Science Education in America

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Science Educationin America
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John and Jackie Knill of North Vancouver
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Wake Up Call!

• Science Education in America

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Among 24-year-olds in 2001Percent of BS/BA
Degrees that are engineers

•   BS/BA BS
• United States 1,253.1 59.5 5
• China 567.9 219.6 39
• South Korea 209.7 56.5 27
• Taiwan 117.4 26.6 23
• Japan 542.3 104.5 19

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Engineering Science Degrees as a of all
Bachelor Degrees

• Singapore 68 Germany 31
• China 58 U.K. 28
• S. Korea 36 Sweden 24
• Taiwan 34 Belgium 22
• USA 17

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Ph.D. in physical science and engineering

• US citizens receiving Ph.Ds in 1987 4,700
• Asians 5,600
• US citizens receiving Ph.Ds in 2001 4,400

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Asians receiving Ph.Ds in 2001

• 24,900

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• Also declining,
• Asians getting Ph. Ds in US
• 25 percent fewer Asians got such degrees at U.S,
  universities in 2001 than in 1996
• --Robert J. Herbold, Presidents Council of
  Advisors on Science and Technology

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• 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

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• 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, Presidents Council of
  Advisors on Science and Technology
• It already has.

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• 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.

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• 4th Grade 8th Grade 12th Grade
• Science Math Science Math
  Science Math
• Advanced 4 3 4 5
  2 2
• Proficient 26 23 28 22
  16 14
• Partial
• Proficiency 37 43 29 38 34
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• Results of International Math and Science Study
  (2000).
• Relative Rank (percentile) U.S student
  achievement
• Math Science
• 4th Grade 54 88
• 8th Grade 32 59
• 12th Grade 10 24
• 12th Grade Advanced
• Math Physics 6 0

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• 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).
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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, Presidents Council of
  Advisors on Science and Technology

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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, Presidents Council of
  Advisors on Science and Technology

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• 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?

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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.

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The United States is now 49th in the world in
literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004)
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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.

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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, Presidents Council of
  Advisors on Science and Technology

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• 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)

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• 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)
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Scopes trial 1925
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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."

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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)

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• 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).

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• 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.

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• What did they find?
• A startling number of Americans cannot answer
  even basic scientific questions
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• More than half of all American adults (53) do
  not know
• that the Earth goes around the Sun once a year.
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• 42 answer incorrectly when asked if the earliest
  humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs.
•  

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Geography

• The National GeographicRoper 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.

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• The Pacific Ocean's location was a mystery to 29
  percent
• 58 percent could not find Japan
• 65 percent France
• 69 percent United Kingdom

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About 11 percent of young citizens of the U.S.
couldn't locate the U.S. on a map.
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We found one of them.
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We have a Tsunami coming but it doesnt look
like this
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It looks like this
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If we dont heed the wake up call
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Its going to be Taps, for America
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The End
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Dars Bits
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God returns Bride
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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."

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Why is the U.S. military staring at goats?
Baaaaaa
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• 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.

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Who are you staring at?
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Some of the characters involved seem
well-meaning enough, such as the hapless General
Stubblebine, who is "confounded by his continual
failure to walk through his wall.
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A billboard you wont see
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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."
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Majority Leader Delay smoking one of Cuba's
besta Hoyo de Monterrey double corona (July 28,
2003).
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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.
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"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."
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Jesus found in tree
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