areers: 



ncouraged 



Chance 



current position, says some young girls 

 she meets think a career in science is so 

 far out of reach. 



"Their tone is always as if there's 

 something magical about it," she says. 



The Sloan-North Carolina School of 

 Science and Mathematics Initiative — 

 Sloan is an ongoing two-year program 

 that targets five rural counties in North 

 Carolina. 



The 120 participants are blacks and 

 American Indians who are exposed to 

 enrichment programs and school-based 

 mentor programs, says Joan Barber, who 

 is also the Sloan project director and 

 deputy director of student life at 

 NCSSM. 



"I call it raising their horizons," she 

 says of the program's goals. "We give 

 them knowledge about what's available 

 to them and start them off at an early 

 enough age to get them on track." 



Ideally, the program will create a pool 

 of NCSSM hopefuls, she says. 



Math-Science Education Network Pre- 

 college Program— This statewide program 

 tracks minorities and women from sixth 

 through 12th grade in an effort to steer 

 them toward careers in math and science, 

 says North Carolina State University 

 campus coordinator Carolyn Collier. 



The program received seed money from 

 Sea Grant for some of its preliminary 

 conferences. 



The program includes Saturday classes, 

 a summer scholars curriculum and role- 

 model interaction. About 200 Wake 

 County students are enrolled. 



Participants learn math, science and 

 communication skills and an emphasis is 

 placed on cultural awareness. 



"We're dealing with developing the 

 whole child," says Collier. ■ 



If Skip Bollenbacher had a grant to do 

 it, he 'd start reforming science education 

 as early as kindergarten. 



Because to attract anyone — black or 

 white, male or female — to science, there 

 needs to be a change in the way we 

 teach it from day one, says the UNC 

 biology professor. 



"We have succeeded in eroding the in- 

 trinsic interest children have in science," 

 he says. "You grow up loving worms, 

 playing in ponds." 



But soon the memorize-regurgitate 

 syndrome of learning starts. And by the 

 time most students are in the 10th 

 grade, they 're sick of it all, he says. 



"They need less facts and more mean- 

 ing," Bollenbacher says. "Students need 

 to be taught at a conceptual level." 



The universal complaint from young 

 students— Why do I need to know 

 this? "—is finally being heard loud and 

 clear throughout classrooms. 



A five-year-old needs to learn science— 



Lundie Spence 



or any other subject — as it relates to him 

 or her, says Bollenbacher. "We have to 

 train teachers to make things interesting 

 and relevant," he says. 



"This is one of the new trends in 

 science education — the idea of relevance," 

 says Sea Grant marine education spe- 

 cialist Lundie Spence. "In a 10th grade 

 science class, students may learn 3,000 

 new words that are never used again." 



A program funded by the National 

 Science Foundation is aiming to change 

 the way science is taught in the middle- 

 grades, she says. 



"They're trying to get away from the 

 layer-cake science curriculum," says 

 Spence, explaining that schools have a 

 tendency to serve up physics, biology, 

 chemistry and geology with no regard to 

 how they relate. 



"The goal is to integrate science from 

 a very applied, personal level," she says. 



Students need to be scientifically 

 literate, whether they plan to become 

 scientists or not. 



"The question were concerned with 

 is — Who can be a good citizen, who can 

 understand science?— whether it has to 

 do with health insurance, wetlands pro- 

 tection or new technology," Spence says. 



But reform will take time, and the 

 solutions are never a sure thing. 



"And for all of the experts and educa- 

 tional leaders, it won 't work without 

 mothers and fathers taking an interest in 

 their children's education," Spence says. 

 "It doesn't matter what the schools do if 

 there's no support at home." ■ 



Photo by Allen Weiss 



