Hi Everyone,
I have been a high school biology teacher for 20 years. I have a son who
is now a 9th grader. From helping his teachers through the years and
having several friends who teach in the lower grades, I can say, at
least here in North Carolina, that science does take a back seat to
other subjects, mainly due to the insane testing we are required to do
by the state. For example, in grades 6-8, the kids are taken out of
their science and history classes in order to either test for other
subjects such as the reading and writing test, or in my son's case, he
missed 2 weeks of science to "cram" for the state computer competency
test. NC wants kids tested in computers and he wasn't even in the
computer class at the time...testing was in October and he was slated to
have the class in the spring. At least in middle school, this trend may
shift in favor of biology....the state is now requiring a competency
test in science. In the elementary grades, I don't know as much about
what goes on, but I do hear many teachers complain about "having to
teach science". It scares them, and why I don't know.....especially with
little ones, I think that would be the easiest thing to teach and grab
their attention. Teacher education courses in college do expose them to
science but with all the other subjects they must teach, it is very
difficult for them to get everything in...as with the older children,
the younger ones are tested to death too here in NC.
In my own classes I add my own life's experiences to the curriculum....I
have stocked the department with specimens we purchase with our supply
allotment, but most I have collected myself. I have tons of personal
stories to tell the kids, especially from my shelling trips. I also show
them slides from my trips.  It's very disappointing to see how limited
students are now in their exposure to science and how many of them will
never explore biology on their own. They are missing out on so much fun
and learning. Probably also to fault are all the forms of distraction
they have now that we didn't have as kids....video games, computer
stuff, etc. They look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them as kids we
had acorn battles in the woods, looked under rocks for salamanders and
snails, and the highlight of summer was scaring my mom with snakes we
found. For my own son, I am so glad we do have a new club at school that
ties into Boy Scouts and the ROTC program we have...it's called Venture
Crew and it's the best thing we have right now that actually gets the
high school kids outside and away from their video games! The kids have
activities such as hiking, climbing, and hopefully they will get into
the scuba unit. Membership is at 30 and rising. Some of these kids had
never participated in outdoor activities before. It will be a slow road
back, but maybe with activities like this and more exposure to nature in
the lower grades, we can capture younger people's attention and interest
in nature clubs like shell clubs.
Vicky Wall

Paul Callomon wrote:

>Colleagues,
>
>The response to my previous questions about shell clubs has been extensive and interesting. There seems to be a consensus that:
>
>- certain geographical anomalies notwithstanding (i. e. Florida, which has a steady influx of older people from outside - most other states' worst nightmare, incidentally), most areas are seeing a decline in shell club membership and participation.
>- this is not confined to shell clubs; herpetological and other nature societies also report declining membership. Anecdotal evidence suggests that fossil, gem and bird clubs seem to do all right, though.
>- many people assert that clubs need a certain critical mass in terms of participant members (as opposed to those who pay dues but never turn up to meetings) and active programs in order to sustain themselves. If things fall below a certain level, toxic phenomena such as cliquism and over-familiarity that are diluted among a larger membership can become obvious and put potential new members off.
>- many responses cited the unfashionability of nature hobbies among the young, and this is something that bears further investigation. I was utterly put off by my high school biology classes (in the UK, in the 1970s) because we started out with weeks of plant cell biology. There was no preamble giving an overview of the various kingdoms, and no mention of ecology, symbiosis, parasitism or anything else that might have grabbed the 12-year-old's imagination. I think they assumed we already knew that stuff, but the complete absence of biology from elementary schools in those days meant that we didn't. I don't know what it's like in US schools nowadays (though as my own lad goes through the New Jersey school system, I intend to find out), but the only reason I ever became interested in shells was because my father is a molluscan paleontologist.
>So, the next question: how likely is it that a 12-year-old in the USA nowadays will receive a basic grounding in the divisions of nature, the groups of plants and animals and their role in their environments, and thereby perhaps become personally fascinated with some aspect of the subject?
>
>Regards,
>
>PC.
>
>Paul Callomon
>Collections Manager
>Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
>Department of Malacology
>Academy of Natural Sciences
>1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
>Tel 215-405-5096
>Fax 215-299-1170
>Secretary, American Malacological Society
>On the web at www.malacological.org
>
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