Revise methods of teaching science subjects
Apr 03, 2008
Science subjects continue to be unpopular in spite of the Government’s efforts to promote sciences. In the most recent A’level results, less than 20% of the candidates had studied sciences.
Robert Zavuga
Science subjects continue to be unpopular in spite of the Government’s efforts to promote sciences. In the most recent A’level results, less than 20% of the candidates had studied sciences.
There is increased flight of students from science subjects and a decline in the quality of science graduates in higher education. Yet the cars, computers, mobile phones and other technologies are ruling our lives — all a result of scientific skills.
Why can’t this fascination with products of science extend to the classrooms? Why does so much school science fail to appeal to students? The first culprit is the curriculum. Research shows that students complain about repetition. For example doing electric circuits to death, or studying photosynthesis so many times. To them, the curriculum seems full of “old stuff†with nothing new. Even their grandmothers studied the same things.
The emphasis on scientific facts, such as Newton’s Laws or the difference between mitosis and meiosis, form an essential backbone of science. Consequently many students get the feeling that science is just a pile of bricks far too difficult to make sense of and best left to the scientific elite.
Emphasis on facts should be reduced by covering less and uncovering more. We should be more concerned with how today’s scientists do science rather than those of yesteryears. Students need to get out of their classrooms to meet real present day scientists, real problems and modern equipment.
Science teachers should start with the outcomes not the axioms; with a puzzle. For instance, how are all substances in the world produced from just 92 elements? Or why do you resemble your parents? Engage your audience first and then fill in the detail once they are hooked. This is called problem-based learning.
We also have to acknowledge that we live in a humanistic culture; people are interested in other people. For example, Rosalind Franklin, a rival of Watson and Crick in the search of the DNA structure circulated false propaganda announcing the death of the DNA helix, after seeing one of Watson and Crick’s early and erroneous DNA models.
It is this kind of message that sticks and makes science education more interesting. Science teachers should engage their students rather than force feeding them with “dried fruits†of scientific knowledge.
That way, students pick interest in science studies
The writer is a medical student at Makerere University
Science subjects continue to be unpopular in spite of the Government’s efforts to promote sciences. In the most recent A’level results, less than 20% of the candidates had studied sciences.
There is increased flight of students from science subjects and a decline in the quality of science graduates in higher education. Yet the cars, computers, mobile phones and other technologies are ruling our lives — all a result of scientific skills.
Why can’t this fascination with products of science extend to the classrooms? Why does so much school science fail to appeal to students? The first culprit is the curriculum. Research shows that students complain about repetition. For example doing electric circuits to death, or studying photosynthesis so many times. To them, the curriculum seems full of “old stuff†with nothing new. Even their grandmothers studied the same things.
The emphasis on scientific facts, such as Newton’s Laws or the difference between mitosis and meiosis, form an essential backbone of science. Consequently many students get the feeling that science is just a pile of bricks far too difficult to make sense of and best left to the scientific elite.
Emphasis on facts should be reduced by covering less and uncovering more. We should be more concerned with how today’s scientists do science rather than those of yesteryears. Students need to get out of their classrooms to meet real present day scientists, real problems and modern equipment.
Science teachers should start with the outcomes not the axioms; with a puzzle. For instance, how are all substances in the world produced from just 92 elements? Or why do you resemble your parents? Engage your audience first and then fill in the detail once they are hooked. This is called problem-based learning.
We also have to acknowledge that we live in a humanistic culture; people are interested in other people. For example, Rosalind Franklin, a rival of Watson and Crick in the search of the DNA structure circulated false propaganda announcing the death of the DNA helix, after seeing one of Watson and Crick’s early and erroneous DNA models.
It is this kind of message that sticks and makes science education more interesting. Science teachers should engage their students rather than force feeding them with “dried fruits†of scientific knowledge.
That way, students pick interest in science studies
The writer is a medical student at Makerere University