Group items tagged

This article gives scope to the controversy over teaching evolution, for it pertains to biology education in the United Kingdom. Reiss notes that a recent trend in science education is to teach about doing science, which helps to reinforce and illustrate its universality and practical application. He proposes furthermore that science teachers should examine the connection between science and religion with their students, as this sort of all-encompassing objectivity is in keeping with the philosophy of science. In this manner, students may be more apt to engage science without feeling threatened by it. By teaching more about the nature of science and its methods, students will also come to understand the difference between scientific knowledge and other forms of knowledge. Reiss suggestions present an interesting way of "reaching across the aisle" without compromising the integrity of either side.

Science literacy is frequently touted as a key to good citizenship. Based on a two-year ethnographic study examining science in the community, the authors suggest that when considering the contribution of scientific activity to the greater good, science must be seen as forming a unique hybrid practice, mixed in with other mediating practices, which together constitute "scientifically literate, good citizenship." This case study, an analysis of an open house event organized by a grassroots environmentalist group, presents some examples of activities that embed science in "good citizenship." Through a series of vignettes, the authors focus on four central aspects: (1) the activists' use of landscape and spatial arrangements, (2) the importance of multiple representations of the same entity (e.g., a local creek), (3) the relational aspect of knowing and becoming part of a community, and (4) the insertion of scientific into moral discourse, resulting in what they call a "stewardship triad." (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

This is an article from Workshop On Computer Architecture Education in the Proceedings of the 2007 workshop on Computer architecture education. The authors are concerned about the computer science curriculum at Georgia Tech and how so many different subtopics of computing have made their way into a computer science degree. So by reconsidering what should be considered the core of computer science, they define what is necessary for a computer science student to know at the hardware level. I find this article interesting because its cause does not only apply to George Tech, but to all computer science curricula nationwide. The main academic concern of the article is the separation of operating system courses and courses in computer architecture. The operating system is so close to the architecture that the two should be wrapped into one. This would streamline the hardware and software level of interaction and reduce confusion caused by the separation of these areas of study.

Kahle commentates on the opening of the $27 million Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky and its potential impact on the evolution/creationism debate. Despite the legal decisions of the past century, which have largely determined that creationism is religion and therefore has no place in the science classroom, Americans by and large uphold religious assertions over science, a tendency caused primarily by the continual endorsement of pseudoscience. The Kentucky Visitor's Bureau, a department supported by public tax dollars, lends credibility to the Creation Museum as a "walk through history . . . [that] will counter evolutionary natural history museums." Placing science and pseudoscience in the same realm, argues Kahle, is a mistake that may circumvent empirical science as a measure of truth.

This is a panel discussion in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges that questions the importance of digital logic for the future of computer science. The discussion is composed of different individuals from different universities who share their own view concerning the foundation of the digital computer. This is a good example of a discussion warning against a great degree of abstraction between the underlying hardware and the high-level developer. The fact is that everything in computer science is built upon the fundamentals of digital logic and without an understanding of this logic, the connection between theory and practice is lost.

Although most states include evolution as a essential part of a well-rounded education, legislative action is continually perverting science standards to a point where we must ask the question, "Do state science standards matter?" Between 2005 and 2006, 23 states have modified science curricula, which further obscures the issue. Bandoli surveyed close to 2,500 freshman college students from both Indiana and Ohio regarding their experiences in high school biology. Among the incredible statistical information assembled here, Bandoli found that over 90% of students regarded evolution as a strong scientific theory. Considering the fact that 66% of high school biology teachers either breeze over or snub the teaching of evolution, these results appear to suggest that students may actually be more open-minded and competent than their high school teachers. Not only does this raise the issue of teacher quality and objectivity, it also questions the relevance and validity of the antievolution movement.

This is a panel discussion in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges that aims to address the issues associated with the advent of readily available multi-core and clustered computing systems. Moore's law has driven microprocessor architects to design platforms that exploit the performance gain of multi-core processors. The problem resides in the fact that many computer science curricula do not touch upon parallel computing because while the fundamentals may be relatively basic, other aspects of the technology is extremely difficult for students to understand and implement. However, this is the direction computer systems are headed and something must be done to utilize this technology to its fullest extent.

Despite the refutation of intelligent design as legitimate science by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, eighteen states have suggested the introduction of antievolution legislation (as of 2005). In the wake of this movement, librarians, the ultimate guardians of knowledge, may face challenges of censorship by religious conservatives. Suppressing access to information is in direct conflict with democratic ideals. This article contains specific advice for librarians regarding the protection of diverse resources. Although the O'Sullivans write to a specific audience, their message is indicative of the relationship between censorship and literacy.

