What is Science Literacy?

Why do we need it?

Why Science? “Did you know?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNxgm3tdG0

How is Science different than other ways of knowing?

Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity.

What is Science Literacy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNxgm3tdG0

Science Literacy

A few facts:

US has been leading the world in innovation and technology…Wealth that it brings!

That is now in danger….

“R&D investment of US is now 8th in the world (4th among large economies)If Us willingness to support basic scientific research is undermined by policies that Fail to optimally use the fruits of that research to build the US economy, the US will in effect cede leadership to other countries.”

Report to the President by President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology“Tranformation and Opportunity for the Future of US Research Enterprise”Nov. 2012

Why do we need science literacy?

Why do we need it?

Benefits from scientific advances are everywhere in our lives…Longer, healthier lives

Ability to counter present and future threats to national securityAddress the challenges of difficult and complex problems of energy, food, and waterProtect the global environment into feasible paths forward.

Wealth…..85% of productivity growth in the first half of 20th century …Technical Advances

What are some of them?

Google…..Larry Page’s Ph.D. thesis at StanfordModern Imaging: MRIs….Weather satellites (weather predictions)Bar codes and recently QR codes recognizable y cell-phone camerasForensics with DNA?Wings of airplanes

Did we know we would need it at the time we funded it???NO!

Do we know what the future brings?

Making Choices– Ask questions, make observations, form

conclusions

– Applied in a more formal, quantitative way equals science

Why Science?

Enter the Anthropocene—Age of ManIt’s a new name for a new geologic epoch—one defined by our own massive impact on the planet. That mark will endure in the geologic record long after our cities have crumbled.

National Geographic (March 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

Did you know?

http://youtu.be/cL9Wu2kWwSY

Reality or Fiction? Good Science or Bad Science?

The Scientific Method

Observation

• History– Greek Philosophers

– Middle Ages

• Observation – no manipulation

• Experiment – manipulation

Plato and Aristotle with Students

Who studied at the time of the greeks and romans? Newton’s time?

Identifying Patterns and Regularities

• Measurement-better description

• Data-table or graph

• Patterns emerge

• Describe:– In words

– In equation form

– In symbols

Measurements of Falling Objects

Measurements Presented Visually in the Form of a Graph

Mathematics: The Language of Science

• Description– General

– Mathematical

• Mathematics– Equation

– Description

Many Ways to Describe things

One Way to Look at a Tree

National Geographic photo contest, 2011 (Honorable mention)

Hokkaido, Japan

How would you describe this scene?

Facts, Hypotheses, Laws, and Theories

• Fact– Confirmed observation

• Hypothesis– Educated guess

• Law– Description of nature

• Theory– Well-substantiated description

Theories and the Theory of

Evolution

Science: A Way of Knowing

Copyright © 2013, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Theories and the Theory of

Evolution

Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) discusses evolution and the meaning of theory. He says that “a theory is the greatest thing you can have “in science and goes on to say that the notion that a scientific theory is “just some idea” is not true. In science, theories are actually a set of well tested hypotheses many of which are in practical use today. Evolution in fact, is not a controversial theory at all and is widely accepted in the scientific community. Bill Nye then goes into the testability of scientific ideas and that for there to be scientific inquiry, an idea must be testable. The notion of a theory and the way Bill Nye discusses it is consistent with the definition of theory given in the textbook. Consider the word “theory” and what it means to you. How does this definition differ from the use of the word as it relates to scientific inquiry?

Copyright © 2013, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Theories and the Theory of

Evolution

Copyright © 2013, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved