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LiteracyStudies@OSU Presents
Achieving Scientific Literacy
Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities
George Wells Knight House 104 East 15th Avenue
In 1980, 80% of Ohioans believed that the sun rotates around the earth. Twenty years later, 76% of Ohioans still believed in the Ptolemaic view of the heavens despite intense focus on science in public schools. A recent A.C.Nielsen poll revealed that 13% of North Americans had not heard of global warming. In addition, more than 50% of Americans believe the idea that they are direct descendants of Adam and Eve who lived in the Garden of Eden about 6,000 years ago best describes human origins.
This panel will explore what it means to be scientifically literate. Is scientific literacy simply a matter of being conversant with the scientific method? Is it based on knowledge of scientific content? Does the idea of scientific literacy vary with disciplines, and how does scientific literacy align with other forms of literacy? If having a scientifically literate citizenry is important to democracy, how can do a more effective job of teaching science at all levels?
Caroline Breitenberger, Associate Professor of Biochemistry; Director, Center for Life Sciences Education
David Tomasko, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Director, Honors Collegium
Linn van Woerkom, Professor of Physics
Moderator:
Susan Fisher, Professor of Entomology
LiteracyStudies@OSU is fostering a critical, cross-campus conversation and investigation into the nature of literacy, bringing historical, contextual, comparative, and critical perspectives and modes of understanding together to stimulate new institutional and intellectual relationships. We are building a sense of collaboration among different disciplinary clusters and their constituents, from the social and natural sciences to the arts and humanities, education, medicine, and law.
LiteracyStudies@OSU is supported by the College of Humanities, Department of English, Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, and the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University.
