bits
God returns Bride
God answers families prayer:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Georgia bride-to-be who vanished just
days before her wedding turned up in New Mexico and fabricated a
tale of abduction before admitting Saturday that she had gotten cold
feet and "needed some time alone."
Wilbanks, whose disappearance set off a nationwide hunt, called her
fiance, John Mason, from a pay phone late Friday and told him that
she had been kidnapped while jogging three days before, But
Wilbanks soon recanted.
The family later expressed relief that Wilbanks was safe.
"Sure, we were all disappointed, maybe a little embarrassed, but you
know what, if you remember all the interviews yesterday we were
praying, 'At this point let her be a runaway bride,'" said the Rev. Alan
Jones, who was to perform the wedding.
"So God was faithful. Jennifer's alive and we're all thankful for that."
Why is the U.S. military staring at goats?
Baaaaaa
Since 1979 a secret unit of psychics has been employed
by the US army to defend America. These “Jedi Warriors”
also called “supersoldiers” attempt to adopt a cloak of
invisibility, pass through walls, and kill goats by staring at
them.
The “goat lab” at Fort Bragg housed 100 de-bleated
goats which were experimented upon. Only one goat is
reported to have possibly succumbed to the staring but it
was not the intended goat. The psychic starer, Guy
Savelli, claimed to have later stared his hamster to death.
For further information see:
The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson, Simon &
Schuster 2004.
Who are you
staring at?
“Some of the characters
involved seem wellmeaning enough, such
as the hapless General
Stubblebine, who is
"confounded by his
continual failure to walk
through his wall.”
A billboard you won’t see:
Hypocrisy Dept.
Tom DeLay argued against loosening
sanctions against Cuba last year, warning
that Fidel Castro "will take the money. Every
dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds
its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty
hands.... American consumers will get their
fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the
cost of our national honor."
Majority Leader Delay smoking one of Cuba's best—
a Hoyo de Monterrey double corona (July 28, 2003).
Alabama Bill Targets Gay Authors MONTGOMERY, Ala., April 27, 2005
In book after book, Allen reads what he calls the "homosexual agenda," and
he's alarmed. "It's not healthy for America, it doesn't fit what we stand for,"
says Allen. "And they will do whatever it takes to reach their goal." Gerald
Allen, Alabama State Representative.
He says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. Under his bill, public
school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay
authors, or about gay characters.
"I don't look at it as censorship," says State Representative Gerald Allen. "I
look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children."
Books by any gay author would have to go: Tennessee Williams, Truman
Capote and Gore Vidal. Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple" has lesbian
characters. Allen originally wanted to ban even some Shakespeare. After
criticism, he narrowed his bill to exempt the classics, although he still can't
define what a classic is.
He says he sees this as a line in the sand.
**
Editor's Note: When the time for the vote in the legislature came there were not enough state
legislators present for the vote, so the measure died automatically.
"There's something about that image of Bush and Prince Abdullah
holding hands as they walked through a field of bluebonnets
(Monday). Is it the way it plays against Bush's cowboy image? Is it
the contrast between Bush's talk of global democracy and his
embrace of the leader of an absolute monarchy? Is it that it reminds
us of our dependence on Saudi oil? Is that it looked, well, a little
gay? I suspect it's all those and more."
Jesus
found
in tree