[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
STEM EDUCATION IN ACTION:
LEARNING TODAY . . . LEADING TOMORROW
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011
__________
Serial No. 112-26
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov
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COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
HON. RALPH M. HALL, Texas, Chair
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
Wisconsin JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois
LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California ZOE LOFGREN, California
ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland DAVID WU, Oregon
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma BRAD MILLER, North Carolina
JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois
W. TODD AKIN, Missouri GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona
RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio
PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia BEN R. LUJAN, New Mexico
SANDY ADAMS, Florida PAUL D. TONKO, New York
BENJAMIN QUAYLE, Arizona JERRY McNERNEY, California
CHARLES J. ``CHUCK'' FLEISCHMANN, JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland
Tennessee TERRI A. SEWELL, Alabama
E. SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi HANSEN CLARKE, Michigan
MO BROOKS, Alabama
ANDY HARRIS, Maryland
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois
CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota
LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana
DAN BENISHEK, Michigan
VACANCY
C O N T E N T S
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Page
Witness List..................................................... 2
Hearing Charter.................................................. 3
Opening Statements
Statement by Representative Ralph M. Hall, Chairman, Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives.. 7
Written Statement............................................ 8
Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking
Minority Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
U.S. House of Representatives.................................. 8
Written Statement............................................ 10
Witnesses:
Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan American,
Parent to Pablo Vidal and Mentor to the i.streets (Intelligent
Streets) Discovery Montessori School Team, McAllen, TX
Oral Statement............................................... 14
Written Statement............................................ 15
Master Pablo Vidal, third-grade student at Discovery Montessori
School and member of the i.streets (Intelligent Streets) Team,
McAllen, TX
Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley and Mentor to
the HEADS UP! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg, VA
Oral Statement............................................... 17
Written Statement............................................ 19
Master Jack Dudley, sixth-grade student at Virginia Virtual
Academy and member of the HEADS UP! Team, Leesburg, VA
Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the I-TBS: Intra-
Trachea West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, MI
Oral Statement............................................... 21
Written Statement............................................ 23
Miss Claudia Cooper, seventh-grade student at West Hills Middle
School and member of the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea Team, West
Bloomfield, MI
Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the 3Drenal:
Kidney Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, NY
Oral Statement............................................... 25
Written Statement............................................ 27
Miss Alison Reed, 10th-grade student at the Stuyvesant High
School and member of the 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Team,
Brooklyn, NY
Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan American,
Parent to Pablo Vidal and Mentor to the i.streets (Intelligent
Streets) Discovery Montessori School Team, McAllen, TX......... 44
Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley and Mentor to
the HEADS UP! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg, VA...... 46
Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the I-TBS: Intra-
Trachea West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, MI............ 48
Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the 3Drenal:
Kidney Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, NY... 50
Master Jorge Vidal, student, McAllen, TX; Master Jack Dudley,
student, Leesburg, VA; Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chen, and
Mr. David Kurkovskiy, students, Brooklyn, NY................... 53
STEM EDUCATION IN ACTION: LEARNING TODAY . . . LEADING TOMORROW
----------
THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011
House of Representatives,
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in Room
2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ralph Hall
[Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
hearing charter
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
STEM Education in Action: Learning Today . . . Leading Tomorrow
thursday, june 16, 2011
10:00 a.m.--12:00 p.m.
2318 rayburn house office building
Purpose
On Thursday, June 16, 2011, the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology will hold the first in a series of hearings to highlight
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education activities
across the Nation, their role in inspiring and educating future
generations, and their contribution to our future economic prosperity.
The first hearing, STEM Education in Action: Learning Today.. . . .
.Leading Tomorrow, will showcase the finalists, parents, teachers, and
mentors of the ExploraVision Awards National Competition, sponsored by
Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association.
Witnesses
Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan
American, Parent to Pablo Vidal and Mentor to the i.streets
(Intelligent Streets) Discovery Montessori School Team, McAllen, TX
Master Pablo Vidal, third-grade student at Discovery
Montessori School and member of the i.streets (Intelligent Streets)
Team, McAllen, TX
Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley and
Mentor to the HEADS UP! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg, VA
Master Jack Dudley, sixth-grade student at Virginia
Virtual Academy and member of the HEADS UP! Team, Leesburg, VA
Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the I-TBS:
Intra-Trachea West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, MI
Miss Claudia Cooper, seventh-grade student at West Hills
Middle School and member of the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea Team, West
Bloomfield, MI
Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the
3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, NY
Miss Alison Reed, 10th-grade student at the Stuyvesant
High School and member of the 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Team,
Brooklyn, NY
Overview
ExploraVision is a science competition for grades K-12.
Students are asked to research a technology of their choice and explore
what that technology could be like in 20 years. Teams explore how their
visions of technology could work and what breakthroughs are necessary
to make their ideas a reality. The competition is sponsored by Toshiba
and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).
In the U.S, student mastery of STEM subjects is essential
to thrive in the 21st century economy. As other nations continue to
gain ground in preparing their students in these critical fields, the
U.S. must continue to explore a variety of ways to inspire future
generations. Finding ways to improve STEM education activities beyond
the scope of the Federal government, including using best practices
derived from non-federal sources, is key to the future prosperity of
the Nation.
Background
ExploraVision Competition
Now in its 19th year, ExploraVision is a science competition that
encourages K-12 students to work in groups of two to four assisted by a
teacher and a mentor to simulate real research and development teams.
Students are asked to research a technology of interest and explore
what that technology could be like 20 years from now. The technology
could be something as basic as a water fountain to something as complex
as nanotechnology. Teams investigate how their visions of technology
could work and what breakthroughs are necessary to make their ideas
become reality. Since 1992, more than 287,000 students have competed in
this hands-on competition, sponsored by Toshiba and the National
Science Teachers Association (NSTA), which inspires students and fuels
imagination.
ExploraVision is designed for students of all interest, skill, and
ability levels. The competition is open to students enrolled in public,
private, or home school in the United States and Canada. Students
compete in four entry categories: Primary Level (Grades K-3), Upper
Elementary Level (Grades 4-6), Middle Grade Level (Grades 7-9), and
High School Level (Grades 10-12). Judges rate teams on creativity,
scientific accuracy, communication, and feasibility of vision. Teams
are organized into six regional areas of the United States and Canada.
A judging committee selects 24 teams, one for each grade-level category
in each of the six regions. All 24 regional winning teams must complete
a Web site for its future technology and prototype. Out of those 24
teams, a national judging committee consisting of leading science
educators, as well as science and technology experts, selects eight
finalist teams. From those finalists, the judges award four first-place
and four second-place prize winners. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Data collected from ExploraVision Web site
www.ExploraVision.org.
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Prizes include the following:
Students
First Prize (4 teams): $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond for each
student.
Second Prize (4 teams): $5,000 U.S. Savings Bond for each
student.
National Finalists (8 teams): An expense-paid trip to
Washington, DC, in June for ExploraVision Awards Weekend for each
national winning student and his/her parents/guardians.
Regional Winners: A Toshiba CamileoT Camcorder for each
student and an awards ceremony for each regional winning team at its
school where the team will receive a winner's banner, plaque and other
gifts.
Honorable Mention (500 teams): A unique prize and
certificate for each student.
All Participants: A certificate of participation, entry
gift and a special discount on Toshiba computer products for every
student whose team submits a complete entry.
Coaches and Mentors
National Finalists: An expense paid trip to Washington,
DC, in June for ExploraVision Awards Weekend for the coach and mentor
of each national winning team and a one-year NSTA membership to coaches
of the national winning teams.
Regional Winners: A Toshiba CamileoT Camcorder for the
coach and mentor of each regional winning team.
All Participants: A special discount on Toshiba computer
products, certificate of participation and an entry gift for each coach
and mentor of every team that submits a complete entry.
Schools
Regional Winners: A Toshiba laptop for each of the
schools of the regional winning teams.
Toshiba America, Inc.
The Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation is a leading innovator and
diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and
electrical products, spanning information and communications equipment
and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic
components and materials, power systems, industrial and social
infrastructure systems, and household appliances. Toshiba employs over
14,000 people in North America. Toshiba America, Inc., is the holding
company for five Toshiba operating companies in the United States, with
operations in 13 states and the District of Columbia. \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ http://www.toshiba.com/tai/.
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National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
Founded in 1944, the Arlington, Virginia-based National Science
Teachers Association (NSTA) promotes excellence and innovation in
science teaching and learning. NSTA's current membership includes more
than 60,000 science teachers, science supervisors, administrators,
scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved
in science education. NSTA seeks to provide opportunities for
scientific literacy, excellence in teaching, learning through
collaboration, and research that will enhance and improve science
education for all students. \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ http://www.nsta.org/.
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STEM Education and the Federal Government
A consensus exists that improving STEM education throughout the
Nation is a necessary condition for preserving our capacity for
innovation and discovery and for ensuring U.S. economic strength and
competitiveness in the international marketplace of the 21st century.
The National Academies Rising Above the Gathering Storm report placed
major emphasis on the need to improve STEM education and made its top
priority increasing the number of highly qualified STEM teachers. This
recommendation was embraced by the House Science, Space, and Technology
Committee following the issuance of the report and was included in the
2007 America COMPETES Act. The 2010 America COMPETES Reauthorization
Act continues this priority.
Beyond activities authorized in America COMPETES, President Obama
has called for a new effort to prepare 100,000 science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) teachers with strong teaching skills and
deep content knowledge over the next decade. As a component of
achieving this goal, the FY12 Budget Request proposes an investment of
$100 million through the Department of Education and the National
Science Foundation (NSF) to prepare effective STEM teachers for
classrooms across America. This proposal also responds to a
recommendation by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology (PCAST) to prepare and inspire America's students in
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Winning
the Race to Educate Our Children, STEM Education in the 2012 Budget,
p.1.
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In addition, the FY12 Budget Request proposes $90 million for the
creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Education (ARPA-ED)
with the mission of driving transformational improvement in education
technology. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Winning
the Race to Educate Our Children, STEM Education in the 2012 Budget,
p.1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The President's new ``Educate to Innovate'' campaign leverages
Federal resources with over $700 million in private-sector resources.
The goals of the program are to increase STEM literacy so that all
students can learn deeply and think critically in science, math,
engineering, and technology; move American students from the middle of
the pack to top in the next decade; and expand STEM education and
career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and
girls.
With specific regard to K-12 STEM education funding beyond what has
already been identified, the FY12 Budget Request calls for $206 million
for the Department of Education's proposed Effective Teaching and
Learning in STEM program; $60 million (28 percent) increase for NASA's
K-12 education programs; $300 million for an ``Investing in
Innovation'' program (expansion of a Department of Education American
Reinvestment and Recovery Act program); and $185 million for a new
Presidential Teaching Fellowship program.
The FY12 Budget Request devotes $3.4 billion to STEM education
programs across the Federal government. \6\ The 2010 America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act called for the creation of a National Science
Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on STEM Education to coordinate
federal STEM investments. The first-year tasks of the committee are to
create an inventory of Federal STEM education activities and develop a
five-year strategic Federal STEM education plan. The inventory, as well
as a similar Government Accountability Office (GAO) survey requested by
the Committee on Education and Workforce, is currently underway and
results are expected before next year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,Innovation,
Education, and Infrastructure: Science, Technology, STEM Education, and
21st Century Infrastructure in the 2012 Budget, p. 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The GAO survey is an update of one last prepared by the Office in
2005. In a 2007 inventory of Federal STEM education programs, the
Academic Competitiveness Council (ACC) identified 105 programs and
approximately $3.12 billion in FY06 appropriated funds across the
Federal agencies for STEM education at all levels, including 24
programs designed for K-12 students funded at approximately $574
million. However, the ACC set parameters on its inventory, limiting the
programs for inclusion to those ``primarily intended to provide support
for, or to strengthen, science, technology, engineering, or mathematics
education.'' As a result, the ACC inventory excluded many educational
activities supported by the Federal R&D mission agencies that are
managed through larger research programs and offices, including major
research facilities, and that do not show up as separate line items in
the budget.
In the 112th Congress, the Science, Space, and Technology Committee
will continue to hold oversight hearings and briefings on STEM
education activities across the Federal government and will closely
monitor the scope and findings of both the NSTC and the GAO Federal
STEM education inventories.
Chairman Hall. The Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology will come to order, and I say to you a very cheerful
good morning, and you have a right to say good morning back if
you want to.
I want to welcome you to today's hearing. It is entitled
``STEM Education in Action: Learning Today . . . Leading
Tomorrow.'' And by gosh, we have a lot of leaders in front of
us, and every one of us from my right to my left and all of us
here are very proud of all of you. I will recognize myself
first for five minutes for an opening statement, and then we
will recognize Ms. Johnson, who is the leader of the Democratic
participants here to my right, and Ms. Johnson and I are not
only close here physically, our districts are separated by a
thin line. We work together, and I have known her for many,
many years and always admired her.
I would like to welcome everyone here today for what is the
first in a series of STEM Education in Action hearings. The
purpose of these hearings will be to highlight various science,
technology, engineering, and math--that is the STEM--education
activities across the Nation, their role in inspiring and
educating future generations, and their contribution to our
economic prosperity.
The Federal Government is investing several billions of
dollars on STEM education activities, primarily at the
Department of Education and the National Science Foundation,
but also in every agency under the Committee's jurisdiction.
However, there are numerous companies, foundations, nonprofit
organizations and other groups who are doing their own part,
and on their own dime, to successfully promote STEM education
and inspire our next generation of scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs and our leaders.
Today's hearing focuses on one of those successful and
impressive initiatives, the Toshiba/National Science Teachers
Association ExploraVision Competition. This competition is open
to students in grades K-12. Students are asked to research any
science technology of their choice and explore what that
technology will look like in 20 years. Our witnesses today
represent four of the eight winning teams, who as a part of
their prize, received an expense-paid trip to Washington, DC,
and we welcome you here and we are happy that you received
that. I congratulate and all of us congratulate all of the
teams for your extraordinary accomplishment of first or second
place in this national science competition that attracted over
4,000 entries. All of you are an inspiration to students,
teachers and parents all over and all around this country from
one ocean to the other.
From 12:30 to 2:30 today, all teams will have their
projects on display downstairs in the Rayburn Foyer. I
encourage all of my colleagues to stop by and spend some time
talking to these incredible students about their impressive
award-winning projects.
This Nation has always been the leader in innovation, and
our children and grandchildren, like the ones in front of us
today, are the key to our future success. I look forward to
getting to know more about each of you, why you were moved to
do the project you chose, and what all of you, students,
parents and teachers, learned by participating in this
competition.
[The statement of Mr. Hall follows:]
Prepared Statement of Chairman Ralph M. Hall
I would like to welcome everyone here today for what is the first
in a series of STEM Education in Action hearings. The purpose of these
hearings will be to highlight various Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Math (STEM) education activities across the Nation, their role in
inspiring and educating future generations, and their contribution to
our economic prosperity.
The Federal government is investing several billions of dollars on
STEM Education activities, primarily at the Department of Education and
the National Science Foundation, but also in every agency under this
Committee's jurisdiction. However, there are numerous companies,
foundations, non-profit organizations, and other groups who are doing
their own part, and on their own dime, to successfully promote STEM
education and inspire our next generation of scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs, and leaders. Today's hearing focuses on one of those
successful and impressive initiatives, the Toshiba / National Science
Teachers Association (NSTA) ExploraVision Competition. This competition
is open to students in grades K-12. Students are asked to research any
science technology of their choice and explore what that technology
will look like in 20 years. Our witnesses today represent four of the
eight winning teams who, as part of their prize, received an expense-
paid trip to Washingon, DC.
Congratulations to all of the teams for your extraordinary
accomplishment of first or second place in this national science
competition that attracted over 4,000 entries. All of you are an
inspiration to students, teachers, and parents around the country.
From 12:30 to 2:30 today, all teams will have their projects on
display downstairs in the Rayburn Foyer. I encourage all of my
colleagues to stop by and spend some time talking to these incredible
students about their impressive award-winning projects.
This Nation has always been the leader in innovation, and our
children and grandchildren, like the ones in front of us today, are the
key to our future success. I look forward to getting to know more about
each of you, why you were moved to do the project you chose, and what
all of you--students, parents, and teachers--learned by participating
in this competition.
Chairman Hall. At this time I recognize Ms. Johnson for her
opening statement.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good
morning to all. I want to start by congratulating the students
who are here today and welcoming you and your teachers, parents
and mentors to the Committee. I was reading about some of the
winning science fair projects, and I must say that I am truly
impressed by all of the outstanding work you have done, and I
know that you are proud.
Unfortunately, there are too many students across the
country who do not have the opportunities to participate in
inspiring STEM activities or to receive a high-quality STEM
education. The most recent National Assessment of Educational
Progress, the NAEP, study found that less than half of our
Nation's students are demonstrating solid academic performance
and proficiencies in science, and this is a startling statistic
when you consider that the many recent experts report warning
that our competitive edge will be lost if we do not vastly
improve our STEM education in this country.
No one entity can solve this problem alone. There is a role
for all the key shareholders and stakeholders, including
Federal and State governments, local school districts, higher
education, informal education organizations and industry. I am
pleased to hear today about the work Toshiba has done to
support STEM education through this ExploraVision competition,
and there are many other companies. My hometown company, Texas
Instruments, is one of them, Exxon Mobil and also AT&T, so I
know that there are many that help to participate.
