Mon 09|06|10

Low science scores

Submitted by The City Wire staff on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 10:18am.

U.S. K-12 teachers get high marks for science smarts, but their grade drops significantly when it comes to connecting learning to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) career options, according to a new youth survey conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of ASQ (American Society for Quality).

The survey shows that 63% of youth say their teachers are not doing a good job of talking to them about engineering careers, and 42% feel their teachers aren’t good at showing them how science can be used in a career.

“Teachers are doing a great job of getting kids excited about science and it’s clear that they could be doing more to encourage students to explore engineering and science careers, ASQ noted in a statement.

The survey was conducted in December and asked 1,134 students in grades 3-12 to provide an A-F scaled report card on their science teachers’ skills in the classroom.

SURVEY FINDINGS
• Eighty-five percent of students say their teachers deserve at least a “B” grade when it comes to knowledge about science topics with 55% giving them an “A.”

• Nearly one third of students give their teachers a “C” or lower for making science more exciting and fun to learn and assigning fun hands-on projects in the classroom.

• Younger students (3-6 grades) rate their science teachers higher for making science exciting and hands-on than older students (7-12 grades) rate their science teachers.

• Girls (20%) are more likely than boys (12%) to give teachers a failing “F” grade for discussing engineering as a future career. Also, 48% of girls give a C or lower grade for showing how science can be used in a future career, compared to 38% for boys.

• Eight in 10 students in grades 3-12 (80%) give their teachers at least a “B” for allocating equal attention to boys and girls in science class and 50% give them an “A.”

• Seventy-two percent of students in 3-12 grades think a person needs to do well in science and math to get a good paying job in the future. As students get older (7-12 grades) however, they are less likely to believe that science and math are necessary to getting a good paying job.