College Science, Math Classes Urged

All college students should be required to take courses in science, math or engineering so they are prepared for a world increasingly influenced by technology, a new National Research Council report says.

“Our future leaders, policymakers and teachers will need to make important decisions based on their understanding of basic scientific concepts,” said Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “A majority of Americans are not prepared for the ever-expanding role that science and technology are playing in our daily lives.”

Fox chairs the council’s committee on undergraduate science education, which spent more than three years on the report, called “Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology.”

The 113-page report, to be issued today, said broad survey courses are needed in math and science, given that most undergraduates do not study those subjects for more than a year, if at all. Even science majors are too often focused on one discipline such as biology or chemistry, and do not learn how science and technology are interconnected, according to the council.