Sanjeev K. ManoharTeachingTeaching PhilosophyPatentsServiceDaily Journal ClubGroup NewsScience & Democracy

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL
Department of Chemical Engineering
One University Avenue
Lowell, MA 01854
Tel: 978-934-3171
Fax: 978-934-3047

Email: sanjeev_manohar@uml.edu

CHALLENGE: A Growing Anti-Science & Engineering Agenda

We actively partner with local schools to bridge the widening "science gap" that threatens US global competitiveness. We have traced the problem directly to the print and electronic media's addiction to entertainment and professional sports (its the obsession that makes it unhealthy). For example, there is no coverage on recent science discoveries and inventions that are taking place on a daily basis across the globe. A forest fire in remote Arizona will be featured live on "CNN special report" while news about a remarkable carbon nanotube ribbon gets zero, yes, zero coverage. This is consistent with the business model of mainstream media to raise advertisement money by quickly grabbing the attention of viewers even if it is worthless information (people in Vermont can't do anything about that fire, can they).

The media mantra is, "If it bleeds, it leads".

Science, does not bleed. It just leads. And that is the problem. Local HS students complain about two key science/engineering de-motivators: (i) boring, and (ii) booooooooring. Digging deeper we find several causes including disincentives at the K-12 grades that affects even highly motivated science teachers and to the media that reinforces what is debatably an anti-science viewpoint.


SOLUTION: Direct Science & Engineering Outreach

The best way to counter this growing destructive mindscape is for university professors and educators to partner with K-12 educators and directly meet with high school, middle school and yes, elementary school students and tell them (warts and all) about why science and engineering are so much fun. It is equally important to stress that the language of science is the language of the 21st century and it is their future (and present) that is at stake. They must also be made aware of this under-the-table anti-science agenda outside the classroom and be given tools to help them actively counter it.

Our aim is to do everything we can to link science/engineering with the following thoughts: (i) fun, (ii) rewarding, (iii) people (sense of belonging).

We have high school students 9th and 10th grade on research summer internships working with senior graduate students and post-docs on cutting edge nanotechnology research. One student has already published her findings in Chemistry Letters.

We actively support UML's outreach effort through the NSF funded science of small things (SoST) that aims to bring the excitement of nanotechnology to Lowell high schools. We plan to have our HS summer research interns to visit these high schools with us and show their peers directly what is not only possible, but also a lot of fun.

We also incorporate a service learning component in our courses, i.e., a portion of the class will address a problem that directly affects an individual or a community e.g., improving the energy efficiency of an old building, building a specialized wheelchair, etc. This is a signature UML program and we actively support it.

We visit local schools and talk directly with students at all levels (K5-12). The brief discussion is followed by hands on experiments that each student gets to do (~30 min). They will have some follow on homework. This is a lot of work and takes time away from research and teaching. However, we think the problem is so acute that something drastic is required, e.g., the current system of science education is broken and cannot be fixed by using the same tools.

Science is not a subject, science is people. This is a very important link for us to make with each other and with the community at large.