Some weeks ago, while my sister and niece were in the throes of their preparations for the Science Fair (which I referred to as the Science FEAR), I wrote at length about the things about that process that seemed wrong to me.
More recently, I read an article in which the author talked about the lack of engagement of employees to their work. In responding to some of the arguments advanced, I suggested that perhaps the problem was that hiring managers were selecting based on the wrong criteria. Today's transaction processor I suggested, (someone who can perform a specific task or set of tasks), will not grow up to be tomorrow's transformational thinker. The skill sets are entirely different. In addition, while transaction processing can be easily learned, transformational thinking cannot.
So what is the connection between the two you ask? Well, as I see it, it's this: it's thinking and the teaching thereof.
The science fair is about more than just science...or it should be. The science fair, and the teaching of scientific thinking is also about the teaching of thinking. If well done, the annual ritual of the science fair can lead to greater depth in our children's thinking and greater depth in the nation's thinking as a whole and ultimately to greater productivity and creativity, I believe, in the workforce. Given that not too many weeks ago it was reported on the evening news that by the end of the sophomore year of college most students show little, if any, improvement in their higher order/critical thinking skills, I'm thinking that investing in a new approach to the science fair can't possibly hurt.
So why do we need to care about the development of critical thinking skills? Simply put, it's because the future will be won by technologically and scientifically savvy nations. The future will belong to innovators, and innovation is the result of critical thinking.
Innovation is a product of seeing connections that others don't; asking the questions that others won't and then taking the information received and coming up with an answer to a question others don't even know needs to be answered. This is where the science fair, with its emphasis on hypothesizing and hypothesis testing, is key. Science encourages and develops those skills and those are skills that need to be taught, learned, practiced and honed over years if innovative, transformational thinkers are to be the result.
So perhaps we need to revisit the whole science fair paradigm and re-conceptualize the thing. Perhaps we should begin with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey would say. If we begin by asking, "What is it that we want to achieve here?” we might actually have a shot at achieving it and at winning a greater future.
More recently, I read an article in which the author talked about the lack of engagement of employees to their work. In responding to some of the arguments advanced, I suggested that perhaps the problem was that hiring managers were selecting based on the wrong criteria. Today's transaction processor I suggested, (someone who can perform a specific task or set of tasks), will not grow up to be tomorrow's transformational thinker. The skill sets are entirely different. In addition, while transaction processing can be easily learned, transformational thinking cannot.
So what is the connection between the two you ask? Well, as I see it, it's this: it's thinking and the teaching thereof.
The science fair is about more than just science...or it should be. The science fair, and the teaching of scientific thinking is also about the teaching of thinking. If well done, the annual ritual of the science fair can lead to greater depth in our children's thinking and greater depth in the nation's thinking as a whole and ultimately to greater productivity and creativity, I believe, in the workforce. Given that not too many weeks ago it was reported on the evening news that by the end of the sophomore year of college most students show little, if any, improvement in their higher order/critical thinking skills, I'm thinking that investing in a new approach to the science fair can't possibly hurt.
So why do we need to care about the development of critical thinking skills? Simply put, it's because the future will be won by technologically and scientifically savvy nations. The future will belong to innovators, and innovation is the result of critical thinking.Innovation is a product of seeing connections that others don't; asking the questions that others won't and then taking the information received and coming up with an answer to a question others don't even know needs to be answered. This is where the science fair, with its emphasis on hypothesizing and hypothesis testing, is key. Science encourages and develops those skills and those are skills that need to be taught, learned, practiced and honed over years if innovative, transformational thinkers are to be the result.
So perhaps we need to revisit the whole science fair paradigm and re-conceptualize the thing. Perhaps we should begin with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey would say. If we begin by asking, "What is it that we want to achieve here?” we might actually have a shot at achieving it and at winning a greater future.
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