I also want to emphasize the importance and the unique role
of the Federal Government in improving STEM education. Many
Federal STEM programs, including those supported by the
National Science Foundation and the Department of Education,
are really making a difference in our universities, our
community colleges, and K-12 schools across the Nation. There
are also many valuable programs being funded through other
federal agencies, such as NASA, NOAA, NIST, EPA and the
Department of Energy. These agencies are filled with thousands
of scientists and engineers who make a difference in their own
communities and for students across the country. As working
STEM professionals, the real-life work that they do using STEM
is so inspiring to our young people.
But the Federal role is more than that. The National
Science Foundation is the premier STEM education research
organization in the country. For decades, the NSF has been a
leader in improving our collective understanding of how
students learn, and how we can develop the most effective and
inspiring curriculum and train the most effective and inspiring
teachers. This isn't about the Federal Government taking over
curriculum or teacher certification. It is about researchers
contributing their deep expertise to making sure that our
teachers are well prepared and our students are really
learning. I would be interested in hearing from the teachers on
the panel today about your own training, and how they have
helped you to implement your best practices in teaching STEM in
your own classrooms.
While today's hearing is about a non-Federal program, there
was some discussion in the hearing charter about Federal
programs and spending in STEM, so I just wanted to make a
couple of comments about that. I hope you are not too quick to
judge based on numbers alone. The OSTP, in response to the
COMPETES Act, is leading an effort to inventory current
programs across the government to improve coordination and
develop priorities going forward. Many of the individual
agencies are also responding to recommendations from outside
advisory groups and restructuring their education programs and
management. While this committee should continue to be vigilant
in ensuring that our limited STEM education budgets are being
used as wisely as possible, as we have been for many years, I
want to express my own confidence in the coordination efforts
currently underway. I believe we should let them play out for
the next several months before we rush to judgment about what
we should or should not be spending on STEM education. And
finally, I hope that the committee will have the opportunity to
review the OSTP report and other agency STEM efforts in
hearings with administration officials.
Today, though, I look forward to hearing from these student
winners about what initially sparked their interest in STEM,
and what role their teachers, parents and other mentors have
played in helping them to reach their goals. This is an issue
that I take seriously, and you can check my record. I have been
interested in it and talking about it and working at it since
1974. This is an issue that is a serious one. We have an
education crisis in this country, and there is a very real
possibility that we will lose our competitive edge and that our
children will no longer have the opportunities that we had if
we do not remain committed to investing in and improving STEM
education.
So thank you again for being here today and I look forward
to this very interesting discussion. I yield back.
[The statement of Ms. Johnson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson
Good morning and thank you, Chairman Hall, for holding this
hearing. I want to start by congratulating the students who are here
today and welcoming you and your teachers, parents, and mentors to the
Committee. I was reading about some of your winning science fair
projects, and I must say that I am truly impressed by all of the
outstanding work you have done. You should all be very proud.
Unfortunately, too many students across the country do not have
opportunities to participate in inspiring STEM activities or to receive
a high-quality STEM education. The most recent National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) study found that less than half of our
Nation's students are demonstrating solid academic performance and
proficiency in science. This is a startling statistic when you consider
the many recent expert reports warning that our competitive edge will
be lost if we do not vastly improve STEM education in this country.
No one entity can solve this problem alone. There is a role for all
the key stakeholders, including federal and state governments, local
school districts, higher education, informal education organizations,
and industry. I'm pleased to hear today about the work Toshiba has done
to support STEM education through the ExploraVision competition.
But I also want to emphasize the important and unique role ofthe
Federal government in improving STEM education. Many federal STEM
programs, including those supported by the National Science Foundation
and the Department of Education, are making a difference in
universities, community colleges, and K-12 schools across the Nation.
There are also many valuable programs being funded through other
federal agencies, such as NASA, NOAA, NIST, EPA, and the Department of
Energy. These agencies are filled with thousands of scientists and
engineers who can make a difference in their own communities and for
students across the country. As working STEM professionals, the real
life work that they do using STEM is so inspiring to our children.
But the federal role is more than that. The National Science
Foundation is the premier STEM education research organization in the
country. For decades, NSF has been a leader in improving our collective
understanding ofhow students learn, and how we can develop the most
effective and inspiring curriculum and train the most effective and
inspiring teachers. This isn't about the Federal Government taking over
curriculum or teacher certification. It is about researchers
contributing their deep expertise to making sure our teachers are well
prepared and our students are really learning. I would be interested in
hearing from the teachers on the panel today about their own training,
and how they have implemented best practices in teaching STEM in their
own classrooms.
While today's hearing is about a non-federal program, there was
some discussion in the hearing charter about federal programs and
spending in STEM, so I just wanted to make a couple of comments about
this. I hope we are not too quick to judge based on numbers alone.
OSTP, in response to the COMPETES Act, is leading an effort to
inventory current programs across the government and to improve
coordination and develop priorities going forward. Many ofthe
individual agencies are also responding to recommendations from outside
advisory groups and restructuring their education programs and
management. While this committee should continue to be vigilant in
ensuring that our limited STEM education budgets are being used as
wisely as possible, as we have been for many years, I want to express
my own confidence in the coordination efforts currently underway. I
believe we should let them play out for the next several months before
we rush to judgment about what we should or should not be spending on
STEM education. Finally, I hope that the committee will have the
opportunity to review the OSTP report and other agency STEM efforts in
hearings with administration officials.
Today, though, I look forward to hearing from these student winners
about what initially sparked their interest in STEM, and what role
their teachers, parents, and other mentors have played in helping them
to reach their goals. This is an issue that I take very seriously. We
have an education crisis in this country, and there is a very real
possibility that we will lose our competitive edge and that our
children will no longer have the opportunities that we had if we do not
remain committed to investing in and improving STEM education. Thank
you again for being here today and I look forward to an interesting
discussion.
Chairman Hall. The gentlelady from Texas yields back.
If there are Members who wish to submit additional opening
statements, your statements will be added to the record at this
point.
I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Texas, Mr.
Hinojosa, and the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Peters, be
allowed to sit with the Committee and participate in the
hearing. Is there objection? The chair hears none.
At this time I would like introduce our panel of witnesses.
I yield two minutes to my good friend and fellow Texan, Mr.
Hinojosa, to introduce our first team.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As the representative from the 15th Congressional district
of Deep South Texas, it is truly an honor for me to welcome the
Discovery Montessori School of Edinburg, Texas, to the House
Science, Space, and Technology Committee. As the Ranking Member
of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, we work closely with
this Committee on Science and Space and Technology because
together we hope that by 2020 we can be able to generate and
accomplish a goal that was set out by the President, and that
was to have an additional 100,000 engineers here in our
country.
I am delighted to be here to congratulate all the students
being recognized from throughout the country but especially I
congratulate the students, teachers, parents, coaches and
administrators of the Discovery Montessori School for winning
first place for grades K through three of the 2011 Toshiba/NSTA
ExploraVision Science Competition. What an extraordinary
accomplishment. Their winning project, Intelligent Streets,
reduces intersection accidents by using smart translucent film
installed on windshields that receive signals from either
traffic lights or satellites. This clearly demonstrates that
students in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas can become the
scientists and the innovators of tomorrow.
We in Texas are extremely proud of the Discovery Montessori
School's dedication to academic excellence and for creating a
learning environment for children that fosters the development
of high-order thinking skills, scientific discovery,
exploration and creativity. Today we are fortunate to have
three extraordinary individuals with us from that school. Pablo
Marcelo Vidal, soon to be a fourth grader, is a resident of
McAllen, Texas. We also have the pleasure of saying that
Marcelo started school at the age of three at the Discovery
Montessori School. He is extremely passionate about science and
math and belongs to the Bronx Aquatics swimming team. This
impressive young man is a role model for his peers. We also
have Veronica Rego Martinez, the team's coach, who is a
graduate of the University of Texas at Brownsville and serves
as the primary and lower elementary Montessori teacher. Ms.
Martinez has a profound love for teaching young children. Dr.
Karen Lozano, Pablo's mother, serves as Julia Vechero Endowed
Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the
University of Texas Pan America. Dr. Lozano earned a doctorate
in mechanical engineering and material science from one of our
Nation's best, Rice University in Houston, and has received
numerous awards for her extensive research and exceptional
teaching. Rita Caldwell from the National Science Foundation
visited at UT Pan America and praised her as one of the best
professors in the country.
We welcome all of you to today's hearing and thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for allowing me this opportunity.
Chairman Hall. I thank you, sir, and you yield back your
time?
Mr. Hinojosa. Yield back.
Chairman Hall. I say to those out there who have Mr.
Hinojosa as your Congressman, you are very lucky. He represents
his district well and we are proud to have him as we are you,
and Jack, we are pleased that you brought your mother with you
today, by golly. Actually, our second witness, Mrs. Brenda
Conwell-Dudley, accompanied by her son, Jack, they are
representing the first-place National winning team for the
fourth through sixth grade age group. Their winning project,
the Heads Up helmet, is a military helmet designed to protect
soldiers on the battlefield. Joining Jack and his mom today are
his teammates, Abby Porter and Jovia Ho from Tolbert Elementary
School and Sydney Dayyani from Belmont Ridge Middle School.
Jack is home-schooled and attends Virginia Virtual Academy. We
also welcome the team's coach from the academy, Mrs. Penni
Harrison.
I now yield two minutes to the gentleman from Michigan, Mr.
Peters, to introduce the third team of witnesses.
Mr. Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is my pleasure to be here today to introduce two of my
constituents, Claudia Cooper and her coach and teacher, Amy
Attard. Claudia is an outstanding student at West Hills Middle
School in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and is joining us today
because she is part of a winning team in the ExploraVision
Science Competition. Her teammate, Samantha Tarnopol, is also
here as well as teacher Russ Purdy, and I would like to welcome
them to this hearing as well.
The ExploraVision challenges students to envision new
technologies that will make our society healthier and safer.
Claudia's team designed a surgically implantable disc called
the Intra-Trachea Breathing System. The disc will improve the
quality of life for millions of Americans who suffer from
breathing problems and debilitating respiratory conditions.
Claudia's work demonstrates how the application of scientific
concepts can improve the quality of our life and meaningfully
impact our society. In addition to her scientific pursuits and
excellent academic achievements, Claudia plays three sports and
the oboe, participates in theater and devotes time to
charitable pursuits such as working with children with special
needs.
Amy Attard is in her sixth year teaching seventh grade at
West Hills Middle School. She holds an M.A. in educational
technology and a B.S. in elementary education from the
University of Michigan-Dearborn. In addition to teaching
science, she is actively involved with extracurricular life in
West Hills and is committing to promoting very positive culture
and morale within the school. She sponsors and mentors students
in the Student Leadership Club, which organizes community
service projects and also leads the Count Me In Club, which
teaches anti-bullying intervention strategies and self-esteem
building. She serves as the grade-level team leader and is a
member of the school's budget, leadership and social committee.
When I speak to school groups back home, I always try to
stress the importance of our young people in pursuing careers
in science and engineering fields. It is certainly important
for their future but it is also important for our country's
future, and we should be doing all that we can to encourage our
young people's interest in these careers. Claudia and Samantha
are great role models for their peers, and I wish them the best
in their future scientific endeavors. Claudia and Amy, thank
you so much for testifying here today, and thank you, Chairman
Hall, Ranking Member Johnson, and my Michigan colleague here,
Mr. Clarke, for allowing me to stop by the Committee and
welcome West Hills Middle School. Thank you for being here. I
yield back.
Chairman Hall. And I thank you for yielding back and thank
you for that good visit with these youngsters. I know you are
proud of them and I know they are proud of you.
Our fourth witness is Ms. Ann Manwell, accompanying her
student, Miss Alison Reed, from Stuyvesant High School in New
York. They are representing the 10th to 12th grade age group
with their second-place winning project, 3Drenal, a kidney bio-
printer. We would also like to recognize Alison's teammates,
David Kurkovskiy and Norine Chan.
Typically, I would now recognize our first witness, but
before I do, I also would like to take a moment to recognize
the other four winning teams that are joining us today and who
will also be showcasing their winning projects in the Rayburn
Foyer following today's hearing. The Solar Tree Team from
Countryside Montessori Charter School in Land O Lakes, Florida;
the Blindsight Team from Plainview Old Bethpage Middle School
of Plainview, New York; the Subway Smart System Team from
Horace Mann School in the Bronx, New York; and the Bionic
Auditory Prosthesis team from Hopewell Valley Central High
School. You are all to be congratulated and commended for your
hard work and impressive projects. We look forward to visiting
more with you after the hearing.
Before I ask unanimous consent that your names be made a
part of the record, let me just tell you that you must be the
cream of the crop, the leaders, and it might be of some comfort
to you to know that your Chairman, I am from Texas, we have
every type of leader here. Ms. Johnson is a leader in the
medical field. She is outstanding in the nursing field. We have
all types of folks that are skilled but we look to you all to
give us testimony to write our record, and what you say here
will be recorded and it will be read 100 years from now and
they will look back on this fine young group that came here. It
may give you some ease to be here to know that your chairman
was such a bad student, one semester I made four Fs and a D,
and my dad whipped me for spending too much time on one
subject.
I ask unanimous consent that their names be made a part of
the record, all of you. As our witnesses should know, spoken
testimony is limited to five minutes, so we won't just hold you
to that. Try to stay as much as you can. We are so honored to
have you here, we will go over, or if you want to give us back
a little time, we will accept it. After which the Committee
will have five minutes each to ask questions.
I now recognize the first witness duo, Dr. Karen Lozano and
Master Pablo Vidal. I now recognize Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley
and Master Jack Dudley.
STATEMENT OF DR. KAREN LOZANO,
PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PAN AMERICAN,
PARENT TO PABLO VIDAL, AND MENTOR TO THE
I.STREETS (INTELLIGENT STREETS) DISCOVERY
MONTESSORI SCHOOL TEAM, MCALLEN, TEXAS
Dr. Lozano. Thank you very much. Thank you for the
introduction. Congressman Hinojosa, thank you for the
introduction.
As Congressman Hinojosa mentioned, I am a Professor at the
University of Texas Pan American, and growing myself in a field
that is underrepresented, you know, by females. I was the fifth
woman to get a degree in 25 years at my university had existed
at the time in mechanical engineering, and when I went to Rice
I also realized that I was only the fifth woman to get a
doctoral degree, you know, in mechanical engineering. So I knew
how engineering wasn't something that kids will look after.
So I started doing a lot of community service to try to
encourage, you know, engineering with kids. So I was very happy
when Jessica Vera, one of the former teachers, asked me to
participate in ExploraVision. ExploraVision is just very well
prepared. You know, the guidelines and everything is just an
absolute, you know, program, you know, just an amazing program,
and the kids go from--you know, they learn teamwork, history,
ethical issues, they learn technology, and it is amazing how
when I sit with them and I say okay, come up with ideas, you
know, you need to think of something that, you know, will make
the world better or will save people's lives or, you know, will
help people that are suffering. You know, they come up with
amazing ideas that at our level as adults sometimes we don't
think of. You know, we can find all kinds of obstacles why that
is not possible.
So once they find an idea that they agree that it is
possible, then we move into, you know, okay, let us study the
present technology, let us study the history, and the future
technology. You know, I explain to them, you know, concepts on,
you know, how we think, you know, it is possible. Sometimes
maybe I even think, you know, that it might not work, you know,
but we have to explain the technology behind the idea, you
know, to them, and it is just amazing how they learn. Like you
can ask him about the electromagnetic spectrum and, you know,
he goes oh, you know, the radio waves. You know, it is just
amazing how they grasp, you know, the ideas and how the whole
program, you know, helps them develop a desire or a passion to
pursue science and to learn about what is around them, you
know, go around and just think, you know, what is it they can
improve, how can they be--how can they develop a technology
that will benefit society. So they are engineers, and I guess
we are all born engineers. You know, we all played with Legos.
But I have seen, you know, working with K-12 how like around
fifth grade they start losing that. You know, you get great
ideas up to fifth grade and then they kind of, you know, start
tapering down and it kind of goes down, and I have implemented
ExploraVision guidelines within my college classes, the senior-
level classes, and I ask the students the same thing. I say you
are going to follow ExploraVision guidelines and this is your
final project, and they have to come up with whatever class we
are doing, if it is plastics or nanotechnology or whatever the
topic of the class is, they have to come up with a project, you
know, that is nonexistent that could be here in 20 years from
now, and it is amazing out of the many, many, many projects I
have seen, the little ones, they still have brighter ideas, you
know, than my college students. Of course, they do an awesome
job explaining the technology, you know, in technical terms and
all of that, but as far as the idea, you know, I guess the
younger the kids, you know, the ideas are, you know, far
better.
So we can't afford to lose that creativity, so within the
school it is a good idea to give them that freedom to explore,
you know, give them that--you know, just maybe implement
something like ExploraVision, you know, within the classes. You
know, the teachers can implement something related to
ExploraVision because it allowed the kids to, you know,
innovate. It allowed the kids to explore, and it keeps them
engaged, you know, in finding out. Because once they learn that
they can look around and find something that could work better,
you know, that is a process that they will keep on, you know,
for the rest of their lives.
One of the things that I sponsored several years ago, now
the kids are going into high school, they were fourth graders,
and all of them are going into the science area. They are going
into sci-tech, you know, most of the kids. So it really leaves
a very good impression on themselves, you know, and they want
to keep on doing it. Next year they are going to try again to
do the ExploraVision competition, the high school kids.
So I think it is a great model that could be followed for
science education. Thank you.
