According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, scientific literacy is defined as “ the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions and to draw evidence-based conclusions’. This definition can help us understand the complexity of scientific literacy. It is not just being able to talk about science and use scientific words, it involves actually understanding the concepts and being able to actually apply this knowledge. Furthermore, it helps us understand that it is important to ask questions to reach a scientific conclusion. This helps us understand the importance of science within the primary school, as it is extremely important for the children to ask questions so that they get the right scientific knowledge.

Scientific literacy is always around us and even if we do not realise it we are always using it. An example of this is choosing what to eat each day and how this may impact our diet. Scientific literacy is extremely important as it helps us to understand aspects of science in our day to day lives.

In the 21st century, many people are scientifically illiterate which leads to inaccurate media reporting. This can be seen especially in the controversies over certain vaccinations. For example, in 1998 Dr Andrew Wakefield published a study that said that MMR vaccine had links to autism and bowel disease. This report caused many parents to worry about the MMR vaccine and make the decision to not have their children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. Due to this vaccination, compliance dropped sharply in the United Kingdom which led to various outbreaks like the measles outbreak in North Dublin from late 1999 until the summer of 2000. The opponents of Wakefield concluded that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism or bowel disease. They also found that a lot of Wakefield’s research was false and the results didn’t match his conclusions. This is a great example of how important scientific literacy is, as this controversy could have easily been avoided if more people were scientifically literate.

Fair testing is a vital part of each child’s education. Through fair testing children can investigate whether or not their investigation is valid by changing only one variable at a time. This demonstrates that even one variable can change the whole outcome. It is important that from a young age children learn to back up their work with evidence and that they are able to provide reliable results. This not only helps when conducting science experiments, but also develops skills such as being critical and concise in their work.

Teaching fair testing in schools allows children to be more objective in their thinking and to allow themselves to consider different possibilities and outcomes, skills such as these can be used in all aspects of their learning.

So, why does fair testing in schools link specifically to scientific literacy? Being scientifically literate in school means that you are able to take basic scientific knowledge, along with your own knowledge to engage within science across the curriculum. Many schools in Scotland focus in on STEM to develop scientific literacy as it gives pupils the opportunity, not only to develop reading and writing, but also to increase use of presentations (oral and visual) and debates in the classroom. Applying fair testing within science in school is teaching children to look for accurate results that can be tested again and provide the same result each time. Without this, it would be almost impossible to develop your scientific knowledge and ability, and with the world constantly changing and the future becoming more and more unclear, it is more important than ever that scientific literacy is a key part within each child’s education.

References:

OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] (2003) The PISA 2003 Assessment Framework – Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem Solving Knowledge and Skills. Paris: OECD.

Turbull, M. (2016) Creating Connections and Contagious Enthusiasm for Science. Available at: http://www.letstalkscience.ca/about-us/why-science.html (Accessed: 4th February 2017)

(By Allan Getty, Megan Hull, Lindsay Ireland and Clare Gibson)