Why should we bother with science?

We take for granted the inclusion of science on the curriculum and expect our students to engage with a subject which is often challenging, abstract and seemingly unrelated to their experiences and aspirations. Never has engaging young people in science being more important yet at the same time never has it been more challenging. It is right that our students should understand why they are being required to study, for example Hooke’s Law, and merely saying “it is useful” is both unhelpful at best for the student and it misses an opportunity to understand and explain the value of studying such content.

In this session we considered various stakeholder perspectives on why science should be taught, from a state-centric perspective focusing on usefulness, especially of certain skills, in employment and hence for the economy, and also the importance of having a scientifically literate citizenry. Focus shifted to the students and how we engage them in science and presenting four lenses through which we can see the purpose of science education, utility, culture, curiosity and citizenship. When thinking about utility we kept away from the idea that a small minority of students may find such-and-such useful and important for future study and employment as this is an exclusive take on what should be an inclusive and comprehensive curriculum. Instead the focus was around skills and approaches used in science and that have society-wide usefulness. A citizenship perspective focused on the importance of helping students trust science (it is not about belief), knowing how science is done, and addressing misinformation. With curiosity we considered the simple joy of science, science for its own sake, and the “awe and wonder” factor, and with culture we looked at how science is an integral part of our collective story, how it drives history and society, and how it is driven.

Students deserve to know why they have to learn science, and the reasons will differ from place to place, school to school and class to class, but this session ultimately made the claim that for the benefits of students and of society we should be able to give students a good reason for why they should want to learn what we are teaching. The next time a student asks about why they are learning such-and-such, you should have a decent answer!