Science And The Educated American: A Core Component Of .
SCIENCE AND THE EDUCATED AMERICANAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCESAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCESScience and theEducated American:A Core Componentof Liberal EducationEdited by Jerrold Meinwaldand John G. HildebrandAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Science and theEducated American:A Core Componentof Liberal Education
Please direct inquiries to:American Academy of Arts and Sciences136 Irving StreetCambridge, MA 02138-1996Telephone: 617-576-5000Fax: 617-576-5050Email: aaas@amacad.orgWeb: www.amacad.org
Science and theEducated American:A Core Componentof Liberal EducationEdited by Jerrold Meinwald and John G. Hildebrand
2010 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences“Physics for Future Presidents” 2010 by Richard A. MullerAll rights reserved.Cover image iStockphoto.com/runeerISBN#: 0-87724-088-4The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is grateful to the Simons Foundationfor supporting the publication and dissemination of this volume and the Academy’songoing work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.The statements made and views expressed in this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Simons Foundation orthe Officers and Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Jerrold Meinwald and John G. HildebrandPart I: The Case for Studying Science9Chapter 1Science in the Liberal Arts CurriculumDon M. Randel23Chapter 2Science as a Liberal ArtFrank H.T. RhodesPart II: What Should Students Be Learning?41Chapter 3Science in the Liberal Arts and SciencesEugene H. Levy57Chapter 4Scientific Literacy: A Modest ProposalJames Trefil and Robert M. Hazen70Chapter 5Science Education in the Age of ScienceChris ImpeyPart III: How to Present Science?112Chapter 6Physics for Future PresidentsRichard A. Muller130Chapter 7Learning Astronomy through WritingMartha P. Haynes151Chapter 8Teaching Science for Understanding: Focusing onWho, What, and WhySally G. Hoskins
180Chapter 9Molecules of Life: A General Education Approachto the Science of Living SystemsBrian N. Tse, Jon Clardy, and David R. Liu218Chapter 10Science for All in a Core Curriculum: Frontiers of Scienceat Columbia UniversityDarcy B. KelleyPart IV: How Can We Judge Success?228Chapter 11Assessing Scientific Reasoning in a Liberal Learning CurriculumDiane Ebert-May, Elena Bray Speth, and Jennifer L. Momsen241Chapter 12The Conceptualization and Measurement of Civic ScientificLiteracy for the Twenty-First CenturyJon D. Miller256Contributors
AcknowledgmentsThe American Academy’s project on Science in the Liberal Arts Curriculum paysspecial attention to the challenges of and opportunities for teaching science ina general education context, considering how best to engage those students notmajoring in the physical or natural sciences. It also argues that scientific literacydeveloped during a student’s undergraduate years plays a critical role in thequality of our national debate and, in turn, the health of our democracy.In August 2007, the Academy convened academic leaders from thirtyfour colleges and universities to discuss science curricula for non-science majors.The forum facilitated the exchange of ideas across institutions, focusing oninnovative teaching methods and common barriers. The participants alsocompleted a survey of their institutions’ existing science requirements for nonscientists, the options available for fulfilling those requirements, and theassessments used to determine success in meeting science-education objectives.This volume grew out of the Academy conference and survey. (A list of participants and schools represented in the survey responses is included at theend of this volume.)The essays contain descriptions of specific courses, concrete strategies forcurricular reform, and spirited defenses of the value of science to the liberal artscurriculum. We hope that administrators and faculty members will find thispublication useful in updating their institutions’ curricula. We are confidentthat the many new ideas and thoughtful recommendations in this volume willhave a positive influence on post-secondary science education in America.The Academy thanks especially Jerrold Meinwald and John G. Hildebrandfor their guidance of the project and for serving as editors of this publication.We are thankful to the Simons Foundation for supporting the publication anddissemination of this important volume and the Academy’s ongoing work inscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. We also acknowledge the partial support provided by the Podell Emeriti Awards for Researchand Scholarship, awarded through the Cornell Association of Professors Emeriti.We are grateful to Katie Donnelly and Kim Durniak, the program officers whoworked closely with Jerry and John on the conference and publication, respectively. Thank you also to the program assistants and publication staff for helping to produce this publication. Most of all, we express our gratitude to thecontributors for bringing their knowledge and creative ideas together in aneffort to inform curriculum debate at higher-education institutions.Leslie Cohen BerlowitzPresident and William T. Golden ChairAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesA C KNO WL E D G MEN TSvii
