{"id":63851,"date":"2022-07-13T01:25:40","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T05:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=63851"},"modified":"2022-07-13T18:32:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T22:32:53","slug":"improving-science-literacy-means-changing-science-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/improving-science-literacy-means-changing-science-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving science literacy means changing science education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

To graduate with a science major, college students must complete between 40 and 60 credit hours of science coursework. That means spending around 2,500 hours in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career.<\/p>\n

However, research has shown that despite all that effort, most college science courses give students\u00a0only a fragmented understanding<\/a>\u00a0of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching method reinforces\u00a0memorization of isolated facts<\/a>, proceeding from one textbook chapter to the next without necessarily making connections between them, instead of\u00a0learning how to use the information<\/a>\u00a0and connect those facts meaningfully.<\/p>\n

The ability to make these connections is important beyond the classroom as well, because it\u2019s the basis of\u00a0science literacy<\/a>: the ability to use scientific knowledge to accurately evaluate information and make decisions based on evidence.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0a chemistry education researcher<\/a>, I have been working since 2019 with my colleague\u00a0Sonia Underwood<\/a>\u00a0to learn more about how chemistry students integrate and apply their knowledge to other scientific disciplines.<\/p>\n

In our most recent study, we investigated how well college students could use their chemistry knowledge to explain real-world biological phenomena. We did this by having them do activities designed to\u00a0make those cross-disciplinary connections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We found that even though most of the students had not been given similar opportunities that would prepare them to make those links, activities like these can help \u2013 if they are made part of the curriculum.<\/p>\n

Three-dimensional learning<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A large body of research shows that traditional science education, for both science majors and non-majors,\u00a0doesn\u2019t do a good job of teaching science<\/a>\u00a0students\u00a0how to apply their scientific knowledge<\/a>\u00a0and explain things that they may not have learned about directly.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we developed a series of cross-disciplinary activities guided by a framework called \u201cthree-dimensional learning<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, three-dimensional learning, known as 3DL, emphasizes that the teaching, learning and assessing of college students should involve the use of fundamental ideas within a discipline. It should also involve\u00a0tools and rules<\/a>\u00a0that support students in making connections within and between disciplines. Finally, it should engage students in the use of their knowledge. The framework was developed on the basis of\u00a0how people learn<\/a>\u00a0as a way to help all students gain a deep understanding of science.<\/p>\n

We did this in collaboration with\u00a0Rebecca L. Matz<\/a>, an expert in science, technology, engineering and math education. Then we took these activities to the classroom.<\/p>\n

Making scientific connections<\/strong><\/h4>\n

To begin, we interviewed 28 first-year college students majoring in the sciences or engineering. All were enrolled in both introductory chemistry and biology courses. We asked them to identify connections between the content of these courses and what they believed to be the\u00a0take-home messages<\/a>\u00a0from each course.<\/p>\n

The students responded with extensive lists of topics, concepts and skills that they\u2019d learned in class. Some, but not all, correctly identified the core ideas of each science. They understood that their chemistry knowledge was essential to their understanding of biology, but not that the reverse might be true as well.<\/p>\n

For example, students talked about how their knowledge gained in their chemistry course regarding interactions \u2013 that is, attractive and repulsive forces \u2013 was important to understand how and why the chemical species that make up DNA come together.<\/p>\n

For their biology course, on the other hand, the core idea that the students spoke of most was the structure-function relationship \u2013 how the shape of the chemical and biological species determine their job.<\/p>\n

Next, a set of cross-disciplinary activities were designed to guide students in the use of chemistry core ideas and knowledge to help explain real-world biological phenomena.<\/p>\n

The students reviewed a core chemistry idea and used that knowledge to explain a familiar chemistry scenario. Next, they applied it to explaining a biological scenario.<\/p>\n

One activity explored the\u00a0the impacts of ocean acidification on sea shells<\/a>. Here, the students were asked to use basic chemistry ideas to explain how increasing levels of carbon dioxide in seawater are affecting shell-building marine animals such as corals, clams and oysters.<\/p>\n

Other activities asked the students to apply chemistry knowledge to explaining osmosis \u2013 how water\u00a0transfers in and out of cells<\/a>\u00a0in the human body \u2013 or\u00a0how temperature can alter the stability of human DNA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall, the students felt confident in their chemistry knowledge and could easily explain the chemistry scenarios. They had a harder time applying the same chemistry knowledge to explaining the biological scenarios.<\/p>\n

In the ocean acidification activity, the majority of the students were able to accurately predict how an increase in carbon dioxide affects the acidic levels of the ocean. However, they weren\u2019t always able to explain how these changes affect marine life by hampering the formation of shells.<\/p>\n

These findings highlight that a big gap remains between what students learn in their science courses and how well prepared they are to apply that information. This problem remains despite the fact that in 2012, the National Science Foundation put out a set of three-dimensional learning guidelines to help educators\u00a0make science education more effective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the students in our study also reported that these activities helped them see links between the two disciplines that they wouldn\u2019t have perceived otherwise.<\/p>\n

So we also came away with evidence that our chemistry students, at least, would like to have the ability to gain a deeper understanding of science, and how to apply it.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Zahilyn D. Roche Allred is aPostdoctoral Scholar, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida International University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To graduate with a science major, college students must complete between 40 and 60 credit hours of science coursework. That means spending around 2,500 hours in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career. However, research has shown that despite all that effort, most college science courses give students\u00a0only a fragmented understanding\u00a0of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[429127],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-63851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-science-literacy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nImproving science literacy means changing science education - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/improving-science-literacy-means-changing-science-education\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improving science literacy means changing science education - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To graduate with a science major, college students must complete between 40 and 60 credit hours of science coursework. That means spending around 2,500 hours in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career. However, research has shown that despite all that effort, most college science courses give students\u00a0only a fragmented understanding\u00a0of fundamental scientific concepts. 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