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Posted by Andrea Anderson on October 24, 1999 at 18:56:31:
 I just read a wonderfully validating article in the October issue of Scientific American, " The False Crisis in Science Education". The authors (Wayt Gibbs and Doulas Fox) first critiqued the 1995 results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) which placed the U.S. seniors nearly last. The authors argued the scores are not so different from one developed country to another. "The crude statistics of the reported results belied how closely the average scores of the U.S. major competitors were clustered, especially when margins of error were taken into account." Even more exciting for me was their statement "A consensus has begun to emerge among science education researchers, teachers and practicing scientists that schools should turn out scientifically literate citizens, not more candidates for the academic elite."They also list the following six steps toward Science and math literacy . . . yet more confirmation that I am (we are) following the right footpath! 1. Replace memorization with exploration and invention This article is defiantly worth a read and a few discussion exchanges. I'll try to make a link to it on-line!
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