The exploration of the wonderful world of living things should be a fascinating delight for students. But in so many other parts of the United States and the world, most students gain no sense of the excitement and power of science, because we adults have somehow let science education be reduced to the memorization of "science key terms." Students lose interest, or shall I say never gain interest in science at early ages. What can we do to recover from this tragic misuse of our young people's time and effort in school?
The answer to why the United States has let science education go badly astray is that it is much easier to test for science words than it is to test for science understanding. The new age of accountability in U.S. education has led to a massive increase in testing, and the individual states have generally selected simple, low-cost, multiple-choice tests that can be rapidly scored. Because these high-stakes tests drive teachers to teach to them, they are thereby defining what science education means in our schools. This is a great tragedy, inasmuch as it trivializes education for young people. For far too many of them, education appears to be a largely senseless initiation ritual that is imposed on them by adults.
For decades, reading and math have been the focus in the U.S. and students who go on to become science teachers still lack the spark for science in my opinion, because they did not have that expeience.
