We are science-ing wrong
Science educators are stuck in a rut and the future of science depends on us getting out of it. Science curriculum at the secondary level of school can be very defined. Students take biology, chemistry, physics, and maybe an elective. Rinse, repeat for every student. Sure, there are various iterations of this process, some with advanced placement thrown in or a little dual enrollment sprinkled throughout. Some families venture off this path in to homeschool, but the same pattern tends to develop, students take Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. The reason to this rhyme is often students are planning on post-secondary education and these courses are required for admission to their college or program of choice. As college attendance drops, we’ve maintained the college pathway and bored our kids out of their own education.
The common phrase seen in the homeschooling market is “Don’t make your homeschool a copy of the brick and mortar school. Do what works for your family.” Unfortunately, this has not translated to science curriculum. Sure, you’ve got a variety of teaching methods, nature based, charlotte mason based, etc. but they are all based on the Biology, Chemistry, Physics wheel and sequence. We are placing our students back in the box of restrictive curriculum patterns. What is the result? Students are bored, building cell organelles out of household items and pasting together elements into an interactive periodic table.
Science has moved by leaps and bounds in the past 20 years, as has medicine and technology. Instead, our science curriculum stands firmly in previous years, repackaging material that students will repetitively hear all the way up to their college years (Yes, we cover organelles in college BIO 150). We are missing out on the most formative and creative years of a student’s life by not providing students with innovative and updated science curriculum. How many of today’s problems can be solved with our youths out of the box thinking and creativity? These are crucial years that we are missing while students make some slime and play with some non-Newtonian fluid.
We owe it to our kids to move beyond repackaging basic science curriculum and start developing innovative curriculum that inspires our students in any interest they have. We owe it to our kids to stop waiting until junior or senior year to give students the fun courses, like biotechnology or forensics. We owe it to our kids to stop putting barriers of boring topics they’ve heard in 10 iterations before they can do the applications of their science education.
As a science professor, homeschool mom and small business owner, I’ve heard countless students say they hate or dread science. We, as the future of science education, should be combatting this boredom and regurgitated concepts by adding biotechnology concepts and techniques to our curriculum. We should be focused on catering science to our students. Science should be a flourishing field of topics that cater to every student. Artists should have access to the anatomy of the human body and chemistry behind they paints they will paint with. Students interested in coding should have access to courses with the engineering behind chips and the physics behind the transmission of information.
What is the answer? The answer is for curriculum development to start developing the fun stuff. Biotech for middle schoolers, forensic classes for high school freshman. We have been holding science topics hostage until students pay the prerequisite courses. More traditional instructors may insist that this is necessary, we can’t skip past the tenants of science until students are ready and fully understand the foundational basics. With my years of experience in teaching middle school through graduate level courses, I’ve been able to incorporate foundational basics into the fun classes that students want to take. We can bring these topics down to their educational level, giving them an understanding and giving them the application. We’ve dangled the interesting carrot for so long that students have lost interest. Let them have the carrot at younger ages, in small chunks.
Our current world is full of new challenges. These challenges can only be fixed by inspring new solutions with cutting edge science. Cutting edge science that students don’t get to see until they are almost legal adults. As science moves towards biological answers, we must move with this trend and encourage all students to join us, not just our highest performing seniors.
What can you do to bring your science curriculum to this century?
Look for a science curriculum that incorporates biotechnology and more recent techniques such as CRISPR into their material.
Biotechnology equipment can be expensive, but there are do it yourself alternatives such as building your own electrophoresis rig or kits that have genetically engineered bacteria that are available.
Finding local opportunities at colleges, non-profits, or science incubators to expose kids to science concepts earlier.
Finding programs that teach you or the adults in your life biotechnology. We all can use some catch up education as the world changes.
Look for a science curriculum that caters to your student’s needs, not the needs of a career path your student will never take.
Look for science mentors near you or in your circle who can give advice and direction. A scientist is ALWAYS happy to talk about their craft and may have connections necessary to help your student along the way.
We no longer need to gatekeep science and the techniques that have changed the world of science and medicine as we know it. All students deserve access to these techniques, and we owe it to the next generation to step off the beaten path and nurture those drives and passions that all students possess. Step away from the slime, sidle past the leaf drawing and mind numbing descriptions of every phyla and class that ever existed, and join me in offering a world of cutting edge science curriculum to our very deserving students.
