Science is a foundation stone of a good curriculum and as Linus Pauling said, “Every aspect of the world today – even politics and international relations – is affected by chemistry.”
Including science education in the secondary curriculum is an essential ingredient in the development of a student’s critical thinking, creativity, independence, and understanding of the world around them. The sciences allow for students to apply past knowledge to solve new problems, a skill not developed in all disciplines. In particular, chemistry allows students to delve deeper into their interpretation of the world and generate their own conclusions. Incorporating science education through thought experiments, laboratory observations, and explanations of different concepts, will give students the tools to apply these skills in both their social lives and professional goals.
Science education must be included in all secondary curriculum as it provides the foundation for society to continue to evolve through both the understanding of the world and technological advancement. Science knits together investigation and prior knowledge by using both process and product. The scientific process incorporates the broad procedure of how new ideas are discovered and supported through inquiry while the scientific product supplies known facts that can be used in deductive reasoning. A student must learn to use factual information to create observations about a topic. This process fosters both critical thinking and creativity in the student. The nature of science is to promote questioning within in students about given rules. The goal is to help fashion adults who question society and want to make their own judgements. Nothing is ever proven and they must determine if their observations support or disprove a given theory or hypothesis.
All other science disciplines involve background knowledge of chemistry. Chemistry is the understanding of the natural world through the characterization of different elements. Biologists use chemistry to understand subjects like metabolic pathways or synaptic communication. Physicists use chemistry as a part of their curriculum in understanding kinetics or rate laws. Chemistry ties together subtopics into an overarching theme.
Science teachers should build a creative and independent environment for their students using an organized plan to reach a set of predetermined objectives. Each lesson should be constructed into smaller clusters comprised of similar material to help students understand their end of year goals. As the school year continues, harder more complex material should be taught that builds off of key concepts learned at the beginning of the year. An example would be learning about the properties of the periodic table at the start of the academic year and then being able to apply that to understanding chemical bonds.
Science teachers should use both discovery learning and clusters in creating their lesson plans. Discovery learning allows students to inquire and determine their own conclusions on a problem. This helps spark critical thinking because the student must reason through the experiment in their own way. The combination of these techniques requires teacher guidance to make sure that students are determining the relative importance of each lesson. This technique is effective by giving personal context to create meaningful learning.
Clusters are important for breaking up course material into lessons with an overarching theme and similar content. This allows the student to effectively learn by grouping together subjects to build off one another. Clusters in science are important for understanding the world because it groups different topics together and shows how they are related.
Incorporating a strong science program in high school benefits both students and society. Scientists and engineers pave the way for society’s advancement in technology, health, and safety. Beginning subject specific content in high school allows students to begin applying these concepts to their everyday lives. Additionally, learning the process of science teaches students how to break down a goal into smaller more tangible steps. Science does this by incorporating the scientific method and by breaking larger units into smaller concepts. This is fundamental in developing a child’s critical thinking skills and independence.
Science instruction benefits society by producing engineers, scientists, doctors, and nurses. It prepares students to enter society in a specialized field. Teaching science also benefits society by informing students about the world around them. It allows students to make their own decisions on global warming, GMOs, etc. based off of information they gather. This allows future voters to gather enough information to cast a ballot they believe in.
The purpose of science education is to create a better society compromised of individuals educated in a meaningful way. Science education helps unlock the universe for students by exposing them to the fundamentals of nature and why things occur in the natural world. Having this knowledge and gaining the skills of deductive reasoning and critical thinking, students can continue to question the society and innovate ways to change it since “…an industrial discovery rarely produces all its fruit in the hands of its first inventor. ~ Louis Pasteur” Most importantly, chemistry education should be a key component of science instruction as it bridges contextual gaps between the sciences.
Allyson Grasso 