A number of scientific organizations these days are creating Meet the Scientist programs and sending scientists and engineers out into public schools, science cafes, and other venues with the hope that they can drum up interest in pursuing careers in these fields. The idea is students will come to an assembly or a festival or some other place and be inspired by the excitement of learning how scientists work.
My son thinks science is cool. He loves biology. My daughter used to like science, now she says she hates it - she hates math too. She's just started middle school. That's the age when girls walk away from science - or at least the research tells us they do.I've been trying to figure out why my daughter - who spent the last five years in a science and math magnet - now isn't interested in either subject.
I have been working with scientists and engineers on explaining their research and other work to the general public for almost a decade. I've explained the science of many things and how they connect to the real lives of real people. But it occurred to me this morning that if you asked me to come up with a sentence or two on what an engineer's job is, I would struggle with it.What exactly does an engineer do? How is he or she different from a scientist? What is their role in our world?Did I mention that I am dating an engineer who works for a big local utility company, and I don't understand what he does either.
I don't get why science writers don't cover science education.They cover whatever cool science is the flavor of the moment, they cover disasters and the science behind them, they cover scientists but they don't cover the kids who are going to replace them and what they're being taught. Call a science publication land ask it to do a story on science education - they'll tell you they do something once a year. Read them - you'll see what I mean. Read the regular national press and you'll find very little too.
