Kentucky Finds Teachers' S&T Knowledge Dated

The pace for new advances in science and technology has quickened significantly over the past 10 years -- so much so that companies are challenged to stay current with the latest innovations. Entire new fields such as nanotechnology are being created while products introduced this week may be obsolete before the year is out.

If tech firms and research labs are having trouble keeping up with science and technology, how do we expect our K-12 science teachers to do so when they are always in front of a classroom? Is it an issue for inspiring new students into these fields when they enter college?

In perhaps one of the first of its kind a new study testing Kentucky science teacher’s depth of knowledge and understanding of critical new technologies reveals the issue is quite real for the Commonwealth. The results most likely could be transferred to most school districts across the country, we suspect.

Sponsored by the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation, Kentucky Survey of Critical Technologies details a representative cross-section of middle- and high school teachers using an online method to measure awareness, familiarity and plans for curriculum integration of 25 scientific and technological concepts. Such concepts included biotech, natural products, proteomics, alternative fuels, nanotech, astrobiology, and quantum computing.

In summary, the findings consistently demonstrated a general awareness of a limited number of terms, but showed that far fewer teachers understood the concepts well enough to present them in the classroom. Only 7 percent of teachers indicated they were teaching nanotechnology, and more than two-thirds of the concepts were only taught by less than 10 percent of the teachers surveyed.

According to the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC), "the survey demonstrated an alarming disconnect between technologies with significant economic and social impacts that are emerging from scientists, engineers and successful entrepreneurial companies worldwide...and their infusion into today's P-12 classrooms. This finding represents a major contributing factor in Kentucky's lack of an adequately prepared talent pool and entrepreneurial class to create and grow the innovation-driven companies that are essential to the state's future."

Dr. Mahendra Jain, executive director of the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation, said the study has national implications and believes the results would be consistent across the nation. In response to the disappointing findings, Secretary Fox said Gov. Ernie Fletcher has asked KSTC along with the Council on Postsecondary Education, innovation-driven Kentucky companies and others, to help develop a strategic response to the survey results.

The state-funded Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation is an initiative of KSTC under the Council on Postsecondary Education. More information is available at http://www.kstc.com/.