Renovating Science Education

Americans, Western Europeans, others in Europe and the developed world, and also those in its less developed areas live with a concern for acid rain, ozone depletion, cures for AIDS and cancer, toxic and radioactive wastes, addiction to drugs or alcohol, airline and airport safety, food additives or famine, nuclear accidents, and the destructive power of the weapons of war. The list could only too easily be extended, but for our present purposes it suffices. We are merely trying to lay the basis for the importance of effective science and technology education for the young and perhaps their elders as well. Not only is a thorough understanding of many science topics essential today for human beings, but these subjects must be included among those matters upon which citizens express concern and insist on a relentless search for solutions. We include technology here since often the scientist together with the technical engineer in their collaborative work inadvertently turn put to threaten the environment.