Science Crisis? Add excitement.

Back in high school I was lucky enough to have a teacher named Mr. Beck.  He would send ball bearings sailing through the air, blow things up, and make students' hair stand on end.   And he'd get you involved.

"Dr. Van Amburg'...he would say, 'could you come to the front of the class to assist in this lesson?"

Science was cool.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama, as have all recent national leaders, underscored the great and pressing need for science achievement and competency in a competitive world.

The same day, a huge national assessment of our students' grasp of science showed only 30% of 8th graders, and 21 % of 12th graders rated as proficient.  And only 2% of 8th graders, and 1% of 12th graders qualified as advanced.

What's going on?

Clearly we aren't getting science across in a way that will allow us to, as President Obama says, "win the future." Math and science drive technological innovation, and innovation creates the new industries of the future.  What we don't want, is for those industries to be created, and dominated, by our competitors overseas.

Science has an image problem.

There's no doubt that young people love what science does.  This is embodied the universal appeal of hand-held wonders like  iPad and iPod, their love affair with smart phones, and the explosion of Facebook and all of the rest.  And, what 8th grader doesn't like to send a rocket into the air, or blow something up?  That's science too.

Problem is, students say they don't like to do science at school.   They don't see it as fun, or relevant.  They think it's nerdy.

So it seems to me, this begs the question, "how do we get kids excited about science, and take it from nerdy to coolness?"

One answer, and the one we advocate here at Earth Explore, is to make it a tactile experience.  Make it hands on, and therefore real.

When students are doing science, in the field, they don't think it's nerdy.  They know it's fun, and active, and exciting, and relevant.

While EE programs put kids in beautiful and exciting places with field experts, the same thing can be done in the classroom.  But we have to break the rules.  We have to do more of the learning hands-on.  Blow things up.  Make them boil over.  Make a student's hair stand up with static charge.  And send a rocket into the air. When the weather is good, take a walk in the woods and make the sky, the trees, the soil, and the air part of the lesson plan.

At Earth Explore, we've found that it works.  Science interest grows.  Science becomes the cool thing to do, and not the nerdy subject to be avoided.