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Getting Students Excited About a Life in the Biosciences

February 6th, 2010 at 08:42am Under Education report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The American biotechnology industry recently did a study of bioscience education across the country. The biosciences are biology and other sciences that deal with living organisms.

Paul Hanle is president of the Biotechnology Institute, one of the groups that did the study. He says international tests show that the United States is performing twenty-fifth out of thirty developed countries in science education.

So the new findings may be no surprise. The study found that many schools are not doing enough to get students interested in bioscience or to prepare them to study it in college.

But the report said a number of the fifty states perform much better than others. Eight were rated as leaders: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Paul Hanle says increasing the numbers of bioscience graduates could help the economy grow. He says there are many high-paying jobs in the biosciences. And some lower-paying jobs require only two years of college, or even a technical education program in high school.

Now here is a way to get students excited — or more excited — about science. Offer them fifty thousand dollars in savings bonds and the ceremonial title of “America’s Top Young Scientist.”

Ten children ages eight to fourteen were in New York recently for the finals of this year’s Discovery/3M Young Scientist Challenge. Middle school students from every state entered the competition, sending in videotaped ideas. Officials said the five hundred students who entered were judged as much on their communication skills as for the scientific talent they showed.

Top winner Marina Dimitrov, with duct-taped structure

The ten finalists presented their inventions — made of common household products — then competed in a series of events. The last three finalists each had fifty minutes to create a tall structure to hold an egg even when shaken with earthquake force.

All three eggs fell or broke. But all the structures remained standing — thanks in large part to the large amounts of duct tape used by the students.

In the end, Nico Seamons and Nikita Gaurev shared second place. Marina Dimitrov won the top prize.

MARINA DIMITROV: “I just think it’s really important to get kids excited about science at an early age, because they might be the next Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton, or America’s top young scientist. It’s just that I want to show that ordinary kids can do extraordinary things.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. You can find our reports with transcripts and podcasts — and share comments — at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and YouTube. I’m Jim Tedder.

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College Guide Aims to Help Students Avoid a ‘Thin Education’

January 31st, 2010 at 08:35am Under Education report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A new college guide in the United States compares educational requirements in seven subjects. These include math, science, writing and United States history or government. The other subjects are economics, foreign language and literature.

The free online guide is from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. The council is a nonprofit group that supports liberal arts education.

Its president, Anne Neal, says these areas of knowledge are needed to succeed in a twenty-first century society and an increasingly connected world. Yet she told VOA’s Faiza Elmasry it was surprising how many students can graduate with, in her words, a “thin education.”

Forty-two of the one hundred colleges and universities surveyed received the lowest marks. This meant they required two or fewer of the seven subjects. Five schools received a top grade for requiring six subjects. These were Brooklyn College in New York City, Texas A&M, the University of Texas-Austin, West Point and the University of Arkansas.

Robert Costrell is a professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas. He says many, if not all, of the top American colleges once had a core curriculum — a set of courses required for all students.

But over the years, many have dropped these requirements. Or they have “watered them down,” Professor Costrell says, into what became known as distribution requirements. This system lets a student choose from a number of different courses to satisfy a requirement.

ROBERT COSTRELL: “And in many cases these courses went too far, I would say, towards the fluffy treatment of serious material, and students could satisfy their requirement by taking such courses.”

Professor Costrell says schools should not only re-examine what they teach. They should also measure what students have learned — for example, through some form of examinations or papers.

A new report this week from the College Board showed that college prices continue to rise. But Anne Neal from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni says higher prices do not guarantee a better general education. In fact, the group found that the higher the tuition, the more likely that students have to develop their own general education.

The college guide is on the Web at whatwilltheylearn.com. Anne Neal says her group is surveying more colleges. The hope, she says, is to discover what college graduates have really learned, and how ready they are to compete in the global marketplace.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. I’m Steve Ember.

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