Watch the Santa Fe Institute video on complexity in education on the webpage where the above screenshot was grabbed. The message is simple: science education is failing, and teaching complexity is a powerful way to prepare scientists and citizens for the 21st century. The Learn@sfi page begins with this quotation: “The core problem is that our education and training systems were built for another era. We can get where we must go only by changing the system itself.” —National Center on Education and the Economy 2007, Tough Choices for Tough Times
The Islands of Science slide captured above depicts the fundamental idea of this GoldenSwamp.com blog: Subjects the young generations must learn in order to become educated are not islands; they are bits of gold bobbing in the complex virtual swamp of the open Net. As learning occurs, patterns of connected golden bits focus in our minds dynamically. Taking our cue from what the SFI slide says, students should not be taught islands of facts. They should engage the complexity of nodes connected in patterns. Bits from genetics, chemistry, and energy, for example, form important patterns needed to understand molecular biology.
