Is traditional Science Education serving everyone?
Science Education is extremely important to Singularity Scientific’s mission to deliver unique solutions to complex, cross disciplinary problems. After some 17 years of formal science education with concentrations in Chemistry, Biology, and Biochemistry, the founder of Singularity Scientific found himself in his first year of Graduate School equipped with high level memorization skills, which of course were largely useless in the application of the Scientific Method.
He had excelled at nearly all levels of formal Science Education, but was largely bereft of the critical thinking and problem solving skills absolutely required to successfully complete a science Ph.D. program and become a Scientist. Gaining these skills required hands on work, no fear of failure, and the ability to learn something from every failure. Why should one have to advance to the highest level of academic education to learn how to learn?
As he neared the end of his graduate training, it became clear that one cannot learn science by rote or by listening or watching someone else do it. One must actively participate in the Scientific Method to learn how to:
- Ask questions
- Propose and rank hypotheses
- Plan & carry out experiments
- Evaluate results
- Draw sensible conclusions
- Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
One must also be able to communicate these steps to peers and non-peers alike. This last point is extremely important because if one cannot explain what one has done, then for the most part in the larger scheme it was a waste of time, resources, and effort. It must also be done in groups and those groups must evaluate each others work and conclusions so that the larger group gains “consensus” on the concept or content at hand.
The amazing outcome of practicing this process is that the groups gain a deep understanding of concepts and content directly related to the questions/hypotheses. The way forward is clear…….discover content and concepts through practice of the Scientific Method. For more information on how to teach Science in the same way that Science is practiced, please follow the link for Student Centered Education.
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