Giving up on science

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Middle and high school students across the country are generally falling behind in life sciences, and the nation is at risk of producing a dearth of qualified workers for the fast-growing bioscience industry, according to a report released Monday.

Students are showing less interest in taking life sciences and science courses, and high schools are doing a poor job of preparing students for college-level science, says the report, funded and researched by Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Biotechnology Institute.

The deficiencies will hurt the country’s competitiveness with the rest of the world in the knowledge-based economy, the report concludes.

From the kids I've seen, something destroys kids' interest in science somewhere between 4th and 9th grades. Kids who want to know about the moon and dinosaurs become fascinated with fame and music instead. Science becomes boring, tedious and dull.

I blame middle schools and hormones. The combination is deadly when it comes to science and math. We can't do anything about hormones, but we can do something about middle school.