This is an article from the Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education in the Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education. The article lays out a "ground up" approach to learning a complete picture of computer architecture. Instead of learning a complex and convoluted set of rules that dictates how the hardware works symbiotically with software, the authors modularize the process by creating a hands on approach to computer architecture. By starting out at the hardware level and then building to the level of abstraction created by modern operating systems and programming languages, a complete picture of how the computer functions can be obtained. I find this article interesting as it reverses the typical approach of understanding computer architecture. Instead of looking down at the hardware from the software above, the engineer or scientist can understand the ties that are created between machine level language and the hardware.

A presentation to congress showing a large majority of secondary school students fail to reach proficiency in math and science, and many are taught by teachers lacking adequate subject matter knowledge. The article compares the U.S. to other countries proficiency and points out issues STEM aims to address

Examining a specific legal decision in Pennsylvania regarding high school curriculum, the author examines yet another facet of the evolution debate-the students' voice. All too often, the rights of children are overlooked in the development of or debate over educational curriculum. Grover cites the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) as recognizing children as competent and independent thinkers whose input is not only relevant, but also valuable. The focus of the paper is on children's rights and how they were neglected in Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District et al, although attention is paid to church state separation and science education. This source is particularly useful for examining the role of the child in the education arena-just because they are on the receiving end of the education continuum does not mean they do not have a role in the discourse. Their voices are perhaps the most important of all.

This Christian source provides a host of antievolution arguments with references to scripture. The arguments span beyond the scope of biological evolution, including information regarding several branches of science and theology. The ideas are created and supported by scholars and academics. This source is important for examining the creationist side of the argument, and analyzing the ways in which the two views can be reconciled in a way that maintains scientific literacy.

Adolescence is a period of great intellectual development that holds a lasting, lifelong influence. The authors examine the degree to which a school's religious affiliation and contextual teaching influence the development of adolescent belief systems and attitudes. The researchers find that the religious tenor of the school is incredibly influential in shaping student worldviews. Because religion and science are often viewed as diametrically opposed, I'd like to take this data a little further and ask, to what degree does this trend impede or facilitate scientific literacy?

Marijuana is heavily repressed in the United States. There is repeated documentation that there are lower risks associated with marijuana use compared to alcohol consumption. Also our government spends billions of dollars yearly to fight the war on drug/marijuana. Socially the United States needs to reform laws to accommodate social and economic disputes. This article effectively attacks the problem in the United States with marijuana laws. This article entails the health risks and economic issues that can be resolved with legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. Medical documentation gives evidence of lower health risks with marijuana compared to alcohol.

In this article the authors examine different self-concepts of 3000 students in England between the ages of 13 and 14 years. The subjects tested were English, science, and mathematics. The results were found to be similar to other test that had been done before. An interesting finding was that boys had significantly higher self-concept scores than girls, except for in English.

Found on EBSCO with the search terms "gender and political education while searching the following databases: Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Premier, Gender Studies Database, International Political Science Abstracts, SocINDEX with Full Text, Sociological Collection, Women's Studies International

Conservative activists throughout history have sought to censor thinkers from Karl Marx to Friedrich Nietzsche to John Dewey. Why would Charles Darwin be any different? The religious conservative movement-what Apple deems "authoritarian populism"-is a threat to both education and culture, striking a particularly resonant chord in the evolution/creation debate. Crafting a linguistic façade known as "intelligent design" has allowed conservatives to covertly enter the scientific realm. Scientists, he argues, must assemble themselves, as the authoritarian populists have, in order to uphold the very best of science. Apple does a particularly exceptional job examining the psyche of the conservative alliance and its widespread cultural impact.

This article responds to many of the existing creationist arguments by refuting them with scientific evidence, including substantiation from reputable sources. Kessler, chair of the department of physics at Illinois Wesleyan University, discusses his personal experiences with teaching college freshmen, including an astounding case in which a student who had received a 32 on his ACT dropped out of college on the advice of his minister. At the heart of the issue was a belief system that could not be reconciled with Kessler's instruction. The article also focuses on the backgrounds of the students and the ways in which their limited (sometimes nonexistent and often misinformed) research illustrates a lack of understanding of the scientific method and the nature of experimental data. In this way, the creationist student mindset can be examined in context of his/her belief system.

Found on EBSCO with the search terms "gender and political education while searching the following databases: Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Premier, Gender Studies Database, International Political Science Abstracts, SocINDEX with Full Text, Sociological Collection, Women's Studies International

Found on EBSCO with the search terms "gender and political education while searching the following databases: Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Premier, Gender Studies Database, International Political Science Abstracts, SocINDEX with Full Text, Sociological Collection, Women's Studies International