Richards-Kortum Rebecca, Buckley Deanna, Schwarz Richard A, Atkinson E Neely, Follen Michele
Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Keck Hall Suite 116, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2007 Aug;35(8):1324-32. doi: 10.1007/s10439-007-9319-5. Epub 2007 Apr 26.
A growing number of essential consumer choices and public policy issues require a basic level of scientific literacy. Recent studies suggest as many as three-quarters of adults are unable to read and understand news accounts of scientific advances and controversies. In response to this challenge, a new course for non-science majors, Bioengineering and World Health, was designed to improve biomedical literacy. The goal of this study was to compare scientific literacy of students enrolled in the course to that of two groups of students who had not taken the course; the first control group included students majoring in Biomedical Engineering (BME), the second included those majoring in Liberal Arts or Natural Sciences. Small group interviews in which students discussed science news accounts from the popular press were used to assess scientific literacy. Students in Bioengineering and World Health showed increasing scientific literacy throughout the course. At the conclusion of Bioengineering and World Health, the mean scientific literacy of students in the course was significantly higher than that in both control groups. Students were stratified by the number of semester credit hours completed in science, math, engineering and technology (SME&T) courses. Regardless of number of SME&T hours completed, the mean scientific literacy of students completing Bioengineering and World Health was equivalent to that of BME majors who had completed more than 60 semester credit hours of SME&T coursework, suggesting that a single introductory course can significantly influence scientific literacy as measured by participant's ability to discuss medical innovations from a common news source.
越来越多重要的消费者选择和公共政策问题需要具备一定的科学素养。最近的研究表明，多达四分之三的成年人无法阅读和理解关于科学进展与争议的新闻报道。为应对这一挑战，一门面向非科学专业学生的新课程——《生物工程与全球健康》被设计出来，旨在提高生物医学素养。本研究的目的是将修读该课程的学生的科学素养，与两组未修读该课程的学生的科学素养进行比较；第一对照组包括生物医学工程（BME）专业的学生，第二对照组包括文科或自然科学专业的学生。通过小组访谈，让学生们讨论大众媒体上的科学新闻报道，以此来评估科学素养。修读《生物工程与全球健康》课程的学生在整个课程期间科学素养不断提高。在《生物工程与全球健康》课程结束时，该课程学生的平均科学素养显著高于两个对照组。学生们按照在科学、数学、工程和技术（SME&T）课程中完成的学期学分数量进行分层。无论完成的SME&T课程学分数量多少，修读完《生物工程与全球健康》课程的学生的平均科学素养，等同于已完成超过60个学期学分的SME&T课程作业的BME专业学生的平均科学素养，这表明一门入门课程就能显著影响科学素养，这是通过参与者讨论来自共同新闻来源的医学创新的能力来衡量的。
