Saturday, August 30, 2008 | Reason : In the News | print version

MythBuster Adam Savage: 3 Ways to Fix U.S. Science Education

by Popular Mechanics

Thanks to SPS for the link.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4279828.html

MythBuster Adam Savage: 3 Ways to Fix U.S. Science Education

When Jamie Hyneman and I speak at teacher conventions, we always draw a grateful crowd. They tell us Thursday mornings are productive because students see us doing hands-on science Wednesday nights on our show MythBusters, and they want to talk about it. These teachers are so dedicated, but they have difficulty teaching for the standardized tests they're given with the budgets they're not given. It's one reason the U.S. is falling behind other countries in science: By 2010, Asia will have 90 percent of the world's Ph.D. scientists and engineers. We're not teachers, but our show has taught us a lot about how to get people interested in science. Here are three humble suggestions that might help reinvigorate American science education.

1. Let students get their hands dirty.
It's really difficult to absorb things just by being told about them—I know I don't learn well that way. If students could get their hands dirty in science class they'd be more likely to internalize information. You can lecture about the surface tension of water, but it's not as effective as conducting an experiment with a needle and a single beam balance. Jamie and I are in touch with a lot of teachers from industrial engineering programs, and one of them told us he thinks our show has helped shift the emphasis from the strictly theoretical to a more hands-on approach. (For an example of kids doing down-and-dirty engineering, click here.)

2. Yes, spend more money on science.
We like to do things on the cheap at MythBusters, and we often find the most elegant solution is also the least expensive. But we still need significant resources. It drives me crazy that one of the first things to go when educational budgets get slashed is science supplies for kids to play with, so students end up just listening to explanations of scientific concepts. MythBusters is not a show where two guys read about stuff—it's two guys doing stuff. When we need a valve to fire a baseball at nearly the speed of sound, we get it. Most of my friends who are grade school teachers pay for their own supplies. People say, "You can't just throw money at the problem." By all means throw money at the problem! Learning science by experi�mentation yields innovation, inspiration, intuition and fascination.

3. Celebrate mistakes.
A good scientist will tell you that being wrong can be just as interesting as being right. The same holds for our show. We love hearing from fans who challenge our conclusions—especially kids. We gave a talk at the Uni�versity of Florida, and a 12-year-old girl asked us why, when we tested whether elephants are afraid of mice, we only used white mice. She was right; we should have tested different�colored ones. For our fuel-efficiency myth, windows versus a/c, we drove two cars at 45 mph until they ran out of gas; our data showed that driving with the windows open was more efficient. But a fan pointed out that over a certain speed, open windows create so much drag that a/c is more efficient. We repeated the test at 55 mph—and the fan was right. Kids need to know that teachers and textbooks don't have all the answers—and that's okay. Sometimes, even a failed experiment can be a good learning experience.

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1. Comment #239805 by RichardofYork on August 30, 2008 at 11:04 am

Not many people like to be told their wrong , even if it leads to a better understanding and more accurate results and conclusions

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2. Comment #239814 by BigJohn on August 30, 2008 at 11:21 am

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/homophones.aspx

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3. Comment #239815 by phasmagigas on August 30, 2008 at 11:21 am

RichardOfYork

Not many people like to be told their wrong

without jumping on the atheist bandwagon i think theres some truth in that with many people, atheists are ready to be proven wrong when they 'pass over', the theist disqualifies him/her self from ever knowing their world view is wrong (well unless its not their particular god of course!)

i walk tall ready to have my world view shattered.

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4. Comment #239819 by AoClay on August 30, 2008 at 11:29 am

I'm certainly a bit of a "statist" with the twelve year old girl. Florida and decent questions usually aren't good friend, it seems, so hurray.

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5. Comment #239821 by cerad on August 30, 2008 at 11:34 am

The Myth Buster's website has a section for posting suggestions on things to test. I once proposed testing to see if, during crucifixion, a nail through a palm was sufficient to support the person's weight. As opposed to using nails through the wrist. Sadly, they turned my idea down.

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6. Comment #239823 by Spinoza on August 30, 2008 at 11:39 am

Not many people like to be told their wrong , even if it leads to a better understanding and more accurate results and conclusions

I have a feeling BigJohn was hinting at it, but...

THEY'RE.

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7. Comment #239824 by m-man on August 30, 2008 at 11:50 am

Cerad

ive read about those tests that have been done a few times by different people, and the results are what you would expect, a nail through the hand will not hold your weight,

there are some exceptions, such as if your feet are supported...etc

but i believe that most crucifixions had the persons hands just tied to the cross beam.

as well most of the crucifixions took place on a 'T' shaped device, not a 't' cross looking one.

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8. Comment #239829 by Border Collie on August 30, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Sounds good. But, in the US you'd need release forms forty miles long and a staff attorney before kids could get their hands 'dirty' in a science class. I can see the lawsuits on the horizon.

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9. Comment #239839 by No Religion on August 30, 2008 at 12:20 pm

Letting kids get their hands dirty is a great way to teach them the Scientific Method; therefore, teaching them critical thinking.

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10. Comment #239840 by salon_1928 on August 30, 2008 at 12:20 pm

most of the crucifixions took place on a 'T' shaped device, not a 't' cross looking one.

According to a witness friend of mine, it was an 'I' shaped device. i.e. a stake. Those witnesses, always wanting to be different...

Anyway, I love Mythbusters. I always crack up when I see the clip of Adam saying: I reject your reality and substitute my own

Stu

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11. Comment #239845 by happinessiseasy on August 30, 2008 at 12:30 pm

BigJohn and Spinoza, I was actually giving RichardOfYork the benefit of the doubt. I figured he was trying to "proove" that point.

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12. Comment #239846 by BlueMosquito on August 30, 2008 at 12:32 pm

One of the real problems with the teaching of science is that we don't teach it as a process. It's cook-book science with predictable outcomes.

I am a High School Biology teacher, and over the last few years I have learned to detest the labs in the textbooks and lab manuals.

A previous poster hit it on the head - teach the PROCESS of science. Plan experiments where you do NOT know the outcome and students must generate hypothesis, control variables, etc. THIS IS SCIENCE - we do not always know the outcome.

It can be very simple too - studying the effects of enzymes using the browning of apples... effects of gatorade or caffiene on urine production.

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13. Comment #239850 by debaser71 on August 30, 2008 at 12:46 pm

The problem with science education is that in our culture science isn't valued.

Also any time there is an article about science education no one ever wants to say the obvious. SCIENCE IS HARD. IMO not everyone has the apptitude for doing science. Just like not everyone is good at singing or drawing.

I think there should be science appreciation classes.

eta: For me, lab...like bio lab, chem lab, physics lab, etc were mostly a waste. Counting pendulum swings or timing the acceleration due to gravity etc for me, are boring and eat up waaaaay too much time. For me, I'd rather wet my brain than get my hands dirty and from how most students hate their science lab classes I think they agree.

The only lab I enjoyed was in college when I started taking up geology.

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14. Comment #239854 by Notcrowingbutyawning on August 30, 2008 at 12:54 pm

Hands on and hands dirty, make it gleefully messy and designed to explore, involve them every step of the way in the process and you'll only fail if that child is forever beyond reach anyhow!

You can make it as simple as studying gravity. Ask a child why heavy things don't go up when you drop them, and go from there. In essence, let them discover the law of gravity for themselves and only reveal Newton when they've pretty much understood what he was saying to begin with.

Think of all the subsets you can get out of it along the way... Why did this smash? Why did this bounce? Why did this just plop? Did any of them take longer to hit the ground? Then why?

Makes me want to go out and realise it all again. :O)

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15. Comment #239876 by Art Vandelay on August 30, 2008 at 1:43 pm

This should read, "Not many people like to be told they're wrong"

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16. Comment #239936 by RationalistHomeTchr on August 30, 2008 at 3:16 pm

"Mythbusters" is a great show, and Adam's ideas are wonderful.

However, getting hands dirty can be tough in the current US school system. My husband teaches biology in a high school, and it is difficult to get hands dirty in a 50-minute period, stuck in a classroom, with 35 students. He does do LOADS more labs with his students than most of the h.s. teachers in the district, but not as many as he'd like.

Also, he is "supposed" to get through a certain amount of info. The fact that most students don't particularly absorb the materials he has to rush through are quite beside the point to administration; he, the teacher, is still supposed to "cover" it.

As homeschoolers, our own kids had the opportunity to take weekly field trips, get their hands dirty with projects that take lots longer than 50 minutes, and delve into whatever interested them at the time. Geology at 8 and oceanography at 13? Fine! Bring it on!

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17. Comment #239941 by steveroot on August 30, 2008 at 3:24 pm

6. Comment #239823 by Spinoza on August 30, 2008 at 11:39 am

R.o.Y.: "Not many people like to be told their wrong..."

I have a feeling BigJohn was hinting at it, but...

THEY'RE.

D'oh! Beaten to it by a deceased philosopher. ;-)

However, *some* people like to be told their sins, or that they're sinners. Present company excepted!
Ste5e

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18. Comment #239993 by Laurie Fraser on August 30, 2008 at 6:27 pm

They're going there for their holiday.

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19. Comment #239998 by 8teist on August 30, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Laurie maaaaaate, what happen last night??????

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20. Comment #240003 by Laurie Fraser on August 30, 2008 at 6:40 pm

Brain explosions were the order of the day, 8. Pathetic. Lote Daiquiri should be tarred and feathered.

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21. Comment #240007 by J Mac on August 30, 2008 at 6:45 pm

They're their there-there there.

Actually its a grammatically complete and logically sensible (though odd) sentence. No more odd though than Pinker's "Buffalo buffalo, buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo buffalo."

My odd sentence means that a group of people ARE their own comfort in a given place.

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22. Comment #240012 by Laurie Fraser on August 30, 2008 at 6:53 pm

Fair enough, but WTF does Pinker's sentence mean?

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23. Comment #240013 by J Mac on August 30, 2008 at 6:55 pm

Well lets see.

I know it's based on 4 meanings of Buffalo.

1) The city in New York: noun
2) Reference to people (or animals) from that city: adjective
3) The animal: noun
4) An act of charging at someone or something: verb

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24. Comment #240014 by J Mac on August 30, 2008 at 6:56 pm

2-3,2-3-4,4-3

I guess I didn't need the first definition.

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25. Comment #240128 by SmilingAtheist on August 30, 2008 at 11:51 pm

One of the things I remember most from my high school years and earlier school years is about being able to 'do' things. These days with all the liability claims and basically being sued for looking at someone funny, it's sad to see our younger generations not being able to do anything that I was. Cotton wool kids anyone? Being a kid is pretty crap these days if you ask me.

I love the Mythbusters though and I think Adam is right on the money. You can't always learn things without doing them, you can't let science become obsolete and you have to provide programs and funding for science. Need I say more?

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26. Comment #240286 by upsidedawn on August 31, 2008 at 9:26 am

Reading the Adam Savage article on Wikipedia, I noticed that Adam wanted to devote a Mythbusters show to proving natural selection over creationism:

"Let's do natural selection. I'm sick of fifty percent of this country thinking creationism is reasonable. It's appalling."

The Skepticality podcast/mp3 with this quotation is here.Great show, Mythbusters. If only they would listen to him and take this on.

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27. Comment #240301 by BeyondBelief on August 31, 2008 at 9:59 am

How about a diversion from grammatics, to ask, "Are these really the three most important ways to improve science education in America?"

Granted, all three are good. But with a little effort it's pretty easy to add some better ones (IMHO).

1. Spend significant time each year teaching and re-teaching concepts of scientific method. It's only 5 steps, right? Giving students a methodological framework with which to approach the world will help them in EVERY facet of living. The world needs more
Stackers

2. Demand competence at deductive logic, improving the conclusions one draws, perhaps preventing erroneous cause/effect "miracles".

3. Rigorously teach rhetorical logical fallacies, so that students can critically read the truth claims being made by others and eviscerate the worthless ones.

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28. Comment #240308 by phiwilli on August 31, 2008 at 10:15 am

Just a reminder that despite boring lectures, teaching to the test, inadequate resources, etc. there still are some students who become fascinated with science, who like a good lecture, and get "turned on" to science even though their lab experiences were of little value. I did. But then probably I would have even more enthusiastic had I experienced some of the educational improvements mentioned above.

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29. Comment #240318 by J Mac on August 31, 2008 at 10:44 am

Yes phiwilli, some students will be into science no matter how badly it is presented, and some will be against it no matter how well it is presented. But good teaching is looking for two things:

1) get those undecided or apathetic kids in the middle to take an interest, and
2) allow the interested students to achieve more.

I like you was interested in science regardless, but I often wonder how much more I could have achieved if the information was presented well. How much more could our society achieve? These are not empty questions, we are fighting the clock on many diseases, every year a cure for aids or cancer is delayed that many more people die. We need students not simply to make it through, we need them to achieve their full potential.

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30. Comment #240331 by RichardofYork on August 31, 2008 at 11:08 am

Yes They're , i did edit it from "there" once :P
i think it was the shock of psoting first comment. I did mean the average joe not the average thinker the thinker delights in being put right when wrong , I hope

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31. Comment #240650 by NewSkeptic on August 31, 2008 at 7:19 pm

3. Celebrate mistakes.

I always think of RD's recounting, in TGD, of the time when the long-taught theory of one of his professors was disproved by a visiting (American?) professor, and the subsequent gratitude of the local professor which was accompanied by the euphoric applause of the class.

It is the joy of learning, rather than that perceived 'joy' of thinking that you're right, that is the true fun in life. That just never gets tiring.

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32. Comment #240664 by Godfree Gordon on August 31, 2008 at 8:21 pm

CRUCIFIXION

When nails were used they were placed below the wrist - there is a carilagenous band around the wrist which "hangs" on the nail.

Makes a bit of a joke then about the stigmata...

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33. Comment #240687 by Don't Be Dumb on August 31, 2008 at 9:52 pm

@BeyondBelief #27

I think you and Mr. Savage are talking about different things. Your suggestions are about curriculum, or "what" teachers should be teaching. Mr. Savage's suggestions are about instruction, or "how" teachers should be teaching. Both are important aspects of a good education, but since teachers have varying amounts of control over the curriculum they teach (and it's usually not much), it makes more sense at a conference for teachers to be talking about how to improve instruction.

Just to make my point a little bit more in case it was unclear, "Spending time teaching and re-teaching the scientific method" is an important curriculum decision, but doesn't necessarily ensure that any of the students will actually get it. It probably is the right thing to try to teach, but without the right teaching methods that isn't going to get through. I'm sure that many of us on here succeeded in lecture style classes where we were just told to learn things and did, but that isn't normal. There is a lot more to teaching than "demanding" that students learn something. Getting kids' hands dirty, and letting them try their own ideas, and celebrating their mistakes are ways that Mr. Savage (and I) think we could get students to better learn what we want them to learn.

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34. Comment #240793 by dvespertilio on September 1, 2008 at 3:49 am

Hear, Hear to the three suggestions noted in the article! As a failed middle school science teacher (couldn't handle the kids, the school politics or the budget cuts) I applaud anyone who tells it like it is when it comes to teaching. By the way, one of those Asian PhD's is my Korean brother-in-law who is just now wrapping up his doctorate in structural engineering at the University of Texas in Austin. In general, the Asian science and engineering graduates put us all to shame. At this rate, the US will be, in about 15-20 more years, a second or third rate backwater country good for dumping cheap crappy exports and providing good cheap (and dumb)labor, assuming, that is, that robots abroad won't be doing most of the significant labor anyway. WAKE UP, AMERICA! We have some serious problems facing us!

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35. Comment #241405 by Misha Vargas on September 2, 2008 at 7:32 am

A late correction for J Mac:

The original sentence was actually not "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo", but "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo", because the buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo aren't just any buffalo, they're buffalo buffalo.

I hope that clears things up.

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36. Comment #241599 by NewEnglandBob on September 2, 2008 at 6:44 pm

17. Comment #239941 by steveroot:

D'oh! Beaten to it by a deceased philosopher. ;-)

There are no deceased philosophers. They just do not speak as loudly after their hearts stop.

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37. Comment #241603 by secondsoprano on September 2, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Jmac and Misha, it makes better sense with capital letters:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

It's then quite obvious that it means "Bison from Buffalo, NY, who are intimidated by other bison from Buffalo, also happen to intimidate other bison from Buffalo."

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