11/11/2011
Maria Ung (center) works with Ryan Perry (left) and Michael Judge during her conceptual chemistry class at Essex High School in Essex Junctilon on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. / GLENN RUSSELL, Free Press
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ESSEX JUNCTION — The plump, dimpled plastic glove inflated like a mini-Zeppelin in the chemistry class at Essex High School after Michaela Rigoli and her lab partners poured in vinegar, baking soda and tied the glove shut. Fizzzz!
It was barely 9 a.m. and the students were studying a fundamental law of science known as conservation of mass, a geeky concept with full potential to work as a sleep aid on generally nocturnal teenagers. The shocker: The teens were wide awake as they walked through a series of steps in a lab designed to show how matter behaves as it changes shape.
Rigola, a 16-year-old junior who wants to be a nurse someday, likes the chemistry class partly because teacher Maria Ung loads the course with labs in a deliberate strategy to make science more tangible. For Rigola, the hands-on experiments translate to deeper understanding. You can read about science all you want, she said, but actually doing it “helps it stick.”
The battle for the attention of students in science class is being played out all over the state, as state officials, employers and school leaders strive to make Vermont a place with more science innovation and discovery, and a place with more highly paying science and tech jobs. Schools are ground zero in the effort. The results of the push are mixed.
Compared to other states, Vermont generally keeps up when it comes to science scores and occasionally ticks above average — on the science portion of the ACT college entrance test for example. But only 31 percent of Vermont high school juniors score proficient or better in science by our measure, the New England Common Assessment Program test. Meanwhile Vermont, like the rest of the U.S., is behind science and tech education leaders such as India, South Korea and China. And many Vermont tech employers report continual shortages of highly skilled employees such as software developers, even in a recession.
We’re not keeping up with the competition, said Chris Allen, president of the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering. “It’s just a fact.”
Rigola, a 16-year-old junior who wants to be a nurse someday, likes the chemistry class partly because teacher Maria Ung loads the course with labs in a deliberate strategy to make science more tangible. For Rigola, the hands-on experiments translate to deeper understanding. You can read about science all you want, she said, but actually doing it “helps it stick.”
The battle for the attention of students in science class is being played out all over the state, as state officials, employers and school leaders strive to make Vermont a place with more science innovation and discovery, and a place with more highly paying science and tech jobs. Schools are ground zero in the effort. The results of the push are mixed.
Compared to other states, Vermont generally keeps up when it comes to science scores and occasionally ticks above average — on the science portion of the ACT college entrance test for example. But only 31 percent of Vermont high school juniors score proficient or better in science by our measure, the New England Common Assessment Program test. Meanwhile Vermont, like the rest of the U.S., is behind science and tech education leaders such as India, South Korea and China. And many Vermont tech employers report continual shortages of highly skilled employees such as software developers, even in a recession.
We’re not keeping up with the competition, said Chris Allen, president of the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering. “It’s just a fact.”
Interest lacking
Science is the foundation for high-paying and exciting careers: Doctor, astronaut, architect, inventor, engineer of bridges and tall buildings, inventor of brave new social networking tricks and mastermind of popular new games for the Xbox. It’s also true, though, that some science-related jobs might not excite the imagination of the young — writing computer code all day long? Designing new and improved sewage treatment plants? Perhaps not the stuff of dreams for the average teen trying to decide whether to dive deeply into science coursework or skim by with the minimum requirements.
Factor in the reality that mastering science is arduous for most students and the reasons not to pursue it as a career path increase, some say. Students who specialize in science cannot escape hard work, said Allen, a retired chemistry professor who taught at the University of Vermont for 40 years. “There’s just a certain amount of work that they’ve got to do. It won’t go away.”
Whether or not students are willing to do that hard work is a matter of debate. Films such as “Race to Nowhere” portray American students as compliant, highly-motivated kids stressed to the breaking point from crushing homework loads and nonstop standardized testing. Yet at many schools, there are students who do little or no homework, barely pass their courses, flunk standardized tests and still collect a diploma.
The situation in college is another matter. Over his career, Allen noticed a general slippage in the work ethic of students in his classes, with some young people bluntly volunteering that they just didn’t feel like spending time on a particular assignment.
“People would be embarrassed to say that 25 years ago,” Allen said. “Now it’s like a badge of honor.”
He theorizes that the relative comfort of life in the U.S. compared to places such as India, China and South Korea helps explain why those countries are producing so many science and tech stars who are hungry for economic stability. Allen looks with bemusement at the trend in his own family. He’s a chemist. His wife is a geneticist. One of their sons is a poet, the other is an artist. Allen loves them, respects their career choices, and can’t help but wonder whether their family story says something about broader cultural trends in this country.
