Taking action to save science!

I feel that each day I make some effort to keep science on the minds of my fellow teachers and administrators.  I even found an article tonight as I completed this week's assignments and emailed it to my building administrator.  In a nutshell, the article shows recent research showing that literacy and science achievement increase significantly when literacy skills are practiced using science related materials in relation to literacy lessons with excerpts from unrelated pieces of literature.  I have often fought the notion that literacy strategies should be taught in science class.  Certainly they can be used in the reading of any appropriate literature but not in place of science.  In fact, it has been my premise that literacy strategies should be taught using other content area materials.  The cross curricular connections would be invaluable and would help to deepen content and conceptual knowledge.  The greatest challenge I face each day is from the administration wanting to push literacy and mathematics at the expense of science.  Some of my colleagues have followed suit.  They know that only the math and literacy scores are being used to determine AYP (adequate yearly progress).  So given that idea, they are even much more likely to take the alloted time from science to add more literacy and math instruction.  It has been so frustrating.  I do have most of the teachers in my building on board with the science crisis we are facing.  I cannot honestly say the same for the rest of the elementary teachers in my district, however.

What's Our Sputnik?

Thomas E. Friedman's New York Times article was a bit shocking for me because I was surprised to see such a politically charged article in our required readings.  I completely understand the need for it, though.  I understand that we are at a crossroads in our country and we need to shake things up. Although Sputnik preceded my existence by about 15 years, I do understand what effect it must have had.  I do think we need a 2011 Sputnik but I don't think we will be able to get out of our own way to see it happen.  I see the push for science slipping away since I began teaching about 15 years ago.  It is scary to me.  At first I thought that the math and literacy push would go away like so many other education initiatives.  I just kept teaching my hands on science my way and pretended that the state standards would not come knocking for me. Of course, it eventually did.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't disagree with a uniform way of ensuring that all students and teachers are held to high standards, that should be a given.  I do worry that in doing so, we are actually making things worse for ourselves in a global society where math, science and technology drives so much of what is going on in our world today. I worry that without our Sputnik, our children will not be competitive in the global economy and we will have failed to to our best to prepare them.