Students and science

I see that some educators are still doing their best to bridge the gap especially when the focus is on the youngsters. An incomplete project has been established by two professors [Costas Efthimiou and Ralph A. Llewellyn] from the University of Central Florida's Physics Department "Physics in Films". I was amazed at the opening paragraph of this paper when the National Science Foundation in a survey claimed that about 50% DID NOT EVEN KNOW THAT IT TOOK A YEAR FOR THE EARTH TO ORBIT THE SUN--JEEZE. Who is failing whom? What is happening? Are we developing a nation of ignorant children who don't even know the above. One of the best ways to reach the youth is to approach them at their level of interest and that is specifically by those movies like X2 and 2001: A Space Odyssey that involve science. Since this project began in 2003 there has been a tremendous improvement and the authors have extended the concept to include specific characters of movies like Batman and Spiderman. Specific books were incorporated and some attention was given to the pseudosciences. Something has to be done and this looks like a good program.

"CINEMA AS A TOOL FOR SCIENCE LITERACY"


Popularization of science