Learning Science
Requiring students to read science textbooks to learn such visually-rich subjects as chemistry, biology, and even physics will only widen the gap between children brought up in a household that cherishes reading and those without that experience.
The increasing popularity of the iphone and television and the decline of newspapers as a source of information reflect the superiority and appeal of seeing and hearing new information over reading the same information. It’s no surprise that the shift away from reading to audiovisual sources of information has led to a deterioration of reading skills among adolescents.
Even the Wall Street Journal is taking notice. In the Journal’s March 4, 2026 edition, editorial writer, Jason J. Riley, noted in his column entitled, “Why Johnny Can’t Read Anything Other Than Pronouns,” that in the 53 high schools run by the Chicago Public School system, “not a single student tested proficient in math” and in 17 of the 53 schools, “no student tested proficient in reading.”
We need to accept the fact that reading is taking a backseat to visual-based learning. For our students’ sake, we need to create new ways to teach science, especially given all the new discoveries taking place and new approaches to solving world-wide problems.
Trying to improve student reading is certainly a worthy goal, but unlikely to have a significant impact, at least in the near future. A more rational approach to teaching science is to go with students’ strength, and use their visual-based skills at taking in information.
Instead of expecting students to read textbooks of unfamiliar subjects like chemistry, biology, and physics, it makes more sense to teach science with an audiovisual approach. Audiovisual lessons are efficient and effective because they allow students to see and listen to what’s being taught as it’s being taught.
From my neurologic viewpoint, audiovisual instruction has important strengths. Learning a strongly visual subject like science by seeing and hearing what’s being taught allows the brain to store what’s being taught in multiple places in the
brain, making for easier access later.
The brain also learns more and learns it faster when it can attach an emotion to an event. Audiovisual lessons are far more successful at evoking emotions than textbooks can ever hope to achieve. Other advantages of audiovisual lessons are that students can view the lessons online anywhere, any time. They don’t have to lug around textbooks, find a quiet, well-lit place to read, or spend significant amounts of money on textbooks that they’ll likely never use again.
America needs to find a way to educate all students in basic science and math – even students who will never pursue a career in either field, because the officials an educated electorate elects will be providing the financial support for future scientific breakthroughs and discoveries.
In short, we need to make science relevant, inexpensive, and readily understandable. An audiovisual approach to science education clearly has the advantage over textbooks in educating all of America’s students, regardless of their background, interests, or capabilities.