How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

[Altman222]

It's purely antecdotal but it feels like the amount of science literacy has gotten worse in recent years. What can we do to reverse that trend? Should we throw money at it? Give incentives to schools that do well in science? Make the standardized tests harder? More scholarships for science majors? Start a new PR campaign that makes science cool? Have the government appoint someone as a Science Ambassador? What do you think would work best?

[Haykakan]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

There are plenty of ideas if anyone is there to listen. Why dont you first properly introduce yourself in the appropriate thread and then we can discuss this.

[Siggie]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

The teaching of critical thinking needs to improve and it needs to be stressed as early as possible and throughout education.

[Haykakan]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

Critical thinking is not going to be endorsed by a government which relys on ignorence to stay in power.

[Siggie]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

Since we have fallen behind other countries in science, perhaps the government will re-evaluate its priorities. Besides, the question was not 'what would raise science literacy and get the government tripping over its feet in excitement to do it?'

[Haykakan]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

The USA has never been big on producing scientists. It simply buys them from other countries like China, Russia etc... In order to improve science literacy the schools need to do things differently which means the government needs to do things differently and i already said why it wont. My sister has a Phd in physical chemistry and she had to go through hell to get her degree because of the politics and corruption involved in her field. Another issue is people look at how many articles you got published and many dont consider the fact that those articles were complete crap thus it is quantity over quality(in science this is bad). In the group she was working there was a russian guy, chinese guy, chek guy, german guy and a american girl. The american girl droped out because she couldnt handle the abusive superiors, the german guy quit for the same reason and is doing research on his own while the rest including my sister moved on to the top level institutions in this country. The point is science is not only not encouraged but even if u try to go that route just because you want to, they make it so rough for you that u get discouraged. I am not saying science should be easy but politics should be kept out of it but it is not. Ironicaly enough corruption is the root of the problem both in government and in science. As a scientist if you can get huge grants and generate income for the university then your employer will let you get away with murder. Because a "teacher" was bringing in lots of money, the university decided that it ok for him to abuse students, accept sex for good grades, give students dead end projects to doom their careers and only help those who kissed his ass. As you can see the these problems discourage anyone from progressing in science and the only way to get rid of it is to root out corruption. The hunger for money makes universities overlook all kinds of ethical violations by their employees and this is exactly the same crap with government as well. You want more people to be interested in science? Then get rid of corruption!

[KanadaHye]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

If people were literate in science, they'd be blowing stuff up all the time... science is exclusively secret for military organizations. Chemical companies have affiliations with the military or were spin offs from military technology.

[Siggie]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

I think there's less of this stuff in academia and science, but it's not immune... It would be naive to think academia is immune to politics. You're describing this stuff like it's rampant. I've never heard of a faculty member accepting sex for grades, it coming to light, and nothing being done because the person brings in grant money.
When we're hiring faculty, we actually looked at their research papers. We did not just count the number of publications on the CV and make a job offer. We even noticed one candidate had published 2 papers out of the same dataset (generally a no, no) and realized it was done to inflate publication count; not a favorable fact for that candidate.

Of course, eliminating corruption would be great; how do we go about doing it?

[Haykakan]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

Siggie i think you have not seen this stuff because it does not happen as much in your field. Where there is big money involved there is big corruption as well. The example i gave involves a research professor who gets his grants from the military. This guy could literaly get away with murder and probably already has. Eliminating corruption is very doable but it requires power to do it. No one is going to give us this power-we have to take it!

[KanadaHye]

Re: How can we raise science literacy in the United States?

Dow, Dupont, BASF.... you know those companies that provide "house hold products" are all corporate military organizations. Don't think they want the common folk to get any ideas