Science Labs Don't Measure Up

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: August 10, 2005 12:29:26 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Science Labs Don't Measure Up
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


Science Labs Don't Measure Up

Associated Press
Story location: <http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68469,00.html>

01:51 PM Aug. 08, 2005 PT

While sleek crime-scene TV shows have turned students on to forensic  
science, an investigation of today's high school laboratories shows  
that reality isn't so flattering.

The typical high school lab is an isolated add-on that lacks clear  
goals, does not engage students in discussion and fails to illustrate  
how scientific methods lead to knowledge, says a report by the  
National Research Council.

Most of the labs are of such poor quality that they don't follow  
basic principles of effective science teaching, says the council, a  
private adviser to government leaders on matters of science and  
engineering.

Contributing to the problem: teachers who aren't prepared to run  
labs, state exams that don't measure lab skills, wide disparities in  
the quality of equipment, and a simple lack of consensus over what  
"laboratory" means in the school environment. Even the way class time  
and space are organized in high schools may be limiting progress, the  
study found.

"It's on target," said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the  
National Science Teachers Association and a former high school  
physics teacher. "There's a lack of clarity about why we're doing  
things. And we can't measure how useful labs are unless we have that  
clarity."

At the high school and college levels, teachers are reporting higher  
interest in chemistry labs and forensics courses, driven largely by  
the popularity of television's CSI shows, in which investigators  
solve crimes by examining evidence with high-tech lab work.

In school, successful lab time is critical because it bolsters  
students' science literacy and, more broadly, can help inspire the  
next wave of scientists, the report's authors found.

The review amounts to the latest warning over the state of U.S.  
science. Business groups representing tens of millions of workers  
recently announced a campaign to prod the nation into improving its  
math and science education, wary of slipping U.S. competitiveness.

Criticisms of science labs are not new, but teachers say the report,  
coming with the imprimatur of the National Research Council, could  
give the matter a boost of urgency.

"For literally 150 years, laboratories have been the sacred cows of  
science education," said Susan Singer, chairwoman of the committee  
that wrote the report and professor of biology at Carleton College.  
"Nobody has stopped to question what the value added is, or how we  
should go about using labs to improve learning. We haven't asked the  
right questions."

Most students take science classes during three of the four high  
school years, participating in labs about once a week in biology,  
chemistry and physics courses.

During lab time, students are supposed to be mastering subject  
matter, developing scientific reasoning and understanding the  
complexity of empirical work, the report says. Students also should  
be developing teamwork abilities and cultivating an interest in science.

[snip]

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