[The statement of Dr. Lozano follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor At University Of
Texas Pan American, Parent to Pablo Vidal, And Mentor To The I.Streets
(Intelligent Streets) Discovery Montessori School Team, Mcallen, Texas
Good morning, Committee Members and ExploraVision winners. My name
is Karen Lozano. I am a professor of mechanical engineering at the
University of Texas Pan American, and the mentor and parent of one of
the team members of the K-third first place national winners.
As I started my college years, I realized that engineering was not
a popular major, even less among girls, I was the fifth woman to
graduate with a mechanical engineering degree in the 25 years that my
university had existed. Pursuing later an M.S. and Ph.D. degree at Rice
University and joining later the faculty at UTPA, I kept on realizing
how little people knew about engineering and how severe the stereotypes
were for girls. I was blessed that my mom supported me when deciding to
study engineering and was blessed to have a Ph.D. advisor that was
highly committed to K-12 education; therefore, it became natural to me
that the only way to change perceptions was to be active in our
community and be there to talk to kids and parents as well. At least
once a month I give magic and science shows, talk to parents of middle
and high school students, participate in science fair judging or offer
lab tours to K-teachers. I have seen how important these activities can
be and have also observed interesting patterns in science attraction of
kids.
Being involved in these activities, I was very attracted to
participate in ExploraVision when my older son's teacher brought it to
my attention back in 2006. I read the rules and visited the Web site
and observed how many of the winning ideas expressed by kids 10-15
years ago were now in the market. Miss Jessica Vera and myself worked
with the first team of third graders; I was amazed how kids could come
up with great ideas and when guided into the technology behind their
ideas, they learned and grasped technical concepts otherwise not taught
until later in high school/college level.
In 2006, the team won honorable mention; in 2007 now the kids in
fourth grade, they became first place national winners, the experience
was even better, now the kids not only learned about a technology but
needed to communicate it verbally in front of an audience. This ability
has proven extremely beneficial for these kids now starting high school
next fall. In 2008, a different team of students (fifth and sixth
graders) won second place national award. In 2009 I mentored two teams,
with ages ranging from first to sixth grade, and this year one team of
third graders.
Besides being a mentor I have incorporated ExploraVision rules in
my college classes. The ability to be creative while incorporating
scientific knowledge is one of the basic definitions of engineering;
therefore it has worked very well in my upper division classes. The
ExploraVision competition is extremely well designed and at a young age
allows the kids to ``dream,'' at a college age allows kids to develop
technologies based on their current learned material, as I asked them,
for example, in a polymer engineering class, to look for applications
where polymers are not used yet and evaluate their implementation
according to the ExploraVision rules or in the nanotechnology class, to
develop a new application.
Let me explain the methodology that we follow when preparing for an
ExploraVision competition. The kids, teacher and myself meet for about
five months, one afternoon a week at a local library room (to avoid
distractions); the first four to five meetings are basically to come up
with an idea, it is interesting to find out how their ideas are quite
novel. Many of those already being researched or coming to the market
though the kids were not aware of, therefore for them were novel ideas,
and I have been very impressed how if they are encouraged or motivated
to be creative they are full of surprises. This ability is many times
lost in school age as time passes and kids stop play-pretend. It is
very important to keep sparking technological creativity. How can
society be benefitted by one of your ideas? A question that school age
kids can be asked every year. After voting for an idea, students were
asked to choose areas that they were most interested in working on
though all of them needed to research all areas, as you are probably
aware of. The ExploraVision sections are (I will use the current
winning project I.STREETS as an example; in this project they decided
to incorporate traffic lights within the windshield of the car):
Present technology; students researched how traffic
lights work.
History: learned about the history of traffic lights.
Future technology: this area is where they explained how
they envision their idea to work in the future though also need to
explain it with some science principles; this is where the help from a
mentor, especially for the K-six age groups, comes into play. In this
case, as a mentor, I explained to them the electromagnetic spectrum
(infrared waves, visible waves, radio waves), explained to them about
smart films that could respond to a signal with colors; it is
surprising how they grasp the information right away and then they are
able to explain it.
Breakthroughs: they basically explained why their
technology is not possible now, besides other aspects in their case is
because we do not have yet a translucent film that could respond to a
signal in only red, yellow and green colors in order to be glued
between the windshield glass.
Design process: the kids basically do this section on
their own, explaining how they worked, when they met, and what other
ideas they thought of.
Consequences: here students find that all they invent
will always have positive and negative results. They can also do this
completely on their own and they come up with important ideas.
References: they learned that every time they research
something they have to give credit to the one that had the idea first.
As you can see, the ExploraVision competition is a project that not
only encompasses technological creativity but encourages students to
think beyond the technology and incorporate within the learning
process, team work, history, entrepreneurship, and ethical issues
(consequences) among other issues. Even though one student is the one
that usually has the idea first, carrying out the project allows for a
full development of the idea from conception to implementation;
therefore, at the end all of them are considered inventors of the idea.
As you can tell, I am particularly impressed with the ExploraVision
competition and have enjoyed working with all students since 2006. They
usually have formed the team based on friendship, not necessarily they
have been from the same school and actually if it is not carried out as
a school project has proven beneficial to meet outside of school at a
local library. I personally do not think this project is a matter of
resources for the school; there are no costs that participants incur
rather than their time. I am aware that some schools do it as part of a
class project and I believe that is a great idea and from grades K-six
could be incorporated within their curriculum where the different
sections will be carried out during different courses (history,
science, cultural). For the older age group kids, they can do it in the
science class as a semester project. Just by asking the questions about
inventing something, students will go around their life looking at what
can be improved one way or another; you encourage them to keep their
creative nature (as all kids are born engineers, always looking around,
building and connecting dots) and problem solving skills rather than
teach them to wait for information to be provided and expecting them
only to learn what they are asked to learn. When kids are given the
opportunity to explore through a project like ExploraVision they can
surprise us greatly. One of the other winning teams that I had the
pleasure to work with where they invented a spray that when placed in
the tongue changes the taste buds so broccoli could taste as chocolate
and sweets will taste as broccoli; it was, as I-Streets and the other
projects, very interesting.
As for parents' and teachers' participation, I believe their role
is extremely important, as I always tell my graduate and undergraduate
students when we are invited as judges for science school fairs of
young kids, we will find projects that clearly you can tell that
parents have been involved and that is absolutely great as long as the
child can explain what they did and is excited about it. Parent
participation is definitively very important and has proven vital for
student success in academics, sports, arts, etc.
Chairman Hall. I congratulate you. You were right on the
dot, Five minutes.
Now, Jack, is it okay with you if I recognize your mom?
Okay. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, we recognize you for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF MRS. BRENDA CONWELL-DUDLEY,
PARENT TO JACK DUDLEY AND MENTOR TO THE HEADS UP!, VIRGINIA
VIRTUAL ACADEMY TEAM, LEESBURG, VIRGINIA
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Good morning, Chairman Hall, Ranking
Member Johnson, Members of the Committee and to all the
finalists, teachers, mentors and organizers of the Toshiba/NSTA
ExploraVision National Science Competition. On behalf of our
sponsoring school, the Virginia Virtual Academy, our coach,
Mrs. Penni Harrison, and our team, I would like to thank the
Committee for inviting us to this hearing.
This is my second year as an ExploraVision team mentor for
the fourth through sixth grade age group. I heard about
ExploraVision from a mother at one of my son's flag football
practices about two years ago. Her son Joshua was a player on
the team, was critically allergic to many foods and much of his
surroundings. He had actually flatlined in an emergency room
that summer and had been brought back to life using intubation
without anesthesia after one particularly bad allergic
reaction. He was nine years old. He was being treated at the
National Institutes of Health in Bethesda for his condition,
and while receiving treatment at the NIH, Joshua met another
young boy named Colby Tomasello. Colby is a member of the 2009
ExploraVision second-place national winning team and he and his
teammates designed an EpiWatch. It is a small, wearable,
computerized watch that contains special codes and microneedles
that instantly deliver painless doses of epinephrine when the
wearer suffers an allergic reaction.
After hearing about Colby's project and after visiting the
ExploraVision web site, I was so impressed by what young
children could invent that if the opportunity ever arose I
promised myself that I would encourage my son to participate.
Not more than a week later, his school posted a notice in the
student newspaper that they would be sponsoring teams for the
first time. I immediately asked my son about participating. He
agreed, and invited three of his friends from the fifth grade
to join. His 2010 team designed a food poisoning detection
device, and it was lightweight, portable and could be used to
detect dangerous pathogens in food.
Now we would like to present background and information on
our team and our project for Members of the Committee. Our team
is comprised of four students who came to know each other
through swimming. An important distinction with this year's
team is that our four students represent three different
schools. Jack was home-schooled using Virginia Virtual
Academy's online sixth-grade public school program. Abby Porter
and Jovia Ho attend fifth grade at Tolbert Elementary School in
Leesburg, and Sydney Dayyani attends sixth grade at Belmont
Ridge Middle School in Lansdowne. I would like to take a moment
to thank the Virginia Virtual Academy for sponsoring our team
and for giving us an unparalleled opportunity to work together:
male and female students, elementary and middle school
students, home-schooled and brick-and-mortar public school
students. I think our team represents the best of the
collaborative spirit, and as we all know, collaboration in the
field of science is how society will find solutions to the
complex and very serious problems that confront us as a Nation.
Starting last September, our team began meeting every week
for two hours. The team read news articles and news magazines
to become familiar with current events and advances in science
and technology. The team brainstormed and discussed multiple
ideas over several weeks. The team communicated with our coach,
Mrs. Harrison, using Illuminate Lives Web conferencing program.
My son frequently uses the program for his online schooling,
and it proved to be a great resource for our science team too.
Our team brainstormed several projects, and then Jack saw
the picture of Specialist Robert Warren in the Washington Post.
Specialist Warren is a soldier who suffered traumatic brain
injury from an IED while serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in
May 2010. Jack selected the idea of creating a helmet that
would protect U.S. soldiers from traumatic brain injury due to
roadside bombs with a device the team called the Heads Up
helmet. The team's design features overlapping polyethylene
plates, sophisticated heat and air-pressure sensors, bullet--
and shrapnel--stopping gels, and a 360-degree neck collar that
inflates to protect the brain and neck in case of a bomb blast.
The team further decided that they would take the proposed
technology from the battlefield to the playing field in 20
years or less to help prevent the growing number of concussions
in children and athletes with a device called the Heads Up
headgear.
Our team has learned a lot about working on an
interdisciplinary project. They have learned how to organize
and present their knowledge more effectively, and as a result,
they have sharpened their communication skills. I am hopeful
that participation in this competition will ignite an interest
for members of our team in STEM-related fields but I know that
they have at the very least developed a better understanding of
the world around them, and I would like to thank the Toshiba
Corporation for sponsoring the competition and the National
Science Teachers Association for administering this event.
Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mrs. Conwell-Dudley follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley
And Mentor to the Heads Up! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg,
Virginia
Good morning to Members of the Committee and to all of the
finalists, teachers, mentors, and organizers of the Toshiba/NSTA
ExploraVision National Science Competition. On behalf of our sponsoring
school, the Virginia Virtual Academy, our coach, Mrs. Penni Harrison,
and our team, I would like to thank the Committee on Science, Space,
and Technology for inviting us to this hearing. This is my second year
as an ExploraVision science team mentor for the fourth through sixth
grade age group; I mentored a regional winning team in 2010, and I am a
mentor for the first place winning team in 2011. I would like to
describe my motivation for participating in ExploraVision's program.
I heard about ExploraVision from a mother at one of my son's flag
football practices, in the fall of 2009. Her son, Joshua, a player on
the team, was critically allergic to many foods and much of his
surroundings. He had flat-lined in an emergency room that summer and
had been brought back to life using intubation without anesthesia after
one particularly bad allergic reaction. Joshua was nine years old, and
he was being treated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in
Bethesda for his condition. While receiving treatment at the NIH,
Joshua met another young boy with similar critical allergies. This
second little boy was Colby Tomasello; Colby is a member of 2009
ExploraVision second place national winning team and he and his team
mates designed an EpiWatch--a small, wearable, computerized watch that
contains special codes and microneedles that instantly deliver painless
doses of epinephrine when the wearer suffers from an allergic reaction.
The EpiWatch utilizes cell phone and GPS technology to alert medical
officials in the event the wearer suffers a life-threatening allergic
reaction.
After hearing about Colby's project, and after visiting the
ExploraVision Web site, I was so impressed by what young children could
invent that if the opportunity ever arose, I promised myself that I
would encourage my son to participate. Not more than a week later, his
school posted a notice in the student newspaper that they would be
sponsoring teams in the ExploraVision National Science Competition for
the first time. I immediately asked my son about participating--he
agreed and proceeded to invite three of his friends from the fifth
grade to join. Jack's 2010 science team designed a food poisoning
detection device that looked like a thumb drive, was lightweight and
portable, and could be used to detect dangerous pathogens in food. This
year's team designed a military helmet to protect soldiers from
traumatic brain injury from roadside bombs. I am a huge fan of
ExploraVision's science competition, a contest that encourages children
in grades Kindergarten through 12th to select a current technology and
imagine what it might be like in 20 years. And I am continually amazed
by the originality of the students' inventions and the great advantage
to society that all of these ideas could potentially provide.
Now I would like to present background information on our team and
more detailed information on our project for Members of the Committee.
Our team is comprised of four students who came to know each other
through swimming. All four team members swim year-round for the
nationally recognized Curl-Burke Swim Club and in the summer for the
Old Dominion Swim League. As I mentioned, my son had been part of a
regional winning team the year before, and in accordance with the rules
of the competition, he was not allowed to compete with members of his
previously winning team--nor will the children sitting with us today be
allowed to compete together as a team next year, or ever again. My son
has benefited greatly in this regard: his 2010 regional winning team
was all male, and each of the four boys were in advanced math class
together. This year's team is predominately female, and while all of
these girls excel in math, my son's association with them is through
sports. Suffice to say, successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.
Another important distinction with this year's team is that our
four students represent three different schools; Jack was homeschooled
using Virginia Virtual Academy's online sixth grade public school
program, Abby Porter and Jovia Ho attend fifth grade at John E. Tolbert
Elementary School in Leesburg, and Sydney Dayyani attends sixth grade
at Belmont Ridge Middle School in Lansdowne. I would like to take a
moment to thank Virginia Virtual Academy and Suzanne Sloane, who is the
Head of the School, for sponsoring our team and for giving us an
unparalleled opportunity to work together: male and female students,
elementary and middle school students, homeschooled and ``brick and
mortar'' public school students. I'm a little biased, but I think our
team represents the best of the collaborative spirit, and as we all
know, collaboration in the field of science is how society will find
solutions to the complex and very serious problems that confront us as
a nation.
Starting last September, our team began meeting every week for two
hours. The team read news articles and news magazines to become
familiar with current events and advances in science and technology.
The team brainstormed and discussed multiple ideas over several weeks.
The team communicated with our coach, Mrs. Harrison, using Elluminate
Live's Web conferencing program. My son frequently used this program
for his online schooling, and it proved to be a great resource for our
science team too. Mrs. Harrison provided us with constructive and
invaluable feedback every step along the way, and the team was always
eager and excited to use the new communication platform to present
their ideas to her.
Some of our team ideas included a stress-releasing ball that would
decrease workplace stress, a protective satellite shield to minimize
space junk collisions, and a brain-powered car. With Google's
announcement of a ``Self-Driving Car'' within the same time frame, the
team realized how quickly the world around them was changing and how
important it is to stay on top of the latest developments in science.
And then Jack saw the picture of Spec. Robert Warren in the Washington
Post. Spec. Warren is a soldier who has suffered traumatic brain injury
from an IED while serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in May 2010. Jack
selected the idea of creating a helmet that would protect U.S. soldiers
from traumatic brain injury due to roadside bombs with a device the
team called the HEADS UP! HELMET. The team's design features
overlapping polyethylene plates, sophisticated heat and air pressure
sensors, bullet and shrapnel-stopping gels, and a 360-degree neck
collar that inflates to protect the brain and neck in case of a bomb
blast.
The team further decided that they would take the proposed
technology from the battlefield to the playing field, in 20 years or
less, to help prevent the growing number of concussions in children and
athletes with a device call HEADS UP! HEADGEAR. This futuristic design
features micro layers of impact-resistant, molecular-weight
polyethylene sheets spun and covered with highly sensitive temperature
and air pressure sensors to detect concussive force. These impact-
resistant sheets are also encapsulated with shock absorbing gel that
expands to form a protective cushion; instant cold crystals provide
metabolic cool-down to prevent intracranial pressure (ICP) build-up--
one of the most dangerous results of TBI; and lavender or eucalyptus
aromatherapy beads deliver post-impact sensory relief to prevent shock.
These composite materials expand under force, extreme air pressure or
temperature to ultimately protect the brain from mild, moderate or
traumatic injury.
Our team used all of the research tools at their disposal,
including conducting email interviews of doctors, engineers and
researchers from across the United States--from the University of
Washington in Seattle to the University of Maryland in College Park.
Using interviews, the library and the Internet, our team worked
diligently to learn as much as they could about healthy brain function,
traumatic brain injury and the science behind the state-of-the-art
technologies surrounding helmet design.
The team's 11-page written submittal and five-page simulated Web
designs documented the history and the present technology of helmet
design, and included a detailed description of their future design, the
scientific breakthroughs necessary to make their new invention a
reality, and the future technology's positive and negative
consequences. I'm proud to say, the team finished their submittal for
the regional competition a full three weeks in advance of the February
deadline.
