A Sampling of Basic Life Science Literacy in a College Population

Abstract

This type of event occurs frequently in today's life science classrooms. Present-day students are not learning the basics of their subjects either because they are not being taught the material or they are not retaining much of the material that is being taught. In a recent National Geographic Society survey about countries of the world, for example, American students placed last among 10 nations on their knowledge of international geography. Only three out of every 10 American participants, for example, could find Vietnam on a map. Fourteen percent of the students could not locate the U.S. on a world globe (National Geographic Society 1988). Most of the research done over the past decade on the quality of an education in the United States, along with declining national achievement test scores, has pointed to a deteriorating academic literacy. One of the most obvious areas of national academic decline is in science education. Audrey Champagne, co-director of the Department of Education's National Center for Improving Science Education, states that, Many Americans, even those who are otherwise well-educated, have little understanding of science and how it affects their standards of living. Nor do they possess the intellectual skills to act effectively on scientific matters that they encounter in their personal, professional, or civic experiences (Champagne 1989a). In addition, the number of jobs requiring basic knowledge of science is increasing and will soon reach a point where the jobs cannot be filled by our scientifically literate work force. This will lead to the export of modern technologies to countries that still value science and are producing large numbers of science technology graduates (Hively 1988). In a recent comparison of the 13 most industrialized nations of the world, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement listed American high school students as eleventh in chemistry, ninth in physics and thirteenth in biology. Another report found that the majority of American students stop taking math and science courses by the end of their sophomore year in high school; only one percent study mathematics through calculus, a subject taken by more than 25 percent of secondary school students in Japan. This has affected the number of baccalaureate degrees in science and engineering awarded to American students. Bachelor degrees in these areas slipped below 20 percent this year. This compares to almost 30 percent of these degrees in Japan and more than 40 percent in England and France (National Assessment of Educational Progress 1988). Literacy surveys taken by the U.S. citizens reflects this lack of general knowledge about science and technology. For example, in a survey by Jon Miller of Northern Illinois University, 45 percent of adults knew that the earth revolved around the sun and only 43 percent knew that electrons were smaller than atoms. Moreover, the vast majority of the sample (88 percent) also thought that astrology was based on scientific principles and 64 percent reported that lasers were based on sound waves. Sixty-three percent did not know that dinosaurs became extinct millions of years before the earliest humans roamed the earth. How knowledgable are people in the basic life sciences? School guidance counselors indicate that biology is the last science course taken by most students in school. One might, therefore, expect the understanding of biology to be higher than it is in the other sciences. Surely if a survey of life science knowledge was given to students that had graduated from high school and were attending college, the chance of obtaining good results would be quite high.