Put science into your life

A few years ago, I received a letter from an American soldier in Iraq. The letter said that serving on the battlefield had made him physically exhausted and depressed. But in that hostile and lonely environment, a book I wrote became "life buoy" for him. It's a book about science.

The letter states that science can play a strong role in bringing meaning to life, namely his own life. At the same time the letter of the soldier emphasized what I believe more and more: the American education system failed to teach science how to integrate students into their lives.

The power of transformation

When we think of the ubiquity of cell phones, iPods, personal computers and the Internet, it is easy to see how science (and its technology) has been incorporated into the structure. Our daily movement. When we assess the state of the world and recognize serious challenges such as climate change, global diseases, security threats and resource depletion, we will not hesitate to turn to science to measure levels of problems and find solutions. And when we look at the abundance of emerging opportunities in the horizon - stem cells, genetic sequences, longevity research, nanoscience, quantum computers, space technology, they We will see the importance of cultivating a broad community that can engage in scientific issues .

Simply there is no other path, as a society, we need to be prepared to make informed decisions for a range of issues that will shape the future. Those are standard reasons - and extremely important - that many people will come up with to explain why science is important.

But I also understand that you don't need to be a scientist to know that science has the power to transform. I have seen children's eyes light up when I tell them about black holes and Big Bang. And in the letter from Iraq, the soldier told me how studying the theory of relativity and quantum physics in the dangerous and dusty suburban areas of Baghdad city helped him continue to be steady. because it reveals a deeper reality that we are all part of it.

(Photo: science.house.gov)

"Great, science?"

"I have talked for many years with so many people that their encounter with the science in the school made them think it was cold, strange and scary. They were happy to use new achievements. science brings, but feels that science itself is not related to their lives.

Like a life without music, art or literature, a life without science is deprived of anything that can give our experience a rich world but beyond science cannot be achieved ".

As parents know, children start life as uncontrolled adventurers, not shy before the unknown. From walking and talking, we want to know what things are and how they work - we start life as small scientists. But most of us quickly lose our passion for innate science. It was a great loss.

Most studies focus on this, identifying important opportunities to improve science education. Suggestions for improvement range from improving the level of training for science teachers to curriculum reforms. But most of these studies avoid a major problem that has a macro impact: in teaching students, we continue to fail, not to create rich opportunities to express prospects of tantrums. The heart of science is opened, but instead only focuses on the need to acquire competence with the basic technical details of science.

In fact, many of the students I talked to had little interest in the big questions that the other parts of the technical focus focused on in response: Where did the universe come from? Where does life arise? How does the brain make consciousness? Just like a music curriculum requires students to practice gamblers while rarely or never inspiring them by hitting big masterpieces, this kind of science teaching is wasted. The association makes students sit up straight on their chairs and say, "Great, science?".

Teaching for young people, communicating to adults

"We have robbed the soul of scientific education by focusing only on results and finding ways to train students to solve problems, and repeat facts without a corresponding emphasis. on transferring them "farther than the stars"

In physics, for you to have a concept of materials that leverage the most revolutionary, progressive progress in the past 100 years - special relativity, general relativity, mechanics Quantum - a remix of discoveries that has changed our notion of reality.

More recently, the past ten years have witnessed a stir in our understanding of the structure of the universe, giving a completely new prediction of what the universe will look like in the distant future. Those are developments that shake the mold thinking. But there is rarely a high school in which these breakthroughs are taught. It is very similar to the story in biology, chemistry and math classes.

But science is more than its technical details. And with an emphasis on expression, top-notch knowledge and discoveries can be communicated to students in a bright and honest way, independent of those details. In fact, these insights and discoveries are the motivations for a young student to come to the desire to learn details.

Science is the most exciting of all adventure stories, it has been going on for thousands of years. Science should be taught to youth and communicated to adults in such a way as to express this drama. We must begin a cultural shift, putting science in its proper position alongside music, art and literature as an integral part of what makes life worth living.

Seeing the world and seeing the wonders of the universe go above all that is separating us, it is the natural right of every child, which is necessary for every adult, as a soldier in Iraq. did.

The article was published in The New York Times on June 1, 2008 and on The International Herald Tribune a few days later.Brian Greene is Columbia University physics professor (USA).