How To Make Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics Cool At School



Science and mathematics are not cool subjects, say students. Consequently, if these subjects are compulsory, students opt for an easier stream in secondary school and are less likely to transition to university science programs. In addition, female students are under-represented in areas such as mathematics, physics and astronomy. Around the world, the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are in grave trouble in secondary and tertiary institutions. But worse, STEM university graduates may not work in a field of their expertise, leaving STEM agencies and organizations to hire from a shrinking pool.

In 1995, 14 percent of Year 12 secondary school mathematics students studied advanced mathematics, while 37 percent studied elementary mathematics, according to the Australian Mathematical Science Institute. Fifteen years later, in 2010, 10 percent were studying advanced mathematics and 50 percent took the easier option of elementary mathematics. The Australian Mathematical Science Institute revealed that basic mathematics was growing in popularity among secondary students to the detriment of intermediate or advanced studies. This has resulted in fewer universities offering higher mathematics courses, and subsequently there are reduced graduates in mathematics. There have also been reduced intakes in teacher training colleges and university teacher education departments in mathematics programs, which have resulted in many low-income or remote secondary schools without higher level mathematics teachers, which further resulted in fewer science courses or the elimination of specific topics from courses. For some mathematics courses, this is producing a continuous cycle of low supply, low demand, and low supply.

But is it actually a dire problem? The first question is one of supply. Are universities producing enough quality scientists, technology experts, engineers, and mathematicians? Harold Salzman of Rutgers University and his research colleague, B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University in Washington D.C., revealed in a 2009 study that, contrary to widespread perception, the United States continued to produce science and engineering graduates. However, fewer than half actually accepted jobs in their field of expertise. They are moving into sales, marketing, and health care jobs.

The second question is one of demand. Is there a continuing demand for STEM graduates? An October 2011 report from the Georgetown University's Centre on Education and the Workforce confirmed the high demand for science graduates, and that STEM graduates were paid a greater starting salary than non-science graduates. The Australian Mathematical Science Institute said the demand for doctorate graduates in mathematics and statistics will rise by 55 percent by 2020 (on 2008 levels). In the United Kingdom, the Department for Engineering and Science report, The Supply and Demand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical Skills in the UK Economy (Research Report RR775, 2004) projected the stock of STEM graduates to rise by 62 percent from 2004 to 2014 with the highest growth in subjects allied to medicine at 113 percent, biological science at 77 percent, mathematical science at 77 percent, computing at 77 percent, engineering at 36 percent, and physical science at 32 percent.

Fields of particular growth are predicted to be agricultural science (food production, disease prevention, biodiversity, and arid-lands research), biotechnology (vaccinations and pathogen science, medicine, genetics, cell biology, pharmagenomics, embryology, bio-robotics, and anti-ageing research), energy (hydrocarbon, mining, metallurgical, and renewable energy sectors), computing (such as video games, IT security, robotics, nanotechnologies, and space technology), engineering (hybrid-electric automotive technologies), geology (mining and hydro-seismology), and environmental science (water, land use, marine science, meteorology, early warning systems, air pollution, and zoology).

So why aren't graduates undertaking science careers? The reason is because it's just not cool -- not at secondary school, nor at university, nor in the workforce. Georgetown University's CEW reported that American science graduates viewed traditional science careers as "too socially isolating." In addition, a liberal-arts or business education was often regarded as more flexible in a fast-changing job market.

How can governments make science cool? The challenge, says Professor Ian Chubb, head of Australia's Office of the Chief Scientist, is to make STEM subjects more attractive for students, particularly females -- without dumbing down the content. Chubb, in his Health of Australian Science report (May 2012), indicated that, at research level, Australia has a relatively high scholarly output in science, producing more than 3 percent of world scientific publications yet accounting for only about 0.3 percent of the world's population. Australian-published scholarly outputs, including fields other than science, grew at a rate of about 5 percent per year between 1999 and 2008. This was considerably higher than the global growth rate of 2.6 percent. But why isn't this scholarly output translating into public knowledge, interest, and participation in science?

