Science Literacy and Searching the Internet

For over a decade, the National Science Education Standards have focused our attention on scientific literacy, a golden umbrella that encompasses not just reading, writing, and speaking but the attitudes, content knowledge, and process skills that make it possible to investigate natural phenomena and understand the results.

Source: http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/ostb2008.aspx; Accessed 2 Mar 2010.



In the same way basic literacy involves knowing how to use a dictionary or an index, science literacy involves knowing how to find information on science topics (health, botany, engineering, among others) that is worth reading. One can find so much information on the internet. Look at the variety of search engines:

• Altavista
  
• MSN MSN Germany MSN United Kingdom MSN Canada MSN Spain MSN Italy MSN France MSN Austria MSN Switzerland
  
• Anzwers
  
• Excite Excite UK
• Fireball
• Go
• Google Google Germany Google Azerbaijan Google United Kingdom Google Canada Google Spain Google Italy Google Japan Google Russia Google France Google Austria Google Switzerland Google Poland Google India
• Hotbot
• Infomak
• Infoseek
• Lycos
• National Directory
• Northernlight
• Voila
• Web Crawler
• Web Top
• Web Wombat
• WhatUSeek
• Walhello
• Alexa
• SearchEngine
• InfoTiger
• ScrubTheWeb
• WebSquash
• Admcity
• Unasked
• Teoma
• Ask Jeeves
• Find What
• Yahoo!

So, how do you know what search engine to use, or, does it matter?
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How can you tell valuable information from , "hype?"

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The jury is likely still out on these questions. I try different search engines and usually find what I want most rapidly on Google. I like to find original source material whatever source engine I use. How about you? What search engine(s) do you use? Why? What kinds of responses do you get? Post comments below, or, e-mail me a post and I will post it for readers and link it here. Happy researching!

Let's try some experimenting...

Let's look for science literacy and internet use on the different search engines... (look for original source material).

Google's response starts with:

Scholarly articles for science literacy and internet use
	eHealth literacy: essential skills for consumer health in … - Norman - Cited by 55 … literacy in science and engineering undergraduate … - Leckie - Cited by 81 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in Internet usage - Teo - Cited by 364

Let's try Altavista's top three:

AltaVista found 9,480,000 results

Science & Information Literacy on the Internet

sciencenetlinks.com

Science and Information Literacy on the Internet: Using the ACRL and Project 2061 Standards to Create a Science Web Page Evaluation Tool. ACRL Conference ...
www.istl.org/01-spring/conf1.html


Magnifico: Science, literacy, and the internet? " Spotlight
Science.net players, on the other hand, role-play as reporters and ... I agree that facilitation of internet use is very important (and sometimes also ...
spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/magnifico_science_literacy_and_the_internet


Science NetLinks: Resources for Teaching Science')" id="XPLSS_1110701665U1" src="chrome://searchshield/content/safe.gif" border="0" hspace="5">
Science NetLinks provides a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators to provide standards-based Internet experiences for students.
www.sciencenetlinks.com/index.php

Now, you can compare and contrast these two search engines, and try some others.

Unless you want students to look at the top posts, which are determined by how people who know how to post (o their work shows on the top of the list (...and, may not be the best choice...), you have to show better ways of searching. How? By, now here's a place to use Modern Math that often gets picked on (but is actually very useful to me): Use the Boolean Algebra learned in elementary school during the, "Modern Math," period: AND, OR, NOT... Some visionary(ies) saw to teach Boolean Algebra because he, she, or they could see the, "Computer Age," coming.

I had to put some good points in on, "Modern Math," because it has been so helpful to me and it seems to, "get a bad rap," much of the time. But, let me get back to the use of Boolean Algebra for searching the internet. (Math is so important to science literacy.)

In our example:

Science literacy and internet use

Science literacy AND internet use

Compare to:

Science literacy OR internet use

"science literacy" AND "internet use"

"science literacy" AND "internet use" AND (elementary OR K-6)

Try a few different ways of searching and you will get the idea. Are you finding differences?


Using this one:

"science literacy" AND "internet use" AND (elementary OR K-6)

brought up something on target, right away (But, so did the AltaVista search---which perhaps anticipated the search string a person meant to use...):

Magnifico: Science, literacy, and the internet?