Given social factors and international trends, it’s more important than ever for public schools to make science exciting and inspiring to young people, Allen said.
“You have to have a dream to drive you to start,” Allen said. “If you don’t have that, you can’t go anywhere.”
Factor in the reality that mastering science is arduous for most students and the reasons not to pursue it as a career path increase, some say. Students who specialize in science cannot escape hard work, said Allen, a retired chemistry professor who taught at the University of Vermont for 40 years. “There’s just a certain amount of work that they’ve got to do. It won’t go away.”
Whether or not students are willing to do that hard work is a matter of debate. Films such as “Race to Nowhere” portray American students as compliant, highly-motivated kids stressed to the breaking point from crushing homework loads and nonstop standardized testing. Yet at many schools, there are students who do little or no homework, barely pass their courses, flunk standardized tests and still collect a diploma.
The situation in college is another matter. Over his career, Allen noticed a general slippage in the work ethic of students in his classes, with some young people bluntly volunteering that they just didn’t feel like spending time on a particular assignment.
“People would be embarrassed to say that 25 years ago,” Allen said. “Now it’s like a badge of honor.”
He theorizes that the relative comfort of life in the U.S. compared to places such as India, China and South Korea helps explain why those countries are producing so many science and tech stars who are hungry for economic stability. Allen looks with bemusement at the trend in his own family. He’s a chemist. His wife is a geneticist. One of their sons is a poet, the other is an artist. Allen loves them, respects their career choices, and can’t help but wonder whether their family story says something about broader cultural trends in this country.
Given social factors and international trends, it’s more important than ever for public schools to make science exciting and inspiring to young people, Allen said.
“You have to have a dream to drive you to start,” Allen said. “If you don’t have that, you can’t go anywhere.”
Building foundation
At Essex High School, the classroom where Rigoli is learning chemistry with teacher Ung has posters on the wall touting different careers in science: Pediatric dentist, forensic chemist, even pyrotechnician. Ung recently was honored with a $25,000 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award — a prize she collected partly for making science engaging. Ung works to connect with students. She builds as many labs as possible into the 84-minute chemistry class that meets every other day. She encourages students to do reports on important scientists for extra credit, so they understand the context and impact of principles they are studying.
“We try to help them recognize the concepts didn’t just fall from the sky,” she said.
Ung’s style is active: Hers is not a classroom where the lights are off and the teacher drones on against the backdrop of Power Point slides. She walks up and down the rows of desks and asks students questions in the loud, chipper voice of a cheerleading coach, which Ung is in addition to being a teacher. During the lab work, she buzzes around the room, checking on results, responding to questions and making it difficult for students to zone out. She hammers key points until most of the students seem to get it.
The idea is to help students digest the basics so they can build from there, Ung said. “The first step is to give students a foundation and from there ask them to think about applications and problem solving.”
Good science teaching also means asking students to find the answer to questions on their own, even if it takes some stumbling around. Gail Hall, Vermont Department of Education science assessment coordinator for middle and high school, said lab experiments should not tell students exactly what to do and expect.
A true scientific inquiry process is much more open ended and might involve multiple tries to fix the problem. “That means that a question is posed that ideally the students don’t know the answer to,” Hall said. “Then they work together collaboratively in lab groups and investigate the question and gather data and analyze and interpret the data and draw a conclusion.”
All that intellectual noodling around takes time, sometimes more time than a class session allows. Science contests and after-school projects are good outlets for deeper work, but it’s a challenge for schools to incorporate good science into the everyday routine. Still, Vermont is making progress, Hall believes. High school science NECAP scores ticked up this year and exciting things are on the horizon.
Vermont is one of 20 lead states selected to help in the development of a national science standard. Having a seat at the table will help the state examine specific questions, such as, should Vermont’s three years of required high school science be bumped to four? It will also help Vermont ponder larger issues, such as how can Vermont add to the standards in a way that will help strengthen the state’s workforce?
“We try to help them recognize the concepts didn’t just fall from the sky,” she said.
Ung’s style is active: Hers is not a classroom where the lights are off and the teacher drones on against the backdrop of Power Point slides. She walks up and down the rows of desks and asks students questions in the loud, chipper voice of a cheerleading coach, which Ung is in addition to being a teacher. During the lab work, she buzzes around the room, checking on results, responding to questions and making it difficult for students to zone out. She hammers key points until most of the students seem to get it.
The idea is to help students digest the basics so they can build from there, Ung said. “The first step is to give students a foundation and from there ask them to think about applications and problem solving.”
Good science teaching also means asking students to find the answer to questions on their own, even if it takes some stumbling around. Gail Hall, Vermont Department of Education science assessment coordinator for middle and high school, said lab experiments should not tell students exactly what to do and expect.
