Not all students will be scientists, but scientific understanding will be crucial for all students preparing to be college- and career-ready in the 21st century, according to education experts writing in the 19 April issue of the journal Science.

The “Grand Challenges in Education” special section explores the opportunities and obstacles facing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, at a time of high interest in the field.

As summer approaches, the AAAS Skin Deep Project has released its latest set of educational tools promoting skin health awareness. The tools include standards-based science lessons plans for middle and high school students and an interactive, online skin cancer investigation activity.

The new tools are funded by Neutrogena and were released this month, which is skin cancer awareness month. The scientific content of the online teaching tools is based on the online AAAS book, The Science Inside: Skin, released last year.

Students in introductory chemistry classes often start off with learning how to balance chemical equations. The educational message, according to Carnegie Mellon University chemistry professor David Yaron, seems to be, “if you take in this stuff that’s not very interesting, you may get to use it later.”