The interview concerns the role of scientific books in the Italian society from the 19th century until today. Having played an important role in the formation of a national scientific community, science popularization has offered a ceaseless high-quality production during the past two centuries. On the other hand, even today scientific publications do reach only a narrow élite. In the author’s opinion, only the school system has the power to widen the public for science in Italy.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. Soon to be made into an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, this New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored”
This proposed four-year effort envisions a new approach to promoting science literacy through science journalism as a subject of study. It is premised on a critical set of assumptions: (a) Most citizens have the need to interpret scientific information found in popular media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, online resources, science-related television programs); (b) science journalism provides reliable, well-researched science information; (c) authentic science writing provides motivation to learn; and (d) standards and rubrics specifically developed for evaluating students' science-related expository text do not exist. Thus, the project approaches science journalism as a means to assist students to investigate and coherently write about contemporary science and to learn to base assertions and descriptions on reliable, publicly available sources. To this end, the project aims to develop, pilot, and evaluate a model of instruction that focuses on the following aspects: (a) Identifying questions of both personal and public interest; (b) evaluating contemporary science-related issues; (c) making available highly regarded sources of information as exemplars (in-print, online, interviews); (d) synthesizing information; (e) assessing information based on fact-checking using the five Ws (who, what, where, when, and why); and (f) coherently explaining claims and evidence. A hypothesis and a set of research questions guide this effort. The hypothesis is the following: If participating students successfully attain the fundamental elements of the proposed model, then they will become more literate and better critical consumers and producers of scientific information. The main guiding research question of the proposed activity is the following: Does the teaching of science journalism using an apprenticeship model, reliable data sources, and science-specific writing standards improve high school students' understanding of science-related public literacy? Secondary questions include (a) Is the teaching of science journalism an efficacious, replicable and sustainable model for improving science literacy?; (b) How useful are science-related standards and rubrics for scaffolding and evaluating students' science writing and science literacy?; and (c) What is the nature of the engagement in science that this apprenticeship invites?
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alan NewmanJoseph PolmanE. Wendy SaulCathy FarrarAlan Newman