A pathway to adult science literacy?

Abstract

Adult science illiteracy is widespread. This is concerning for astrobiology, or indeed any other area of science in the communication of science to public audiences. Where and how does this scientific illiteracy arise in the journey to adulthood? Two astrobiology education projects have hinted that science illiteracy may begin in high school. This relationship between high school science education and the public understanding of science is poorly understood. Do adults forget their science education, or did they never grasp it in the first place? A 2003 science education project raised these questions when 24 16-year-olds from 10 Sydney high schools were brought into contact with real science. The unexpected results suggested that even good high school science students have a poor understanding of how science is really undertaken in the field and in the laboratory. This concept is being further tested in a new high school science education project, aimed at the same age group, using authentic astrobiology cutting-edge data, NASA Learning Technologies tools, a purpose-built research Information and Communication Technology-aided learning facility and a collaboration that spans three continents. In addition, a first year university class will be tested for evidence of science illiteracy immediately after high school among non-science oriented but well-educated students.


Introduction

It is generally accepted that the majority of adult public audiences are scientifically illiterate. Regular US and European surveys [1], [2] indicate public audiences are ill-equipped to either integrate science content into their worldview or to understand what constitutes science [3], [4]. Why does adult science illiteracy remain ubiquitous in spite of several decades of improvements to science communication and science education aimed at increasing science literacy? Two experiences of the authors hint of a possible new research avenue and that the best pathway to exploring it might be astrobiology because of its inherent multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary nature.
This first came to light in 2003 after an experience involving 24–16-year-old students from 10 Sydney high schools in a NASA and Macquarie University astrobiology research expedition. It was surprising that most of the 24 students, although mostly either competing for a place or being selected by their teacher, appeared to lack even a broad insight into the actual processes of science as well as the often interconnected nature of science. This seems basic to adult science literacy, but was apparently missing among these 24 high school students who were considered to be good at science [5].
The reaction of the students to their learning experience on the project was encouraging. Students provided a written and verbal evaluation of their experience that indicated they had gained a better picture of how science was undertaken as a result of the experience. Two-thirds of the group said they were influenced or reinforced in their science subject choices for Year (Grade) 11 and two changed their minds about ending their science education in Year (Grade) 10, as is possible in Australia.
These were results we were not looking for—rather aiming to provide an opportunity for high school students to work with scientists in an interesting mission involving NASA, in which Macquarie University was participating, and to test the potential of a collaboration between two research centres at Macquarie University. It prompted us to consider undertaking a larger high school science project to open a similar science learning experience to potentially hundreds of, thousands of students around the world. Oliver is also exploring the hypothesis that, for whatever reason, adult science illiteracy may begin in high school, underpinning the project with research.¹
The new astrobiology-related Pilbara education project involves 87 students from seven high schools. Early results suggest similarities to our findings with the 2003 project, with 25 of the 87 students saying that they will now undertake some science subjects at university or a full science degree.²
While a follow-up study is required to see if that follows through, another impact is seen in some student responses to the question ‘what does it mean to study something scientifically?’ between the entry and exit surveys. Most of the 87 students are top science class students from across a broad socio-economic demographic. Much analysis is required yet to determine whether their understanding of how science is undertaken is any better or any worse than the same surveys³ taken at approximately the same time in the seven high schools among around 400 students.
In addition to the surveys, students were asked to evaluate NASA Learning Technologies tools, including a Virtual Field Trip tool currently under development jointly between NASA and Macquarie University with the tool intended to be open source and freely available to all. These evaluations and some more early results from the entry and exit surveys are reported later in this paper. (1)

(1)

C.A. Oliver, J. Fergusson,
Astrobiology: A pathway to adult science literacy?,
Acta Astronautica,
Volume 61, Issues 7–8,
2007,
Pages 716-723,
ISSN 0094-5765,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2006.12.010.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576507000057)