Sunday, March 30, 2008

Welcome to Science!

Science is such an important part of life. Today, many young students don't like science, and, yet, they use science every day. Nation building requires people that think scientifically and analytically. It requires people skilled in deep thinking. The skills are commonly known as higher order thinking skills or HOT skills.

Much of education has been about copying and memorizing and spewing back information, according to many. Today, however, much learning is hands on. Science is a wonderful example of hands on learning requiring HOT skills.

Forget about education for the moment and take the case of scientists, themselves: A scientist builds on history of science and must know "facts" discovered earlier, however, he or she then designs and experiment, does the experiment, collects data, analyzes the pure data, then reflects on that data in context of previously known "facts" and the society of the day. The scientists reflection is in the discussion and conclusions of a laboratory report. The data are kept separately, in the results part of a laboratory report. In this way, data can always be available for re-evaluation in context of newer eras and additionally known "facts" in the future.

So, welcome to science. Hands on, data accumulation, evaluation and analysis and then: CREATIVITY. How can science be utilized to solve the world's problems, or, alleviate distress. How can science make life more fun and enjoyable.

Now, let's return to students. How can a group of students that are not in love with science develop enough of a scientific view of the world that they create manufacturing centers, reduce global warming, feed the hungry, cure and prevent illness, prevent war and solve other challenges? Well, they, and we (for we are all students), can.

Let's have more botany, more chemistry, more biotechnology, more micro, more medicine... And, let's have more of the supporting areas: the arts, math, history, social science, politics, among others...Let's have all of these in integrated looks at science. And, science-types, too, will gain from these other fields.

For example, in Charles Dickins', A Christmas Carol, can you think of science. In Wikipedia, you can find this link and go from there to find other resources linking science research and the poverty found in life: "wiki" (Now, some people won't use Wikipedia, but, I find it is a good starting point, especially if you use your own HOT skills to evaluate the information.)

In this way, the non-scientists will feel welcome in science and humanity can progress at it's best because we will all be well rounded enough to build more understanding and achieve greatness. People will understand why we fund research and scientists will learn how science is integrated in the minds of other people.

--This site under development. Please check back later. Dr. J----------------

(c) 2008 J S Shipman