Improving Science Literacy in General Education: An Interdisciplinary Approach

我们的目标是提高哈特威克学院学生的科学素养，并在此过程中开发出一种成功的改革模式，这种模式可能适用于其他机构的需求。我们将修订我们的通识教育课程，使那些仅仅因为毕业要求而渴望从事科学研究的学生，在毕业后对科学是什么、科学是如何做的、科学为什么重要，最重要的是，对现代科学中的一些重要问题有一个更全面的理解。我们希望培养学生对科学技术问题做出明智决定的信心和能力。我们认为，增进科学理解的最大障碍是向非科学专业学生提供的科学课程之间缺乏联系。这些课程的设计假设学生对该学科没有先验知识，并且数学技能有限。因此，在哈特威克，学生必须完成三门数学和科学课程才能毕业，每个教师都是从零开始，不能依靠我们的同事的努力，他们可能在前几个学期教过这些学生。此外，由于数学被有意地从课程中移除，学生们将数学视为一门完全独立的事业，而不是科学的一个组成部分。这种方法有效地欺骗了我们的学生，使他们得不到他们应得的彻底的科学教育。此外，通过要求课程分布在不同的部门，并允许学生在任何时间上课，我们使学生很难看到各个科学学科之间的联系。我们迫使科学显得支离破碎，而不是连贯一致。我们将开发一系列的三个顺序，主题，跨学科的数学和科学课程，以满足哈特威克大学的通识教育要求。该项目的主题是“环境科学”，将由数学系、生物系、化学系和地质与环境科学系的成员组成。该项目针对的是那些进入大学时没有选择专业的一年级学生。因此，第二个目标是鼓励这些犹豫不决的学生考虑从事科学事业。

Our goal is to improve the scientific literacy of Hartwick College students, and in so doing, develop a successful model for reform that might be adapted to the needs of other institutions. We will revise our general education curriculum so that those students whose desire to do science is fueled only by graduation requirements will leave that experience with a much fuller appreciation of what science is, how science is done, why science is important, and most significantly, a solid understanding of some of the important issues in modern science. We hope to engender in students the confidence and the ability to make informed decisions about science & technology issues. We feel that the most significant barrier to increased scientific understanding is the lack of connection between the science courses offered to non-science majors. These courses are designed with the assumption that students have no prior knowledge of the subject matter and have limited mathematical skills. Thus at Hartwick, where students must complete three math & science courses to graduate, each faculty member starts from scratch and cannot build on the efforts of our colleagues who may have taught these students in previous semesters. Additionally, as math is purposefully removed from coursework, students see math as a completely separate enterprise, rather than as an integral part of science. This approach effectively cheats our students of the thorough science education that they deserve. Furthermore, by requiring courses to be distributed across different departments and allowing students to take the courses at any time, we make it extremely difficult for students to see the connections between the various scientific disciplines. We force science to appear fragmented rather than coherent. We will develop a series of three sequenced, thematic, interdisciplinary courses in math and science that would satisfy Hartwick's general education requirement. The program theme is "The science of the Environment," and will be staffed by members of the departments of mathematics, biology, chemistry and geological & environmental sciences. The program targets first-year students who enter college as undeclared majors. Thus a secondary goal is to encourage some of these undecided students to consider a career in science.