Focus on Scientific and Technological Literacy

I read recently that as many as 75% of the bills that come before Congress are related somehow to science and technology. Yet there is a disturbing, even frightening lack of knowledge about the fundamentals of science on the part of far too many of our citizens.

This is especially true in the case of college students, who should be among the best educated in the sciences. A recent

New York Times

article by Thomas Friedman noted that in Japan, 66% of undergraduates receive degrees in science. Among Chinese students that figure is 59 %. In the United States, the world’s only superpower, it is 32 %. Obviously, as Friedman added, the dearth of science and technology majors is relative to the fact that U.S. 12th graders recently ranked 21st in the international averages of students in math and science.

“Rising Above the Storm,” a report just presented to Congress by a bipartisan group from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, asserts that because of globalization, "workers in virtually every sector must now face competitors who live just a mouse-click away in Ireland, Finland, India, or dozens of other nations whose economies are growing. Having reviewed the trends in the United States and abroad, the committee is deeply concerned that the scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength. We are worried about the future prosperity of the United States. We fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and technology can be lost and the difficulty of recovering a lead once lost - if indeed it can be regained at all."

It is apparent that those of us in the sciences have our work cut out for us. Higher institutions of learning should care equally about teaching and research. We must concentrate more than ever on attracting undergraduates to our disciplines, teaching them with the same state-of-the-art approaches we demand of ourselves in research, and encouraging them to go on to graduate studies.

We must continue to seek support for programs like the Research Experience for Undergraduates, which is supported by a grant awarded to Bruce Ault. We must help to strengthen both the content and pedagogical skills of school teachers through innovative approaches like the Physical Sciences by Inquiry Program that Robert Endorf is heading and like the college’s recently developed master's of teaching in sciences degree.

Since the crisis we face involves, in a very real sense, our economic and physical survival, it is safe to say that our colleagues in the humanities and social sciences share equal responsibility for ensuring that majors in their disciplines recognize the importance of scientific and technological literacy. They must encourage students to recognize the critical links between their subjects and science, to understand that living in the 21st century demands knowledge of science and technology as well as the fields in which they have chosen to major.

As the gap between the haves (those with scientific and technological knowledge) and the have-nots (those without it) grows ever larger, we must confront the crisis looming before us and realize that there is no longer time for complacency. We must acknowledge our individual and collective responsibilities in leading future generations of Americans to respect and seek scientific and technological knowledge.