Teachers Need to Know Science is Fascinating

This is a news report of a speech given by Lawrence Krauss to the Canadian Association of Physicists' Congress. Many of the things he said are plainly obvious.

According to a presentation Krauss delivered to the Canadian Association of Physicists' Congress Tuesday, 90 per cent of U.S. middle school science teachers have no post-secondary education in science themselves.

The result is an army of teachers terrified of and uncomfortable with the material they're teaching, and consequently, a class of equally squeamish students, Krauss said.

It is from my personal observation that many students that I've encountered in college who hate physics, tend to have bad physics teachers while in high school. So high school science teachers certainly play a very significant role in the student's outlook and perception of science, and certainly true for physics. Yet, many of these teachers either have no sufficient background, insufficient resources, or are not given any incentive to promote the subject they are teaching.

It is why I continue to highlight and applaud a few of these high school teachers that go out of their way to make physics fascinating to the students. The system they work in really give them no incentive to do that, yet, they still do. I can only guess that they themselves sees physics as fascinating, and want to convey that to the students.

So yes, teachers NEED to know that science is fascinating. It is the only way to give the students the sense of enthusiasm for what is being taught.

Zz.