PrefaceAn idea for a new approach to science teaching unexpectedly grew out of myexperience at several small faculty dinner parties. More than once, I found myself responding to “and what do you do?” by explaining that my research, atthe interface between chemistry and biology, was largely focused on exploringhow various organisms (mostly insects and other arthropods) use chemistry todefend themselves and to communicate with the outside world.A simple example I might cite was our discovery that a handsome localmillipede (Apheloria corrugata) defends itself by secreting a mixture of deadlyhydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde when disturbed. In a short time, this topicmight be followed by a somewhat lengthier explanation of how a female FloridaQueen butterfly relies on a chemical signal provided by a courting male in selecting a mate. Her choice of a partner, it turns out, is based on the male’s ability to provide chemical protection for her eggs (rendering them unpalatableto egg predators such as lady bugs). The male obtains this protective chemicalfrom toxic plants (Crotalaria spp.) and incorporates it into a spermataphore,which is transferred to the female during mating. In courtship, the male “informs” the female of his defender status by applying a courtship pheromone,which he produces from the toxin itself, to her antennae. If a male lacks thetoxin, he cannot synthesize the courtship pheromone, and the female will mostlikely evade his advances. Most listeners are intrigued by this example of chemical communication in nature.What struck me about these interchanges was that I was actually explainingthe first recognized example of Darwin’s sexual selection based on a chemicalsignal to a thoroughly engaged audience whose primary interests were in subjects as diverse as music, economics, or ancient history. Without the benefit ofa blackboard, slides, or props of any sort, my fellow diners became truly interested in this narration, and they came away with a new understanding of somepreviously unsuspected roles of chemistry in nature.That a group of humanists and social scientists expressed interest in chemistry during casual conversation over a glass of wine provided a clue as to howwe might teach chemistry and biology to a large body of undergraduate studentswhose own primary interests are not necessarily in science. These considerationsled me to develop an unconventional chemistry course at Cornell University,with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as well as the Henry andCamille Dreyfus Foundation and the National Science Foundation. I called thecourse “The Language of Chemistry,” a phrase used by Arthur Kornberg in his1989 autobiography, For the Love of Enzymes. Designed as a lecture course withviiiSCIENCE AND THE EDUCATED AMERICAN
a built-in writing requirement—with no prerequisites or laboratory component—it could nevertheless be used to fulfill part of the science requirement forstudents in the Cornell College of Arts and Sciences. “The Language of Chemistry” made no attempt to survey the entire field. Instead, it demonstrated, viacarefully selected case studies, exactly how chemists have studied a variety ofbiological phenomena and have ultimately attained a deep understanding ofthese phenomena at the molecular level. Students came to appreciate why molecular structures are important and learned how those structures can be determined. As part of the course, they also studied an area of chemistry/biologyon their own and wrote an essay explaining this body of science to a lay reader.1During a subsequent sabbatical leave, which I spent as a Visiting Scholarat the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, I explored further the generalquestion of what sort of scientific education our country’s college undergraduates actually receive. In August 2007, a workshop was held at the House ofthe Academy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A group of roughly forty participants, comprising physical and biological scientists as well as college and university administrators, met to discuss the importance to our society of incorporating a substantial science component in the “liberal arts” curriculum, and tolearn about some highly original approaches to science teaching that several ofour faculty participants, from a variety of institutions of higher learning, werepursuing. At an early stage in preparing for this exercise, I had asked my goodfriend John G. Hildebrand (Regents Professor of Neurobiology with jointappointments in Chemistry and Biochemistry, Entomology, and Molecularand Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson) to join me inorganizing the workshop. Following the workshop, we solicited and editedthe essays collected in this volume, some of which describe