Improving the Science Education Infastructure Nationwide

Over the past few weeks, I have been really thinking about the bigger picture concerning science education. Although SEM Link has done great work over the years in science education and impacting Metro Atlanta youth, we have to think about how can we increase our impact beyond the kids that we can physically touch.

I have been conducting research and having conversations with educators and parents across the country. What I've found is that there are many school districts, even in large Metropolitan areas, don't have the infrastructure to provide quality science education for its students, especially in elementary school where students get their fundamentals in all subject areas. How can our students achieve academically in science or even pursue those careers if there is not quality instruction going on? They won't be adequately prepared for post-secondary education to major in the science, engineering and mathematics field, let alone garner enough interest to pursue those fields.

We can't place all the blame on the school districts, for it can't be the responsibility of the school system alone to educate our children. I realized that schools work best when they have community partners that provide additional resources to the schools to help them educate their students. It is especially critical now, when many school districts are seeing their budgets drastically reduced due to many of our states having extreme budget deficits due to the recession. There are even districts that have to lay off teachers, so you know they are in bad shape if that have to do that.

There are many community organizations that are getting funding for various educational resources to help teachers. However, although they are developing them somehow not all of the resources are getting to the teachers. I'm not quite sure what the reason for disconnect, but these resources need to get to the teachers. In addition, many organization have grant funding available for teachers to obtain resources but what good teacher has time to write a grant. What teachers are available to attend professional conferences.

We have to do something about the science infrastructure for the survival of our society; for this problem is bigger than test scores. It is the current K-12 students that are our future workforce. What I have noticed about the recession is that we are transitioning from a economy that is heavy on skilled labor to one that requires an educated workforce. Therefore it is important for our children to be educated for their survival as individuals and our survival as a society. It is important for us to have the future science, engineering and mathematics in our society because those fields are what create innovation for improvement of society as a whole. Who will be available to solve the issues that we have with climate change? Who will create the next generation of technological innovations that help improve the quality of our lives? Who will be available to be the next generation of public health professionals and biomedical researchers to cure and treat the disease that plague our society?