Why an Informal Science/Math Intervention for Schools?

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• Many people, both young and old, exhibit a lack of scientific/mathematical literacy.
• U.S. students generally perform poorly in the sciences and mathematics compared to students in other nations.
• Lacking a scientific/mathematical literacy, citizenry can not make informed decisions about policies that are important to their well being such as health issues, gene modified organisms, nuclear power plants, levels of pollutants allowed by governmental rulings, etc.  This lack of literacy can allow special interest groups to make the decisions for the population that are detrimental to the entire city as well as certain sub-populations within the city.
• Science/mathematics literacy offers a way to improve one’s way in life in concrete ways in the everyday world.  This includes enhanced decision making capabilities about personal health, fiscal transactions, family issues and employment/career possibilities
• A scientifically and mathematically literate population is more likely to be productive in economic spheres of the city and in local community involvement.
• Experiential learning, which includes inquiry based, hands-on constructivism and contextualization of science and math, has been shown to be effective as an intervention, giving the participants a higher degree of scientific literacy than they previously possessed.
• Informal science education interventions which are predominantly experiential are generally to be found outside of the normal school day and/or school location.  These outside venues include museums, libraries, community centers, movie theatres and even playgrounds.
• The constraints of public schools make it difficult to include constructivist, experiential learning in the day-to-day curriculum that would help raise scientific/mathematical literacy for all.
• A well-planned informal science intervention that will include experiential learning, inquiry based, hands-on constructivism, in partnership with public school science education, is a method that can work to improve students’ scientific and mathematical literacy.