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| Photo: Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain |
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| Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique: members of the public use webcams to detail the wildlife captured throughout the park. Photo: Getty Images |
In an age where information is
readily available at one’s fingertips, it can be difficult to interpret
what material is trustworthy and what facts may be distorted.
Peer-reviewed research, and the quality thereof, has become increasingly
important and a healthy criticality is required in reading news about
research and statistics related to our everyday lives. It is one of the
aims of the EU to increase the scientific literacy of citizens in order
to support each person in making informed decisions about changes in,
for example, society, politics, environment and education. Our new
Junior Cycle science curriculum has paralleled this goal in aiming to
support students “to make informed decisions about many of the local,
national and global challenges and opportunities they will be presented
with”.
An important part of scientific
literacy is a familiarity with the nature of science – appreciating how
scientists work and how scientific ideas are modified over time. In
finding out what constituted the smallest building blocks of nature, JJ
Thomson had proposed the pudding model of the atom and it was not until
1911 that Rutherford established that the atom was, in fact, mostly
empty space. From the 17th century, Newton’s laws of gravity were upheld
as fundamental laws of nature until Einstein’s theory of relativity
demonstrated their limitations. Contrary to commonly-held views on
science, science is not a pre-ordained structure of ready-made facts but
rather a collective body of knowledge which is constantly being refined
and reviewed. One way of developing an understanding of the nature of
science is through participation in “citizen science”.
Source: Irish Times
