For the Record

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
by Edward Hessler

Please bear with me.

First, some lineage to get to the point. If it is only me that needs this history I apologize for asking you to slog through it. There are no links to any of the agencies mentioned.

National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was founded on March 3, 1863, at the height of the Civil War. It was "charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology."

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) were founded under the NAS charter in 1964 and 1970, respectively. The three Academies work together as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the National Research Council.

President Woodrow Wilson's Executive Order No. 2856 May 11, 1918 requested that the NAS organize a new entity, the National Research Council (NRC).  It was charged with six tasks. I note only the 6th: To gather and collate scientific and technical information at home and abroad, in co-operation with Governmental and other agencies and to render such information available to duly accredited persons.

The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the National Research Council.

In 2016, 376 new publications were released by the NAP. These are the most downloaded titles.

When I viewed these titles several things occurred to me which made me think that this is a good place to stop and let readers decide what they make of these.  I suggest you do this no matter that I decided to rattle on.

I was struck by something that I don't think interferes too much with your analysis of these data.

The titles provide a wide range of evidence for the importance of science in our lives. There isn't much that science doesn't touch.

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas," an NRC publication (2012) states the aim of the effort.  By the end of the 12th grade, students should have gained sufficient knowledge of the practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues, to be critical consumers of scientific information related to their everyday lives, and to continue to learn about science throughout their lives.

This is not deep, discipline-bound literacy these kinds of reports exhibit and require but the kind of literacy that demands evidence rather than bluster and noise when making personal and social decisions.

There are two quotes that inform the kind of literacy which is the aim of the Framework.

First, Victor Hugo:  Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing.

But that first word is so important. How can we make informed decisions without using evidence, reasoning and agreed upon facts?

Second, Richard Feynman: The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.