IAE Blog

In this IAE Blog entry, I discuss distance learning, learning in face-to-face environments, and learning as one views and interacts with nature and other aspects of the world. The main focus is on the first two, so let me briefly dispense with the third.

Long before we had schools and the three R’s, people learned by themselves through their interactions with the natural world in which they lived. We are built to learn from what we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch in “nature.” A human teacher can help in this mode of learning, but each of us is innately able to learn through interaction with the natural world.

Kindergarten is now well entrenched as a component of precollege education in the United States.

“Since 1977, the percentage of [U.S.] kindergartners enrolled in full-day (in contrast to half-day) programs has nearly tripled, increasing from 28 to 77 percent between 1977 and 2013” (Child Trends Data Bank, n.d.).

How do you rate yourself in terms of your general knowledge of science? Compared to other people, do you think you are below average, about average, or above average?

The Pew Research Center developed a list of a dozen multiple-choice science questions and used them with a nationally representative group of 3,278 randomly selected U.S. adults. The adults were surveyed online and by mail between Aug. 11 and Sept. 3, 2014 (Pew Research Center, 2015).

Please answer to yourself the following two questions:

1. Are you satisfied with your current knowledge of the capabilities, limitations, and functioning of your brain?

The following article provides some interesting insights into science education and fostering creativity among science students.

Giddings, M. (3/29/2011). What kind of scientist are you? The Scientist. Retrieved 3/31/2011 from http://blog.the-scientist.com/2011/03/29/what-kind-of-scientist-are-you/.