“It is hard to overstate the value of teaching science in our secondary schools,” said Sir Paul Nurse,who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. “Not only do we need to educate the next generation of innovators and scientists, we must also provide people with the tools and knowledge they need to engage in the ethical and political issues that modern science continually generates.”
Nurse also believes that in order to engage children in science at school they have to be shown how much fun it can be, and how exciting the discovery process is: “Once they are hooked they will find it much easier to maintain an interest in the latest developments through to adulthood and ultimately help to determine how the results of science are implemented.”
21st Century Science is a UK project that rises to Nurse’s challenge. It is based on the recognition that school science up to the age of 16 has to do two jobs. For all students it must develop scientific literacy so that they can play a full part in a society that is shaped by science and technology. For a minority of students, school science also needs to provide the first stage in their training as scientists or for science-based careers.
In the January issue of Physics World Peter Campbell and Andrew Hunt at the Nuffield Curriculum Centre in London describe these new initiatives in more detail.