In a recent study by the Lawrence Hall of Science Center for Research, Evaluation and Assessment, in collaboration with WestEd, more than 900 Bay Area school teachers and almost 60% of the Bay Area school districts that serve elementary school students were surveyed to shed light on the state of science education.

The results were summarized in video that I found on YouTube. You can go to the LHS site to read the detailed results of the study. In sum, the study found that there was very little allocated for the teaching of science in the elementary schools. It was also reported that teachers felt they were not adequately prepared to teach science, and the infrastructure to support science education was lacking. On the bright side, the report indicated that new opportunities could lead to an improvement of science education (e.g. increase time spent teaching science, select new teaching materials, provide more professional development opportunities, etc.).

Now the video. There are some issues here. The Lawrence Hall of Science is one of the leading and most prestigious science education centers in USA. The researchers choose to develop a cute, upbeat video to report the key results. When I first viewed it, I thought it was well done. I still do. However, I am not sure that using elementary age students to report findings that include statements such as: “I don’t think we do much science at our school,” “Does my teacher know how to teach science?” Whose going to help MY teacher?” If the students had conducted the study as part of an inquiry-based class project, then the video would have been a perfect way for them to report their results. In this case, however, adults conducted the study, and used students to report their findings. I hope you will view it. Am I off base? What are your thoughts about having young students report these result?