Thinking About Science Education

Slide 1:Thinking About Science Education

Science education upside down Forming a philosophy of science

Slide 2:Science and positioning

All education tries to �draft� students into certain roles Roles answer the question �what you are learning this subject as�� Science teaches students to think of the world as scientists�

Slide 3:Evidence

Learning the language scientists use� Learning to honor key scientists Learning to solve abstract problems Learning to dress as a scientist Learning to ask and solve problems as a scientist (inquiry)

Slide 4:What Guinea Pig Zero Teaches

Science involves more than the knowledge, vocabulary, worldview of scientists Science is a relationship between a scientist and an object (guinea pig). Guinea pigs see the world very differently than the scientists do�

Slide 5:How guinea pigs see the world

Science is about power There is a long history of misuse of human subjects Misuses have not ended with recent (1970s) legislation Scientists act ethically when scared Guinea pigs have rich lives unrecognized by the history of science and medicine

Slide 6:Some Critical Moments and Icons in Guinea Pig History

Tuskegee Syphilis Study Dr. Beamont and Alexis St. Martin Nuremberg Jesse Gelsinger Belmont Report WWII Conscientious Objectors Plutonium Experiments Consent form

Slide 7:Guinea Pig Pedagogy

Definition: Teaching science from the perspective of guinea pigs.

Slide 8:Teachable moments

Have students think and write about science from animals and objects points of view--what did the lettuce seeds feel/experience? Discuss the history of human subjects Have discussions about the risks and ethical dilemmas of objectification in science Show films such as Miss Evers Boys (has problems, but is High School appropriate) Use alternative texts: excerpts from GPZ and Truth

Slide 9:Teachable Moments Cont�

Make posters of important Guinea Pigs: Alexis St. Martin, Jesse Gelsinger, Bob Helms, and Herman Shaw

Slide 10:Resources (for the kids)

Feldshuh, D. (1995). Miss Evers' Boys. New York: Dramatist's Play. Helms, R. (Ed.). (2002). Guinea pig zero: An anthology of the Journal for Human Research Subjects. New Orleans, LA: Garrett County Press. Morales, R., & Baker, K. (2004). Captain America: Truth. New York: Marvel.

Slide 11:Resources for you

Altman, L. K. (1986). Who goes first: The story of self-experimentation in medicine. Berkeley: University of California. Hornblum, A. M. (1998). Acres of skin: Human experiments at Holmesburg Prison: A story of abuse and exploitation in the name of medical science. New York: Routledge. Jones, J. H., & Tuskegee�Institute. (1993). Bad blood: The Tuskegee syphilis experiment (New and expanded ed.). New York: Free Press. Lederer, S. E. (1995). Subjected to science: Human experimentation in America before the Second World War. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins. Reverby, S. M. (Ed.). (2000). Tuskegee's truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina. Weinstein, M. (2001). A public culture for guinea pigs: US human research subjects after the Tuskegee Study. Science as Culture, 10(2), 195-224. Weinstein, M. (2004). Reversing the objective: Adding guinea pig pedagogies. Science Education, 88(2), 248-262. Welsome, E. (1999). The plutonium files: America's secret medical experiments in the Cold War. New York: Dial Press.