Check out this short interview with Michio Kaku about how schools and standardized testing destroy the natural curiosity towards science that we are all born with. As the father of two blossoming scientists I care a lot about this.
"When we hit the danger years. The danger years of junior high school and high school. That's when it's (scientific curiosity) literally crushed out of us. 'Every little flower of curiosity' said Einstein, 'is crushed by society itself'."
Watch it all.
We need to reverse this trend! Let students DO science and not just rigged labs that the teacher knows the results. Let students apply scientific method to problems they care about and attempt solutions.
While watching the interview with Michio Kaku I began to think about myself in the danger years and I began to realize that I too had my curiosity squished right out of me. I want to thank you for opening my eyes to this problem. You see I thought that’s just how it was meant to be, science was fun and interesting in elementary school and then became a boring subject full of facts and memorization of things I simply wasn’t interested in, in middle and high school. Through your post and Kaku’s interview I’ve come to realize science doesn’t have to be that way and that we don’t have to lose our curiosity. It is my goal as a future educator to make science a more applied subject allowing my students to harness their curiosity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Windy,
ReplyDeleteI have watched school become boring for my own children with an overemphasis on English and Math out of context. I believe that science and social studies should be the content that students should learn English and Math skills in.
Hi Micheal, My name is Ardriana Marshall. I absolutely love the video of Michio Kaku. I have to agree with every word he says. My danger years made me feel like I absolutely hated science and I do believe that it came from my teachers pushing the unwanted information into my brain. I wonder if I had learned about things in Science that I was interested in, would I have still chosen English as my major?? This is a great idea to present to science teachers and to parents. It could make a difference. *Shrug* Maybe.
ReplyDeleteArdriana, I think this video applies to most subjects in school. Learner should be motivating for students not drudgery.
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