and expand onmaterial presented at the meeting, and some of which were written by nonparticipants whose expertise we sought to broaden the scope of the volume.Our hope is that these essays will stimulate and perhaps even inspire colleagues involved in undergraduate education to devise courses and curriculathat are particularly suited to developing science literacy in all their students.We look forward to a widespread reexamination and reevaluation of the contentsas well as the methods of presentation employed in science courses designed to1. For a detailed account of the course, which also incorporated a significant writing component, seeStacey Lowery Bretz and Jerrold Meinwald, “The Language of Chemistry: Using Case Studies toTeach on a ‘Need-to-Know’ Basis,” Journal of College Science Teaching 31 (4) (2002): 220–224.P RE FA CEix
be of interest and value to all. Clearly, we need offerings that students will enjoyrather than dread. We need to provide undergraduates with insights and understanding of the scientific enterprise that will serve them well throughout theirlives. Ideally, we would like to help our institutions of higher learning producesuccessive generations of students who see science for what it is: a creative, exciting, adventurous, and at the same time, profoundly useful human endeavor!Jerrold MeinwaldGoldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, Cornell UniversityCochair, American Academy Project on Science in the Liberal Arts CurriculumxSCIENCE AND THE EDUCATED AMERICAN
IntroductionJerrold Meinwald and John G. HildebrandIn his inaugural address and subsequently, President Barack Obama has calledattention to the importance of science for our nation’s future. Our twenty-firstcentury democratic society depends on broadly distributed scientific understanding to guide its progress. Yet science hardly occupies center stage in Americanculture. Roughly one-third of recent graduates from America’s colleges anduniversities majored in the sciences or engineering during their undergraduateyears.1 At the graduate level, about 40 percent of doctoral candidates in thesciences and engineering in the United States are from abroad, and many ofthese students will return to their countries of origin after receiving Ph.D.s.2While the declining preparation of professional research scientists in the UnitedStates is certainly a concern, we face an equally serious problem with respectto the scientific literacy of the entire undergraduate population.Consider, for example, the findings documented in the revealing andaward-winning 1988 film A Private Universe.3 Asked what causes Earth’sseasons and the phases of the moon, twenty-one of the twenty-three randomlyselected students, faculty members, and alumni of Harvard University exhibitedmisconceptions. Ninth-grade students at a nearby inner-city school expressedsimilar misunderstanding. This film and other studies underscore the need forK-16 education in the United States to do a better job of demystifying andstimulating curiosity about the world around us.How are we to secure a proper place in our society for science, as President Obama has called for us to do? Reaching this goal will require a massive,extended, multilevel educational effort; notably, it will include strengtheningthe contribution of science to undergraduate liberal arts curricula. This volumeaims to examine some of the reasons why science education for all students isa significant educational objective; to present some views of what we mean byscientific literacy; to describe several imaginative approaches to teaching sciencefor students majoring in any discipline; and to recommend steps that will helpfaculties and administrators devise undergraduate liberal arts curricula that willequip future generations of graduates to recognize and appreciate the beauty,value, and utility of scientific thought, investigation, and knowledge.1. Science and Engineering Indicators 2008 (Arlington, Va.: National Science Board, 2008).2. This figure includes both temporary and permanent resident visas; see Science andEngineering Indicators 2008.3. Matthew H. Schneps and Philip M. Sadler, A Private Universe (Pyramid Films, 1988).I NT RODUCTIO N1
We begin with two essays that make the case for strengthening scienceeducation for everyone. Don M. Randel (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation),whose personal scholarly training was in musicology, examines the place ofscience in the liberal arts curriculum from the point of view of a broadly experienced humanist. His discussion, which stresses the fact that science and thehumanities have much more in common than is generally appreciated, sets thestage for the essays that follow and illuminates some of the deepest educational issues facing us today. The essay by Frank H.T. Rhodes (Cornell University)explores the reasons for pursuing scientific literacy from the viewpoint of ascientist (geologist) with exceptionally rich educational experience. He examines the evolution of the concept of “liberal arts” and reflects on the five broadareas