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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."

4 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. 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)

  3. 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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  4. Re:Is my dream... by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful
    No, I'm afraid it's not your dream. Your dream included real research, without an attached social and political agenda.

    This will be Bush science.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."