Filed at 8:00 pm on March 5, 2007 in Games • 4 comments

Understanding how young people evaluate information on the internet.

In the recent session on games and learning, Jonathan Fanton reported that one goal of the Macarthur digital media and learning initiative is to better understand how young people evaluate information that they find on the internet. In our work on Science.net, an epistemic game in which middle schoolers spend several weeks role-playing as science journalists and writing several stories for an online newsmagazine, we have found that our reporters begin the game feeling comfortable with the internet. They tell us about using web sources for school reports, for chatting, for playing games with their friends. They even report knowing that anyone with a webpage can publish opinions for the world to see.

The majority of them, however, don?t have a strategy for assessing the reliability of the information that they find. Here?s one typical pre-game interview response: ?You never know, it?s the internet. If it?s like the first thing that pops up and then it looks pretty professional, then I?d use it…? READ MORE BY CLICKING HERE.

spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/magnifico_science_literacy_and_the_internet ; Accessed 2 Mar 2010.

The article mentions, "Jonathan Fanton." Where do we go from here? Use your Reach ReadingTM skills.

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Dr. J

Post scripts:

If you (and your school) are interested in participating in a study on Reach ReadingTM AND/OR on Critical Thinking AND/OR Science Literacy, please e-mail me: shipmanjs at g mail dot com. (I hope you smiled at the AND/OR references).

I think I will do a post on Tsunamis and the role of Boolean Algebra (AND Modern Math) in saving lives. I can tell much of this information first hand.

Please post comments or e-mail me.

Dr. J

(c) 2010 J S Shipman

An algebra tutorial on sets

http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/beg_algebra/beg_alg_tut2_sets.htm

Remember, math provides an important tool for science. Science literacy needs scientists that can read mathematical equations and use them to analyze data and solve global problems. While the above tutorial is geared to older students, I want to share my own experience as a 9 year old studying the same material. Perhaps your students would like to learn this math.

As an elementary school child, my classmates and I had set theory in 4th grade (age 9). Here, the tutorial is a preparation for graduate students. The fourth graders in my class understood set theory enough to do related set theory problems. That elementary school preparation was a big help in writing technical manuals for an engineering company that made wave and tide recorders that helped prevent deaths from tsunamis. When I studied this math as a nine year old in, "modern math," I didn't know it would save so many lives. When I hear people knocking, "Modern Math," I think they don't know what they mean. When I compare myself to others my age that did not have, "Modern Math," it sometimes appears they just don't keep up as well on computers and other new technologies. (That hypothesis might warrant a research study.)

Here is a commentary on set theory as relates to my own experience with, "Modern Math," and a thank you to my teachers. Perhaps we don't convert among bases regularly, nor use set theory every day, as we learned in Modern Math (Thank you, Mrs. Degnan!!!), but our brains understand the underlying concepts of how computers, and, wave and tide recorders, among many other devices of today and of the future.

I, for one, was greatly helped by, "Modern Math." I will add that I had to teach myself to do the base 10 multiplication tables faster. When I took, "Teaching Algebra," at Harvard, Dr. Boller could follow exactly how my brain "thought math." (Thank you, Dr. John Boller. You also taught me how all the different types of math are interrelated.) The graduate student that graded papers, however, struggled to follow the kind of thinking that, Mrs Degnan taught us in, "Modern Math." I think he would have benefited from such study. He was excellent in math, though, and also taught us how he did the math.

I am happy that the wave and tide recorders, produced by Sea Data Corporation (now defunct) saved lives, and glad that I was able to write the manual to using the instruments from only the schematic because of my "Modern Math" classes. Thank you Mrs. Degnan, you saved lives and taught us well!

You and your student can decide if this math is for your student at this point in time. But, as for me, I loved it as a child.

More mathematics information for your benefit
Advanced notice for pi day March, 14th: How will you celebrate?

Magic Math link: http://library.thinkquest.org/27103/eng/home.htm

"Web site "Set Theory" offers educational tools and resources to help you learn fundaments of mathematics. You can take full advantage of the "Internet style of learning." http://library.thinkquest.org/C0126820/start.html


María J. Frápolli, 1991, "Is Cantorian set theory an iterative conception of set?". Modern Logic, v. 1 n. 4, 1991, 302–318.