دانلود کتاب پیچیدگی و سادگی در آموزش علوم

H G Wells said “Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe”. As we write this introductory chapter, much of the eastern seaboard of Australia, where the editors and several contributors to this volume live, is on fire. Sydney is enveloped in smoke that may last for several additional weeks. The bushfire season has arrived unseasonably early and is unusually severe. Experienced emergency service professionals have called the situation ‘unprecedented’. And yet, in this context, the leaders of both of Australia’s major political parties are actively promoting the mining and export of more thermal coal. One key task of science education, surely, is to support citizens in being able to understand sufficient science and to develop sufficient critical thinking skills to be able to vote and actively participate in society in evidence-based ways that lead to human flourishing and reduce the potential for harm? Climate change, of course, is only one of the many ‘wicked problems’ facing our students, who are the citizens of the future. Automation and machine intelligence are already displacing human workers in many industries and will continue to do so. Clean fresh water will be much more difficult to obtain, partly a consequence of climate change and partly due to growing human population and pollution. Disease pandemics are a persistent feature of human life that will challenge most generations.