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MATH & SCIENCE: U.S. VS. WORLD Cinda Alvarado - Magazine Editor Posted 8/13/2007 at 3:47 PM
All my student life, as far back as grade school, my least favorite subject was math, followed by science. The closest I got to being excited about science was watching an animated History Channel special about dinosaurs. And in college, one of my favorite aspects to majoring in journalism was that my degree plan required only one math class. A lack of interest and naive belief that I’ll never need math and science as an adult resulted in merely doing the minimum in those subjects to get by. Of course, I’m kicking myself for it now — as I am currently re-learning basic math skills to help improve my GRE scores for a doctoral degree. In this issue CorpusBeat examines challenges local educators have in advancing their students in math and science, plans to move their schools forward in these subjects and why this is so important both nationally and in South Texas. In a 2005 mathematics assessment administered to students in 15 countries, 11 outperformed the U.S., and four scored similarly. None scored significantly below the U.S., according to the National Academies, Advisors to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine. When I spoke with semi-retired geologist Owen Hopkins I was taken aback by his enthusiasm and passion about science. In examining this issue I heard some innovative and creative ideas about how local schools can improve math and science education, but it is Owen that comes to mind. “Next year, my goal is to put bones in schools,” he says. “There is a gravel pit west of town and they occasionally find these amazing bones, mammoth teeth the size of a loaf of bread. And get this, mammoth only have four teeth and they have found hundreds of mammoth teeth in that pit. Do you know what that means? Those animals used to live in Texas! “When I go to schools and talk about this topic I bring a picture of the cartoon Ice Age — the mammoth, sloth, and saber tooth cat — all of those bones are found in the pit in Corpus Christi! The people who own the pit, the Wrights, they allow bones to be taken out and given away to schools. We give two or three bones per school when we make a visit. “My brainstorm — I want to put an actual bone or tooth or claw of some animal we found in Corpus Christi in the trophy cases of the schools. I want to put a picture of a skeleton, highlight the bone in the case, and then maybe another picture of what the animal looked like in real life, then a paleo geographic map. Paleo means old, geo means earth and graph is a map, so what Corpus Christi looked like 11,000 years ago. “We display sports awards in school trophy cases, let’s put some science too. Students will stop, look, wonder and be curious.” If only more local scientists, chemists, engineers, mathematicians, industry leaders and educators could get students as curious and excited about math, science and technology as Owen Hopkins does, imagine how that could influence the futures of our adolescents. Credit: Cinda Alvarado - Magazine Editor MATH & SCIENCE: U.S. VS. WORLD Copyright (c) 2007 CorpusBeat |
