Lab Out Loud

This week we talk with Vivek Wadhwa, columnist for Business Week, Wertheim Fellow at the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. Wadhwa will be discussing his recent article (The Science Education Myth) regarding science education in the United States.

Quotes from the show:

“It’s commonly accepted that the U.S. is falling behind other countries because our children score badly on math and science test scores and so on. The National Academies has sited this data; the President alluded to it in his last State of the Union address in 2006, the U.S. Department of Education talks about it. Everyone seems to accept the fact that the U.S. is falling behind and there is something wrong with our education system...I had a suspicion this was wrong.�

“We actually added up the numbers, and we found that the U.S. graduates a comparable number [engineers] to India, and the Chinese numbers are bogus. Basically they’re published from the Chinese government and you can’t challenge it; the Chinese numbers are high, but there are huge quality issues in both India and China.�

“The U.S is in pretty good shape. Maybe there are a few small nations, like Latvia and Singapore that come in first place, but those are small countries and you can’t compare a population of the size and the diversity of the U.S.A. with countries like Singapore, which are small and have a different system than we do.�

“Almost every indicator that they looked at showed the same trend – that the U.S.A. was improving; it wasn’t getting worse. And that no other country in the world was improving like the U.S.A. was.�

“If you look at what spurred the sciences, it was Sputnik. The Manhattan project employed 100-200,000 engineers. Whenever there’s been a crisis, the U.S. has responded to it by putting together national programs. The fact is that global warming is a critical national program. The fact that we’re consuming oil and burning up the world is a critical threat to the U.S.A. There are so many diseases that need to be eradicated. Instead of spending another 100 billion dollars on Iraq, why don’t we take 100 billion dollars and spend it on doing constructive research on eliminating diseases, of improving the world.�

“I think the U.S. really has to get its act together. We have to create the demand for engineers and scientists, and create the excitement, and create the motivation for our students to move into these fields. Just graduating more doesn’t solve any it just creates unemployment. But create a demand, create an excitement, is how you solve one of the problems.�

Links:

• The Science Education Myth, by Vivek Wadhwa from Business Week
• Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand, by B. Lindsay Lowell, Harold Salzman; report by the Urban Institute
• Rising above the Gathering Storm; report from the National Academies Press
• State of the Union Address by the President; January 31, 2006
• U.S. Must act to Close Dentist Gap from Pure Pedantry
• A Silver Lining to Our Science Struggles by David Epstein, from SEED Magazine (article as podcast)
• In Science Classrooms, A Blast of Fresh O₂ by Natalie Angier from the New York Times
• Math and Science Education from NPR's Science Friday; November 9th, 2007

This week we talk with Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover Project, & Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Preview from the show:

"We have been so incredibly lucky with this mission. I mean, to have that dead wheel, which we thought was a catastrophe at the time, turn up one of the most exciting discoveries of the mission, was very good fortune."

"The next big thing, at least in mars exploration, along with the continuing adventures of the rovers, is a mission called Phoenix. And Phoenix is a lander mission that's going to land near the north polar region of mars, and is going to dig down into the soil there, hope to find ice and then, scoop up some of that ice, and put it into a little chemistry set on top of the lander, and find out what's inside of that ice."

"What we've tried to do is provide images, provide curriculum materials, and provide information for educators as we go. And I think that's actually the best way to do it, because the thing that makes this exciting is not reading about it in the historical sense after the mission's over, so much as being an active participant - you know following the mission as it's going along. You can go to our website, and you can download the latest pictures from Mars that have come down in the last day or so."

Links:

• NASA's Mars Exploration Page
• Audio clips with Dr. Steve Squyres, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Transcript: Mars Rover Update with Dr. Steve Squyres
• Steve Squyres on NASA Direct
• Steve Squyres entry from Wikipedia
• Steve Squyres: Man on a Misson from NOVA
• Steve Squyres Interview on The Colbert Report
• Steve Squyres on NPR's Fresh Air from WHYY, March 29, 2004
• ABC News Person of the Week Article
• Father of Spirit and Opportunity, an article from Scientific American, October 2004
• Interview with Steve Squyres from The Cornell Daily Sun
• Mars Exploration Rovers Mission Update blog & Way Cool Scientist!
• UC Berkeley Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy Lecture with Steve Squyres on Google Video
• Roving Mars, written by Steve Squyres from amazon.com

Brian's "Flaming Pumpkin of Death"
Dale's Stop-motion video project

Dr. Sean B. Carroll (Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin) talks to us about evolution, his new project, and science literacy.

