Although I usually enjoy serving as a molecular biology teaching assistant, a week of running around with phylogenetic trees and gene clean preps makes me whether I am cut out to teach science. A professor said today that graduate school (i.e. PhD track) teaches one to conduct research and then one enters teaching with little or no training. Sink or swim.
The topic of science education is hot right now. In today's NY Times, Thomas Friedman notes how the US, in an increasingly global society, lags behind Germany, China, and Japan in the number of undergraduate degrees award in science and engineering. His suggested initiatives include increased federal grant money to young researchers as well as merit scholarships to those who specifically enter science and math education at the high school level, pouring more money into basic science research (and especially for young researchers).
All of this comes from a global standpoint. Good in theory, hard in practice. What is likely more urgent is how science is taught in these high school classroom and not just who or how many teach science. The National Academies Press recently released a report to this effect. How undergraduates don't have the background to teach science and how the curricula isn't focused on gaining an appreciation of science as a discipline. The recommendations to link the scientific method/problem-based learning with textbook concepts reminded me of the stories that I heard from a Kenyon alumnus who taught science for Teach for America.
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