Wysession
convey this message through flashbacks of how we, humans are the main threat to
our own environment:
And I thought about the long string of volcanic
eruptions, rapid climate swings, tsunamis, droughts, floods, and other
geoscience catastrophes that have routinely devastated the human population and
prevented any one civilization from lasting very long. Then I thought about the
nearly unbelievable changes that we humans were making to our planet, most
certainly replacing the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch with the new
Anthropocene Epoch. And I wondered how we would know at what point these human
impacts would be severe enough to justify replacing the 65-million-year-old
Cenozoic Era with a new era, the Anthropozoic Era, the sixth major extinction
of life, brought about by the current dominant agent of geologic change on our
planet (Wysession).
This quotation
illustrates the many aspects and how we change many things. It also shows the
fact that many people have been the long term causes of these devastating
disasters. Even though many humans had been wiped out, we contribute to the
start of these disasters as well as geologic changes. These things occur
because humans don’t know about the damages that it can make; we don’t know
that we need to protect the environment we live in. And we shouldn’t be blamed
because we had never been taught well enough to keep these in our mind. This is
where Science comes in, children, from as young as 1st grade to
learn and realize about the environment around themselves. Every tree
being cut down reduces less oxygen for us, every piece of garbage we litter;
every smoker, car driver, factory worker are releasing harmful chemicals into
the air. “It is well known that most Americans get nearly all their science
education after they leave high school” (Wysession). Education starts
early and we need to make sure that kids get all their science education before
high school.
What America needs is
the Next Generation Science Standards.
The Next Generation Science Standards benefits students in
many ways. It not only insures that kids get all their science education before
college, it also integrates other important things as well. “They integrate
concepts of engineering and technology and develop ties to the math and English
“Common Core” standards” (Wysession). This helps to bring more lively classes
as well as not always staying on one subject. It helps the kids to realize how
everything is related and how everything works together. The Next Generation
Science Standards (NGSS) also have listed the steps for a kid to understand
science:
The aim of NGSS is to identify what students can do,
not what they know. After all, if you want to know how many
planets there are, you can always look that up on the web. If you want to understand
why they are important and how they function as part of a system, the solar
system, then there are a set of practices you should do, which the
NGSS identify as (1) Asking Questions and Defining Problems, (2) Developing and
Using Models, (3) Planning and Carrying Out Investigations, (4) Analyzing and
Interpreting Data, (5) Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking, (6)
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, (7) Engaging in Argument
from Evidence, and (8) Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information (Wysession).
The NGSS created this list to insure that
every student studying science will have a full understanding of it by the time
he/she walks out of high school. Words in a textbook cannot summarize what
happening outside of the classroom. We need well-trained scientists and
teachers who would work with these kids on projects, hand-on activities, and
even as simple as going on a field trip to observe plants. Every outside experience
contributes to a major part of the kids understanding of the subject. Reading
words is not as the same as feeling it. When you see it and feel it, you have a
clearer visual imagine of it and you actually see what the condition it lives
in, in person! These are the things that a book, a picture, a magazine cannot
tell you.
Overall,
I think that the New Generation Science Standards is really efficient and helpful.
It takes science to a whole new level and it makes it so that everyone can understand
it. NGSS is providing the opportunity for you, me and all of us to know about
the earth, the environment; so that we know the importance of our surroundings
and how to protect them. I hope that NGSS will be presented to all the science
programs in schools around the city.
Work Cited
Kuchment, Anna. "Why America€™'s Kids Need New Standards for Science Education Budding Scientist, Scientific American Blog Network." Why America€™s Kids Need New Standards for Science Education. Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc., 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.
Link:http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/budding-scientist/2013/01/08/why-americas-kids-need-new-standards-for-science-education/
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