In a post titled "High Schoolers and Scientific Controversies," Stanford Neuroblog ponders whether questions from high school students working on an AP English project hint at the state of science education:
...reading the topics chosen by high schoolers as controversial science, I discovered that the public perception of scientific controversy seems remarkably... familiar. One student will write about her opposition for "genetic engineering for human babies". Another, about how "cloning should not be allowed in society". The others write about similar subjects, with different opinions: for versus against. These students are writing about the same controversies as I did in high school (admittedly not *that* long ago), rehashing old arguments that seem to persist even as the scientific fields have moved on.
The post also includes a call to the scientific community to think creatively about educating the public: "Perhaps we need to be considering alternative ways to expose kids and adults alike to scientific concepts and research."
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