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NSF Works Toward A Digital Science Library

Posted by timothy on from the what-the-internet-is-for dept.

An anonymous reader writes "USA Today has an article on the effort of 'More than 100 teams of educators nationwide are working with the National Science Foundation to develop what they hope will be the nation's most comprehensive digital library for the sciences.'" The article describes this library as intended to "support science education at all levels, from pre-kindergarten through postdoctoral research."

7 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. MIT anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Of course, you will have to get background checks to make sure you are completely american.
    "Hey check this guy out. One of his great-grandparents come from France"
    "Terrorist. Notifiy CIA"

  2. GOOGLE can do this by SniffleBear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ermmm... that digital library is basically a search engine for the sciences. And all it does is give you links to other sites. I can find the same information and more with GOOGLE. So what's the difference?

    What a waste of funding, eh?

    1. Re:GOOGLE can do this by steeleye_brad · · Score: 5, Interesting

      From what I've read in the article, it appears that this is more filtered, somehow. Do a search on Google and there is a good chance you will end up with several crap sites with no information. This digital library is (suposedly) pure information, no fluff.

      It looks really promising to me. Hopefully this will be implemented well in schools.

      Oh yeah, and in Soviet Russia, LIBRARIES DIGITALIZE YOU! (couldn't help myself)

    2. Re:GOOGLE can do this by inode_buddha · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The difference is also one of convenience, accuracy (as far as possible, given the media), and using your tax dollar as it was originally intended: "...to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts..." ... sort of like the original ARPAnet, I think. Not the massive hype engine we have today. Not like the Corporate conglonerate wet dream for Marketing. Not for spammers. Not for millions of unused personal web pages, still under construction. Mainly, the difference is one of intent and quality of content, howver subjective those may be.

      --
      C|N>K
  3. There already is... by Maria+D · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ..something of that sort for mathematics on The Math Forum It works moderately well. If you want an answer to a well-defined question, go there.

    There is always a tension between linear, or nested, or hierarchical... still "linear-like" :-) nature of those databases and general non-linearity of the field. I do not quite know where this thought is going, but I hope someone will elaborate :-)

  4. Won't there be problems... by rusty0101 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... with states that mandate Creation education in public schools?

    I personally think the idea is good, but when states can mandate that schools use science books that teach Creationism, then either the database will be required to conform (very bad), the schools will not be able to use the database (bad), or the students will have the fun of laughing at their state legislators who mandated that the schools teach bad science (best possible result).

    Then again, I could be wrong. God may smite me with a bolt of lightning today and call me to task for my words. I don't expect it, but then I wouldn't would I?

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
  5. The problem is teachers. by bcrowell · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The problem with K-12 science education in the U.S. is that they can't hire enough teachers who know about math and science. Until they get around that bottleneck, nothing is going to improve. Right now, a very high percentage of math and science teachers are people who have no bachelor's degree in math or science. They're often PE teachers who got tired of throwing out balls.

    Experience has shown over and over again that you can create wonderful science books, lab curricula, etc., but they won't work well in the classroom if the teachers are unqualified.

    There are two things that need to change: (1) K-12 math and science teachers need to get paid more money, so that the career is competitive with the other job options available to a person with a math or science degree. (2) States need to get more serious about having high expectations for students. Right now, students tend to limp through lots of math courses without having the faintest idea of what they're doing. That makes it a pretty unattractive career if you're thinking od teaching high-school math: you get a bunch of students who aren't ready to do the stuff you're supposed to be teaching them.

    --
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