What’s Wrong with Science Education

The Who and How of Science Education

Who teaches science?

It seems to go one of two ways:

• Someone knows very little science.  It’s easy to think that you only need a surface understanding in order to teach kids–after all, you know more than the kids!
• Someone knows way too much science.  They have an immense knowledge and want to cram as many terms and facts into kids as possible.

How science is taught?

It seems to go one of two ways:

• Science is approachable.  It’s fun.  “Learning science” consists of showy demonstrations or nature journals or reading biographies.
• Science is real. It’s serious. “Learning science” involves reading long strings of information that make no sense and going through the motions without really understanding.

Why This Happens

Often the people who teach science either don’t understand science or don’t understand teaching.  “Experts” in science who author science curricula are usually just some person with a science degree…not a true expert who understands the topic at a level required to explain

What We Need Instead

Science education should build on itself over time so that students develop a deep understanding of how the world works.  By the time they are having to balance equations or memorize the Krebs cycle, they need a foundational knowledge of all the concepts necessary to do this work meaningfully, not by rote.

The right person to guide kids through middle school science must:

• know high school and college science so well that they actually understand it all and know what kids will need in order to build a similar level of understanding.
• understand how learning works in the brain and how to build knowledge, not just stuff a kid full of facts.
• be able to clearly communicate concepts in plain English while also introducing science terms in a way that makes sense so that they become normal words in a child’s vocabulary.

Why Human Biology?

Dr. Robin understood this problem and created Dr. Robin’s School to provide families with the science education their kids need. 

Understanding how kids learn, Dr. Robin started with Human Biology.  We don’t want kids to think that science is nothing but random facts organized into boxes labelled “Chemistry” and “Biology” and “Physics”. Instead, we want students to see that all of science is science and that science is deeply meaningful to them.