Science in the classroom is separated from the real world outside

<p>When people learn <em>science</em>, they normally learn it in a classroom. Therefore, the knowledge they build is valid only withing the walls of the place where they learned. Extrapolating what happens on a blackboard to something that can help us understand the reality in which we leave is achieved by a very limited number of students. This is one of the problems of <a class="wikilink" href="/education_is_content_based/">education is content based</a> because <a class="wikilink" href="/education_is_not_curiosity_driven/">education is not curiosity driven</a>. However, I think that <a class="wikilink" href="/citizen_science_can_bridge_the_gap_between_school_science_and_the_real_world/">Citizen science can bridge the gap between school science and the real world</a>. </p> <p>In my high-school physics classes I tried to overcome this by linking the electric consumption in students' houses with the amount of water that flows through a dam (which the students visited earlier in the year). The same can be applicable to a chemistry class (burning of fossil fuels), or to a biology class (the energy that sustains life, etc.)</p> <p>I believe that the current situation was generated because <a class="wikilink" href="/incremental_change_leads_to_unsustainable_educational_paradigms/">incremental change leads to unsustainable educational paradigms</a>. But there are some possible changes. First, <a class="wikilink" href="/science_education_should_not_distinguish_disciplines/">science education should not distinguish disciplines</a>. Secondly, <a class="wikilink" href="/science_education_should_be_method-oriented/">science education should be method-oriented</a>.</p>