They need a background in science content on which to build. New students must learn many definitions in order to speak the language, but there is such a large body of knowledge it poses a problem. Science education today is faced with too much content. We must decide which are the important concepts our students need at a particular stage in their studies and what should be eliminated. Science is an important process that relies on the use of scientific equipment.
Students can best understand science by doing science.
Science education in most cases has not practiced the use of higher order thinking skills or the scientific processes. It has relied on content-lecture, reading the text and tests to weed out all but the most determined. This must change. Today, we need a balance that uses scientific processes, higher order thinking and decision making skills along with our traditional scientific content. With these and an adequate amount of the proper scientific equipment, we can raise the test scores of all students.