A Passion for Objects

Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/

N

1

Research and Development; Incentives; Science Teachers; Public Agencies; Science Education; Educational Change; Student Motivation; Children; Elementary Secondary Education; Student Interests; Global Approach; Information Technology; Higher Education

0009-5982

In the ongoing national conversation about science education in America, there is a new consensus that people have entered a time of crisis in their relationship to the international scientific and engineering community. When the science committee of the House of Representatives asked the National Academies, the nation's leading scientific advisory group, for 10 recommendations to strengthen America's scientific competitiveness, the academies offered twice that number. There were recommendations to support early-career scientists and those who plan to become science teachers. There were recommendations to create a new government agency to sponsor energy research and to use tax policy to encourage research and development in corporate settings. As sensible as these recommendations may be, they deal largely with financial incentives and big institutions. In this article, the author suggests that students' passion for objects can be a prime motivator in science education. Science is fueled by passion, a passion that often attach's to the world of objects much as the artist attach's to his paints, the poet to his or her words. Putting children in a rich object world is essential to giving science a chance. Children will make intimate connections, connections they need to construct on their own. At a time when science education is in crisis, giving science its best chance means guiding children to objects they can love.

ERIC

2008

EJ801442