Its search to find more stimulating ways to teach science is spurred by such reports as the 1999 Third International Mathematics and Science Study, which showed that interest in science declined between fourth grade and eighth grade. And US students performed dismally, compared to such countries as Singapore, Japan, or the Czech Republic, according to the study. In February 2002, the two-year test phase of astrobiology will end, and schools must decide whether to keep the course. Sauer hopes the key to stemming any challenge to the course on such factors as religious beliefs is to present extraterrestrial life simply as a theory. That's what astrobiology is all about, leaving the questions provocatively open.
Nothing is off limits, as long as it examines scientific evidence.
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