Talking Science Education with Dr. Ainissa Ramirez

By Kim Weaver

Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, a science evangelist and science lecturer, is passionate about getting kids of all ages excited about science. Ramirez shatters the science stereotype as a scholar, inventor and revolutionary innovator in her role as director and host of Yale’s “Science Saturdays,” an award-winning series fashioned to introduce children to scientists. She’s written Save Our Science (TED Conferences, 2013) and Newton’s Football (Ballantine Books, 2013).

Here’s a glimpse of our Q&A with Ramirez:

CG: What is science education?

AR: Science education is more than just the memorization of facts, as you and I might remember it to be. Memorized facts alone are not really useful in the 21^st century when we have things like Google. Those facts are just a mouse click away. Science is the art of asking questions and figuring things out. To do that successfully, we need to nurture skills like creativity, encourage curiosity and give students opportunities to learn that failure is not something to be feared, but part of the process of learning and innovating. 

Currently, we are in an age of testing. I would dare say there is too much of it or rather we are undergoing a paralysis of analysis. I liken it to having a patient on a gurney and we are too busy getting all the data we can about them, instead of just treating the patient. 

All this testing is encouraging skills that are counter to what we need in the 21^st century. Children are afraid to try new things because they are scared to be wrong; tests don’t drum up interest in a topic when all the passion has been replaced by anxiety to do well on exams, and tests do nothing to instill creativity. So the crisis does not lie solely in science information but in cultivating passion for learning. That is the biggest tragedy of all.  

CG: Why is it so important to you that young people feel passionate about science?

AR: I want young people to know about science because it is a tool to exercise the brain. In this age of big data, we need individuals that can ask questions and know how to make decisions based on the things they find. The scientific mindset is the key to being successful in the future. This gives children the ability to be makers and creators of the 21^st century and not just consumers of it. A science mindset allows children to be more engaged in the world as citizens, too. They can see the issues that are at hand and, more importantly, science gives them the tools to solve them.

Another thing that science does is it gives kids a chance to be kids. While children may act like adults, they are still growing and many of the stages they need for human development are not being honed by tests. Science teaches children about patience, creativity, trial-and-error, persistence, asking questions and other important skills, all in the context of doing science. We learn in science that things don’t happen overnight (patience), things break and you need to try again (persistence and trial and error) and questions often lead to other questions (curiosity). Learning science makes us more human.

CG: Whatever happened to the science classes of 30, 40 years ago?

AR: I’ll tell you what a science class in the 1890s looked like. Girls were the majority, and in some classes, there were more girls than boys. This sounds like science fiction, but while researching my book called Save Our Science, I stumbled onto a book called What Happened to Our High Schools? by John Latimer, which had tables of science and math class enrollments. I was blown away to know that at one time girls were the majority and there was no discussion that girls could not do science.

So this begs the question: Who let the girls out of science classes? It was a combination of the home economics movement, the substitution of classics classes for science, which were needed for college admission and gender discrimination. Now, gender discrimination is an old and unwelcomed guest, but the other factors tell us that the reason why girls left science was based on a cultural mindset, not their ability. We need to let girls know they can do science and used to be in the majority.

As for under-represented groups, the numbers have been alarmingly low for decades. More recently, there has been a modest increase over the last few years, but it is no way close to the percentage represented in society. This is an untapped population. Society loses when everyone cannot participate. Imagine all the inventions, discoveries and companies that never happened because a part of the population never got a chance to make them. 

CG: You have said there is a crisis in science education. What do you say to those who believe differently?

AR: I would tell them to look at the back of their cell phone and tell me what country it was made in. Then, I would let them know that most of the innovation that originally created the cell phone came from the U.S., so we were ahead of the race, but in a very short time we are now lagging behind the pack.

CG: What do you hope to see in the future regarding science education in the schools?

AR: Long term, we need more than education reform; we need a revolution. We need subjects taught in an integrated way showing their complexity. We need children to get their hands dirty and learn by doing. We need to change how we teach, and what we teach to match what the 21^st century holds. It is hard to predict the jobs of the 21^st century; we do know we need creative and curious thinkers that look at the art of failure as part of the discovery process. 

Short term: To give children the opportunity to exercise these thinking muscles, we should rely on the opportunities outside of schools. Science museums, after-school programs and even spending a night at home with your kids taking things apart, gives children the opportunity to get their hands dirty and discover. I spell out in Save Our Science how everyone can help provide engaging science learning for all children. Science Outside Schools (SOS) will feed our kids what they need, and in turn, create a demand for engaging science classes. Just like diamond can be created from charcoal with outside pressure. Schools will become a diamond, too, with some outside help. That is my wish anyway.

Ainissa Ramirez (@blkgrlphd) | www.ainissaramirez.com