As regional winners, the team was required to expand upon the work
they submitted in the first phase in order to compete in the national
competition: The team began working right away and they were back to
meeting two hours every week, AND on the weekends! They began by
building the prototype models. The team felt it was necessary to build
a model of both their present AND future inventions in order to better
explain their Helmet's design process. After the models were complete,
the team worked to find the most compelling clips for their two-minute
video. They edited and practiced their parts to ensure the video would
tell the complete story of their invention. The Web site is a
compilation of all the work the team has done to date and provides a
degree of user interface that makes the Web site educational and
interesting. Once again, I'm proud to say, the team finished their
final submittal for the national competition well in advance of the
April 8th deadline.
The national winning teams were announced on May 2, 2011, and here
we are. Our team has learned a lot about working on an
interdisciplinary project. They have learned how to organize and
present their knowledge more effectively and, as a result, they have
sharpened their communication skills. I am hopeful that participation
in this competition will ignite an interest for members of our team in
STEM-related fields, but I know they have, at the very least, developed
a better understanding of the world around them. I'd like to thank the
Toshiba Corporation for sponsoring the competition and the National
Science Teachers Association for administering this event.
And on a tragic, personal note, I would like to offer our coach,
Mrs. Penni Harrison, our deepest sympathy on the loss of her husband.
We have collaborated with Mrs. Harrison since September 2010, and in
all of our team discussions regarding the design of our military
helmet, we did not know until six days ago that her husband, COL James
W. Harrison, Jr., was killed in action in May 2007 while serving as the
Corrections and Detainee expert in Afghanistan. We are very, very sorry
for her loss, and we realize that our research, discussions and
presentations may have revived painful memories for her--and yet she
was always so kind, supportive, and positive when we presented our
information to her. Mrs. Harrison truly exhibits the patriotic
selflessness of the American military family. It is an honor and a
privilege to have worked with her, and we could not have asked for a
better teacher, coach, and role model.
Chairman Hall. Thank you. You too are right on the dot. You
all might set a record here today.
I now recognize Amy Attard and Miss Claudia Cooper for five
minutes. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF MRS. AMY ATTARD, SCIENCE TEACHER
AND COACH TO THE I-TBS: INTRA-TRACHEA WEST HILLS
MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM, COMMERCE, MICHIGAN
Mrs. Attard. Good morning, Chairman Hall and Ranking Member
Johnson, as well as the other Members of the Science Committee.
I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to share the
amazing experiences that students at West Hills Middle School
have the opportunity to take in, to be a part of in the science
classroom.
The ExploraVision program has become a tradition here at
West Hills. This is my sixth year being a sponsor of the
program, and every year it evolves and it gets better and
better. This year along with Claudia Cooper and Samantha
Tarnapol, we also in addition to the second-place title had
nine honorable mention teams as well, and back in 2008 I had
the privilege and honor of coming back to the ExploraVision
weekend and I was also the coach of a team back in 2008 who
also took the second-place national title. So the ExploraVision
program is near and dear to my heart.
Over time, as I have carried out this program with the
students, changes have been made to make it better, to increase
the amount of science skills, math skills, engineering skills
and this year we really focused on the process of the program.
We decided to create an interdisciplinary unit where myself as
the science teacher, along with Russell Purdy, the language
arts teacher, decided to work in tandem with the students this
year to make it more meaningful for the students to bridge
their learning process between science education and the
language arts classroom.
In science, we focused on what is called the design cycle,
which is part of the international baccalaureate program, where
the students had to investigate possible invention ideas. They
then together as a team had to research the positives and
negatives of their invention and then they had to decide and
reflect on which invention they wanted to choose to carry out
for this project. In science, they worked together as a team.
In language arts, they worked together as a team but more at an
independent level. In language arts, the language arts teacher
focused on teaching the research process as well as note
taking, citing sources of information, and in science, we
focused on the collaboration and the communication that needs
to take place in order for a team to be successful.
The unit question to get the ball rolling for students was,
how can my creativity impact society. We wanted this project to
be meaningful for the students so they would have that personal
buy-in, so they would be engaged in the topic at which they
were researching. So we posed the question: what technology do
we currently have today? We looked at current technology, how
it has changed and evolved over time, and we also looked at
famous inventors and what they have contributed to our society
that we still use and benefit from today, and these questions
that the students had kind of set the structure and the
framework for them to get the ball rolling in terms of what
impact did they want to make, who did they want to improve, who
was their audience going to be.
So again, we wanted this to be more about human ingenuity,
their innovation, their creativity, the limit--or the
possibilities were endless. There was no limit to their
research, as long as they were learning at the same time and
the process that they went through in terms of reflecting and
going back and starting the process all over again if they
found that, you know what, my idea wasn't working or the
technology isn't possible. So from our end, from a teacher's
perspective, yes, the project was amazing but it was more about
the process: how did you get from point A to point B, to build
this wonderful innovative idea.
In addition to the ExploraVision program, we also offer
other competitions, science competitions to spark STEM
education, which involve the Dupont Science Essay Competition,
the Detroit Science and Engineering Fair as well as the Sunrise
with Shade Poster Contest. From a teacher's perspective, we
have homework that we can check. We work with the parents for
the support that they give the school district and they help
their children, but going through programs like the
ExploraVision and these other science competitions allow the
community, whether it be the local community or the global
community, to be able to see what is really taking place in the
classroom and all the wonderful things that students are now
doing today, and it is a great way for them to showcase and
highlight their own successes.
ExploraVision is a great venue for differentiation. It
allows students to reach their maximum potential. The students
that wanted to learn more about one area of technology had that
opportunity to do so. Students became experts based on their
own invention that they chose to do for this project. So we had
multiple groups working in multiple directions, but at the end,
we were all able to come back and collaborate at the same time.
Along with the human ingenuity, our goal is to strive for
lifelong learners. We want students to become inquirers. My
goal as a teacher is to make students want to ask questions. I
want them to ask me questions. I don't want to force-feed them
information. It is more meaningful if they have that personal
buy-in and that engagement in science education, and through
the ExploraVision program and all of these other wonderful
science competitions, we are moving in that direction, and as a
teacher, to see my students smile every day when they come in
and say what are we doing today, I can't wait, what are we
learning today, can we look at this, can we talk about this
today, to me, my job is easy. They are the ones who are coming
in with the inquisitive mindset of wanting to learn more about
science.
So I want to thank you for this opportunity to share my
passion as a science teacher and the importance of enriching
and engaging students in STEM education to become lifelong
learners and successful members of society today and 20 years
from now. Thank you.
[The statement of Mrs. Attard follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the
I-Tbs: Intra-Trachea West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, Michigan
Good morning, Committee Members and national winning teams. My name
is Amy Attard, and I teach seventh grade science at West Hills Middle
School in West Bloomfield, Michigan. I have been teaching for six years
in the Bloomfield Hills School District, which serves suburban students
north of Detroit. I would like to take this opportunity to share with
all of you the wonderful enriching and engaging experiences students
can have as part of their science class.
The Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision
Program is just one venue that provides a challenging opportunity for
students to become excited about science. This program encourages
students to think of an invention that could come to life 20 years in
the future. West Hills Middle School has been participating in the
ExploraVision Program for over 10 years; it has become a tradition at
the seventh grade level. This year we were fortunate to have one of our
teams take home the second place title in the nation for the seventh-
ninth grade category. The Intra-Trachea Breathing System Team (I-TBS)
team made up of seventh graders Claudia Cooper and Samantha Tarnopol
chose to work successfully as a team of two, which meant they had
double the amount of work compared to a team of four. This year's top
winners were selected from a group of 4,346 team entries. Through
Claudia and Samantha's hard work and determination, they won a number
of prizes for themselves and West Hills alike. West Hills was awarded a
Toshiba laptop computer and the mentor, Russell Purdy, and I were
awarded Toshiba HD camcorders, along with Claudia and Samantha. In
addition to the amazing technology, both Claudia and Samantha were
awarded a U.S. EE Savings Bond worth $5,000 and an all-expenses-paid
trip to Washington, DC, to attend the ExploraVision Awards weekend
along with their families and teachers. In addition to Claudia and
Samantha's great success, nine other teams from West Hills earned
honorable mentions in the ExploraVision competition. Along with
receiving notoriety, the honorable mention groups also received a gift
for their accomplishments in addition to every participating group
receiving an award and a small participation prize. We continue to
promote the ExploraVision Program at West Hills because it allows
students to think creatively, and provides them an opportunity to look
into their future. In doing so, students are challenged to use their
ingenuity to plan, research, and design a product that will benefit
mankind. This model forces students to think globally, use problem
solving skills and incorporate technology, all skills that are
paramount in the future of education. Overall West Hills has done very
well in the competition. For the past six years that I have been
enriching students with this project, we have always been awarded with
at least one honorable mention team,and in 2008 I had the privilege of
coaching another team that also took home the second place national
title.
The ExploraVision competition is part of a mandatory class
assignment in both science and language arts classes. The unit is
designed to be interdisciplinary between the two subjects, as both
classes worked in tandem to complete the rigorous requirements of the
program. Through their science class, students chose their own partners
for the project. Each group was made up of seventh graders, and they
are all from West Hills. Two hours of each day, one hour in science and
one in language arts, were devoted to work on this project, which was
three weeks in duration. During science students worked
collaboratively, and in language arts they worked independently. In
science the unit was looked at through the lens of scientific research,
and the process of the project was presented using the Design Cycle
model. The Design Cycle model, which is part of the International
Baccalaureate program, is a way for students to problem solve and
continually evaluate and reflect on their process as they worked
through the project. In addition to the scientific research aspect of
the project, the students focused on collaborating and communicating
with their team as they worked through the Design Cycle to brainstorm
invention ideas and proceed through the research process. At the same
time, in language arts class students learned how to properly take
notes from various sources, write a research paper, evaluate sources,
and cite all of their information correctly. Overall, this project
allowed students the opportunity to be creative and forced them to
think 20 years into the future. But more importantly, through this
project students developed the skills of being an inquirer, a problem-
solver, and a communicator and hopefully they will take these skills
with them as they move forward in school and eventually out into the
real world.
In order to inspire students we looked at famous inventors and how
their inventions have contributed to our everyday lives, and to
stimulate the innovative minds of the students we posed the question
``How can my creativity impact society?'' In order for students to move
forward they had to answer the following questions: (1) What did I want
to improve? (2) Who was my audience going to be? (3) Why would people
want my invention? These questions set the stage for students to
investigate possible invention ideas, which then led to sketches and
design briefs of each invention, and finally students researched the
positives and negatives of each idea and its impact it would have on
society. From their investigation, each group then collectively
selected the idea they wanted to move forward with for the project.
Russell Purdy and I provided the structure, deadlines, and rubrics for
the students in both science and language arts class, while the
students divided up the project equally among their team and set their
own goals and expectations for each individual member. While working on
this project, students researched information, interviewed family
members who had knowledge in certain areas, and in some instances even
held phone interviews with companies that sold products related to
their invention ideas. The final piece of the project was the
culminating research paper and the creation of the Web page graphics,
which provided a great opportunity for students to learn various
drawing programs on the computer and actually see their process and
invention come to life in front of their own eyes through their
graphics they created.
In addition to the ExploraVision competition, I also encourage
students to participate in other science competitions throughout the
school year. Other science competitions in which some of my students
participate in are the Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit,
The DuPont Challenge Science Essay Competition, and the SunWise with
SHADE Poster Competition. Students have done particularly well in these
science competitions. This year a current seventh grader took first
place in the nation for her poster entry in the SunWise with SHADE
Poster Competition and five students across grades seven and eight
placed in the Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit.
Overall STEM projects, such as the ExploraVision competition,
continue to emphasize the relevance and real-world application of
science, math, engineering, and technology. These projects also allow
schools to showcase the amazing skills that many of our students
possess; skills that might otherwise go unnoticed in the community at
large. As teachers it is our role to make sure our students are ready
for the future. Whether the future is the next grade level, college, or
the workforce, having a good foundation and knowledge in the areas of
math and science are important in and out of the classroom. As our
society continues to grow into a digital world, technology skills are
becoming more of a necessity rather than just a skill. Furthermore,
when looking at engineering, the process of being able to problem
solve, collaborate with others, and continually reflect is relevant in
and out of the classroom, and more importantly it is what makes
students become inquirers. As curriculums continue to become more
rigorous for students, it is important for teachers and parents to work
together and support students so they can reach their maximum potential
and, more importantly, see the relevance in what they are learning in
order to become life-long learners and successful members of society.
Chairman Hall. Thank you. You were just almost on time, by
gosh. You and Jack's mom and Dr. Lozano really expressed
yourself well, and it was interesting, everything you said, and
we thank you for it.
I now recognize Ms. Ann Manwell and Miss Allison Reed to
present testimony.
STATEMENT OF MS. ANN MANWELL, SCIENCE TEACHER AND
MENTOR TO THE 3DRENAL: KIDNEY BIO-PRINTER STUYVESANT HIGH
SCHOOL TEAM, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
Ms. Manwell. Good morning, Committee Members, colleagues
and students. I am Ann de Sostoa Manwell and I have been
teaching at Stuyvesant High School, a specialized New York City
public high school for math, science and technology, for 14
years.
All the students at Stuyvesant took a qualifying test to be
offered a seat at the school, and we have a very rich history
of student research and success in student science competitions
like Intel/Science Talent Search, Siemens Competition and the
International Science and Engineering Fair. We can boast four
Nobel laureates among the many scientists, mathematicians,
engineers and physicians who are alumni.
But schools like Stuyvesant and all the specialized high
schools in your States do not operate in a vacuum. We need the
farm teams that you heard about earlier today. I would like to
take this opportunity to speak to you today about the role
competitions like Toshiba ExploraVision play in developing the
students with the skills necessary to participate in our
programs.
We at Stuyvesant have found that engaging students in these
competitions allows them to be creative, think broadly and
critically of the world around them, work in teams, develop
time management skills and take ownership of a project. No one
now at Stuyvesant remembers when ExploraVision became part of
the 10th-grade research chemistry curriculum, but it was
probably very close to its 1992 launch. The current chemistry
teachers, Samantha Daves and Zhen Chuan Li, have continued to
use ExploraVision as a powerful motivating force to develop
student skills in scientific thinking.
As you have heard, the ExploraVision competition requires
teams of students to take a current technology and push it 20
years into the future. Ms. Daves' teams bounced ideas off of
each other, brought in classmates from other sections, grilled
parents, consulted online sources for their choice of current
technology to develop. The 3Drenal team of Norine Chan, David
Kurkovskiy and Alison Reed took an article found by Alison's
mother on bio-printing and combined it with what they knew
about adult stem cells and signaling molecules and began to see
into the future.
Critical at this stage of the students' development, Ms.
Daves divided the project into smaller tasks, established a
timeline for completion of the various stages of their project.
The 3Drenal team recognized their different skill sets and
divided up the labor accordingly. Alison was the artist, David
provided overall organization, and Norine did background
research. They knew that they could consult on various faculty
members, especially research coordinator, Dr. Jonathan Gastel,
for leads to more detailed information or to clear up any
technical questions they had. They finally put it all together
and sent it off.
On the day the awards were made, around school, around the
computers at school there were clutches of 10th graders eagerly
awaiting to see the results. They did quite well. 3Drenal
placed first in the northeast region, and both Dr. Li's and Ms.
Daves' research chemistry class had numerous honorable
mentions, and there were many honorable mentions in Ms. Daves'
regular chemistry class, which were not assigned the Toshiba
project as required.
The 3Drenal Team and their classmates were pleased with the
performance but really the difficult part had just begun. The
team had just four weeks to create a Web site to show off
3Drenal. They had won a Toshiba computer loaded with Web design
software, but they had little experience using it. Consultants
were needed. Paul Oratofsky, class of '67, helped with the
initial Web site design, and later Digital Resource
Incorporated, a company headed by Alison's father, David Reed,
was enlisted to help with 3D imagery and Web site
orchestration. After many hours after school, on weekends, at
school or the Chans' or Digital Resources, the Web site was
completed and submitted.
A few weeks later, the 3Drenal Team were surprised at
school by Toshiba and NSTA representatives announcing their
second-place national position in the senior division. They now
had to build a prototype. A more detailed design had to be
developed, materials had to be chosen, dimensions measured.
Scott Thomas, the chemistry physics chair, volunteered to teach
Norine enough AutoCAD so that she could program our very real
3-D printer to print parts of the print corners for the control
in the future 3Drenal printer. Finally, they had to fashion a
clay kidney to represent 3Drenal's innovative product, a new
kidney formed by the patient's own bone marrow stem cells
stimulated by various molecules to develop into kidney-specific
tissues and then have it assembled by the 3Drenal bio-printer.
The 3Drenal Team had pushed an existing technology to
future uses. They had to work as a team. They had to recruit
experts to help them. They had to articulate their problem and
innovative solution clearly and accurately. They had to
complete their project on time and had to deal with unfamiliar
technology and tools. All these skills will serve them very
well if they continue in any of the STEM disciplines or, for
that matter, in any discipline they choose to follow.
