Smart Art: Science

Thoughts on Science Education

In academia, we think of science vs. the humanities. So while the humanities include such things as art, literature, music, poetry, and history, the sciences include such things as chemistry, physics, biology, and astronomy.

In this split, it happens that engineering is lumped in with the sciences. But engineers and scientists have different jobs. Scientists generally work with the theoretical, while engineers work with the practical. That said, however, you cannot do science without engineering. Many scientists do some engineering work, and many engineers do some science work. So it's not as clear of a line as some might think, but it's still a line that exists.

The term "science is a wide catch-all term for a large number of disciplines. Many of those are clustered into groups of their own. For example, the earth sciences include geology, geography, climatology, meteorology, and oceanography.

Students pursuing a degree in a scientific discipline will, however, receive a general scientific education in the foundational sciences.

The coursework typically includes "basic" physics, chemistry, mechanics, and electricity. So will students pursuing an engineering degree. They also learn, in most universities, advanced math and critical thinking skills. If you're not a scientist or engineer but have spent time around one, you have probably noticed these people think very differently from other people. Often, we say "not better or worse, just different" but in the case of scientists and engineers that isn't true. They actually have been forced to learn how to think better for them to be awarded their degrees. They have learned specific methodologies for evaluation and analysis of data. This doesn't mean they are always right or always think correctly, just that they have learned formal, proven thinking methods.

And the coursework is tough, which is why admissions into scientific and engineering programs is also tough and why the dropout rate is so high despite this.

That said, the coursework is interesting and provides the students with a rich experience. As we mentioned, everyone gets education in the foundational sciences. Just take physics an an example:

While physics is a large catch-all category of science, its central idea is that of understanding how the physical universe works. That's a valuable understanding for people to have, even in their daily lives. Much of that understanding is already ours, due to intuition and "common sense," but unfortunately those same attributes lead to much misunderstanding.

Not only will learning in the area of physics make you more knowledgeable and more capable, going about it is actually fun. Well, it's fun until you get to the math and then that part is fun only if you like math. If you don't like math, the reason is your math education was faulty. We have a practical math course that will clear that right up. Math is beautiful in its symmetry, and it is a wonderful tool for seeing patterns in the world around you. There are some compelling reasons why it's the language of scientists and engineers.

Some ways you'll use fairly simple math as you explore physics is the use of basic quantities and measurements. These aren't mind-numbing, until you get to the extreme quantities. Here are some examples of units physics people use (you use many of the same ones):

• Time. The International System of Units holds the second as the basic unit of time. No problem, there. How many times have you sat at a traffic light counting the seconds?
• Length. For most Americans, this one's a bit tough. For the rest of the world, it's no big deal. The meter is the basic unit of length. The definition of it changed from the original one, which was based on distances between points on the earth. The modern definition is the distance light travels in a vacuum in about 1/300th of a second. The actual time is a 9-digit number, we just rounded it up from 299,792,458 to avoid annoying you. Why such a crazy number? It's a redefinition of what the meter was under the original definition without changing the length that produced. This was necessary for reasons of stability over time.
• Mass. Don't confuse mass with weight or volume. When we say a person has a "massive rear end," we are commenting on the volume (what we see--the taking up of space). Here on earth, we typically determine the mass of something by measuring its weight, but only because it's fairly easy to weigh something and the relationship between mass and weight on earth is known.

Of course, there are many more units used in physics (pressure, speed, direction, momentum, etc.). The most famous, or in the case of first-year physics students, infamous, is the mole. The many electrical units, such as current and voltage, are also units of physics. Basically, anything that measures a physical quantity in some way is a unit of physics.

Is a science education for you? Perhaps a formal degree is not. Perhaps you are better suited to a degree in the humanities. If so, go for that and make the best of your skills and interests. But taking a particular degree and career path does not shut you out of learning along some other path. The best scientists and engineers also have learned some of the humanities. Similarly, the best musicians and poets understand something about the natural world; they have learned some science.

Our science posters will help you, no matter which path you choose.