This book is a guide for teachers, student teachers, teacher educators, science education researchers and curriculum developers who wish to get to grips with the vast and complex literature encompassing the history of science, philosophy of science and sociology of science (HPS).

Science is a way of knowing about the world. At once a process, a product, and an institution, science enables people to both engage in the construction of new knowledge as well as use information to achieve desired ends. Access to scienceâ€"whether using knowledge or creating itâ€"necessitates some level of familiarity with the enterprise and practice of science: we refer to this as science literacy. Science literacy is desirable not only for individuals, but also for the health and well- being of communities and society. More than just basic knowledge of science facts, contemporary definitions of science literacy have expanded to include understandings of scientific processes and practices, familiarity with how science and scientists work, a capacity to weigh and evaluate the products of science, and an ability to engage in civic decisions about the value of science. Although science literacy has traditionally been seen as the responsibility of individuals, individuals are nested within communities that are nested within societiesâ€"and, as a result, individual science literacy is limited or enhanced by the circumstances of that nesting. Science Literacy studies the role of science literacy in public support of science. This report synthesizes the available research literature on science literacy, makes recommendations on the need to improve the understanding of science and scientific research in the United States, and considers the relationship between scientific literacy and support for and use of science and research.

Shamos argues that a meaningful scientific literacy cannot be achieved in the first place, and the attempt is a misuse of human resources on a grand scale. He is skeptical about forecasts of "critical shortfalls in scientific manpower" and about the motives behind crash programs to get more young people into the science pipeline.

A science book for the general reader that is informative enough to be a popular textbook and yet well-written enough to appeal to general readers. “Hazen and Trefil [are] unpretentious—good, down-to-earth, we-can-explain-anything science teachers, the kind you wish you had but never did.”—The New York Times Book Review Knowledge of the basic ideas and principles of science is fundamental to cultural literacy. But most books on science are often too obscure or too specialized to do the general reader much good. Science Matters is a rare exception—a science book that is informative enough for introductory courses in high school and college, and yet lucid enough for readers uncomfortable with scientific jargon and complicated mathematics. And now, revised and expanded, it is up-to-date, so that readers can enjoy Hazen and Trefil's refreshingly accessible explanations of the most recent developments in science, from particle physics to biotechnology.

Scientific literacy is part of national science education curricula worldwide. In this volume, an international group of distinguished scholars offer new ways to look at the key ideas and practices associated with promoting scientific literacy in schools and higher education. The goal is to open up the debate on scientific literacy, particularly around the tension between theoretical and practical issues related to teaching and learning science. Uniquely drawing together and examining a rich, diverse set of approaches and policy and practice exemplars, the book takes a pragmatic and inclusive perspective on curriculum reform and learning, and presents a future vision for science education research and practice by articulating a more expansive notion of scientific literacy.

Scientific literacy is approached on the premise that language is key to understand the nature of both learning and participation, in scientists’ practices as well as in liberal education for citizenship. Some of the questions that are addressed in the book are: • What does it take to be able to participate in different arenas in society involving science? • How does everyday language relate to scientific language? • How can students’ texts be analyzed to gain insights into their learning? • How can images be analyzed alongside verbal language? This book offers a thorough introduction to key ideas in M. A. K. Halliday’s systemic functional grammar through examples and practical analysis. Detailed analysis is offered of science textbooks and curriculum documents, classroom talk, experimental work, and students’ discussions of complex environmental issues. Further, an analytical model guiding the design and analysis of science learning discourses is introduced. The book starts with introducing excerpts from whole-class discussions, group work, experimental reports and textbooks as text-in-context. From this starting point, key aspects of language are carefully explained. The role of grammatical metaphor in the development of science knowledge is an important topic throughout the book. Tools for analyzing multimodal representations, intertextuality and multiple voices are also among the topics covered for understanding and analyzing school science discourses.

In an era when many in the science community feel that science is under attack, In Defense of Science explains why ordinary citizens need to have an understanding of science, its methods, and its groundbreaking discoveries. The authors debunk several misconceptions of science and scientists, and advocate that science is an integral part of society and everyday life. This book begins with an introduction to science and its basic concepts, including a brief and entertaining history of science and scientific discoveries, before taking on current views of science in society. It surveys the many sources of our ideas of science, including pop culture, classics of literature, news media, and political discourse. Much of the information from these sources tends to mislead, and the only way to guard against such misinformation is to become scientifically literate, and promote scientific literacy in society. The book therefore delves into the reasons that so many people do not understand basic scientific principles and do not keep up with scientific breakthroughs, and finishes by examining the current state of science education. It includes many resources for further reading, and is presented in an engaging and entertaining way.