The U.S. science community is in turmoil over why so many of our American population, state and federal legislators and a growing number of government officials are science illiterate. Scientist discuss how scientists must all become better communicators. Or our ever-more-complex and technical research must be watered down into everyday terminology, etc. They are missing the critical factor: fewer basic science courses taught in K-12 for decades has produced both fewer science majors and many more science illiterate government officials and legislators. And non-science policies are put forth with little resistance in a mostly science illiterate population.
U.S. science literacy declined over the last 40 years. The National Science Foundation InfoBrief lists the percentages of 20-24 years old students pursuing science and engineering degrees in each nation's undergraduate programs.
U.S. students studying sciences and engineering in our undergraduate programs are far too few to fill the demand for advanced science students in graduate STEM programs at U.S. universities. Many U.S. universities would have to close their programs if not for the foreign students coming over to study from Asia and the E.U. In many specific fields of engineering and technology, foreign graduate students constitute over 80 percent of students in U.S. programs.
What do science graduates do in countries with one-third to over half of their college undergraduates majoring in STEM? Asian countries as well as Germany and the Scandinavian countries do not have that many science research positions. Many of their science majors graduate and take jobs in government and business positions. But their science knowledge provides a well-educated background to their performance and they do not put up with non-science nonsense.
Their high level of students majoring in college science is the result of two to three times more science taught in K-12 classes. And their K-12 science teachers were trained in much deeper science in university science departments. Most U.S. science teachers trained in Education Schools where science content is minimal.
When we look at the history of the medical profession, we see the increase in education required over time. A 1700s doctor simply apprenticed under another veteran doctor. In the 1850s, a U.S. doctor completed 2 years of college courses. After the 1880s saw Pasteur and Koch discover germ theory (Pasteur likewise discovered the mechanism of vaccination), U.S. medical doctors soon had to take four, then five and six years of university training. Today, a medical specialist may be age 30 when they complete their training.
But that alone cannot provide a society with better health care. If the patient population still holds onto ideas that "miasmas" blowing in the widow cause sickness, or a disease is an ordained penalty for bad behavior, well-trained doctors cannot improve public health.
Society at large has to also increase their understanding of human anatomy and physiology, of bacteria and viruses, and of basic modes of medication and healthy practices. The higher number of science majors in Asian and many E.U. countries are a direct consequence of their level of K-12 STEM education for the whole population. In Germany, common citizens have learned enough that when they fall ill, they can self-refer themselves to a specialist. Their science literacy provides them with a better medical system at half the cost of the U.S. system. Despite having good doctors, our higher medical costs as well as our miserable performance during the recent pandemic, is part of a science-stupidity tax.
Asians and citizens of the E.U. are astounded at American state laws that prevent school masking during a pandemic, a state health official who encourages vaccine avoidance and endangers K-12 students, and widespread public support for anti-science candidates. Such situations are rare in their countries because civilians are better educated in science and do not tolerate science-illiterate officials and laws.
If we could somehow increase K-12 science education immediately today, it would still take several generations (about 40 years) for new science-literate graduates to become a major factor in restoring science competency in a country that long ago developed the vaccines that eliminated smallpox, polio, measles, etc. from its borders. Ignorance has grown, and polio and measles have returned to the U.S.
John Richard Schrock, is a Roe R. Cross distinguished professor and biology professor emeritus at Emporia State University, Kansas. Contct him at 785-864-4530.