THE SCIENCE LITERACY CRISIS, PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES, AND THE ORIGIN SCIENCES

Since 1983, when the National Commission on Excellence in Education re leased its much-awaited report, A Nation at Risk, the United States ha s perceived itself to be in the midst of a serious education crisis. W hile nearly everyone is in agreement that most areas of the educationa l enterprise are in need of some revision and revitalization, problems related to science education have clearly received the lion's share o f reform-minded attention. The present essay reviews the various sympt oms of the so-called science literacy (education) crisis; speculates o n the unique role that the philosophical underpinnings of the ''cosmic '' (Weisskopf, 1994) or origin sciences may play in these problems; an d offers some suggestions as to how academic research scientists inter ested in these areas might more readily and effectively involve themse lves in efforts to improve science education at all levels of the educ ational system.