Chubb promotes a two-pronged approach to the dilemma: 1. science education: enhancing the quality and engagement of science teaching in schools and universities; and 2. science workforce: the infusion of science communication into mainstream consciousness to promote the advantages of scientific work.

Specifically, Chubb calls for creative and inspirational teachers and lecturers, as well as an increase in female academics, for positive role modeling, and to set science in a modern context. Instead of restructuring and changing the curriculum, he advocates training teachers to create ways to make mathematics and science more relevant to students' lives. Communicating about science in a more mainstream manner is also critical to imparting the value of scientific innovation. Chubb is a fan of social media to bring science into the mainstream and to change people's perception of science careers and scientists. Social media can also bring immediacy to the rigor, analysis, observation and practical components of science.

In practical terms, the recent findings on student attitudes to STEM subjects, their perception of scientific work, and the flow of STEM graduates to their field of expertise, may be improved by positively changing the way governments, scientists, and educators communicate science on a day-to-day level.

Contextual, situational, relevant science education is more likely to establish links between theory and practical application. This can be demonstrated through real-world applications, including science visits and explorations in the local environment, at all levels of education. Even university students should avoid being cloistered in study rooms, and be exposed to real world, real environment situations. Furthermore, science educators advocate the use of spring-boarding student queries, interests, and motivation into extra-curriculum themes that capture their imagination and innovation. Therefore, enabling students to expand core curricula requirements to include optional themes, projects, competitions, and activities chosen by individual students, groups, or school clusters lead to increased student (and teacher) motivation and participation. In addition, integrating and cross-fertilizing science with non-science subjects and day-to-day activities (e.g. the science of chocolate, sport science, technical drawings, artistic design, and clothing design) can powerfully place STEM subjects firmly into practical applications. "Scientists in residence" programs, in which local scientists work periodically in school and university settings, can inspire students and provide two-way communication opportunities. In addition, international collaborations between schools of different regions or countries through a range of technologies demonstrate and reinforce collaboration in the scientific workplace -- as a way to build a cadre of experts, exchange ideas, network, cooperate, economize, and create culturally diverse outcomes of excellence.

These approaches can provide a more realistic concept of the work scientists perform from a local to a global perspective.

Dr. Martina Nicolls has 25 years of experience as a humanitarian aid development evaluator and advisor for international governments on education, child labor, peace, science, community development, gender, and management. In addition to numerous academic articles, she is the author of The Sudan Curse; Kashmir on a Knife-Edge; and Bardot's Comet. For more information, please visit http://www.martinanicolls.net or http://sbpra.com/MartinaNicolls.

Can Christian Schools Teach the Bible and Science?

Many influential U.S. educators and politicians of the early 21st century claim that it is not appropriate for churches to offer academic education, or for Christians to have influence on the curriculum of educational institutions. These claims are based on the assumption that religion and science / education have nothing in common, and should be kept totally separate. A surprising number of professing Christians have accepted that claim without even first examining its validity.

Can Christianity and Science Coexist

It is certainly undeniable that modern "science" and scriptural Christianity often seem to be at odds. That, though, is not the point. In fact it can be demonstrated that in many separate cases, the inspired scriptures actually stated scientific facts thousands of years before the discoveries which proved them to be "scientific".

Paths of the Seas

For example, the psalmist wrote, in Psalm 8:8 of "the paths of the seas". It is only in the past few hundred years that we have begun to realize that there actually are such "paths" - yet there is now no doubt that they exist.

The Gulf Stream is a well known example of such a "path". It's a very stable and predictable flow - really a sort of invisible river - which transports plankton and the creatures which consume it, and has a crucial moderating effect on the climate and weather patterns of large portions of our planet.

Springs of the Sea

The earliest book of the Old Testament, written long before Moses compiled the Pentateuch, is the Old Testament Book of Job. In Job 38:16 (KJV), God asks Job, "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?" For thousands of years, men have assumed that this was a purely rhetorical question - yet today, we know that they are real, and in fact, modern science spends many thousands of dollars studying the various "springs of the sea".

In spite of the existence and the documented antiquity of this clearly prescient scripture, most of those who proclaim themselves "scientists" seem to ignore the fact that God's Word actually revealed the existence of those springs - long before "educated intellectuals" ever suspected their existence.