I hope you have time in your busy schedules to see the
prototypes and listen to these students talk about the ideas
that they have brought to Washington and for which you so
graciously have provided a national venue. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Manwell follows:]
Statement of Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the
3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, New
York; And Miss Alison Reed, 10th-Grade Student at The Stuyvesant High
School and Member of The 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Team, Brooklyn,
New York
Good morning Committee Members, colleagues and students. I am Anne
de Sostoa Manwell and I have been teaching biology at Stuyvesant High
School, a specialized NYC Public School of math, science and
technology, for 14 years. All students at Stuyvesant took a qualifying
test to be offered a seat at the school. We have a rich tradition of
student research and success in student science competitions like
Intel/Science Talent Search, Siemens Competition and ISEF. We can boast
of five Nobel Laureates among the many scientists, mathematicians,
engineers and physicians who are alumni.
But schools like Stuyvesant and specialized high schools in all of
your states do not operate in a vacuum. We need students prepared by
elementary and middle schools to feed our programs. I would like to
take this opportunity today to speak to you about the role competitions
like Toshiba ExploraVision play in building the skills needed for
students to participate in our programs.
We at Stuyvesant have found that engaging our students in
competitions allows them to be creative, think broadly and critically,
work in teams, develop time-management skills, take ownership of a
project, and be proud of their work. No one now at Stuyvesant remembers
when ExploraVision became a part of the 10th grade Research Chemistry
curriculum, but it was probably very close to its 1992 launch. The
current Research Chemistry teachers, Samantha Daves and Dr. Zhen Chuan
Li, have continued to use ExploraVision as a powerful motivating force
to develop student skills in scientific thinking.
The ExploraVision Competition requires teams of students to take a
current technology and push it 20 years into the future. This nurturing
of a young person's imagination, starting as young as kindergarten,
ensures that as she gets older, she will continue to ask questions and
explore her world. Ms. Daves' teams bounced ideas off each other,
brought in classmates from other sections, grilled parents and
consulted online sources for their choice of current technology to
develop. The 3Drenal team of Norine Chan, David Kurkovskiy and Alison
Reed took an article found by Alison's mother on bioprinting and
combined it with what they knew about adult stem cells and signaling
molecules and began to see into the future.
Critically at this stage of their development, Ms. Daves gave the
teams a timeline to complete the various stages of their project. The
3Drenal team recognized their different skill sets and divided up the
labor accordingly. Alison was the artist, David provided overall
organization and Norine did background research. They knew they could
consult with other faculty members, especially the research
coordinator, Dr. Jonathan Gastel, for leads to more detailed
information or to clear up any technical questions they had. Finally it
was all together and sent off.
This initial phase can be done in any educational setting. With the
motivation of the ExploraVision competition, any STEM teacher can
engage students in the creative and innovative thinking necessary to
look into the future.
On the day the awards announcement was made, there were numerous
clutches of 10th graders crowded around computers to see results. They
did quite well. 3Drenal was first in the Northeast region, and both Dr.
Li's and Ms. Daves' research chemistry classes had numerous honorable
mentions. And there were many honorable mentions in Ms. Daves' regular
chemistry classes for whom the ExploraVision project was not required!
Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA),
ExploraVision's sponsor and administrator, were impressed with the
numbers and helped arrange a press conference for all the students,
parents, upperclassmen research students, and faculty. Speeches were
made, reporters asked questions, pictures were taken and veggies were
dipped.
The 3Drenal team and their classmate were pleased with their
performance but the really difficult part had just started. The team
had just four weeks to create a Web site to show off 3Drenal. They had
won a Toshiba computer loaded with Web-design software but they had
little experience using it. Consultants were needed. Paul Oratofsky,
SHS '67, helped with initial Web site design, and later Digital
Resources Incorporated, a company headed by Alison's father, David
Reed, was enlisted to help with 3D imagery and Web site orchestration.
After many hours after school and on weekends, either at school or the
Chan's or Digital Resources Inc., the Web site was completed and
submitted.
A few weeks later the 3Drenal team was surprised at school by
Toshiba and NSTA representatives announcing their National Second Place
in the senior division. This was at 10:30a.m., by 11:40 everyone knew
the news and was congratulating David, who was in my molecular science
class. But now they had to build a prototype. A more detailed design
had to be developed, materials to use had to be chosen and dimensions
measured. Scott Thomas, the chemistry/physics chair, volunteered to
teach Norine enough AutoCAD so that our very real 3D printer could
build the printer corner controls for the future 3Drenal bioprinter.
Everyone had to learn to wield an Exacto knife to cut foam-core for the
printer cabinet. Finally they fashioned a clay kidney to represent
3Drenal's innovative product, a new kidney formed from the patient's
own bone marrow stem cells that were stimulated to develop into the
various kidney tissues, in vitro, by tissue-specific signaling
molecules and then assembled by the bioprinter.
The 3Drenal team had pushed an existing technology to future uses.
They had to work as a team. They had to recruit experts to help them.
They had to articulate their problem and innovative solution clearly,
accurately and persuasively. They had to complete their project on
time. They had to deal with unfamiliar technology and tools. They have
accepted acknowledgement for their efforts. All these skills will serve
them very well if they continue in any of the STEM disciplines or for
that matter in whatever discipline they choose to follow.
I hope you have time in your busy schedules to see the prototypes
and listen to the ideas that the ExploraVision teams have brought to
Washington and for which you have provided a national venue.
Chairman Hall. Thank you for a good presentation, and I
thank all of you for your testimony and reminding Members here
that Committee rules apply to us also on the five minutes, and
the chair at this time will open the round of questions and I
yield myself five minutes.
My first question will be to Alison. Alison, I think you
are the senior member of all this group here. Is that right?
Miss Reed Yes.
Chairman Hall. That means you are the oldest. Is that
right?
Miss Reed. Yes.
Chairman Hall. Well, you will feel good to know I am the
oldest guy in the House or Senate, so we have something in
common, and I picked you to start with. You are what they call
a rising junior. Does that mean you are going to be a junior
next year?
Miss Reed. Yes, I am.
Chairman Hall. I think I was a junior three years. Do you
and your teammates know what you really want to study in
college yet?
Miss Reed. I am actually not sure what I want to do. I feel
like I have many options and pathways I can go down. I know
that Norine is really interested in becoming a doctor. I think
she definitely wants an overall liberal arts education, and she
wants to explore every possibility, and so does David, and
David is very interested in becoming a writer.
Chairman Hall. Well, I might ask you this. Has winning this
competition had any bearing on your decision or changed or
hastened your decision?
Miss Reed. Yes, it definitely has because we had so much
fun and it was so interesting to research and develop our idea,
and I think that getting more involved with science and our
project has really opened up that area to us and made it more
available and more interesting, so I definitely really liked
it.
Chairman Hall. Okay. Well, we thank you.
I will ask all students this, and you can give me a loud
yes or no and we will kind of determine by the--we have a noise
tester up here. Did you like science and math before you
started your project? Yes or no. This thing says yes wins by
about eight to 10. Another question: do you like it even more
now? That is yes again.
All right. I have some time left here. Let me see what else
I have. I might ask to all the students, anybody that wants to
suggest an answer, what did you enjoy the most about your
project and what did you like the least? Who wants to answer
that? Hold up your hand. Jack, do you want to answer that? I
have been doing business with you ever since you have been
here. All right, Marcelo.
Master Vidal. Painting the prototype.
Chairman Hall. Painting the prototype?
Master Vidal. Yes.
Chairman Hall. That's a yes. Okay, does anybody else want
to say? Yes, Claudia.
Miss Cooper. Hi. My name is Claudia Cooper. I am a seventh
grader at West Hills. I think the most enjoyable part about
this whole project was when Samantha, my partner, and I first
started, we had no idea, honestly it started as a required
curriculum activity--not activity, assignment that Mrs. Attard
proposed to us, and when we got our inspiration to help people
who are suffering from respiratory insufficiency, it really
was, I guess, cool to know that we can help people and to see
what our generation is capable of and to know that there is
possibility as long as someone out there has ideas and minds to
think of them.
/Chairman Hall. Okay. Thank you.
To all the adults, let me ask you this. Several of you
commented on how impressed you were with the ability of your
teams to come up with novel ideas such as integral pieces of
this competition that you are in. Can you talk about how you
helped the students to drill down on their broad concepts, or
how did you have to help them do that at all? Perhaps it was a
natural part of the process. Anybody want to answer that? Yes,
Mrs. Conwell.
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. We started by reading newspaper
articles and news magazines. I felt it was important for the
children to become aware of the news around them, to look at
what was going on in current events, and so we started
brainstorming from that, and that is where we got most of our
ideas, and so they were based in fact and they were relevant
issues, you know, current to today's ongoing problems, and that
is how we started.
Chairman Hall. Did you read anything about any of the
current activities of any of us Congressmen?
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Of course.
Chairman Hall. Does anyone else care to comment? Yes, Ms.
Manwell.
Ms. Manwell. Yes, and after the kids come up with an idea,
you have to ask them, is it feasible, what do you know about
it, where does it take you, what do you need to know in order
to go forward.
Chairman Hall. All right. I cheated for 10 seconds, and I
thank you all for the good answers you gave me.
At this time I recognize Ms. Johnson for five minutes.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you very much. It has been informative
to listen to the testimony.
As Mr. Hall indicated earlier, we are both Texans, and in
Texas, we have around 1,100 school districts, and because of
that, we pioneered some distant learning, but I am becoming
more and more concerned about the cost of the administration of
all these school districts and have wondered whether or not we
could substitute some of the administration with distant
learning, so I am interested in trying to get information from
you of how you feel that using distant learning in STEM
education could be successful. I wonder, because we have home
schooling involved here, and so perhaps I can ask you, Mrs.
Conwell-Dudley, about your experience in feeling that it could
be successful.
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Well, as I mentioned, we used--we are
sponsored by Virginia Virtual Academy in Herndon, Virginia, and
we used the online public school program this year for Jack's
sixth-grade schooling, and we felt very fortunate that they
were willing to sponsor a team, and we used what is called
Illuminate Live--it is a Web conferencing program--to
correspond with our coach, Penni Harrison, who actually lives
in Colorado, and it is how we did our schooling throughout the
year and it is how we ran many of our science meetings, and we
would send things electronically. We would send attachments. We
would, you know, upload our presentations. She could take a
look at it in advance and then when we had our meetings, we
would, you know, share information that way, and well, here, we
are, so it apparently worked very, very well for us, and it was
a lot of fun and I felt like we were sort of on the cutting
edge of it. So I have to say there was little or no cost
involved, and it was fantastic.
Ms. Johnson. Now, were you home all the time with Jack?
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Yes, I was. I was his parent coach,
and so this was a temporary option for us. Jack will be in a
brick-and-mortar school next year but we did this for some
personal and academic reasons, and we were very thankful that
we could use their program. It was outstanding.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you.
Now, Jack, how did you like going to school on a camera?
Master Dudley. It was fun, and I learned a lot. It was good
having somebody actually there to work with you one on one, in
this case, my mom, to help me with all of my studies and I
think it was a great curriculum.
Ms. Johnson. Have you compared that to being in a classroom
with other students?
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Well, we live in a neighborhood full
of children who go to both public and private school, and I
would have to say that I think my son's education was on par or
perhaps even better in some respects, but I am a little biased.
Ms. Johnson. I am not trying to criticize. I am seeking
information.
Jack, did you miss having students sitting next to you or
you felt you got that through the virtual experience?
Master Dudley. I missed having students around me but I
just got a lot better learning experience because my mom can
just work with me with nobody else asking questions.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you. You have a wonderful private
teacher.
Dr. Lozano, my time is running out quickly, but in your
biography I read that you were the first Mexican-American woman
in 70 years to receive a Ph.D. from Rice, and the fifth woman
to ever get a Ph.D. from Rice's mechanical engineering and
material science department. The underrepresentation of women
is quite apparent, and minorities, and I wonder whether you are
beginning to see any breakthrough or whether you think it still
takes a lot of outreach effort?
Dr. Lozano. You mean for girls in general?
Ms. Johnson. Girls in general.
Dr. Lozano. You know, girls somehow are taking over, you
know, in college in most of the majors where they were, you
know--I don't know, like a lot of the liberal arts and a lot of
business, and there are now more girls than boys enrolled in
college.
Ms. Johnson. In college in general but in----
Dr. Lozano. In college in general, but in engineering, it
is still no higher than 17 percent, so still in my classes of,
like, 60 kids, I have, like, maybe five girls and 55 boys. So
still, you know, I haven't seen any change since, you know, 10,
15 years ago. So still the girls make a lot less. And it is a
very severe cultural stereotype, you know, when you ask people,
even boys, you know, what does a mechanical engineer do, and
everybody will imagine a hat and oil and boots and, you know,
like a dirty type of profession, and in reality when I take
them into my lab, I do a lot of tours for--you know, at least
1,000 kids pass by my lab every year, and they are surprised to
see that oh, so you actually deal with, you know, prosthesis
for the knee and the hip and, you know, so that doesn't have to
do anything with oil. You know, mechanical engineer, we also do
scaffolds for tissue regeneration. We need to take mechanical
properties for the cells to anchor and grow without falling
down, you know, and the scaffold has to sustain the load.
So they don't really know exactly what engineering is. So
even though engineering is all around us, you know, very small
percentage of people know what it is. Even like, I don't know,
my son plays piano beautifully and I say you could be the best
piano player, but if the materials in the piano are not good,
if the, you know, surroundings of the room are not well
prepared, you know, you will sound awful, and engineers are
around all of that but you don't really see them. You go to the
doctor and you see the X-rays and MRIs and laparoscopies and
everything and you see a doctor but you don't see the engineer
that was behind all that development. So we really never see
what engineers do, and every time--I went to Barnes and Noble
and kind of just went through books, and I found engineers are
either the ones that drive the trains in the kids' books. Or
there is an astronaut and right behind are two guys carrying a
case and it says engineers. I said, man, those are--you know,
the astronauts are the engineers. So really the profession
hasn't really been attractive to kids, so we still have to do a
lot. And this is all engineering, you know, the creativity that
comes with ExploraVision. That is basically what engineering
is, just be creative, use science knowledge to develop
technology that can benefit society.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you very much. My questions were within
five minutes, Mr. Chairman. I didn't promise the answers would
be.
Chairman Hall. The lady's ten minutes is up.
I now recognize--that was a good answer. We would have
tapped here saying, you know, please start slowing down, but
thank you for a good, long--a good answer, an honorable answer.
I recognize Mrs. Fudge, the gentlelady from--Mr. Smith,
Lamar Smith, the gentleman from--he is chairman of the
Judiciary Committee from the State of Texas.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Lozano, I thank you and Marcelo for making the trip up
from south Texas. We don't mean to be picking on you today but
it is probably no surprise that those of us from Texas are
going to ask you questions first, and I would like to do so but
then invite the other witnesses to comment if they would like
to as well. I have sort of a general question with a specific
question component to it, and the general question is, well,
maybe I should say you already provided part of the answer
because I understand you developed a science and magic show for
K-12th grade. I wish you could have shown that to us today.
That would have been fascinating, I am sure.
But it seems to me that that is one of the answers to the
overall question about how do we attract young people to become
interested in science and math. The figures have been mentioned
but we have about half as many young adults majoring in science
and math today as we did 20 years ago, and the trend is now
good and other countries are picking up the slack and we would
like to see our own American students start majoring more often
in those types of subjects. So the real question is, how do we
inspire young people, how do we get them interested in those
subjects? You showed us in a number of ways how that is
possible.
Let me go on and ask a more specific question that you
might want to address as well as the general question, and that
is, to me, one of the barriers we face is that of false
stereotypes, that maybe children from broken homes or from
lower socioeconomic backgrounds or whose parents don't speak
English well or girls who are oftentimes thought not to be good
in math, those are the types of false stereotypes that need to
be broken down and that will allow these young people to
achieve their potential and give us millions of more young
people who might major in the sciences and math, and I think
part of the answer is better mentors and frequent tutors and
inspirational and better teachers, more money dedicated to
those subjects and so on. But do you want to answer the
question more generally as to what we can do beyond what you
have already mentioned and also how we can counter those false
stereotypes?
Dr. Lozano. That is a very hard question. I guess one of
the things is to get, you know, leaders into the classrooms,
professors, you know, science teachers, you know, get them into
the classrooms, and I think National Science Foundation does an
awesome job. You know, every grant that top researcher gets
from National Science Foundation, in order for you to get it,
it needs to have broader impacts and the broader impacts have,
you know, outreach within it. So you need to have great science
in order to be given the grant, but if you don't have that
section filled, you know, you don't get it. And that forces,
you know, everybody within the scientific community to
outreach, you know, to K-12, and I think that is a beautiful
model, you know, what NSF does.
I think, you know, a lot of kids, they go into high school
and they have never--as Congressman Johnson was mentioning,
women have never been given the opportunity to see, you know,
what is beyond so when they, for example, tour the lab or when
we go to the classroom, they give you thank you letters saying
that, you know, I wish I could have known you 4 years ago and I
would have made very different decisions, you know, about my
life.
So I think, you know, we just need to go back to the
community and do a lot of that because there is no other way
to, you know, get kids, you know----
Mr. Smith. Hard work, dedication, commitment from all the
adults involved. I think you are right.
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley, would you have anything to add to
that?
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Yes, I would. Thank you. We live in
Loudon County, and I can't really speak to the counties that
the other schools represent or reside in, but in fact there is
a lot of interest in science and technology, and one of the
things that pains me as a parent is, and I will give you an
example. I have been attending open houses for the Academy of
Science, which is a program in Loudon County that is open to
all Loudon County high school students, and I have been for the
last two years and I have been amazed that every spot in the
parking lot is full when they have an open house. It is
heartbreaking, really, and you get into the auditorium and it
is practically standing room only, and the really unfortunate
aspect of this is that there are only 60 to 65 spots in this
Academy of Science and there are hundreds of students who are
interested in going, and I look at the auditorium, and these
aren't kids who are being dragged out of bed in the morning.
