NEWS AND UPDATES

Bioscience Frontiers

Exciting career opportunities await Wisconsin's emerging workforce.

New Agriculture

Breakthroughs in our new agricultural economy promise innovations and jobs.

Healthcare

Advances in technology are opening up new careers in many healthcare fields.

Energy

Future energy independence requires a tech-savvy workforce.

Nanotechnology

Informatics

RESOURCES

Students, parents and educators speak up about science education. (0.72 MB)

NanoVenture: The Nanotechnology Board Game

Wisconsin Science Literacy Project

Watch this VDO to learn more about the science literacy crisis

The Challenge
The current level of scientific literacy in Wisconsin and nationwide is alarmingly low. One reason for this is that teachers are not adequately trained to integrate cutting-edge science topics into their curriculum. This presents a critical challenge to our society because experts estimate there will be approximately 250,000 new math and science jobs in the US by 2016, with few qualified workers to fill them.

The Goals of the Wisconsin Science Literacy Project
The primary goal of the Wisconsin Science Literacy Project is to prepare students for the workplace by introducing them to the fundamental concepts of bioscience, new agriculture, health care, engineering, energy and other important new scientific disciplines. The students and teachers will learn about potential careers as technicians, scientists, and engineers, as well as the importance of science to our society. It is critical to have a scientifically literate population. One reason is so we have an informed electorate that is able to assess science policy from an educated perspective. It is also important for workforce development and economic growth.

What can be done?
The Wisconsin Science Literacy Project addresses five key areas related to science literacy in Wisconsin:

• Helping teachers integrate cutting-edge science topics into their science curricula.
• Ensuring that students are aware of the multitude of career opportunities in science fields.
• Helping meet the challenge of using technology innovations to improve teacher and student resources.
• Providing no or low-cost resources for science professional development.
• Improving citizen and community awareness of emerging science fields and their relationship to our economy.

We are currently developing a unique and cutting-edge web portal called SciFusion. SciFusion will be an on-line resource center and learning community, representing a fusion of bench science, literacy for science teachers and students, and the jobs of the future. Bench science, or basic discovery science, is usually done in academic institutions or private research laboratories. SciFusion further represents the fusion of different scientific disciplines in furthering our understanding of the world in which we live.

SciFusion is an on-line learning community and resource center that will initially contain multimedia eLearning web modules that introduce teachers to the fundamental concepts of biotechnology and nanotechnology. This will enable them to incorporate these concepts into their classroom instruction. In addition to providing information on the basics of biotechnology and nanotechnology, SciFusion will focus on the importance of these sciences to the future competitiveness of the Wisconsin in the global economy. All SciFusion content will be aligned with the National Science Content Standards and the Wisconsin Academic Standards in Science.

How You Can Help
We hope you share our enthusiasm for science literacy as a key element in the creation of a strong future workforce, strong communities and a strong Wisconsin economy. The jobs of the future require a higher level of scientific understanding than has been necessary in the past.

A collective effort between public and private support will ensure more science-literate populace that will support a strong science-based Wisconsin economy.

You can make a difference by participating in The Wisconsin Science Literacy Project. Please let us know your thought by participating in the blog, contributing to the Wiki and sending us your suggestions!