21st Century Scientific Literacy

Scientific literacy is often defined as a student’s ability to identify and differentiate between a topic sentence and supporting details in technical writing, obtain a wealth of information such as scientific vocabulary and terminology, and a have the ability to write in complete and correct sentences and successfully convey their ideas to a reader. Scientific literacy is a much deeper idea of understanding in the sciences than simply the ability to construct a sentence correctly or regurgitate a dictionary of scientific vocabulary. The theory behind this definition of scientific literacy was that every person who was scientifically literate would be able to communicate effectively with one another. A scientifically literate person would be able to differentiate between a hertz as it refers to computer technology and the car rental company named Hertz. This is true because people would be able to define scientific words, but this does not transpose into scientific literacy.

Science is about discovery and experimentation. It is about the search for truth through observation. An important fact that many students do not recognize is that science is always changing. An example is that Teflon was discovered accidentally through a botched experiment to create refrigerant. The idea that just as much, if not more, can be learned from our mistakes is of key importance for students to understand. The true understanding that science is about discovery and experimentation is the real definition of scientific literacy in the 21st century. This is was teachers should be promoting and striving for in the classroom.