Science Literacy

Science literacy is having the knowledge and understanding scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making. Science literacy links to the work around us and aspects of our lives which we participate in day to day. Being scientifically literate this allows you to ask, find, determined answers to scientific questions which surrounds us. You can predict, explain and describe parts of the world. If you are scientifically literate, you can read and understand articles about science which are in the media and engage in conversations about the validity of conclusions. If you are scantily literate you are able to evaluate the quality of scientific information by commenting on the source and the methods to generate it. You can look at arguments and evaluate them based on evidence and make up a conclusion.

Scientific literacy is about having a good understanding of scientific concepts and processes which will allow you to enrich your own curiosity derived from everyday life. This is an important skill to have as it allows people to gain good judgment in terms of interpreting media coverage on science (National Science Education Standards, 1996). An example a lack of scientific literacy leading to inaccurate reporting was when Andrew Wakefield published a report of a study in a medical journal called ‘The Lancet’ in 1998 (Sfam.org.uk,2013). The report suggested that the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccinations can cause autism, which then created an uproar in the media causing many parents to refuse the MMR vaccine for their child. This led to many of, what could have been, avoidable cases in which children without the vaccination died of measles due to a now discredited doctor that didn’t do enough accurate research before publishing his study and because of the media blowing up the report. However, as the National Science Education Standards (1996) states that being scientifically literate means being able to read with understanding, articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions. Therefore, many could also fault the scientifically illiterate parents for being unable to weigh up the small chance of their child possibly developing autism, which had still not been fully proven, with the importance of the immunisation against an often fatal disease.

Having an understanding of fair testing is critical to a child’s learning. It is important to be able to carry out experiments fairly, and to be able to draw conclusions based on evidence from these experiments. All this adds to the child’s scientific literacy. For example, if there was an experiment testing the growth of a plant, only one variable can be changed to make it fair testing. If you were to keep one in light and one in the dark, then every other variable must stay the same. So, the plants must receive the same amount of water; have the same soil depth; be the same size etc. If more than one variable is changed, then you cannot have a conclusive answer to what affected the growth of the plant. Becoming aware of the variables and how they play a part in the experiment is key to understanding fair testing. Fair testing is vital to scientific literacy, and is therefore an incredibly important aspect in the school curriculum.

Jacqueline Edmond, Caitlin Tindal, Beth Pettigrew & Rebecca Dillon