18 January 2006

 

 

 

Selection Committee

Teach for America

Washington DC

 

One quarter of the US population believes in astrology and a full 40% think that astrology is at least somewhat scientific. The NSF estimates from surveys that only about one third of Americans understand the scientific process. Carl Sagan noted in The Demon Haunted World that one woman tied knots in her lamp electrical cord thinking that it would save on her electricity bill. There is a danger that American scientific literacy is either decreasing or in the best scenario remaining static, at a time when our economy is increasingly based on scientific and technological progress. By teaching high school science, I hope to impact a few young people and show them my fascination with science. Perhaps some of them will be similarly fascinated.

 

The statistics are often frightening to a scientist, or even to an educated citizen. Forty percent of Americans don’t know what DNA is, the most fundamental building block of life. Half of Americans think that antibiotics kill viruses. This lack of knowledge can be remedied easily in a classroom.

 

My own background is in astronomy. While a Ph.D. student at the University of Saint Andrews, I had the opportunity to present astronomy to young school children in a traveling planetarium. I was amazed at their knowledge about all planetary minutia. I would ask what they knew about Jupiter and they would answer with the names of the moons, the length of its year, and its distance from the sun. It didn’t stop at planets, as they would also tell me facts about various constellations. It was very plain that for many young children, space is as fascinating as soccer or video games, and that they love investing significant time to learn all about it.

 

However, at some point, science becomes dull. The children who know all the constellations and the names of all the dinosaurs grow up and the knowledge that came so easily to them is ridiculed out of them by their peers, or an uninspired science teacher unintentionally extinguishes their scientific spark. I think a sufficiently excited and capable teacher can remind students how cool science really is, especially those subjects in which children are inherently interested, like space science and marine biology.

 

However, terminology and knowledge is only half the battle of having a scientifically literate citizenry. The method of science is just as important (and perhaps more important) than specific details. Teaching students to think critically and to investigate will better prepare them for future efforts and will more realistically introduce them to actual science, which is exceedingly different from the rote memorization that is taught in middle schools and many high schools. In this regard, I think my background as a practicing scientist, as an astrophysicist will contribute to my teaching ability.

 

I am still awestruck about planets and stars and the ability to investigate them with the scientific process. I would love to share this experience by teaching.

 

Thank you,

 

 

 

Ben Hood