I want to know why do we learn science in school when we learn it in life?
Alyce Babe from Greater London (Age 5-14)
Filed under: Answered Big Questions, David M Jones's Big Answers, Humanity Big Questions, Philosophy Big Questions, Science Big Questions, Steve Price's Big Answers, age 5-14
I would say that we learn science in school, as well as through observation throughout our lives, because studying it in school enables us to focus and concentrate some study of specific topics and subjects. In school we can approach a scientific topic or question with the help of our teachers, who organise the materials and evidence to help us prepare an answer or to conduct an experiments that shows us how various things work in the world and helps us understand why they work in the ways that they do.
When we are out and about we can see things working. We know how something works for us from our experience of that item. That is how it affects us as users of a technology.
What we don’t know from using something is why it works. Questions like: Why does an aircraft fly? Why does a car work? How does the internet work? It is when people understand why and how things work that they then apply that knowledge to create new technologies and achieve a better understanding of the environment we live in.
For example: If people hadn’t understood how the Earth’s atmosphere worked then no one would have realised we have a problem with global warming. At least now we understand global warming we can try and do something about it.
Let’s take the internet: I have a general understanding of how it works, but really I am a user not a creator of the internet. However, somebody had to understand how it works in order to create the internet and today there are people creating new services and capabilities on the internet; because they understand how it works. Look at the benefit we get from the internet. We wouldn’t be able to discuss this issue if it wasn’t for the internet.
So, to answer your question: If we didn’t learn science at school then we would all be users of a technology. Assuming, of course, that someone did learn science in order to create the technology in the first place.
Learning science at school is the first step to becoming a scientist or engineer who can change the way we live; who can make our lives more interesting and advance our society.
The reason we learn science is because if there was no science then no one would know what was going to happen in the future and what is going to happen with the earth. We also need to learn science so we know about our digestive system and if people want to be doctors then they need to know about what kind of vaccines they need to cure people etc. We also need to learn science because when we use certain technology then we need to know how to program it and more other things that are needed in technological facts.