These are kids who are actually there with their parents deeply
interested in getting into this program and yet they can't get
in because the competition is so great and there is only one
program in Loudon County that addresses the sciences and math
in a really advanced way, and it is the Academy of Science.
There are 60 to 65 spots. So when you look at the 15 middle
schools that are feeding into that program, that is really an
opportunity of four kids per school.
Mr. Smith. So the solution is more programs?
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. More programs, and whether it is
joining up with businesses, partnering with businesses. Like
you look at Loudon County and all the businesses in that area,
Aerospace Corporation, for one, is one my husband works with,
but Boeing and Northrup Grumman. Maybe I am misrepresenting the
names because they are merging so often, I can't keep up with
them. But I am sure that they are engineers in businesses
located within our areas who could partner with the schools to
bring science into the schools, to make it more readily
available.
Mr. Smith. Good idea. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Hall. The gentleman's time has expired.
I recognize Mrs. Fudge from Ohio for five minutes.
Mrs. Fudge. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank
all of you for being here.
Let me first congratulate all of the contest winners. You
should be extremely proud of your accomplishments, and I am
very proud of you. I hope you all pursue some career in a STEM
field. We certainly need you, and I am looking for great things
from each and every one of you.
I would also like to thank our Chairman for holding this
hearing, which clearly demonstrates the need for federal
education reform and investment in STEM education. The schools
represented here are home to brilliant young students. However,
they also each represent some form of privilege or lack of
accessibility. Discovery Montessori in Texas is a private
school. Virginia Virtual Academy, while free to students living
in Carroll County, Virginia, is a modern form of home schooling
and requires significant parental involvement. Many of the
struggling families in the United States are either single
parent who cannot stay home with their students because they
must work or two parents who must both work. Schools such as
this simply are not an option for many low-income families.
West Hills Middle School in Michigan, though public, has less
than one percent of students eligible for free or reduced
school lunches. In my district, just take the city of East
Cleveland, that number is more than 85 percent. And finally,
Stuyvesant High School requires students to take a standardized
test for admission, which means expensive test prep courses for
the students who can afford them, putting low-income students
at a severe disadvantage. As a New York City public school,
only 2.2 percent of students at Stuyvesant are African
American. This number is incredibly low, especially considering
that across all public schools in the city, 32 percent of
students are African American. The numbers are even more
drastic when you look at Hispanic students, who represent 40
percent of the students in the New York City public schools but
only 3 percent of the students at Stuyvesant.
Clearly, this is not a level playing field, and I believe
that it is our job to ensure that all students in this country
have access to quality education and the opportunity to win a
contest like ExploraVision.
Now, to my question, which is for Mrs. Conwell-Dudley.
Virginia Virtual Academy seems to be very effective in getting
kids familiar with technology and interested in science. Do you
think that there is some part of the curriculum which you use
now in your home that could be transferred to students in the
classroom setting that would have the same kind of an effect?
Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Absolutely. I think the Illuminate
Live conferencing program could be used extensively in the
schools. I don't see why it couldn't. it worked extremely well
for us, and I am not that sophisticated. I am not that smart,
but I am smart enough to know that our kids have got to be a
lot smarter and so, you know, I am going to do everything I
can, and I really think this program, the Web conferencing
program, would be a great thing for schools to use.
Mrs. Fudge. Thank you. I want to again congratulate all of
the brilliant young people sitting here today, young men and
young ladies, for the work you have done. You have accomplished
a great deal. I hope that some day you will be sitting on this
Committee talking to young people just like you. Keep up the
good work, and to all of you who have assisted and mentored and
encouraged, thank you as well.
Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman Hall. The gentlelady yields back her time.
I recognize Mr. Bartlett, the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. Bartlett. Thank you very much. I want to use my brief
five minutes to emphasize two areas. One is the importance of
teachers, and the second, our need as a country to dramatically
increase the number of our students going into science, math
and engineering.
It was a teacher who changed my life. I went to college in
1943, Washington Missionary College in Takoma Park, Maryland,
to become a medical missionary. My first degree was in
theology, which has served me very well in Congress, by the
way, because I learned to love the sinner and hate the sin. I
was going to be a medical missionary so I had to take some
courses to go to medical school, and I had a really fantastic
teacher and I took all of his courses and enough other courses
that when I finally graduated from college in 1947, that I had
a major in biology and a minor in theology. I had a major in
biology and a minor in chemistry. I went on to get a doctorate
in science, and I taught for 24 years.
Our youngest son of 10 children was a terrible student. He
wouldn't pay any attention. We were going to lose him. Every
year we would wonder should we keep Ross back. And finally it
was a teacher in his sixth grade, a science teacher in the
sixth grade that turned him on. Now, Ross graduated from UMVC
number one in a class of 140 some engineers. He has five
children, a Ph.D. He is returning to Maryland, thankfully, and
he works for one of our big government labs. So here are two
lives that have been dramatically turned around by teachers, so
thank you, thank you very much for what you do.
I was listening to the news this morning and I was reminded
again of our priorities, which I think are pretty darn
distorted. A Vancouver team lost. I have no idea who they are
because I tuned out sports because I think they are kind of the
equivalent of gladiators in Rome and we know what happened to
Rome. But, you know, their team lost so they are really upset
and they are turning over police cars and breaking windows and
the riot police are out trying to quiet them down. I watch the
White House and the people that they invite there and slobber
all over and they are not scientists and mathematicians and
engineers, they are not academic achievers, they are athletes
and entertainers.
This year, the Chinese will graduate seven times as many
engineers as we graduate, and about half of our graduate
engineers will be Chinese students. And by the way, they don't
stay here anymore because there are plenty of good jobs back in
China so they are going there.
We represent less than five percent of the people in the
world and we have a fourth of all the good things in the world,
and I have a huge concern that we are not going to be able to
retain our position as the premier economic and military power
in the world if we are turning out one-seventh as many
scientists, mathematicians and engineers as our competitor is.
What can we do as a country to change the culture? Because, you
know, you get a culture, a community, a society gets what it
appreciates and we just don't appreciate our bright young kids
in science, math and engineering. When I was a kid, they called
us squares. That is an old term, isn't it? Now, what are you,
geeks and nerds now? And, you know, pretty girls won't date
bright boys and a really bright girl plays dumb to get a date.
This is a really sad reflection on our society. What do we need
to do so that we can capture the imagination of the American
people and get more of our young people to go into careers in
science, math and engineering. I know you won't be able to give
an adequate answer to this in the minute and seven seconds we
have remaining so I would encourage you to please write for the
record something that will help us so that we will know what we
can do here in this Committee to do a better job of turning on
our people and getting more of our young people to go into
science, math and engineering.
Chairman Hall. The gentleman's time has expired. Do you
have any figures on how many lawyers they are turning out over
there?
Mr. Bartlett. Actually, you know, I go to groups of young
people and I ask them what they are going to become, and they
are going to become lawyers and political scientists. Now, we
have enough of both of those, quite enough of both of those,
don't you think? We just need to turn that around. A society
gets what it appreciates. We just don't appreciate science,
math and engineering, but that is what makes the wheels go
around and, you know, that is going--if we aren't able to get
around this, we are not going to be number one.
Chairman Hall. Your point is made.
Mr. Bartlett. Thank you, sir.
Chairman Hall. We have about 18 votes in another 15
minutes. We are going to try to go on through. Mr. Clarke, the
gentleman from Michigan, I recognize you for five minutes, five
quick minutes.
Mr. Clarke. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am from the city of Detroit. I represent metropolitan
Detroit. I am on this Committee at the recommendation of
Representative Peters, who is right here who is your Member of
Congress, and I just want to thank West Hills Middle School for
making us really proud in Michigan.
This is a little personal story. This is really to Claudia
and to Samantha. You know, when I was growing up in elementary
school, I was one of the few kids that had asthma, so I went
back and visited, you know, some of these elementary schools
now that I am an elected official. I remember asking one class,
anybody raise your hand if you have asthma. Half the class
raised their hands. And where I was raised too, you know, we
have an incinerator right near us a few blocks away, and we had
plants there. My dad used to work in the Rouge plant. So a lot
of people have breathing problems because the contamination,
because of pollution, because we smoked cigarettes and my dad
smoked them without filters before he realized that it was a
problem. This was a long time ago.
So the fact that you have created a prototype of a way to
provide people with oxygen who need it without having to carry
those big tanks, that is going to really give people a lot of
freedom because a lot of us, more and more people are growing
older and living longer and will likely have to live with these
chronic breathing problems.
My question, and if I could, Mr. Chair, I would like to
just ask this to Claudia and also Samantha. I know you are not
sitting, but after Claudia responds. What did you either enjoy
the most out of developing this intra-trachea device enjoy or
learned about it the most or what you got out of it? I am just
curious. Now, here is the reason I am asking you this. Because
in your answer will probably be the actual value that other
students would get, and that would probably encourage them to
do this type of research that you are doing right now that can
actually save people's lives, or at least give somebody a
better quality of life as they grow older.
Miss Cooper. Well, thank you, Mr. Clarke. Our inspiration
actually came from my grandma, who was oxygen dependent for the
last few months of her life, and as you were saying, it weighs
down your freedom, and this device would hopefully restore that
freedom and let patients do what they want to. It is the sheer
joy of knowing that there are possibilities out there, like I
said before, and that our minds, our generation can do that. I
think working with Samantha was one of the most amazing parts
of it because she is so funny and she is very, very bright, and
we couldn't have done it without her. I think just opening our
minds, because neither of us were very into science before this
competition, and when we first heard of it, it was just an
assignment. It was not anything that we wanted to do
necessarily, but once we started going, we saw how incredible
this competition can be and how great this is.
Mr. Clarke. Wonderful. And if possible, if Samantha, you
could just come up and share with me your experience about
doing this research.
Miss Tarnopol. Well, I would probably say most of the same
things as Claudia because we did most things together, but I
learned so much from this competition because before this I was
really not into technology, and I was not--and I learned so
much from this and I learned so much about our invention, and I
really like helping people, so it is probably what I would say
the most.
Mr. Clarke. Well, this is wonderful. I am going to yield
back my time, but I think we have got the answer. So all the
students right now who are watching this, you don't even have
to be into science or math or technology, but if you want to
help somebody, you see somebody that you know has a problem,
could be in your family or a friend of yours, this is a way to
really help them and help a whole bunch of people fast is to
get involved in these projects, so that could be it. Let us not
worry about the science and the math and the technology. Let us
try to help people, and that way we can actually help our
country. Thank you so much.
And also, the last point, I wanted you to testify so you
would get used to this so when you come up here, if you choose
to do this in a few years from now, you have already had the
training.
Chairman Hall. The gentleman yields back. Thank you,
Claudia and Samantha. They call you Sam or Samantha? Good
testimony.
At this time I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr.
Rohrabacher, for as much of five minutes as he wants to use.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman,
and let me just note that I did not do well in math and science
when I was a kid. I wish I would have, and I think that if I
would have done better in math and science, I wouldn't be here
today. But I want you to know, the only good side of that story
is that I did not become a lawyer. In fact, when I ran for
Congress the first time, my most effective slogan was: vote for
Dana, at least he's not a lawyer.
And I want to segue in with the kids on this. You know, the
bottom line is that kids can see what our priorities are in our
society, and they notice that lawyers are the ones with the
nice houses and nice cars and a lot of times they see the
engineers as not having such a nice reward for this profession
that they have chosen. I believe the way we get more engineers
and more scientists and such is we pay them better, and how we
pay them better is, we just make sure that our own children
have the opportunities to get good jobs that pay well, and I am
sorry to bring up other issues, but the fact is, we seem to be
bringing in people from all over the world in order to depress
the wages of our engineers and our scientists when instead we
should be elevating the pay of those people who are teaching
science and those people who get into science and engineering.
So that is just a couple thoughts.
I also am a little bit concerned that movie stars and
athletes, you know, they make huge amounts of money and
everybody knows that, and people will begrudge an inventor the
money that he gets from a patent. I mean, the fact is, it is a
good thing for someone to invent something that changes the
lives of so many people, and for that person to benefit by
making a lot of money from a patent is a good thing, and you
would not believe how much we have got here where the powers
that be are coming down on these small inventors for insisting
that they get a royalty for what they have invented, and there
is a big patent fight looming right now in Congress where some
of us are trying to protect the little guy, the small inventor,
and there are other people who have a lot of interest here who
are, you know, protecting the interests of some big corporate
leader who started off as a lawyer, of course.
But with that said, I think that we can make scientists and
inventors cool, and I want to ask the kids whether or not our
engineers and scientists, people who are engaged in these types
of things, are they considered cool by your fellow classmates
now or, no, they are not. I am seeing heads shake. What about
you, Marcelo? Do some of your classmates look at someone, an
engineer or a scientist, as someone who is cool?
Master Vidal. Well, after my mom does, like, a magic show
but it is really engineering, all my classmates are like, oh,
wow, that is so awesome.
Mr. Rohrabacher. All right. There you go. Hey, dude, that
is great.
Master Vidal. Yeah.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Jack, what about you? What do your fellow
students think about it? Is it cool to be an engineer or a
scientist?
Master Dudley. My dad, he is an aerospace engineer, and
whenever I told my friends about it, they would always be wowed
about that and they thought it was really cool that I was able
to see a rocket launch and they thought engineers actually were
very cool.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Oh, that is great. Okay. All right.
Claudia?
Miss Cooper. Well, you know, I am in that squirrely
seventh-grade time where it depends what you mean by cool, but
I guess, when Mrs. Attard first started the unit showed us
inventions that were created and asked us if we knew who those
inventors were, and after she gave us the names and we said oh,
yeah, that is kind of cool, and then of course he is before our
time a little but she showed me Bill Nye, the Science Guy, the
TV show. So I think that is what really triggered our minds,
and bringing the competition into our school kind of set off--I
mean, there were people who went home, they went on Google, and
they went on Bing and they typed in who invented the microwave
and they would come to school the next day and share it with
everyone. So I guess that is kind of what----
Mr. Rohrabacher. Okay. All right. Alison?
Miss Reed. I go to Stuyvesant High School, which is a very
science-oriented high school, and we are kind of nerdy, so I
don't know if we really represent everyone, but to become an
engineer, a lot of kids aspire to be a scientist, and a lot of
our parents are scientists or engineers or doctors, and
everyone admires their parents so much and I think everyone
really admires scientists.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Okay. That is cool. Being admired is cool.
Let me just say, I admire each of you, and my heroes are people
who have come up with things that have changed people's lives
for the better, and too many times kids hear only the negative
side, how horrible things are getting. Well, you should also
know and be taught about what great opportunities we have to
make things better, and you are the kids who are going to make
it better, so congratulations for participating in these
wonderful projects and all the good things you are going to do
now for the rest of your life. Thank you.
Chairman Hall. The gentleman's time has expired. In defense
of lawyers, I will tell you a quick story. A guy was making a
speech and he said I hate all lawyers, they are all geeks, and
a guy in the crowd said I object to that, and he said well, I
am sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, are you a lawyer. He
said no, I am a geek.
The chair recognizes Mrs. Edwards.
Mrs. Edwards. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the
Ranking Member, I feel that there has to be some redemption
because, you know, as my colleagues know, I spent several years
as a systems engineer working on the Spacelab program at
Goddard Space Flight Center and then I became a lawyer and now
I am in Congress. There is a lot of redemption going on out
there.
But I am just so excited to see all of you here, your
educators, your mentors, your parents, and of course the
students, and I think when we ask ourselves, you know, are we
going to be okay in the next generation, the next decades, I
think we look at you young people and we know that we are going
to be just fine because we will be in your hands. So thank you
very much for your participation today and your testimony.
Like the Ranking Member and our Chairman said, education in
the STEM fields is really important to me. I mean, I see, you
know, all across this country that it is really clear that the
challenges of the future are going to be solved by us grabbing
ahold of technology for the 21st century, and the way that we
do that is to educate in our STEM fields, and, you know,
although I know that some of my colleagues have expressed, you
know, concern about whether these same kinds of things can take
place in a public school setting versus a private school
setting, I think it takes the collection of that to happen, and
I think as parents, and I know as a parent that my goal was to
just find the best place for my child to be educated because I
always described that our children aren't science experiments
but they are works in progress and what works for one child may
not work for another, even though I recognize that the vast
majority of this country's children are going to be educated in
our public schools and so we have to figure out a way that we
can get that right in the STEM fields.
In my Congressional district in my state, we are home to
some of the best science and technology supported by government
and our private sector any place in our country. We are home to
the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's premier program around
the earth sciences, and NOAA, that helps us figure out our
weather and climate across the country and around the world,
the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where
so much good work is coming out of there, and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, and I know I look to all
of these agencies and the various private sector corporations
that develop around there to also have a robust relationship
with our school system and with our young people because I
think it is important for us to figure out how we take some of
that private sector energy that you mentioned, Dr. Lozano, and
that we channel that into a relationship with our schools, and
that is not always an easy relationship because sometimes we
create barriers that make it difficult for those who are in the
STEM fields and professions to participate actively in our
school system, so I think that we have to figure out ways that
we can better encourage those things.
