Do we still teach Science in our High Schools?

not2sharp

not2sharp

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This thread was prompted by a conversation I recently had with my nephew. I asked him if he was doing anything interesting in school and he said that he was currently taking biology, but that the class was not allowed access to microscopes, or dissecting/dissecting kits, since they were considered too much of a hazard. I asked about chemistry and he said that the same applied there. To me a traditional high school science program, with an introduction to biology, physics and chemestry labs, was a key step in familiarizing and encouraging students into a wide range of fields. Not only did it introduce some of the basic tools, but it served as practical introduction to well reasoned problem solving, which is applicable to any field. While, admittedly there is a hazard in anything we do, the benefits here far outweight the minor risks involved (the report linked below suggest that a h.s. lab is about 10x more hazardous than an industrial setting, and that teacher training and class size and design are the primary problems).

I would like to hear from the rest of you, especially those younger members who are either currently in High School, or have recently graduated, to see if you, like my nephew have had to go through science without the benefit of labs and labwork.

Link:
http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~scied/Safety/Safety TxST Rev 3- 25a.htm

n2s
 
Well, I've been out over a decade, but my nephew just graduated last year. He said it was similar for him, not much hands-on work. I went to a public school, and I actually got to do gel electrophoresis! That was expensive equipment. I got lucky, I had a science teacher that loved science and teaching.


-Xander
 
I was homeschooled. Graduated in 09. Dissected everything we could afford, and loved it! Got to college and had the same problem as your nephew. Anything hands on was considered dangerous and a liability. Benefits of a litigious society I guess:D
 
I don't know about high school, I've been out too long, but my nephew who is in third grade isn't allowed to bring his own pencils to school. They are only allowed to use school provided pencils. I'm still trying to figure out the logic on that one. But the same school system believes it's fine to assign so much homework to an eight year old that his backpack weighs (and I did weigh it) over 20lbs. Carting around 40% or so of your body weight can not be good for someone so young. This is a small town where there is less than a 800 students in k-12. I'd hate to see the rules and practices of bigger schools.
 
I went to high school over 30 years ago and we didn't do much hands-on work in science either. The school had lots of labs and I glimpsed lots of equipment in the storage rooms, but it was never used for anything. I think my instructors were all qualified but maybe they weren't motivated or there was some limitation imposed by school management.

I went to college at one of the biggest colleges in the country and we didn't do much hands-on stuff there either.
 
Instructors qualified ? NO ! Read " The dumbing Down Of America " There was a time when the powers that be thought that you didn't need a science degree to teach science you only needed to know how to teach science !! Gone then were the teachers who had a real in depth knowledge of science and those who had a real love of science and passed that love to their students.
When I was in college in the early '60s the ranking of the SAT scores was an indicator .The lower scoring students went into PE or similar majors. Today ? the lower scoring students become teachers !
This has become a terrible thing for the future of this country. As an engineer from the old days I'm apalled at the lack of even the simplest knowledge of science needed for every day living.
 
I just graduated last year. IMO, they are strict about letting students use the equipment because there are a certain few who ruin it for everyone. My school thought it would be a good idea to wait until you were a junior or a senior until they let you use their equipment. Not only that, it wasn't in biology or chemistry. You had to sign up for a different class, I took anatomy and physiology, and biotechnology. That is where I got to do some hands on learning. There we got to pretend we were at a crime scene and match up DNA from different suspects, dissect a pig fetus, and even make cheese. I never liked high school, but these were my favorite classes for sure.
 
Mete, you are right about teachers. I had teachers in school that got fired for being pereverts and drunk in class. I also had substitutes teach for entire school years because they wouldn't hire someone new to fill another teacher's spot. There were teachers that smoked pot with kids after school, even sold them drugs. I always tell myself I grew up in the wrong generation. I wish I was born around the time of my grandparents. The greatest genereation of people for sure. They made it through a World war and the greatest depression in our history.
 
I'm in high school now, and I can totally relate. Some classes are better( like anatomy) but the generals are terrible about hands on experience. I feel like almost every teacher is just "teaching to the test". There is so little opportunity for advancement because the teachers are too busy dragging the lazy kids along that they don't have any time to actually teach the kids who want to learn. If America wants to stay on top, while places like china and India are rapidly catching up, we need to make leaders, not try to drag people (who don't care if they succeed) up to a standard.
 
We will never beat China in Schooling. We simply do not love our own money as much as they do.
 
My highschool science classes were wonderful and very hands-on.

Dangerous? Sometimes yes. Chemistry was probably our most dangerous class, but Mr. Johnson explained the dangers and prepared us for them. We learned to understand and to manage risk. We learned that acid splashed in your eye can blind you... so try not to splash the acid and, for God's sake, wear gloves and goggles.

I remember diluting concentrated hydrochloric and sulfuric acids because that's what you started with if an experiment needed a diluted acid. I remember: do the experiment like you oughter, add the acid to the water.

I remember dissolving Sodium Hydroxide pellets in water to make base solutions too. Dangerous stuff all of it.

And I remember making Ethyl Pelargonate from scratch, understanding how we did it and why it worked... and, most importantly, I remember just how that accomplishment felt. We read about it before hand, of course. But reading about it didn't inspire the feeling -- or the aroma -- that doing it did.

Much of science is hands-on. And it's the hands-on stuff that most-excites young people. If the impression they get of science in school is that it's just books and lectures, then we are not going to inspire new scientists and engineers at all.
 
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Wow American schooling sucks up north we have a decent amount of hands on from dissecting mice to 'playing' around with acids but that is for science for the English and social departments we have really crappy teachers for example in social part of our curiculem is to learn about Canadian history so we spend five years learning that and yet don't even learn about important historical events instead we learn how badly we wronged the natives and how nowadays everyone is happy and nationalism is good. What bullshit
 
Not only did we get to do science and chemistry experiments, in vo-ag class we went to local farms and castrated pigs and young bulls. This included chasing them down, tackling them, controling them, each student getting a shot at using the scapel and applying screwworm medicine to the holes. Wonder what the PTB would say about that today?
 
I graduated from high school in 1964, so can't really comment on the current state of affairs. Being employed at a higher-education facility for the last 30, I can testify that much of the faculty complains constantly about the number of remedial classes in basic science that incoming freshmen must needs take... They are simply not prepared.

Whether through lack of funds, avoidance of politically-sensitive subjects, or other factors, I don't know, but this does seem to be the case to a large extent.
 
We did hands on stuff but it was lame. Just a matter of following directions, no problem solving or learning. Same thing in college. Complete snooze.
Didn't really affect the education level though. Despite not learning anything in the lab I won regional and went to state level competition in biological sciences (where as a highschool freshman I lost horribly to seniors).

I graduated 10 years ago... gee that feels strange to say lol.
 
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It is hard to believe that there was once a time when science was central to our culture.

n2s
 
Science education is sadly lacking in this country, particularly at the high school level. Some of it comes from science denialism on both sides of the political aisle and some of it from litigious attitudes. Colleges consistently say that incoming freshman are basically having to be taught basic, high school level science before they can begin more serious coursework.
 
I graduated high school in 2010.

In bio class I dissected a clam, a starfish, and a crayfish. I used microscopes and all that jazz. In chem class we did simple electrolysis reactions, acid-base titrations, etc. My brother is a senior this year, as far as I know, all that stuff is still there. Real screwy that they won't let your nephew do the fun stuff anymore.

Gollnick said:
Much of science is hands-on. And it's the hands-on stuff that most-excites young people. If the impression they get of science in school is that it's just books and lectures, then we are not going to inspire new scientists and engineers at all.
Click to expand...

Gollnick is dead on right here.
 
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