of concern for undergraduate education: faculty commitment, content,methods, outcomes, and context. His essay underscores two important messages: that a meaningful education must include topics that are relevant tosociety; and that we should continuously seek ways to improve teaching andlearning. These two essays make it abundantly clear that twenty-first-centurycitizens cannot be considered well educated if they have not acquired a sensethat science is key to full participation in and enjoyment of contemporary life.One objective of science teaching must be to give students examples (and,whenever possible, tangible experience) of how science progresses. In the earlystages of any field of science, careful observation and description play a dominant role. Technological discoveries that expanded our ability to observe anddescribe the world around us have enabled enormous leaps of scientific progress.Dramatic examples include Galileo’s use of the telescope to observe and evento measure the height of mountains on the moon and to observe the multiplemoons associated with Jupiter. The invention of the microscope revolutionizedour understanding of living things not only by enabling the observation ofpreviously undetected microorganisms, but also by revealing the cellular natureof all organisms. Twentieth-century inventions, such as the radio-telescope andmicrowave technology, have led directly to the discovery of formerly unimagined astronomical objects, including pulsars and quasars, and provided strongsupport for the “Big Bang” cosmological theory of the birth of our universe.The development of advanced deep-sea exploration and collection modulesallows us to bring forth new species whose life histories reveal entirely newmodes of living. Much of this kind of science has the character of explorationrather than problem-solving. It is often forgotten that science frequentlyprogresses on the basis of discoveries that were not, and could not have been,anticipated.Driven by curiosity about how a natural phenomenon occurs, and whatrules govern it, scientists often follow up on initial discoveries by making further observations of the phenomenon itself. They consider various possibleexplanations of puzzling observations, testing hypotheses with additionalobservations or experiments designed to discriminate among the possibilities.A hypothesis that is not contradicted by any of the known, relevant observations, and especially one that can successfully predict the outcome of thought-2S C I E NC E A ND T H E E DU CATED AMERICAN
fully designed new experiments, provides a satisfying feeling that the originalnatural phenomenon is “understood.” In some cases, this knowledge can thenbe put to use in some valued area of human endeavor. Remember that the pursuit of “useful knowledge” was an important, explicit motivation for the founding of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy ofArts and Sciences in the eighteenth century.The more we learn about the natural world, the more we realize that muchof what we might like to understand remains unknown, waiting to be discovered. Of course, many areas of astronomy, physics, geology, chemistry, andbiology are well understood. Nevertheless, questions such as why all knownliving organisms utilize only the same twenty “left-handed” amino acids tomake proteins, or how the human brain records, stores, and accesses memories, or what is the nature of the “dark matter” and “dark energy” that constitute the bulk of our universe await elucidation by future investigators. Howmany undergraduates realize that contemporary scientists are not so much thekeepers of vast stores of factual knowledge as they are seekers of a clearer anddeeper understanding of how the world around us works? Many pressingquestions of worldwide relevance involving applied science—how to controlnuclear fusion for sustainable energy production, for example, or how to replenish the world’s supply of fresh water—still need answers.While there has been extensive discussion of the value of “scientific literacy,” the term has different meanings for different scholars. Eugene H. Levy(Rice University) elaborates on the idea of general education and argues thatappropriate core-curriculum science courses are as important for students inthe sciences and engineering as they are for future humanists and social scientists. The two essays following Levy’s present distinct approaches to teachingscience: one supports a canon of fundamental scientific concepts essential toscientific literacy; the other underscores the importance of teaching goals thatlack specificity regarding content. James Trefil (George Mason University) andRobert M. Hazen (Carnegie Institution for Science and George Mason University) make a strong case for imparting to our col
Physics for Future Presidents Richard A. Muller 130 Chapter 7 Learning Astronomy through Writing Martha P. Haynes 151 Chapter 8 Teaching Science for Understanding: Focusing on Who, What, and Why Sally G. Hoskins Contents
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