Reid Walker gets more and more science students in his high school biology class who want to know the answers and short-circuit the process of discovering them.
The problem, Walker says, is a culture of standardized testing that creates scientists who can fill in bubbles but can’t handle the messiness and imperfections of scientific inquiry.
“It’s all testing, testing, testing,” the Boulder Valley teacher said. “And now, we’re creating kids that think about it that way. … The emphasis is on testing, not on thought.”
Ten years ago, high school classrooms were littered with beakers and chemicals. Now, middle-school students dissect frogs via computer simulation, and elementary-school students read about plants instead of growing them.
“As far as I’m concerned, (standardized testing) is the worst thing that could have happened,” Walker said. “You’re producing scientists that think every experiment has perfect answers.”
The Colorado Student Assessment Program tests third- to fifth-graders in reading, writing and math. However, science teachers note a focus on reading and writing because only eighth- graders are tested in science.
Fifth- and 10th-grade science tests will be added in 2006.
“There are still schools, especially elementary schools, where they tell them, ‘You prepare for the test and don’t teach science. We don’t have time for that,”‘ said Don Maxwell, president of the Colorado Science Teachers Association.
A poor science education affects students as they move into higher education and eventually into the workforce.
Boston University professor Morton Hoffman is one of several scientists who say college freshmen sometimes enter laboratories without the necessary lab skills.
“Inquiry has slid away. There’s a diminution of skills,” said Hoffman, chairman of the division of chemical education of the American Chemical Society. But science teachers say the focus on literacy doesn’t give them time for lab work and teaching kids how to use thermometers and graduated cylinders.
“It’s that kind of teaching that takes more time, but kids are going to learn more in the long run,” said Roscoe Davidson, Colorado deputy education commissioner.
Davidson, who is in favor of standardized tests, said educators who struggle with science education must teach “higher-level thinking skills.”
The additional science CSAP tests are easing some concerns.
Craig Mills works on a pilot program in the Cherry Creek School District where science is taught outside the classroom, similar to a gym or music class.
“The selling point of this project was (that) the science CSAPs are coming next year,” Mills said. “They are really good tests. Everyone’s saying, ‘OK, we have to teach science again.”‘
Still, some educators say testing is never the right answer.
“Mucking around in the dirt like a little kid, picking up earthworms and asking questions – that’s how you learn science,” said Paul Kuerbis, a professor of education at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. “Kids need to learn how to ask questions, realize some of the flaws and make mistakes.”
Staff writer Erin Cox can be reached at 303-820-1474 or ecox@denverpost.com .
