This week the Cal Academy of Sciences celebrated the millionth
visitor to its new building in Golden Gate Park
On March 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 p.m., executive director Gregory Farrington greeted the one-millionth visitor to the new California Academy of Sciences. It seems incredible that in just over five months, one million visitors have explored our new building in Golden Gate Park. Yet science museums and cultural institutions are incredibly important in these tough economic times: Museums engage and educate people about their place, culture, accomplishments and environment. With the cutbacks in education, museums are even more necessary.
Earlier this year, the California Academy of Sciences commissioned a national survey of basic science literacy, administered by Harris Interactive. The results proved poor. Here's a sample:
- Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
- Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
- Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth's surface that is covered with water.
- Only 1% of adults knew the correct percentage of fresh water on the planet
Despite their poor performance, survey participants felt that science literacy and conservation were very important. Four out of five people surveyed marked science education as “absolutely essential” and directly related to the U.S. health care system, the U.S. reputation globally and the U.S. economy.
Scientists know that making new discoveries increases our understanding of our world and our place within it. Yet deepening science literacy in the general public is equally important. Scientific literacy not only engages potential future scientists, but it helps strengthen the U.S. economy. Analysts agree that science must be part of the plan for stimulating the American economy: A knowledge-based economy, including a focus on science, drives innovation, which in turn sparks new industries and subsequent jobs.