Good Science and Good Faith Align

In fact, scriptures are filled with statements which were long considered to be ridiculous evidences that there was nothing scientific about scripture - yet which have since been proven to be compatible with (now) recognized scientific findings.

In all fairness, we must acknowledge that there have been outspoken Christians who have taken great pride in their ignorance and lack of education. Such an attitude has no doubt lent support to the credibility of those who criticize our faith. We should be aware that there is a substantial pool of highly educated Christians who believe God's Word, and who are doing high quality, scientific research. Rather than taking pride in ignorance, Christians should diligently seek out quality education in Christian schools which take the scriptures seriously.

Seek a Good Christian Education

In fact, the Church (meaning all faithful Christians, collectively - not one denomination) should recognize and accept our responsibility to support Christian Education. Christian families should seek to enroll children in schools which unashamedly believe and teach God's Word as Truth.. Churches should seek to assist those families which are unable to meet the cost of such education on their own. We should encourage our young people to seek out Christian institutions of higher education, as well. At all stages of schooling a good education should include the fundamentals of the subject being taught as well as the Word of God.

Phil Herr has been active in ministry since 1972, During that period, he and his wife founded a church affiliated school which earned a reputation for quality and for remedial success, to the point that the local public school referred "problem students" to it. Now retired, he serves a small country church and works part time as a writer / consultant and helping St. Louis area schools, such as Christian schools in St. Louis, MO

Early Intervention At Secondary School To Increase University Enrollments In Computing And Science

Globally, the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are competing for enrolments in universities with an increasing range of options, to their detriment. The Australian Mathematical Science Institute revealed that basic mathematics was growing in popularity among secondary students to the detriment of intermediate or advanced studies. This has resulted in fewer universities offering higher mathematics courses, and subsequently there are reduced graduates in mathematics. Educators are therefore continuously looking for innovative ways to attract students to STEM university courses.

First, an examination of causes for the low interest in STEM university programs revealed the following: An October 2011 report from the Georgetown University's Centre on Education and the Workforce (CEW) reported that American science graduates viewed traditional science careers as "too socially isolating." In addition, a liberal-arts or business education was often regarded as more flexible in a fast-changing job market. Secondary students had the perception that computing and information technology careers were outsourced and not a career path at the local level. They had the belief that the only IT careers available were "backroom" jobs, such as data entry. The challenge, says Professor Ian Chubb, head of Australia's Office of the Chief Scientist, in his Health of Australian Science report (May 2012), is to make STEM subjects more attractive for students. As he points out, mathematics and science are studied in secondary school, but engineering and technology is not. Therefore students in secondary school are not receiving a "taste" for STEM subjects in a practical and applied context.

To address this situation, on an experimental basis, secondary schools in Australia are undertaking a pilot program in computer science and technology. In the state of Victoria, in southern Australia, secondary schools will trial the country's first computer science and technology subjects in Year 12, the last year of secondary school. The premise is that the pilot program will provide students with a taste for the subject, applied to real situations, in order to examine whether it produces increased interest and enrolments in related subjects at university level. The pilot is viewed as a form of early intervention.

Twelve secondary schools will take part in the pilot program. Hence, up to 120 secondary students will undertake the computing program developed by computer science and engineering academics at Melbourne University and Monash University in partnership with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Melbourne and Monash universities are conducting workshops for teachers and educators on the pilot program, as well as promoting the pilot to parents.

The pilot program is one subject added to the senior curriculum in the twelve Victorian state government schools. The subject is a modified version of the first year computer science syllabus of the two collaborating universities, taught in two modes: face-to-face classroom teaching in the targeted twelve secondary schools, and through online topics.

The pilot computer science subject is not teaching students how to use technology, because they already know this. The subject aims to extend their thinking to a level of academic rigor equivalent to senior secondary and pre-university standards. Hence, students will be able to create software and focus on specialized skills, such as complex analysis, sought by high tech employers, thereby exploring a multi-disciplinary approach to computer science and engineering. An introductory to the skills required at university level is expected to increase student confidence in the applied techniques.

