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SCIENTIFIC  ILLITERACY  The  Greatest  Enemy  

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION

(a) Knowledge of the substantive content of science and the ability to distinguish from non-science;

(b) Understanding science and its applications; (c) Knowledge of what counts as science;

(d) Independence in learning science; (e) Ability to think scientifically;

(f) Ability to use scientific knowledge in problem solving;

(g) Knowledge needed for intelligent participation in science-based issues; (h) Understanding the nature of science, including its relationship with culture;

(i) Appreciation of and comfort with science, including its wonder and curiosity;

(j) Knowledge of the risks and benefits of science; and (k) Ability to think critically about science and to deal with scientific expertise

Jack Holbrook and Miia Rannikmae University of Tartu, Estonia

The Meaning of Scientific Literacy

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WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC LITERACY?

•  Ambition

•  Recollection

•  Skepticism

•  Interrogation

•  Experimentation

•  Identification

•  Evaluation

“I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell…You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don't believe that the earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them.”

Congressman Paul Broun M.D.

Member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

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"When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: What are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.“

–Bertrand Russell

WHERE  IS  THE  SOLUTION?  

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

-John F. Kennedy

The President of the United States

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENCE EDUCATION

“This new conception of science literacy implies that science literacy is a task of both formal and informal science education; it creates a demand for all professionals to become both science literacy participants and educators. In order to realize the above vision, there should be a perceived continuum between formal and informal science education. It is also necessary to educate science professionals in workforces to become science and the public educators, and improving science literacy should become an integral component of human resources development in workforces.”

-Xiufeng Liu State University of New York at Buffalo, USA

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” 

-Neil DeGrasse Tyson

American Astrophysicist