Promoting Science Literacy by Engaging the Public 英文参考文献.docVIP

Open access, freely available online Book Review/Science in the Media Promoting Science Literacy by Engaging the Public Anna Liem W hen you’re standing inside a volcano, it’s hard not to pay attention to what’s around you. And whose interest wouldn’t be captured by guiding remotely operated vehicles through a hydrothermal vent or pumping magma into a volcano and watching it erupt? The new Science Adventure Center at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai’i, captures the imagination in a bid to increase science literacy. In doing so, the center provides a valuable opportunity not just for its visitors, but for all those interested in science education. Both the center’s mission and its design inspire critical questions: What is science literacy? How does a person become science-literate? What roles can museums, schools, and other institutions play in promoting science literacy? And what can teachers learn from museums, and vice versa, about science education? DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030427.g001 The Science Adventure Center at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawai’i (Image: Bishop Museum) What Is Science Literacy? Promoting Science Literacy: Engagement At museums, visitors also gravitate Science literacy is much more towards interactive exhibits like the center’s wave-making tank, where museum-goers can trigger wind- than the memorization or even comprehension of scienti?c facts and principles. The American Association for the Advancement of Science de?nes the science-literate person as “one who is aware that science, mathematics, and technology are interdependent human enterprises with strengths and limitations; understands key concepts and principles of science; is familiar with the natural world and recognizes both its diversity and unity; and uses scienti?c knowledge and scienti?c ways of thinking for individual and social purposes” [1]. Thus de?ned, science literacy encompasses not only the knowledge and understanding of scienti?c i