Melbourne University graduates in both computer science and information communication technologies (ICT) courses have a 90% employment rate within six months of graduation. The high employment rate is also expected to enhance the program's rate of secondary schools transitioning to computer science and STEM courses at university.

The United States and the United Kingdom have had computer science programs in their secondary school curricula for twenty years and the subject is taken as part of the International Baccalaureate. However, Australia has lagged behind in the introduction of computing science and engineering subjects in secondary school. If the pilot proves to be successful, the subject will be included in the national schools secondary curriculum.

About the Author: Dr. Martina Nicolls has 25 years of experience as a humanitarian aid development evaluator and advisor for international governments on education, child labor, peace, science, community development, gender, and management. In addition to numerous academic articles, she is the author of The Sudan Curse; Kashmir on a Knife-Edge; and Bardot's Comet. For more information, please visit

http://sbpra.com/MartinaNicolls

Home School Science and the Science of Home Schooling

More and more parents each year are making the choice to take their kids out of the public school system and teaching them at home. In fact, although it's difficult to determine exactly how many parents have become teachers to their own children, it's estimated that the number in the United States is in the millions. And that means there are millions of home schoolers who must make a decision about the way they teach their kids throughout years of education - and it's not always an easy choice.

Here are several common problems many home school families face when it comes to teaching science and suggestions for getting past debilitating issues.

Limited Science Curriculum

Perhaps the first issue is the general lack of science teaching materials that go beyond the basics and beyond the elementary and middle school levels. When it comes to high school chemistry, for example, there are only a handful of textbook providers. Of the six or so most popular home school science courses, four of them are Christian. And a common theme in most of the available curricula is a lack of real science terms and methodology. So the first obstacle facing many home schoolers, particular secular families, is a lack of appropriate materials for varying age levels and beliefs.

The good news is that there are science textbooks available that teach real science to very young students, providing the necessary foundation for later, advanced learning. And there are materials that don't take a particular worldview, such as Creationism or Darwinism. If the subject matter covered is the most important aspect of teaching home school science, ensure that you opt for nothing less than quality materials that present all worldviews so your child can make an informed choice.

Becoming At Ease With the Material

Another problem facing many home school parents teaching science is an unfamiliarity - or even fear - of the subject matter. Most of them didn't do so well in science when they were in school and now find it quite difficult to teach a subject they don't understand.

Chances are they were taught science from textbooks that focused on specific concepts of geology or biology or chemistry. Those concepts weren't related to other subjects nor were they presented in a real, scientific manner. They probably didn't perform hands-on experimentation until high school. They might have learned diverse bits of information that were presented at an "appropriate" age level and didn't learn the proper terms for scientific techniques and concepts until the latter years of undergraduate learning. They might never have learned anything about physics because it was considered a higher level subject.

Fortunately, home school teaching materials aren't always of the type that you may remember when you went to school. Look specifically for curriculum that presents diverse information which is connected to other subjects.

Science is a Process of Discovery

Many home school teachers worry that their lack of understanding will cause them to quickly fall behind their children's aptitude.

When it comes to the science of home schooling, it's often best to use teaching methods that don't provide hard and fast answers. The beauty of home schooling is that you get to decide how and what your children learn. Why not encourage them to enjoy the process of learning and incite their curiosity? Find a curriculum that allows you and your child to explore possible answers to questions and problems together. Public schools often stifle curiosity; the home school environment should stimulate it.

Don't be intimidated by the thought of home schooling your children in subjects such as chemistry, physics, and biology. Find the right curriculum and use it to explore the vast topic of science as it relates to the world at large with your kids. When it comes to the science of teaching home school science, there are no hard and fast rules or answers other than the importance of building a solid learning foundation.

Real Science-4-Kids frames science in a way that encourages kids to examine opposing models. To find out more about our books, check out our website. You can see the full text of all our books online for free, so you can decide for yourself if our books are the back-to-school science books you want for your child.

Find out more about the worldview neutral Real Science 4 Kids curriculum created by Dr. Rebecca Keller, herself a homeschool mom, and other home school teaching resources on our Real Science blog.