An advanced society such as ours will always require a supply of well qualified research scientists. But also the ever growing importance of scientific issues in our daily lives demands a population who have sufficient knowledge and understanding to follow science and scientific debates with interest and to engage with the issues science and technology poses, both for them as individuals and for our society as a whole.

An analysis of the labour market would suggest that our future society will need a large number of individuals with a broader understanding of science both for work and to enable them to participate as citizens in a democratic society.

It seems unbelievable that there are many well educated people who still feel it is reasonable to say they know nothing of science or technology when so many of the big issues of the day are rooted in science, whether development of genetic engineering, global warming, or the reintroduction of nuclear power.

Watching television recently I caught a celebrity University Challenge in between the football. Journalists against politicians. It soon became clear that the questions were rigged to allow these two groups to show off their knowledge. Twenty minutes in, and there had still been no questions on science and then came a three-parter on chemistry (the only science in the whole programme). The politicians couldn’t answer any of the rather simple questions and complained it was ‘unfair’ to have questions on chemistry, why should they know anything about this subject! Unlike a knowledge of ancient Greece of course!

So why does an education in science matter?

The great achievement of science over the last four hundred years has been to tell us important and interesting new things about ourselves and the world we live in. There are still many important unanswered question but the ones that have been answered do offer a knowledge which can be relied on for action. This reliable knowledge is much more than just a list of things that have been observed, it shows the world in novel and often surprising ways, saying often that things are not what they seem to be.

For example, science tells us that diseases are carried by micro-organisms, invisible to the naked eye, that heritable traits are carried by a chemical code, that all species have evolved from simpler organisms, that we live on a rocky ball with a hot interior which circles the sun, and the universe had its beginning in a ‘big bang’.

Particle Physics Lab at Cern

Using this scientific knowledge, mankind has produced a staggering variety of artefacts and products, ranging from electric motors to antibiotics, from artificial satellites to genetically engineered insulin for treating diabetes. These have transformed our lives and lifestyles compared to previous generations.

Science deals with major themes in which most people are interested - life, matter, the Universe, information, the ‘man-made’ world. The primary reasons for teaching science is to pass on this knowledge simply because it is interesting and also important and to convey a sense of excitement in knowing these things.

It is not the sort of knowledge, which is acquired by osmosis or can be learnt through experience, but needs to be handed on through planned teaching.

On a practical level, an understanding of scientific ideas helps people in decision making (e.g. about diet, health and lifestyle) and in feeling able to hold and express a view on issues, which enter the arena of public debate, and to become actively involved in these.

Science has transformed the material world, but also our view of how we think of ourselves, and our place in the Universe.

The scientific approach to inquiry, based on evidence and careful reasoning, with all ideas open to critical scrutiny by a wider community, has made an enormous contribution to our culture. The influence of these ideas and how to obtain reliable knowledge can be seen in art and literature, in our institutional structures and in the values we hold as important. Not to have some understanding of these is to be excluded from elements of our common culture. Another reason for teaching science is to enable young people to become scientifically literate, i.e. able to engage with the ideas and views, which form a central part of our understanding of society.

Young people develop skills and understanding by considering the ways in which evidence and argument have been employed to establish knowledge about the natural world and gaining experience in developing one’s own arguments, and looking at those of others. These can be used in a wide range of contexts and settings in later life.

Finally, science education matters because we value the products of science and technology. The beneficial applications in medicine, agriculture, communications, new materials etc., which permeate our daily lives.

We need as a society to train and educate new generations of scientists and technologists to maintain the systems we value and to develop new and better ones to meet new needs and solve new problems. School is for some young people the start of a process, which will enable them to be the scientists of tomorrow.

With the building of this new Science Centre Bryanston will be seen to be in the vanguard of an approach, which aims to give a broad scientific education to all the pupils in the school. It will be taken for granted that scientific knowledge is vital to develop a holistic understanding of not only the major scientific ideas and a critical understanding of science and scientific reasoning, but also of life, the Universe and everything.

Brian Mills (Previous Head of Science)