Elevating The Civic Science Literacy Of American Adults

Download or read book Elevating the Civic Science Literacy of American Adults written by David Patrick Cronin and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's adult populace has failed to keep pace with the rapid inundation of science-centric advancements affecting nearly every facet of personal and public life. With deficiencies in areas of science knowledge, America's adult populace is characterized as civic science illiterate. This research constructed and employed the renewed citizen science paradigm, incorporating nonformal outdoor adult education and enhanced experiential learning while maintaining the basic tenet of citizen science, towards elevating the civic science literacy of adults who volunteered to conduct scientific research towards answering important research questions posed by a science research agency. With 67 volunteers, 23 adults were purposively selected on the basis of their complete participation throughout the program. Data were collected through a concurrent mixed methods design, and both quantitatively, self-report surveys (n = 23), and qualitatively, mixed method interviews (n = 10), analyzed. The results demonstrate that the renewed citizen science paradigm statistically significantly elevated the science vocabulary knowledge (p less than 0.001) and science process understanding (p less than 0.001) of participating adults; while collecting over 30,000 pieces of scientific data in conducting research for an outside agency. Additionally, the research communicates how marked elevations in civic science literacy catalyzed volunteers to participate and assert their new civic science literacy in personal, social, and political forums, having taken ownership of the scientific results and acting as advocates for its conclusions. As our globally expanding society becomes increasingly embedded in science and technology, there is an important need to continue elevating the civic science literacy of the adult populace. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest llc. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.].