Preview from the show:

"What I am very convinced of, from all sorts of experiences of trying to communicate science, is that storytelling is a really valuable ingredient of that. And I don't mean storytelling in sort of a simplistic way, but just engaging the audience, whether they are students or teachers or laypersons, with the drama of scientific exploration, scientific discovery, even scientific debate. Because it's pretty darn common that when scientists find something new, something unexpected, there's a wrestling match for a while, figuring out whether a new view is emerging, or whether someone else is off base. And all of this is a very human enterprise - there's a whole lot of human nature in the game of science."

-Sean B. Carroll, discussing a textbook adjunct from Benjamin Cummings that will be available next year

"I really wish that teachers had fossil collections...I think that when kids put their hands on fossils - something happens."

-Sean B. Carroll, on a wish he has for teachers

"Scientific Literacy is broader than just evolution. Evolution is perhaps the poster child for the acute problem that we have. But I think that it's really hard for a student to grasp, and I think it's really hard, I think for a citizen to grasp, when they are just getting the moving banner at the bottom of CNN - [like] "scientists say", "this fossil means that" or "this gene discovery means that." Those are just punchlines and don't really understand the size of the entire enterprise or the cumulative knowledge that's built up and how that's tested and things. Now you could say - how do you convey all that? Practically speaking, I think part of the way you convey all that is that those who are communicating to the public, and I would say especially the media - have to have a better grasp of it."

-Sean B. Carroll, on scientific literacy

"I think getting the scientific method, and knowledge of the scientific method across in the classroom is really more important than any particular science content."

-Sean B. Carroll, on teaching science

"I can't encourage anyone more strongly to read what the judge said about the intelligent design case in Dover... It's a masterful opinion."

-Sean B. Carroll, on intelligent design in schools

 

Links:

• Professional Information from UW-Madison:
  • Sean Carroll's Lab
  • Molecular Biology Department
  • Genetics Department
    

• SeanBCarroll.com
• Books by Sean B. Carroll (from Google Book Search)
• Sean B. Carroll Books on Amazon.com
• HHMI Holiday Lecture (FREE DVD!)

• The Science of Evolution video from the New York Times
• Interview from Discover Magazine
• "One of the most rewarding aspects of writing for a general audience has been the response of the biology teaching community. I think there is an urgent need to get new, illuminating material into the hands of teachers and their students. I am working on some new paths to do that."
• Charmed by Snakes - Profile in Nature.
• Q: What’s the one thing about science that you wish the public understood better? A: "The depth and breadth of evidence supporting scientific ideas: compared with, say, the absence of evidence in areas like astrology, UFOs and ghosts."
• PDF of decision of court in Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District
• Interview from Science Friday
• Interview from Talk of the Nation
• Article from The Scientist
• Q&A Sean Carroll from Library Journal

Meet the hosts of NSTA's Lab Out Loud podcast - Dale Basler and Brian Bartel.  Later, we chat with NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler, as he reflects on Sputnik and its impact on science education,  the importance of science literacy and 21st century skills, and how NSTA is helping science teachers both young and old.

WSST

• The Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers
• WSST's Periodicity

Gerry Wheeler Reflects on Sputnik:

• When Science Suddenly Mattered, in Space and in Class (NY Times)
• Sputnik Left Legacy  for U.S. Science Education (NPR)
• Sputnik heralded space race, focus on learning (USA Today)
• Science: Sputnik Redux (Edutopia)

Visit NSTA's new website at
www.nsta.org NSTA's New Science Teacher Academy
With support from The Amgen Foundation, the program will support new middle and secondary school science educators by providing opportunities for professional development such as online mentoring and financial support to attend NSTA’s national conference.

• New Science Teacher Academy
• The Amgen Foundation
• The Science and Mathematics Teacher Shortage: Fact and Myth

Toyota Tapestry

• Home
• 2008 Online Proposal