Adam Savage of the Mythbusters (the second most easily recognized scientists in the US, right after Bill Nye) has a short article up on Popular Mechanics on how to fix US science education. He only has 3 suggestions, but they’re really just two.
The first is to let students get their hands dirty. Instead of just telling them what science is about, make them do it and work at it and see it being done. Working through an actual experiment is a very different experience from being told what the cleaned-up, simplified results are.
The second is to actually spend more money on science education. Weird, huh? It works, though. Science isn’t cheap, and especially if you’re going to put students to work breaking stuff and using up reagents, it’s going to have an ongoing cost.
The third is a bit obvious and a natural consequence of his first: students will make mistakes, and that’s OK. If they’re actually doing experiments, science class is not like home ec class, where you’re supposed to follow a recipe and get a perfect outcome every time.
Of course, all of these suggestions are already being implemented by good public school science teachers (except maybe the second, since you can’t spend money if you don’t have it), but you’d be surprised at how many creationists think science is a matter of rote memorization.