Report on a Boston University Conference December 7-8, 2012 on 'How Can the History and Philosophy of Science Contribute to Contemporary U.S. Science Teaching?'

This is an editorial report on the outcomes of an international conference sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) (REESE-1205273) to the School of Education at Boston University and the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University for a conference titled: How Can the History and Philosophy of Science Contribute to Contemporary U.S. Science Teaching? The presentations of the conference speakers and the reports of the working groups are reviewed. Multiple themes emerged for K-16 education from the perspective of the history and philosophy of science. Key ones were that: students need to understand that central to science is argumentation, criticism, and analysis; students should be educated to appreciate science as part of our culture; students should be educated to be science literate; what is meant by the nature of science as discussed in much of the science education literature must be broadened to accommodate a science literacy that includes preparation for socioscientific issues; teaching for science literacy requires the development of new assessment tools; and, it is difficult to change what science teachers do in their classrooms. The principal conclusions drawn by the editors are that: to prepare students to be citizens in a participatory democracy, science education must be embedded in a liberal arts education; science teachers alone cannot be expected to prepare students to be scientifically literate; and, to educate students for scientific literacy will require a new curriculum that is coordinated across the humanities, history/social studies, and science classrooms.Comment: Conference funded by NSF grant REESE-1205273. 31 page

Bridging the Gap Between Schools and Non-Formal Science Institutions: Using New York City\u27s Non-Formal Resources to Teach Science

Effective science teaching and learning needs to take place in an environment in which the formal and non-formal worlds of science combine their expertise and resources. Science learning and ultimately, scientific literacy for all depends on the teaching that occurs both in schools and in non-formal settings. As we move towards the attainment of scientific literacy for all, it is becoming more imperative that we recognize and utilize the media, industry education programs, non-formal science centers, museums, and other science learning outlets as valuable segments of our nation’s science education infrastructure. This paper describes the context, rationale, and outline of the non-formal science education course developed at New York University under the auspices of New York Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (NYCETP) and the subsequently developed non-formal science education specialization

Improving Earth Science Data Literacy

The improvement of scientific literacy across the public can take on a myriad of forms and activities. The vast archives of NASAs Earth science data, as one example, reflect the agencys ongoing commitment to producing the highest quality data, services and tools intended for enabling the public to understand the complexity of Earth systems. The focus of this presentation is to explore and reveal the specific strategies the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project uses to support our very large and diverse user communities access to and understanding of these science data and services. The diversity of our subject matter, spanning the whole Earth science domain, is mirrored by our user communities which are equally as broad in their needs and abilities. ESDIS and the supporting Communication Team leverages an array of internet-based tools and communication strategies to both understand actual user needs and develop optimum pathways for improving our users knowledge and understanding of the data. We will focus our limited time on a few of the high-impact activities including Webinars, or video-based, on-line, interactive discussions and presentations that since their introduction in 2013 have become a staple for user-instructor interaction via the internet. Here we discuss the types of content we produce and many lessons learned on how best to use this medium for improving user literacy on the subject at hand. In addition, we include discussion of our approach to using various social media platforms and tools to bolster the awareness of our users for data and services that are likely of interest. The ESDIS project remains active in various social media campaigns where our particular blend of science, data and tools engages new users curious of how to get their science or application started using NASA-available data. We anticipate that these examples may prove to be novel in their application to improving science literacy and skill development among the public

Analisis Kemelekan Sains (Science Literacy) Dan Kemelekan Inkuiri (Inquiry Literacy) Guru Mata Pelajaran IPA SMP

: Science literacy and inquiry literacy are two important aspects of life skills needed by both teachers and students in this globalization era. This research has been undertaken to analyzed science and inquiry literacy of high school science teachers in West Nusa Tenggara Provence. The research subjects consist of 25 teachers who joined the master degree in the Magister Study Program of Educational Sciences in the University of Mataram during academic year 2012/2013. The research has been designed as one group pretest-postest experiment. The teacher students have been trained for 4 times of lecturer classes which equal to 400 minutes. The results of this research shown that the average scores of science literacy and inquiry literacy of those student teachers can be categorized as low level (M ≤ 50%). The average scores of science literacy increased only 0,7 % and the inquiry literacy score increased about 5% after the training. Due to the important of these aspects in the context of science, therefore it is strongly recommended to constructs systematic and continuous efforts to help improve the teachers professional competences includes the science literacy and inquiry literacy

Analysis of Students' Metacognition Level in Solving Scientific Literacy on the Topic of Static Fluid

The purpose of this study is to describe students' metacognition level in solving scientific literacy. This research use the descriptive method. The subject of this research is 99 students of grade XI in SMA Batik 2 Surakarta. Data collection methods used are test methods which its instruments based on an indicator of scientific literacy and metacognition ability. Data analysis techniques use quantitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that the achievement of scientific literacy in science as a body of knowledge, science as a way of thinking, science as a way of investigating, and science as an interaction between technology and society is still low at below 35%. This is due to 84% student occupy in low metacognition level that is 30% students in tacit use level, 54% students in aware use level, and only 16% students occupy in high metacognition level that is in strategic use level