Posted by Gabriela on June 20th, 2011 | No Comments »
The New York Times (6/17, A23, Chang, Subscription Publication) reports new results from the Messenger spacecraft orbiting around Mercury “is painting a more vibrant picture of the solar system’s innermost planet.” Scientists, reporting the finds at a NASA news conference, explained how the planet has unique features in the solar system “and its mineralogy is vastly different from the Moon’s.” Scientists have also discovered Mercury’s magnetic field is different in the northern and southern hemisphere. These findings “could reveal how Mercury formed and changed over the 4.5-billion-year history of the solar system, which in turn could help astronomers understand the panoply of Earth-size planets around other stars and the possibility of conditions friendly for life on them.” Scientists have already been able to eliminate one of three current theories explaining how Mercury formed.
Today, scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians from across the country will team up with K–12 schools for project-based learning experiences for National Lab Day. National Lab Day is a long-term program/collaboration between STEM professionals and K–12 classroom teachers.
A coalition of educators, science and engineering associations, philanthropies and other organizations today announced the launch of National Lab Day, a new grassroots initiative designed to reinvigorate science and math education in the nation’s schools and after-school programs and lead to increased U.S. competitiveness.
President Obama applauded the education initiative and others in a speech at the White House. “Lifting American students from the middle to the top of the pack in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) achievement over the next decade will not be attained by government alone,” he said. “I applaud the substantial commitments made today by the leaders of companies, universities, foundations, non-profits and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers and teachers from across the country.”
National Lab Day aims to inspire a wave of future innovators and foster U.S. competitiveness by improving the quality STEM education in America. A collaboration between government and more than 200 public and private-sector-organizations, National Lab Day will connect students in grades 6-12 to hands-on learning experiences and promote tinkering in laboratory settings.
National Lab Day will promote hands-on learning throughout the year and culminate each year with special events the first week of May. Volunteer science and technology professionals and educators will work together with students to improve America’s science labs and offer inquiry-based STEM experiences in classrooms, learning labs, and after-school programs.
“We wouldn’t
teach football from a textbook,” said John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor. “It is even more important that America’s youth have the opportunity to learn math and science by doing. The President and I strongly support efforts to raise the level of project-based learning, to help cultivate the next generation of doers and makers.”
Jack D. Hidary, chairman of National Lab Day,
praised President Obama’s announcement. “Our children deserve a world class science and math education that includes exciting, hands-on lab experiences,” said Hidary. “Whether you are a Nobel-prize winning scientist, a Mythbusters fan, a tinkerer or a parent, you can help bring students the enjoyment of learning through real challenges.”
The National Lab Day website will automatically match volunteers to requests from educators to participate on the basis of geography and interests. The website also provides resources and ideas for hands-on learning experiments and invites the public to suggest new materials. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Julie Dabrowski on May 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »
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Last week, novice and experienced scientists alike flocked to Reno, Nevada to participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. This event is the largest of its kind, affording millions of high school students around the world the opportunity to compete for nearly $4 million in prizes and scholarships. These young scientific minds first enter their projects, which may be focused in one of 17 disciplines, in state and regional competitions. Of the winning participants, 1500 were chosen to showcase their projects at the 2009 exposition and to have their work judged by doctoral-level scientists and engineers. Over 500 of these participants received scholarships and prizes for their outstanding work, and the top three winners were each awarded a $50,000 scholarship by the Intel Foundation.
This year’s winning projects included development of a biosensor to detect the presence of contaminants in the water supplies of developing countries; the isolation of a gene that can be used to improve the intelligence of a worm and may someday aid in the prevention and treatment of mental disabilities in humans; and the classification of a complex evolutionary relationship between sweat bees and nematode worms. Past winning projects have focused on everything from hydrogen production to cancer research to “cracking the brazil nut effect.” Toppling the commonly-held belief that male students are more naturally inclined to excel in the sciences, the grand winners of this as well as last year’s competition have all been women.
Clearly, the above are not your typical science fair projects, but neither are we discussing your typical high school students. These are some of the best and brightest young minds the world has to offer, and past winners have gone on to make substantial contributions to their respective scientific fields. But producing a winning project involves a great deal more than brains and in-depth research. The successful participants must gracefully combine many seemingly unrelated skills into one complete package – skills that include writing, statistics and public speaking, just to name a few. Participants learn that science is more than just research and analysis; rather, one’s methodology and purpose must be presented clearly and convincingly in order to be accepted by the scientific community and the general public. The process of completing a science fair project “yields mature, self-confident, skilled, and competitive young leaders who have career goals and the preparation, discipline, and drive to attain them.”
According to an article this past January in the New York Times, entitled Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Sciencethe United States is lagging behind the rest of the world in the development of new S&T talents.Thanks to globalization, Americans have become reliant on �foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs� with no end in site since efforts to fill student achievement gaps early on are not working.Many students and even adult Americans remain scientifically illiterate.
However, a new report released by the RAND Corporation reads the same statistics somewhat differently, putting a positive spin on globalization. The report, U.S. Competitiveness in Science and Technology (pdf here) looked at factors such as, R&D spending, triadic patents, publications, investment in science and math education and the science and engineering workforce to determine if the US was really falling behind. What it found is that in almost every area the United States is leading the way, contributing to about 40% of R&D spending and triadic patents worldwide. Additionally, the report noted that while �U.S. investments per student in elementary and secondary education are on par with those of other industrialized nations� its investments in post-secondary education are nearly double that of other countries.
As far as the S&E workforce is concerned, RAND was not too concerned, noting that growth in this area has been steady since 1980, largely due to foreign-born workers who �have helped enable� this trend.
So globalization seems good.Increase in foreign-born workers in the United States should already indicate how the U.S. has benefited from integration into a world-wide society. RAND also speculates the US can profit from it economically as well if Americans can embrace foreign gadgets.
The U.S. should not take S&E light- heartedly, but instead continue to try and counteract “exaggerated claims of the demise or success of U.S. science and technology”, RAND adds in a final statement. The article recommends three policy strategies that United States could adapt to continue going strong into the future, including, “establishing a centrally coordinated, independent body to monitor and evaluate U.S. performance in science and technology over the long term, facilitating high-skilled immigration to allow the United States to continue to benefit from employing foreign S&E workers and increase U.S. capacity to interact with science centers abroad and capitalize on the scientific and technological advances being made elsewhere.”
Posted by John Hunter on August 31st, 2007 | 1 Comment »
SciVee is a new site by the great people at PLoS, with support from NSF and San Diego Supercomputer Center. It is very early in the launch of this effort but it looks very promising.
SciVee allows scientists to communicate their work as a multimedia presentation incorporated with the content of their published article. Other scientists can freely view uploaded presentations and engage in virtual discussions with the author and other viewers. SciVee also facilitates the creation of communities around specific articles and keywords. Use this medium to meet peers and future collaborators that share your particular research interests.
Of course plenty of great videos are already online but this looks like another great effort at helping improve communication of scientific ideas by the Public Library of Science. And there are advantages to a community lead by scientists that not only posts videos but encourages scientific discussion on the related matters. I am hopeful (and confident) this will become a great resource.
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