News & Views item - November 2011

 

 

Creating Professional Science Liaison/Interpreters for K-12. (November 25, 2011)

 Bruce Alberts is Editor-in-Chief of Science and he has a bone to pick with the nation's (US) educators which ought also take the attention of Australia's federal Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garrett, the president of the Australian Academy of Science Suzanne Cory, and the federal and state chief scientists among others.

 

In his November 25, 2011 editorial for Science he first writes of the "success of the AAAS Science and Technology Fellowship program, which brings nearly 200 highly selected scientists and engineers to Washington, DC, each year to work in government." A number continue in science public policy and  serve as "adapters" to connect government to scientists and to scientific advice. He then refers to a "recently published anonymous survey of nearly 500 [University of California, San Francisco]  doctoral students in basic biomedical sciences [which] reveals that, by the time they enter their third year in graduate school, one-third are intending to pursue a career that does not involve laboratory research".

 

But these observations are merely a prelude to what Professor Alberts has as his main theme:

 

As science and its values become ever more central to the future of nations and the world, it becomes increasingly critical that scientists become deeply engaged in supporting the teachers and school systems that educate children. How can we best connect the invaluable resources of the many vibrant communities of science and engineering professionals to the large community of professional educators directly responsible for educating a nation's youth? My conclusion, after decades of experience in the United States, is that a new type of individual is needed inside each precollege (K-12) education system to act as the liaison between two professional worlds with very distinct cultures: that of science and that of precollege educators. Thus, I would like to challenge a group of the relevant experts—teachers, principals, superintendents, education researchers, scientists, policy-makers, and experienced science curriculum specialists from school systems—to create a 15-month program aimed at preparing and certifying outstanding Ph.D. scientists as “science curriculum specialists” whom U.S. school districts would want to hire. These individuals would need to be competitively selected, provided with prestigious fellowships to cover their living expenses, and networked to each other and to the scientific and engineering communities. The goal is to produce large numbers of school system administrators with “science in their souls,” passionate people skilled at working inside the system to connect it to the very best resources available for helping science teachers to inspire their students.

 

The timing is perfect to spread science and its values by “spreading” young scientists and engineers into new types of careers. These young people are demonstrating a strong interest in living lives of science beyond the bench. The critical task at hand is to generate many more pathways to ease their way.