A true scientific inquiry process is much more open ended and might involve multiple tries to fix the problem. “That means that a question is posed that ideally the students don’t know the answer to,” Hall said. “Then they work together collaboratively in lab groups and investigate the question and gather data and analyze and interpret the data and draw a conclusion.”
All that intellectual noodling around takes time, sometimes more time than a class session allows. Science contests and after-school projects are good outlets for deeper work, but it’s a challenge for schools to incorporate good science into the everyday routine. Still, Vermont is making progress, Hall believes. High school science NECAP scores ticked up this year and exciting things are on the horizon.
Vermont is one of 20 lead states selected to help in the development of a national science standard. Having a seat at the table will help the state examine specific questions, such as, should Vermont’s three years of required high school science be bumped to four? It will also help Vermont ponder larger issues, such as how can Vermont add to the standards in a way that will help strengthen the state’s workforce?
Wanted: A few good techies
Many Vermont employers report shortages of highly-skilled employees in science-related fields, especially computer software designers and developers. Kristin Halpin, chief talent officer at Dealer.com, summarizes the problem at the growing Burlington-headquartered company that specializes in Internet automotive marketing.
“Some jobs at Dealer.com, such as software development engineers, have proven more difficult to fill using locally-available talent — as is the case in many markets across the country — since these positions require a specific skill set. If the state of Vermont can bolster its emphasis on science and math, it will help close this gap between the supply and demand for people with technical skills, and benefit our students and local business and technology community in the long term.”
Others agree. Chris Johnson is executive director of Technical Connection Inc., a temporary staffing firm. He can’t find enough computer software engineers to fill the demand in Vermont, even in the weak economy. It’s not a new problem, but it’s time for the United States and Vermont to take more dramatic steps to boost the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, he said.
Johnson likes the idea, floated by New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman, of an infusion of federal grant money for students who pursue STEM degrees in college, a sort of modern-day rewrite of the G.I. bill. And even with all the colleges in Vermont, there’s room for another institution — a software university that stays hyper-current with tech trends and relies heavily on work co-ops and internships to help students graduate job-ready, Johnson said.
If Vermont produced more science and tech employees it could boost the economy and create new science and tech jobs.
“There’s huge demand, huge demand. Unmet,” Johnson said. “I think we should follow the Indian model. If you train the graduates, the jobs will come. Build the schools and the jobs will come.”
The best training for secondary school students who want careers in science is to take honors and AP math and science classes, so the more schools offer in this area, the better, Johnson said. And like others, he thinks it’s time for the flabby student work ethic to hit the gym.
“I hate to sound jaded but I don’t think Americans want to work hard. They tend to take psychology and political science rather than the tough engineering classes,” Johnson said. Boosting federal tuition subsidies for STEM students could go a long way toward motivating young people, he said.
“You’ve got to offer them some kind of incentive to look at the tougher classes.”
“Some jobs at Dealer.com, such as software development engineers, have proven more difficult to fill using locally-available talent — as is the case in many markets across the country — since these positions require a specific skill set. If the state of Vermont can bolster its emphasis on science and math, it will help close this gap between the supply and demand for people with technical skills, and benefit our students and local business and technology community in the long term.”
Others agree. Chris Johnson is executive director of Technical Connection Inc., a temporary staffing firm. He can’t find enough computer software engineers to fill the demand in Vermont, even in the weak economy. It’s not a new problem, but it’s time for the United States and Vermont to take more dramatic steps to boost the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, he said.
Johnson likes the idea, floated by New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman, of an infusion of federal grant money for students who pursue STEM degrees in college, a sort of modern-day rewrite of the G.I. bill. And even with all the colleges in Vermont, there’s room for another institution — a software university that stays hyper-current with tech trends and relies heavily on work co-ops and internships to help students graduate job-ready, Johnson said.
If Vermont produced more science and tech employees it could boost the economy and create new science and tech jobs.
“There’s huge demand, huge demand. Unmet,” Johnson said. “I think we should follow the Indian model. If you train the graduates, the jobs will come. Build the schools and the jobs will come.”
The best training for secondary school students who want careers in science is to take honors and AP math and science classes, so the more schools offer in this area, the better, Johnson said. And like others, he thinks it’s time for the flabby student work ethic to hit the gym.
“I hate to sound jaded but I don’t think Americans want to work hard. They tend to take psychology and political science rather than the tough engineering classes,” Johnson said. Boosting federal tuition subsidies for STEM students could go a long way toward motivating young people, he said.
“You’ve got to offer them some kind of incentive to look at the tougher classes.”
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