As a first approach, and in order to inform the community about the importance of science, CONICYT created several programs, such as the Explora projects, to teach middle school children science in a didactic way, or La Ciencia nos cambia la Vida, mini documentaries about scientific developments created in Chile that impact the quality of life of its own population.
After the KAP, astronauts' outreach activities, such as lectures for the general public; interviews on television, newspapers and magazines; participating in children's science camps; and distributing publications and DVDs about astronaut program for general public, were instituted for diffusing science culture.
You attribute the decline in children's science awareness from "backyard tinkering" partly to television, video games and computers ("When Backyards Were Laboratories," Week in Review, May 19).
"Certain topics," Professor Ford wrote, "are definitely overrepresented in children's science books -- endangered baby animal survival stories, dinosaurs and natural disasters, to name just a few".
Early autism research is an evolving field in child psychiatric science.
For years, industry itself has been increasing its role in teaching children in science and math.
Further research is warranted on the interplay of inquisitiveness, science knowledge, as well as other socialization and educational influences, in children's early science skills, including their ability to engineer solutions to realistic problems.
In both the public and private sectors, we need to commit ourselves to long-term investment, whether in children and education, science and technology, and health and medicine, or in building strong institutions that can serve as the sustainable foundations of peaceful, democratic, and prosperous societies.
It's apparent that she's passionate about the cause and saddened by the drop in children taking up sciences, saying that it's getting harder to recruit people for her space teams.
For example, some studies (e.g., Jacobs and Bleeker 2004) have indicated that parents are more involved in their daughters' mathematics and science activities than in their sons' activities, resulting in an increased interest in children's mathematics and science activities (see also Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1995).
