By AHMAD SULEIMAN ABUBAKAR Grade 6
Science is valued by society because the application of scientific knowledge helps to satisfy many basic human living standards. Finding cure for cancer and a clean form of energy. Similarly, science is often justified to the public as driving economic growth, which is seen as a return on – investment for public funding. During the past few decades, however another goal of science has emerged and it is to find a way to rationally use natural resources to guarantee their continuity of humanity itself, an endeavor that is currently referred to as “Sustainability”.
Scientists often justify their work using these and similar arguments – currently linked to personal health and longer life expectancies, technological advancement, economic profits and Sustainability in order to secure funding and gain social acceptance. They point out the most or the tools, technologies and medicines we use today we produce or by – products of research from pens to rockets and from aspirin to organ transplantation. This progressive application of scientific knowledge is captured in Isaac Asimov’s book, Chronology of science and discovery, which beautifully describes how science has shaped the world from the discovery of fire until the 20th century.
However, there is another application of science that has been largely ignored. Science has enormous potential to address the challenges facing humanity in the present day education and it is time to seriously consider how science and research can contribute to education at all levels of society, not just to engage more people in research and teach them about scientific knowledge but crucially to manufacture goods.
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