I just really have--and there is a bell, but I am not out
of time yet--really just one question for the students, and I
wonder if each of you can tell me the other things that you do
in addition to your work around science that contributes to
your learning, whether it is arts or music and sports that
means that we are really developing whole children. Go right
ahead.
Master Vidal. I do swimming one hour a day Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday morning with Davin all the time,
and I just finished the soccer season, so now I am watching TV.
Mrs. Edwards. All right. Well, thank you.
And Jack, what about you?
Master Dudley. I play piano. I take Chinese. Occasionally I
will play flag football, and my swimming season is just about
finished, and me and two other teammates are on a robotics
team.
Mrs. Edwards. Congratulations.
And Claudia?
Miss Cooper. Well, I go to summer camp in the summer. I do
a lot of acting in musicals, and I play a little tennis. I do a
lot of extracurricular stuff at school, a lot of community
service, and I actually do a little bit of circus performing
arts too.
Mrs. Edwards. Excellent. Thank you.
Alison?
Miss Reed. I do a lot of art, and that really helps me
visually and that helped me on the project with realizing what
everything would look like and how it would be structured. I
play sports. I play tennis and I swim and I play the piano, and
yeah.
Mrs. Edwards. Well, thank you all very much for being here,
and I think what that indicates is that we have a lot to do to
educate the whole child in addition to what we are trying to
develop in the science and STEM fields. Thank you.
Chairman Hall. The gentlelady yields back her time.
I thank all the witnesses for their very valuable
testimony, all of you and your input. The members of the
Committee might have additional questions for any of you, and
we will ask you to respond to those in writing if they write to
you. The record will remain open for two weeks for additional
comments from members.
I want to recognize Ms. Johnson for a minute; however, she
needs a quick response. I recognize you at this time and then I
will dismiss you.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I want to say to Alison and Claudia, Jack and Marcelo and
Samantha and all the rest of you that I have not learned your
names, you have been really a spark in my life this morning
because we struggle so hard to try to pinpoint what direction
we need to go to make sure that this quality education is
available, and you are letting us know that you are some of the
examples of what we strive for, and so I want to thank you,
thank all the teachers and parents who are here. We really
honestly do depend on you to carry our future, and I just want
to thank you for what you are doing and keep it up, and
encourage many more to join you. Thank you.
Chairman Hall. Well said, and thank you. The gentlelady
yields back her time.
Let me remind everyone that science fair and all of these
teams and their projects are in the Rayburn Foyer from 12:30 to
2:30, and that is on the first floor, so I am going to be there
and I am going to try to ask Jack if he missed the girls more
than he did the boys or the boys more than he did the girls. So
I have some good questions to ask you, Jack. I hope I see you
down there.
The witnesses are excused and this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
Appendix I
----------
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Answers to Post-Hearing Questions
Responses by Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan
American,
Mentor to the I.Streets (Intelligent Streets) Discovery Montessori
School Team,
McAllen, Texas
Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall
Q1. We need the best and brightest to become scientists and
mathematicians, but we also need the best and brightest to become
teachers of all subjects, particularly math and science. What do you
think we could do to encourage more bright and articulate students to
consider education as a profession?
A1. Something that I have implemented (following my professor from Rice
University, Dr. Barrera) at The University of Texas Pan American is to
have my research assistants (Undergraduate and Master students) help me
when I give magic and science shows to K-12 students as well as helping
with the development of the activities that we will present. These
activities expose engineering students to K-12 student learning
experiences and several of my students had chosen teaching middle and
high school. National Science Foundation had a program called graduates
into K-12; this program promotes faculty to be very creative as to
activities where their STEM graduate students participate in education
related activities and possible could ignite the students to consider
teaching as a profession but if not, it leaves in them the knowledge
and experience that they have to be involved with the community. Such
programs are very important to promote teaching experiences while
developing a passion to work with K-12.
Engineers are quite practical people in nature; the current
environment in K-12 education where teachers are heavily restricted by
many rules and regulations imposed into their curriculums and the need
to teach for standardized tests drives them away from this honorable
profession since some experience a level of frustration and either
decide to leave the profession or they do not consider it. Teachers are
the core of the education process and their focus and energies should
go to their students though they feel that administrators are now their
primary customers. If their students were their primary customers, even
larger size classrooms could be handled; all my education from 1-12th
grade I was in classroom of 50 students and one teacher though we were
the focus of the teacher not filling up forms and forms for evaluators
and so.
Q2. What elements of your pre-service or in-service training have been
most helpful in meeting the daily demands of working with students,
developing innovative classroom strategies, and delivering content-rich
instruction to students of all levels and abilities?
A2. In reality I have never taken courses aimed at developing
pedagogical techniques, though having been exposed since my fifth-12th
years as a volunteer (well, in high school and college as required for
all as community service hours) to teach younger students religion,
math, crafts, and organization skills to build/beautify schools and
rural areas (paint buildings, cut grass, repair streets, etc). Then
having experienced as a graduate student the opportunity to do science
and math with younger students has allowed me to develop the ability to
communicate simple and complicated issues to people of all ages. It is
important to present practical, real life issues as examples; students
can then identify abstract facts and think of possible solutions. Once
students are engaged and understand the problem they can work on a
solution. Personally I experienced situations where I never understood
the problem though learned the complicated math and sequence to obtain
a correct answer without ever understanding (at that time) what I was
doing.
Q3. As a parent and mentor, what were the biggest challenges for you
helping the students with their projects?
A3. The biggest challenge when working with my own children as a mentor
is the fact that I expect more of them and set the expectations quite
high. I am present to guide them in their brainstorming process, and
help them divide the tasks though they have to do all the work, and I
quizzed them quite often in their acquired knowledge, when they are
ready to think on how their ideas could work in the future I explain to
them science concepts that are usually way too elevated for their age
so I have to prepare the material in a way they could grasp it. After
that they are again on their own to continue with their project; K-
third grade students need much more help than fourth-sixth or older
students. The older they are, they basically work on their own after
initial meeting. Working with the ExploraVision objectives is quite an
easy process; the rules have been very well thought of and are clear
and easy to follow, not to mention the ``award'' that students can get;
this motivates them considerably.
Q4. You are a college professor and testify that you mentor in a
number of ways beyond ExploraVision. Can you please expand on these
community activities and your experiences? How many students and
teachers do you think you influence each month with your lab tours,
talks, and magic and science shows? Who is funding these activities or
do you volunteer your time?
A4. I strongly believe that engagement with K-college students is an
important mission of a faculty member; we have been very blessed and
have worked so hard to obtain an advanced degree that it is a
responsibility to communicate the walked path. As many kids, I also had
a childhood where ``money'' was not around, there were many, many
sacrifices that my family went through for education (it was always a
top priority), the schools that I attended did not have air
conditioning, even less heaters, we had windows! I try to communicate
to all kids the importance of appreciating everything, they have what
is needed in school, so with my presentations I try to instill in them
a ``possible dream'' and a sense of appreciation.
I do several ``Magic and Science'' shows where I do demonstrations
and explain the science behind while asking questions as to what
practical application they see. These presentations are on an average
one per month of about one and half hour. They can be either at the
University where students take time to tour the facilities, or I go to
the school and conduct the presentations either in gyms, cafeterias or
classrooms. Have also participated in Parent Nights where I do similar
presentations to parents and talk about college opportunities while
sharing my own experiences as a female in a male-dominating field.
ExploraVision is a type of ``one-on-one'' mentoring activity since the
benefitted kids have been at the most eight per year though this year
have been invited by a school that will start an ExploraVision club
where the participation will be mandatory, and I will host several
weekly sessions on innovation and creativity classes. Have also
developed some experiments to teach science to fourth-sixth grade
students where I attended their school every other Friday and offered
practical examples of the concepts they were learning during the week.
I did this in a private school given the opportunity for the teacher to
accommodate the hours without affecting the required curriculum, it was
very well received by students. Have also worked with Region I and
several programs such as TexPrep, ABC of Science, Science camps and so.
I could say that about 1,000 kids are influenced per year, with about
10-20 teachers. National Science Foundation had funded most of the
activities and many others are as a volunteer.
Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer
Q1. The students before us today seem to have a genuine interest in
the projects they have undertaken, and they appear to enjoy taking the
initiative to learn and better themselves. What techniques do you find
are most successful in encouraging students to become engaged in math
and science projects? How should we be capturing the imagination of
young students through STEM programs?
A1. Young students are the easiest to work with since by nature they
are scientists and engineers, they like to observe and experiment with.
The best technique is to show them something exciting such as an
experiment with liquid nitrogen or a chemical experiment such as the
``elephant toothpaste.'' Then I tell them that if they succeed in their
math and science classes, they can later come to play with such
experiments when in college. I make sure to tell them that many times
they might ask themselves why are they learning some aspects of math or
science, for example when learning algebra, at that time it might seem
useless and they might not find an answer as to the importance of
learning such material though I tell them that in order to be able to
experiment as I do, they need to develop an analytical mind (a problem
solver ability) and the only way to do it is to solve many, many, many
math problems, such as swimmer who swims miles and miles to develop
muscles and abilities to compete in a 100-yard event. Same with their
brain, a problem solver ability will develop only after mind training.
So I ask them to see homework and math as training for their brain. As
for ExploraVision kids, I tend to invite them to my lab at the
beginning so they can get excited into solving problems.
Responses by Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley,
Mentor to the Heads Up! Virginia Virtual Academy Team,
Leesburg, Virginia
Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall
Q1. We need the best and the brightest to become scientists and
mathematicians, but we also need the best and the brightest to become
teachers of all subjects, particularly math and science. What do you
think we could do to encourage more bright and articulate students to
consider education as a profession?
A1. As the daughter of two public high school teachers, I can tell you,
based on my parent's frustration with the U.S. education system, that
the following issues dominated conversations at our dinner table:
Men and women who entered the teaching profession
(regardless of the subjects they taught) to have their summers off. Men
and women who entered teaching because it was ``easy'' and because they
couldn't get fired. Men and women who had little or no interest in
teaching as a profession, or working with kids, in general.
Students who wanted a ``B'' for showing up to class and
an ``A'' for handing in homework-- regardless of quality. Parents who
felt the same way. High school students who were incapable of writing
coherent sentences and complete paragraphs.
(Note: My parents consistently taught in predominately white,
middle class to upper-middle class high schools.)
Encourage the best and the brightest into teaching by giving them
and highly sought after teachers MORE AUTHORITY, RESPECT and BETTER
PAY. In hard-to-staff schools, set up the hiring process like a four-
year stint in the military and keep cycling in new and motivated young
teachers by providing great benefits and compensation. Reduce the
Administration staff ranks. Cycle the poorly performing teachers into
adult education where they will be held more accountable or simply let
them go.
Q2. As a parent and mentor, what were the biggest challenges for you
helping the students with their projects?
A2. The biggest challenge for me was motivating my students by engaging
them in conversation and research without also having to entertain
them. We live in an entertainment and celebrity obsessed culture; all
of our children are being raised on a steady diet of televised dance
and singing contests, YouTube stupidity and video gaming. I had to
constantly challenge my team to stop waiting for me to lead the
discussions and to stop expecting that every science meeting would be
``fun.''
Q3. As a mentor to the HEADS UP! Helmet team, what role did you play
beyond being a parent to Jack?
A3. I set up the team schedule and I conducted all of the team
meetings. I assisted the team, when necessary, with their research,
brain storming, project selection, delegation of work and research
efforts, model building, Web site design, and video development. I was
with the team at every step of the process.
Q4. You commented on how impressed you were with the ability of your
team to come up with novel ideas, such an integral piece of this
competition. Can you talk about how you helped the students drill down
on their broad concepts, or did you have to help them do that at all,
perhaps it was a normal part of the process?
A4. As a mentor, I wanted to initiate the students as to the importance
of following what is going on in the world. I've mentored two winning
teams, and I've learned that children in this age group (Grades four-
six) really need an adult to help them focus their attention on the
issues that are important to our nation and our planet. That is why
this year's team started their initial research by reading current
issues of the Washington Post. Most children I've encountered do not
read newspapers, news magazines, and they do not follow the news in the
media (online, televised, etc.) nor do their parents. My son follows
the news on a daily basis and he is quite well informed; he is
particularly interested in U.S. military efforts in Libya right now.
I'm guessing he knows more about current events than some adults.
Q5. . . . What techniques did you find are most successful in
encouraging students to become engaged in Math and Science projects?
How should we be capturing the imagination of young students through
STEM programs?
A5. Answer: P-U-B-L-I-C-I-T-Y. If science and math students received as
much publicity and public adoration as football players and
cheerleaders, we would have a surplus of engineers and scientists in
this country.
Case in point: When our science team won first place in this year's
Toshiba ExploraVision Science Competition, our local paper, Leesburg
Today, printed a bulletin about the team that was 1" tall by 2" wide--
no photo--and our team's accomplishment was buried at the back of the
paper. At the very same time our press release was available, Dr.
Ballard of the JASON project (a program designed to excite and engage
middle school students in science and technology) was lecturing in the
Leesburg area on the importance of STEM education. It was so
heartbreaking to see, that in spite of our team's hard work, the
article that ran adjacent to the article highlighting Dr. Ballard's
work and his plea for more students in the sciences, was a lengthly
article about a new skateboard park, complete with a large color photo
of a teenage boy doing a very dangerous flip on a curved ramp . . .
without wearing a HELMET!
Responses by Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach,
to the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea West Hills Middle School Team,
Commerce, MI
Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall
Q1. What inspired you to become a science teacher?
A1. I wanted to become a science teacher because of the inquiry-based
experience I can provide for students. I love the hands-on application
of science, along with the real-world connection that science can allow
students to discover. Part of my inspiration came from knowing that I
can gear my instruction using an inquiry based model, and I can
encourage students to ask questions and apply what they are learning in
science to their everyday life, which makes it more meaningful and
relevant. The science curriculum sets the stage for exploration, so to
be able to watch students learn and go above and beyond the curriculum
because they are excited and curious is what inspires me on daily
basis.
Q2. What elements of your pre-service or in-service training have been
most helpful in meeting the daily demands of working with students,
developing innovative classroom strategies, and delivering content-rich
instruction to students of all levels and abilities?
A2. I was very fortunate to have had an amazing college experience that
provided numerous opportunities for me to go into classrooms across
many different school districts, grade levels, and subject areas. This
diversity allowed me to see different teaching styles, programs,
strategies, and classroom management techniques that I was able to pull
from and apply to my own classroom as a teacher. It was through these
pre-service opportunities and my student teaching that I was really
able to have a hands-on experience and begin to apply everything that I
learned and read about in my education classes to the real science
classroom. In addition to my pre-service experiences, now as a
professional working teacher I can also say that I learn everyday from
colleagues. I work on a team with other professional educators who have
the students' best interests and needs as a top priority, and through
our daily communication and collaboration I continue to grow as an
educator every day.
Q3. We need the best and brightest to become scientists and
mathematicians, but we also need the best and brightest to become
teachers of all subjects, particularly math and science. What do you
think we could do to encourage more bright and articulate students to
consider education as a profession?
A3. Students look up to their teachers as role models, and I think that
teachers need to encourage students to go into education as a
profession. Students watch their teachers' every move, and if a teacher
is showing they are enthusiastic and enjoy what they are doing
everyday, then that can encourage students to follow in the steps of
their role model. Communication about career education and
opportunities for professional growth as an educator are conversations
teachers need to have with their students to encourage and inspire them
to take on the challenge of educating the next generation so they, too,
can have a good-quality educational experience.
Q4. A hallmark of a good teacher, it is said, is the ability to
inspire curiosity in students. In my own experience, I have found that
students are naturally curious--born scientists, really. Yet many older
students do not like science or math and are not particularly
interested in it. What happens to that spark, that natural curiosity?
How do we re-ignite it for those who have had it extinguished? And how
do we fan the spark for those who still have it?
A4. I think as students get older they have more demands and pressures
placed on them to do well, pass tests, get into a good college, and
land a good job, so students are still curious but don't have extra
time in their day to explore their curiosity. Unfortunately, as
students get older, doing well on tests take precedence over
exploration. I think that offering classes throughout the school day
that partner with local businesses that revolve around an area of
science is a great for students to see how they can use science once
they are out of the classroom and regain their enthusiasm for the
subject. Furthermore, this type of educational experience can really
open doors for students to explore their curiosity and redevelop their
passion for science because they will once again be able to see its
relevance to the real world. For those students who still have a
passion for science, offering extra-curricular programs, clubs, and
competitions for students to get involved in will provide additional
opportunities for students to test new ideas and further explore their
curiosities about science education so they can continue to enjoy
learning about science outside the classroom.
Q5. It is interesting that West Hills Middle School uses ExploraVision
as an interdisciplinary activity, involving both science and language
arts. Do you know how many other teams make this a multi-subject
activity? How many teams did West Hills support this year? Do you limit
the competition to seventh graders at your school, or do you encourage
other grades to participate?
A5. Making the ExploraVision competition an interdisciplinary project/
unit was new this year, and we plan on using the same model in future
years because is was so successful. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any
other teams outside of our own that took this approach to the
competition and would highly recommend it for future teams. This year
we had just fewer than 50 teams take part in the competition, which
represented every seventh grader at West Hills Middle School. As of
today the competition only takes place in the seventh grade because it
aligns with the seventh grade science and language arts curriculum;
however, we encourage students to participate in the competition as
eighth graders who want an additional science challenge and experience,
since they have already been through the process and don't require the
direct teaching that takes place.
Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer
Q1. The students before us today seem to have a genuine interest in
the projects they have undertaken, and they appear to enjoy taking the
initiative to learn and better themselves. What techniques do you find
are most successful in encouraging students to become engaged in math
and science projects? How should we be capturing the imagination of
young students through STEM programs?
A1. I find that any real-world connection I can make encourages
students to become engaged. Whether it is through open-ended unit
questions, music, television, video games, or live demonstrations I can
do in front of students, as soon as they can apply what we are
discussing or learning in class to an area of their life outside of
school their motivation and excitement skyrockets. STEM programs
provide the opportunity for students to become problem solvers, and I
find that when I pose a competition like ExploraVision to the students,
I have them wear the hat of a problem solver and look at their own
life. Personal buy-in can add to engagement and motivation so if
students can reflect on what we currently have today and follow a
problem-solving process, similar to an engineer, they have a drawing
board to change their future for the better.
Responses by Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher,
Mentor to the 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team,
Brooklyn, NY
Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall
Q1. It is impressive that Stuyvesant High School can count five Nobel
Laureates amongst its alumni. Clearly, you are doing your part to
inspire future generations, but you make a valid point that students
must be well prepared in elementary and middle school in order to
attend your school. What is your current enrollment and do you have to
turn students away? How many different schools feed into Stuyvesant and
are they specialized schools as well? Please expand on the make-up of
the student population at Stuyvesant.
A1. Stuyvesant High School is one of eight selective NYC Public High
Schools that rely on the Specialized High School Admissions Test.
(LaGuardia HS is a ninth specialized school that admits students by
portfolio or audition.) In the fall about 26,000 (yes, twenty-six
thousand) eighth graders take this test for the approximately 5,300
seats available. They also list three schools in order of their
preference for admission. 24,000 students named Stuyvesant as one of
their preferences. This past spring Stuyvesant offered 961 students
seats for the Class of 2015. Of these 816 accepted. These students came
from about 150 NYC public middle schools and 30 private/parochial
schools. But six public middle schools contributed over 40% to the
class. Two are magnet schools for the Gifted and Talented, and three
others have a math/science leaning as their names indicate, Christa
McAuliffe, Pasteur and Curie.
Congresswoman Fudge was correct in identifying the low percentage
of our black or Hispanic students, but that does not reflect the other
minority groups served by the school. The first group are students from
families falling below the poverty line. Stuyvesant HS receives Title 1
funding as do four of our larger feeder schools. About 45% of students
qualify for free or reduced-fee school meals. This means limited family
funds available for ``expensive'' test prepping.
Surnames of Stuyvesant's graduating classes from the early 20th
century are a pretty good indicator of the prominent immigrant groups
in NYC, and that has continued into the 21st century. Therefore, the
next minority group is our immigrant/first generation population, which
is reflected by 72% of the Class of 2015 identifying themselves as
Asian. ``Asian,'' of course, lumps together everyone with roots from
Turkey to the Far East. Chinese and Korean students were the first to
show up in NYC and Stuyvesant. Now there is a noticeable rise in
students from Pakistan-India-Banglagesh area. Tied to this is the home
language of our students. Indeed, of the three students on the 3Drenal
team, David speaks Russian exclusively to his parents, and Norine
speaks Mandarin to her grandmother who lives with her. At parents'
conferences, about a fourth of parents I see bring someone to translate
for them. And another fourth probably should have!
The final group served by Stuyvesant is a minority in STEM fields,
girls. Every student, not just the XY individuals, graduating from
Stuyvesant must have completed a pre-calculus or advanced algebra
sequence and four years of science. Our Robotic Team has had girls in
Chief Engineer positions. Science Olympiad officers and captains have
been girls. I cannot give you the percentage of girls who have taken AP
classes in STEM areas because of summer recess, but two-thirds of my
Advanced Topics Research class were girls and 60% of a research track
Molecular Science course were girls.
I will not pretend that Stuyvesant students are not elite. They
have been selected for this. Certainly, not all of them represent
minority groups but many are poorer than their classmates, from
families newly arrived in America, or are under-represented in STEM
fields.
Q2. Do you know what percentage of your students attend college?
Pursue a STEM degree? Pursue a graduate STEM degreee or enter a STEM
field?
A2. Stuyvesant has consistently seen 99+% of its graduates go on to a
four-year college and mostly to tier one colleges. Neither the College
Office nor the Alumni Association keeps rigorous data on the areas that
our graduates enter, but there was a survey done in 2004, the 100th
anniversary of the school's opening, that asked alumni what career they
entered. I've gone through that data base and pulled out occupations
consistent with a STEM undergraduate degree. Of the 9,200 alumni
reporting, 38% listed occupations from accounting to veterinary
medicine. I am unable to get a number of advanced degrees in STEM
fields, but 550 reported being physicians/surgeons and another 270 were
university professors, with their field unnamed.
Q3. What elements of your pre-service or in-service training have been
most helpful in meeting the daily demands of working with students,
developing innovative classroom strategies, and delivering content-rich
instruction to students of all levels and abilities?
A3. I think that the key to your question is ``delivering content-rich
instruction to students of all levels.'' A teacher must know her
subject matter. Therefore, the most important element in my pre-service
training was a BS degree with a major in biology (36+hrs.) and a minor
in chemistry (20+hrs.) and an MS in biology (49 hrs.). This strong
background in science allows me to ask questions that direct students
in their study. If a bright sixth grader questions gravity, I can draw
on this background knowledge to ask the student when gravity kicks in
as he walks along a line on desktops. Similarly, I can lead a student
with a weak background in science with questions that break down the
topic into manageable bits.
The most helpful element in my in-service years has been a program
at NYU. Directed by developmental biologist Malka Moscona, a promoter
of ``life-long learning,'' Recent Advances in Science Seminar Series is
a monthly Saturday morning session at which research faculty from NYU
and other research institutions present their current research to NYU
School of Ed students, high school teachers and students. The
atmosphere is informal--``stop me anytime for questions''--and some
really cool stuff is presented--Harold Varmus told us about Gleevec. I
can keep current and network with professional scientists and other
teachers and students who attend bring back to the classroom a bright-
eyed enthusiasm for research.
Q4. We need the best and brightest to become scientists and
mathematicians, but we also need the best and brightest to become
teachers of all subjects, particularly math and science. What do you
think we could do to encourage more bright and articulate students to
consider education as a profession?
A4. That's a hard sell. Bright kids interested in STEM areas who are
entering college want to work in STEM areas. It is probably easier to
recruit potential teachers in their post-graduate years or after they
have worked in their field for a while. Not only will they be more
experienced, they probably be more mature and more able to cope with
the rigors of the classroom.
Q5. What inspired you to become a science teacher?
A5. Two instances when I was working at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center probable played important roles propeling me into the classroom.
First when my son was in kindergarten I got a mouse from E. A. Boyce, a
section head there, to put into a ``Science Box'' for Paul's class. At
each side of the box the kids were encouraged to use one sense to
describe what was in the box. Chandradat used his sense of smell to
discribe an open field! Wow, that was cool! The second event was when I
was volunteering at a Brooklyn non-profit, Project Reach Youth. Their
afterschool program worked with disadvantaged youngsters and I would
bring in some science project on occasion. One time I brought in
different types of fish and we were going to look at different scale
types, body shapes and fin arrangement. The take-home part was a crayon
rubbing of a fish. Everything was going fine except one little boy
grumpily said ``I can't do this!!'' ``Yes, you can. Hold down the tail
and paper with this hand and use the crayon in this hand.'' Only later
when he was happily displaying his rubbing did I notice that he had
little use of his hand! If I could influence these two little kids to
see and do something in science with these little projects, maybe I
could do it on a larger scale by becoming a teacher.
Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer
Q1. The students before us today seem to have a genuine interest in
the projects they have undertaken, and they appear to enjoy taking the
initiative to learn and better themselves. What techniques do you find
are most successful in encouraging students to become engaged in math
and science projects? How should we be capturing the imagination of
young students through STEM programs?
A1. This is a two-pronged exercise. First you have to lead the student
to the project. Requiring one for the class is the surest way to do
this. Now you have to make the student engaged--a much, much harder
proposal. The student has to take possession of the project to become
engaged. The teacher cannot assign a topic. I will often start off by
asking the students to complete their interest inventory with
categories from ``really cool!!!'' to ``wouldn't touch it with a 10-ft
pole.'' Next, reading science can stimulate questions. Scientific
American, SciAm Mind, Discover, National Geographic and NYTimes Science
section are available in the classroom. Often working in a small group
will generate the question. After all the work is done, data collected
and analyzed it is important to have the student scientists communicate
their findings. Each project that my freshman research class worked on
is displayed in a poster session on the hallway walls outside of the
classroom and each group presents the poster to the rest of the class.
The posters stay up well into the next academic year and the students
can see other students, teachers and visitors examining their work.
Participation in competitions is a great tool to sustain student
interest in a STEM project. Local science fairs to national
competitions are a way to show off students' work. In this regard
ExploraVision is unique. Traditional science fairs require some sort of
experimentation to be completed. Often this requires specialized
equipment or chemicals not always available to student in every type of
school. Students involved in an ExploraVision project use their
imaginations to come up with an idea, develop skills to accumulate
background information, use logic to project their idea into the future
and then hone communication skills to present their idea to the
national judging panel. Each of these steps develops a core skill
present in every district's, every school's, every grade's educational
plan. With four grade-level categories and 500 Honorable Mention
Awards, the ExploraVision competition can be used as a strong motivator
for engaging students at all levels in STEM fields.
Responses by students of Dr. Karen Lozano (Jorge Vidal), Mrs. Brenda
Conwell-Dudley (Jack Dudley), and Ms. Anne Manwell (Alison Reed,
Norine Chan, and David Kurkovskiy)
Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall
Q1. How do you find time to be involved in all the extracurricular
activities and focus on school work and win national science
competitions?
Response by Master Jorge Vidal
A1. The more you have to do, the quicker you get everything done. You
see I am a ``A'' honor roll student in one of the top middle schools. I
swim 22 hours a week, eight times a week year round. I also play
several instruments, including piano, guitar and harmonica. I am a 14-
year-old who has won the ExploraVision national science competition
twice. Now how does one person do so much in one day? It's simple,
every time you get a free minute you do your homework, or projects. All
schools have study hall or tutorial period during school hours, take
advantage of that time. Get your homework done there so you can do
other activities after school. Since I know that I will not be getting
home till 8:30 p.m., I won't have much time to do homework when I get
home, so I do it in school. On the other hand, kids who go home after
school have the whole afternoon to do homework so they procrastinate
and leave it for later, knowing that they will have time later, but
they procrastinate so much that before they know it, it is 10:30 and
they haven't started their homework. It is good to have a full schedule
even if it is with house chores in the afternoon. The more you have to
do, the quicker you get everything done. So what does that mean? I have
a lot of things to do in 24 hours, and I have to get everything done
and do it right. So I work fast and efficiently with my work and do
time management and don't waste time playing video games and watching
TV, or texting/playing on my cell phone. On the weekends I rest, spend
time with my family and go to church. If I can do it, then the other
tens of millions of teenagers living in America can do it, no excuse!
Being involved in sports is very important. Having a hobby such as
playing piano, taking art class, etc., is also very important. And good
grades in school to top it off. If all the kids in America had a full
schedule, you will see a big difference in grades, promised. It is not
easy, but possible.
Response by Master Jack Dudley
A1. I find time to be involved in extracurricular activities (e.g.,
national science competitions) and time to focus on school work by not
participating in too many extracurricular activities. I also try to do
as much of my homework at school as possible.
Response by Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chan, and Mr. David
Kurkovskiy
A1. As students in Stuyvesant High School, one of the most rigorous and
demanding public high schools in New York City, we are often faced with
the challenge of balancing schoolwork and extra-curricular activities.
It is something we have been doing since freshman year, as we are urged
to devote ourselves to community service, school sports teams, school
publications, and extra projects in addition to the learning we do in
classes. David Kurkovskiy writes for the school newspaper, participates
in Stuyvesant's literary magazine, and volunteers periodically for his
school. Norine Chan is part of Stuyvesant's fencing team, and competes
for Stuyvesant's speech and debate team. Alison Reed is a member of the
tennis team, and contributes to art for school productions. All three
of us have devoted countless after-school hours in working on the
Toshiba ExploraVision contest.
With such packed extracurricular schedules, it is difficult for us
to complete assignments and study for our classes. Stuyvesant offers
advanced classes, and all of us took an advanced placement course in
history this year. Some of the arduous honors classes we took included
trigonometry and chemistry. In order to balance the time of our studies
and other activities, we would have to make the most of any free time
we had. This meant that hour-long train rides to school would involve
cramming for the day's exams. Many lunch periods would be spent
completing homework in advance, so as to make up for the time spent on
the project after school. There would be nights when we all returned
home at 11 p.m.; in one case, this was the day before a difficult
trigonometry honors test. In times like these, we would have to
sacrifice long-deserved sleep on weeknights. In spite of this all, all
of us are relatively good in managing and making the most of our time,
and all of us completed the school year with averages above 96. Because
of the strong foundation in academics and time management we received
as high school freshmen, we were able to balance the Toshiba project,
schoolwork, and extra-curriculars.
Q2. One of the interesting themes I have heard each of you touch on is
that of teamwork. Often in grades K-12 there is little emphasis placed
on learning to work together; instead we focus on understanding facts
and concepts individually. What has this experience taught you about
working together with others, fellow students, teachers, and mentors?
Response by Master Jorge Vidal
A2. There is not a single job in the world where you won't have to work
with other people, and listen to what they have to say and use your
communication skills to brainstorm ideas and other concepts. If this
concept of working with others is not taught as a little kid it will be
very hard to develop as an adult. Just like a language, a kid will
learn the language like a sponge, but try and teach a language to an
adult and it will be very difficult. ExploraVision forces students to
work with others, brainstorm ideas, listen to what others have
researched and what they have to say. Very similar to what an
individual has to do in a job. Working as a team from when you are a
little kid helps develop those communication skills needed for the
future. It is easier and faster at times to work alone. Not having to
listen to what others have to say and do everything your own way, but
really when is that going to happen in a job. You have to listen to
what your boss has to say and what your coworkers have to say. For
example in Montessori education teamwork, interacting with other
individuals is highly encouraged. ExploraVision does an excellent job
in incorporating this skill. And more of this should be incorporated
into schools across the United States.
Response by Master Jack Dudley
A2. This experience taught me that working together with others, fellow
students, and adults is much better than working on my own. I have
learned that you can get much more done with a team and it is more fun.
It is also easier to generate good ideas, and filter out the bad ones.
Response by Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chan, and Mr. David
Kurkovskiy
A2. Working together on the Toshiba project has taught us that a group
project requires the contribution of all its members. We would all have
to share opinions on whichever part of the project we were working on,
be it the color scheme of the Web site we had to create, or how to
phrase certain ideas in our written proposal. Many times there would be
a disagreement, and knowing when the right time to yield to the others
became difficult. In order to overcome these disagreements, we learned
to compromise. Compromise, in addition to bettering our project, is an
important life skill we learned over the course of our project. It
allows an efficient work ethic and furthers team building.
Working as a team also fosters friendships, and it has strengthened
the bond between the three of us. By facing looming deadlines and
difficult decisions together, we've learned to trust and respect each
other. In addition to working as a team, we had to employ the help of
teachers, and other students while working on our project. Our coach,
Samantha Daves, helped keep us organized by giving us periodic
deadlines and overseeing the development of our project. Our mentor,
Ms. Manwell, consulted us for biological accuracy in our Web site and
paper, and worked with us in strengthening our ideas. We've also
received much help from the assorted faculty of Stuyvesant High School,
whose different talents helped us throughout our project. Biology
teacher Jonathan Gastel gave us constructive criticism on our idea
during its early stages. Technology teacher Elka Gould taught us
elements of video editing and reviewed the video on our Web site with
us. Finally, the assistant principal of the chemistry and physics
department, Scott Thomas, helped us in building our prototype. In
addition to enlisting the help of teachers, other students have offered
their services. For example, friends of ours helped us in cutting
pieces for our prototype and designing the initial logo for our Web
site. By working on the Toshiba project, we've learned to work with
each other, our teachers, and other students.
Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer
Q1. What has been the most rewarding part of your experience with
these projects and competitions? After participating, do you think you
would be more or less likely to pursue science or math as you get
older?
Response by Master Jack Dudley
A1. The most rewarding part of my experience with these projects and
competitions is the thrill of winning, and the excitement of learning
new things. Another rewarding part of my experience is working as a
team to solve problems that the world is facing today. After
participating, I think that I am more likely to pursue science and math
when I grow older. I would like to be a rocket engineer like my dad,
and that definitely involves math and science.
Response by Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chan, and Mr. David
Kurkovskiy
A1. The most rewarding experience of the Toshiba ExploraVision contest
was learning to work as a team and seeing an idea come to fruition. We
were able to see our idea of building a 3D bio-printer through from the
initial concept to its final stage as a prototype. Seeing it as a final
product was rewarding because countless hours were spent in writing the
paper and creating the Web site. Completing the Toshiba project has
made us aware of the scientific opportunities in our future. All three
of us consider science as an important subject and a possibility for
our career. Norine Chan wishes to become a doctor when she is older.
David Kurkovskiy, though undecided about his future profession, will be
participating in the Intel Science Talent Search competition for social
science in the next year. Alison Reed, too, considers pursuing a career
in science as a possibility for her future.