Teaching Climate Change To Boost Science Student Uptake

Tackling modern problems such as climate change is a key element of a new program to fight the chronic problem of older secondary students shunning the subject of science. Targeting year 9 and 10 students, trials of the locally developed science program known as STELR – Science and Technology Education Leveraging Relevance – have proved so successful that it has secured Federal Government funding and will be rolled out to 180 schools next year.

Saving planet may lure students back to science

By Bridie Smith in The Age (8 August 2010):

TACKLING modern problems such as climate change is a key element of a new program to fight the chronic problem of older secondary students shunning the subject of science.

Targeting year 9 and 10 students, trials of the locally developed science program known as STELR – Science and Technology Education Leveraging Relevance – have proved so successful that it has secured Federal Government funding and will be rolled out to 180 schools next year.

The brainchild of Alan Finkel, Monash University chancellor and director of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering [and co-founder of COSMOS], the six-week program puts science in a contemporary context, encouraging students to grapple with issues such as climate change and renewable energy.

It’s the first time the academy has designed a program to work within the school curriculum and Dr Finkel, who will discuss the program on Wednesday at the National Press Club, said this was a significant step.

”The extra curriculum programs we’ve been involved with tend to preach to the converted … and while if it wasn’t for those programs I think the participation rate would be lower, they have not been adequate to stop the decline of the 1980s and 1990s,” he said.

Research has shown students are concerned about the health of their planet. A survey by the Australian Childhood Foundation found 52 per cent of children were worried about not having enough water in the future and 44 per cent were worried about the effects of climate change.

One participant in the STELR trials was Nita Cheung, 16, who made miniaturised wind turbines, solar panels and converted vegetable oils and sugars to biological fuels. ”It’s easier than reading notes on a board and you feel like you learn more by making things,” the year 10 Northcote High School student said.

Her classmate Rowan Watson, 16, said the program had ”made science interesting”.

”I’ve learnt things I wouldn’t have expected,” he said.

According to the Australian Council for Educational Research, about 55 per cent of year 12 students studied biology in 1976, while 29 per cent studied chemistry and 28 per cent physics. That has fallen to just a quarter of year 12 students who study biology, 18 per cent chemistry and 15 per cent physics.

Dr Finkel said it was vital this trend was reversed. ”We’re now at a low base and don’t have enough students going through the pipeline to meet the job demands of the future,” he said

Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com