| Abstract Detail
President's Symposia - Understanding the Crisis in Science Literacy: The BSA is Planting Science in the 21st Century Haufler, Christopher H. [1]. Understanding the Crisis in Science Literacy: The BSA is Planting Science in the 21st Century. Although most US citizens appreciate what science has done for them and how it has improved their lives, most also do not understand what science is or how it works. Ask a member of the US public to define science, and you are likely to hear that science is biology or chemistry or that science and technology are synonyms. In rare cases, you might be told that science involves experiments and hypothesis testing. The general public understands what science does, but does not understand how science is done. This symposium will provide an introduction to the crisis in science literacy in the US, and will develop recommendations for addressing this crisis and helping to resolve the issues involved. Moving past the intellectual concerns to the practical responses, presenters will describe short and long-term goals and will help scientists find ways to become part of the solutions to the problem of scientific illiteracy. Attention will be focused on the role that botany and botanists can play in helping new generations of students become scientifically savvy. We will train a spotlight on the Planting Science program, how it has developed, what it has accomplished, and its goals for the future. The presenters would like to have more scientists become part of the goal to grow a public that can distinguish science from not-science, that can appreciate and interpret scientific results, and that demands good scientific education for its children. Society needs science and scientists need an informed, thoughtful, and open-minded citizenry. Education holds the key to a public that demands future generations be scientifically informed and appreciative of how science can benefit their lives and their world.
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1 - University of Kansas, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, 1200 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045-7534, USA
Keywords:
none specified
Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: S10
Location: 182/I K Barber
Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Time: 1:30 PM
Number: S10001
Abstract ID:1100 |
