140 OCEANOGRAPHY 



Academy of Sciences-Xatioual Research Council, a program of scholarships be- 

 ginniug at the senior level in undergraduate school and carrying through 4 years 

 of graduate training and research in the marine sciences. Earlier in this 

 letter we discussed the matter of providing special fellowships in the field of 

 oceanography. With respect to undergraduate scholarships, it is our view that 

 well qualified students in the various scientitic fields are able to obtain financial 

 assistance as needed and desired. "We find substantial evidence that, with the 

 scholar.ships pre.sently available, students in at least the upper 10 percent of 

 the classes graduating from the secondary schools, and planning to pursue stiidies 

 in science, engineering, and mathematics, are generally able to obtain scliolar- 

 ship assistance if needed. Other financial assistance such as loans, is also avail- 

 able to them and to others with not so high an academic standing. Further- 

 more, it is our general view with re.spect to scholarship legislation, that, while 

 science and engineering are exerting an increasing infiuence on our national 

 life, a share of the highly talented youth should be available to other fields of 

 endeavor. Therefore, if undergraduate scholarship legislation were enacted, 

 we firmly believe that such a program should not be limited to a particular 

 field of science or even to science and engineering generally. 



There are four programs of the National Science Foundation that are of 

 special interest in connection with motivating mcu'e young persons to undertake 

 scientific careers. One of these is the program that we refer to as the under- 

 graduate research participation program. In this activity the National Science 

 Foundation provides grants which enable participating universities to offer 

 special researcli-oriented training opportunities for undergraduates during the 

 summer months and in some cases throughout the academic year. These train- 

 ing programs may be carried out on a university campus, at a field station, 

 or at some otlier appropriate location. This pragram provides research oppor- 

 tunities, including financial assistance, which make it possible for undergradu- 

 ates to work in close contact with scientists who are doing significant re.search. 

 As it applies to the problem of increasing the number of students studying 

 oceanography, the undergraduate research participation program offers the pos- 

 sibility of itresenting to higlily selected undergraduate students some of the 

 specific tec hniques of research in oceanography. It is certain that this type of 

 program can have the effect of exciting the interest of undergraduate students 

 and turning their minds in the direction of graduate study in oceanograpliy and, 

 therefore, careers in this field. We are endeavoring to stimulate such activities 

 in the field of oceanography during the coming year and stand ready to offer 

 necessary support for them. 



At a lower academic level, the National Science Foundation program of 

 secondary school student training programs provides a variety of mechanisms 

 by means of which carefully selected higli school students can be shown the 

 challenges of a particular scientific field and be given an explanation of the 

 type of work that is actually carried nut in that field. This past summer, for 

 example, the Amei'ican Meteorological Society sponsored a program along exactly 

 these lines in an effort to arouse interest on the part of a selected group of high 

 school students in possible careers in meteorology. Simihir programs in 

 oceanography could arouse the interest of a number of high school students and 

 the Foundation is encouraging proposals for establishing and carrying out such 

 programs. 



College teachers in the various fields relevant to oceanography need to know 

 more about oceanography so that they can broaden the outlook of their students. 

 Summer institutes and conferences in oceanography, designed to meet the needs 

 of these college teachers, could become an important phase of the effort to give 

 oceanography a fuller degree of recognition, and college students a better idea 

 of the rewards of careers in the field. We are presently attempting to stimulate 

 interest in such activities in the field of oceanography and, here also, are pre- 

 pared to provide necessary support. 



The last of the National Science Foundation science education activities I 

 shall mention is our program of visiting scientists. This program makes it pos- 

 sible for outstanding scientists to visit college campuses — and, to a limited extent, 

 high schools, also — throughout the country, where they present to the students 

 some of the latest findings in the visiting scientists' fields. Thus far the Fcmnda- 

 tion has supported programs in a number of fields, and experience lias .shown 

 that this program is a powerful mechanism for stimulating undergraduate 

 students to take an interest in graduate study and to think in terms of graduate 

 study in the field of the visiting scientists. As a mechanism for bringing addi- 

 tional students into oceanography, therefore, this is a particularly useful possi- 

 bility, and one of which we are encouraging oceanographers to make use. 



