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I agree with Greene on the way science education is taught today. I don’t think that giving students tons of technical details is the right way to approach it; in fact, I think that it simply bores the children. Until my 7th grade biology class I was never particularly interested in science because I found it too cold and uninteresting. Though the class wasn’t really taught differently, I found the subject matter interesting and pursued science from then on. Unfortunately, many children are not as curious about science as I am. Consequently, they are turned off to science completely because of their classroom experience. I don’t think that there are any real excuses for not teaching students the bigger picture or amazing discoveries, though I do think that Sarah may have a point about the lack of school funding. In order to improve the educational system there needs to be more funding, particularly in a state like mine (CA).

I would like to quickly add that there have been many programs that I have loved that helped explore the greater concepts of science. The show NOVA, for example, first made me realize that I wanted to become a scientist. I still remember one show I saw that told me that many of the stars I see may already have “died” millions of years ago. A statement like that definitely put me in awe. There are also radio programs such as Radio Lab that cover recent and relevant discoveries and important concepts. Radio Lab recently had Greene on and he was able to talk about the possibility of multiple universes and what would go on in them. These sorts of things amaze me and I am sure that they amaze other people and young children. Is it really so difficult to integrate concepts like these into the classroom?