When should students begin reading scientific journal articles as part of REQUIRED school work?

[Boojatta]

Poll question: When should students begin reading scientific journal articles as part of REQUIRED school work?

[tridim]

1. I didn't even know what a scientific journal was until I visited engineering libraries in college

I wanted so much more from my HS science education, but it just wasn't available (no Internet at the time).

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. Other: It depends on their desired outcomes.

Scientific journals are often overly long, convoluted documents that do little more than pat other researchers on the back in an echo-chamber like exercise. If one has a goal of becoming a researcher, then it is a useful thing to do. Otherwise, I see no specific reason for forcing the practice in high school, and in fact, see a great detriment in having students read exceedingly dry material that can go a long way towards dissuading them from going further in science fields - which is something we greatly need to have more kids do. It's this line of thinking that gets people thinking that science is boring and just for "geeks" instead of being unbelievably fascinating and fun to study (which I think it is).

[zipplewrath]

3. Likewise

You'd need to know alot of science to read a true science journal and get much out of it other than bored to tears. Quite to the contrary, a science journal should probably be approached (Nature maybe) about producing effectively a "high school" version of its journal that summarizes and to some extent simplifies articles emphasizing more the future work to be done, maybe even suggesting experiments that can be conducted to "verify" the results of published articles.

When I am asked by parents to discuss scientific questions with their kids (because they "don't know anything about that stuff") I try to answer their questions appropriate to their age and skill. But I love to look for opportunities for them to ask a question to which I get to answer "well, we don't really know yet". I'll mention some hypotheses that are being studied and often finish with "maybe you'll get to investigate that when you grown up".

I didn't want to "be an astronaut" when I was growing up, that had already been done. I wanted to do things that hadn't been done yet. I suspect we'd do better at "stimulating their minds" and "interesting them in the sciences" if we talked just a bit more about what was yet to be done.

[madrchsod]

4. advanced high school freshman classes

[zipplewrath]

5. Your's musta been better than mine

I refer to my freshman year science class as "introduction to the metric system". It was horrible in hindsight.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. I really like that idea.

I think it'd be great to have a junior science journal - something that stripped out the really technical stuff but still got to the core of the issue. In this digital age, we could even have something designed such that the students could pick their own level of involvement beyond the basics of the journal - if they wanted to get more technical information or learn about other research done in the area, it could be just a few mouse clicks away. You could also include videos of experiments being done, other visual explanations of the concepts being studied, and perhaps even interactive objects that allow students to "virtually" experiment and guide them to the results found.

[zipplewrath]

8. Related to an idea I've been kicking around

Create experiements they can do, even if stupidly simple, but similar to the papers work. Then they can post their data, raw and reduced, and compare their results with others. They can even combine theirs with others. Heck, a bit of simple tools could even allow them to do various statistical analysis on their data as compared to others (histograms, median, mean, standard deviations, bias, etc.). Really start to see science as less about "getting the right answer" as it is about "getting predictable results".

[damntexdem]

7. Third undergrad year is the latest they should begin.

By then, students should be ensconced in their majors, so need to be going through the literature in their major subjects. It certainly doesn't hurt earlier; but there is no need to force it. I started earlier because I was interested and found the experience rewarding; but it might have been different had I been required to read into the lit. Where earlier experience with the peer-reviewed literature might be best encountered would be in the literature review for term papers; however, before moving into the major, there may be no need to REQUIRE that such literature be reviewed for term papers. By the junior year, however, it makes sense to require that at least some sources be from the peer-reviewed literature.

This accords with my practice in my classes; but then I don't teach undergrad classes below the 4000 (fourth year) level.

[Igel]

9. That's what I opted for.

Most frosh have no chance in understanding the issues involved in most science papers. They don't have the math chops, they are getting their grounding in their field, learning facts and how to start thinking.

Some can start earlier. But requiring it of them is too much.

Even the idea of trying to replicate the article's experiment in reduced form is ludicrous. Some experiments could be carried out. Most high schools couldn't afford the equipment to achieve the required precision and accuracy or afford the number of trials; and without the precision, accuracy, and number of trials the experiment's pointless.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Graduate school. First year.

I have to assume that people replying high school have never actually read scientific articles.

[Johonny]

12. IDK

Scientific articles like the content in Scientific American is also pretty easy to consume for a pre-college student. Science and Nature even have pretty simplified summaries in the front. As for pre-high school, grade school kids tend to love certain areas of science. Even as kids we couldn't get enough information on space and Dinosaurs.

As for full blown peer review journal entries, I think the DU has shown time and time again people would rather read the popular press spin on them, than the actual article :)

[Orrex]

11. I dated a woman in college who was really good at gelato.

Incidentally, she read scientific journal articles all the time.