Science Fair numbers and participation drop in PEI Schools
Science fairs are as important to growing up as summer camp or gym class. But fewer PEI classrooms are making the science fair mandatory this year, leaving it up to the student if they want to volunteer. In 2012-2013, there were fifteen percent fewer projects even though the National Science Fair was here as well. Hear what the chair of the science fair, Bill Whalen has to say
Position
Paper
We need the community as a whole to cooperate and participate in supporting a change in our Science delivery in Prince Edward Island schools.
We need the community as a whole to cooperate and participate in supporting a change in our Science delivery in Prince Edward Island schools.
~Bridging
The Gap~
by Keith Tompkins
CEO,
EdTech & Labour Consulting Services, Coordinator Sanofi
BioGENEius Challenge Canada, PEI
BioScience
Initiatives and Outreach – A partnership between the BioScience
Community of Prince Edward Island and the K-12 School System.
- Where the Science Community meets the youth of today to build awareness of, education about, and interaction with Science/BioScience/BioTechnology
Identified
Problem:
The
Prince Edward Island K12 school system has a lack of awareness of,
education about and interaction with the overall Science/BioScience Community in
Prince Edward Island.
Objective:
Create
a series of Science outreach initiatives and resources in support of the
Prince Edward Island K-12 education system.
Background
/ Rationale (with
input provided by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development)
In
the Island Prosperity Strategy, the P.E.I. Government has earmarked
biotechnology as one of four pillars for its economic
strategy and has been a strong supporter of the development of the
province’s biocluster. The P.E.I. economy
will very much depend on the availability and retention of a well
trained, job ready workforce with the right skill set to support its
biotechnology sector.
The
Prince Edward Island science curriculum is guided by the vision that
all students, regardless of gender or cultural
background, will have an opportunity to develop scientific literacy.
Scientific literacy is an evolving combination
of the science related attitudes, skills, and knowledge that students
need to develop inquiry, problem
solving, and decision making abilities, to become lifelong learners,
and to maintain a sense of wonder about
the world around them.
Our
Island schools have no specific curriculum as it pertains to
BioScience/BioTechnology. Many of our high school laboratory
facilities have outdated equipment and limited human resources that
make an in depth study of biotechnology concepts and techniques
impossible.
Informal
enquiries of high school students (taking Biology at the Grade
10-11-12 level) over the past four years indicates a lack of
awareness and knowledge about BioScience and the BioScience sector
here in PEI. Students when asked to name a BioScience company are
unable to do so. When asked how many BioScience companies exist in
PEI, they are unaware and make a random guess. When asked about
specific BioScience activity and/or announcements made through the
media in the province, they are unable to recall or name any. These
observations are consistent amongst the top science students
including our International Baccalaureate students from our largest
and most urban high schools across the province. The lack of
knowledge about, education in and interaction with the BioScience
community and overall lack of opportunities, including career paths to BioScience, is disturbing. This is a concern when we consider
these are some of our brightest minds, who each year upon graduation
often go on to further post-secondary study in a field of their
choice. The question we need to ask is will that field of study be
the Sciences? Have we done everything possible to ensure our Island
youth have the knowledge they need to make informed study and career
path choices.
Although
there is an identified problem some Island students do participate in
extracurricular activities that foster BioScience education. This
situation provides a limited base to build upon.
Some
of these include:
Sanofi
BioGENEius Challenge Canada (SBCC)
– A competition intended to encourage young Canadians to pursue
future studies and careers in the exciting field of biotechnology.
Grade
5 Science Day
hosted at the NRCINH
Canadian
Envirothon North
- America's largest high school environmental science and natural
resource management competition.
Provincial
and Canada Wide Science Fair
- The largest extracurricular youth activity related to science and technology
in the Provinces and Canada.
Shad
Valley
– A summer enrichment program with workshops and lectures that
focus on the sciences,
Situation,
Current Resources:
Aside
from the normal curriculum offering of Science subjects and
integration of Science into other subject areas the Department of
Education hosts the Science and Technology Awareness site (STAS) at
www.gov.pe.ca/stas STAS houses lists of resources and a list of
resource persons who can be called upon to interact with students. By
recent admission the Secondary Science Specialists at the Department
of Education and Early Childhood Development admit they do not have
the resources to manage the site and thus it has become extremely
dated. By
not keeping the site current and dated it reflects poorly on the
overall Science and BioScience Community here in PEI.
Examples:
●
Newsletter
– May 2011 (no updates since)
●
Opportunities
and Competitions – No information posted
●
Ask
and expert – List has not been updated in over 3 years and many
experts listed no longer work in the field (onsite visits can be
requested)
●
Resources
– BioTech Jr. Speaker Series – The contact person has not worked
for the PEI government in over
3 years. BioTech Science Centre – goes to a dead link at Industry
●Information
posted on the site as it pertains to the PEI BioAlliance and
BioScience community is inaccurate and not reflective of current
undertakings.
Potential
Solutions for consideration (Discussed with the Secondary Science
Specialists
at the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development)
Taking
into account the identified problem, current initiatives or lack
thereof combined with time, distance and costs for science
researchers, professors, industry professionals to get together with
educators and students the BioScience Community in partnership with
education requires a creative package of solutions to bridge
the identified gap.
Initiatives
for consideration (Discussed with Dept of Education Science
Curriculum Specialists)
GOAL:
Initiate a series of program initiatives reaching every K-12 student
allowing them to connect, learn and interact with leading experts
from within the Science/BioScience Community.
Interaction
between Island schools and the BioScience community could allow
students to experience leading edge technology and research conducted
by real scientists. Connections to the BioScience community could
foster Island students’ appreciation of bioscience, interest in
bioscience, and develop attitudes that support collaborative
activity. Scientists and researchers could provide their support by
being available through a variety of initiatives to interact with PEI
students and teachers.
On
any given day PEI students could call upon, connect with and interact
with a scientist and researcher in a classroom. These experiences
could be live and in-person or take place virtually, on demand and
completely interactive. This would greatly enhance the students'
interest in the subject matter while simultaneously exposing them to
the field of BioScience increasing their knowledge base and
potentially future course and career choices.
The
following is a list of “Potential
Initiatives”
brainstormed and discussed with the Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development. This list is representative of initiatives the
Department feels they could support and implement with support from
the BioScience community.
Potential
Initiatives:
"Ask
a Scientist ” Let
anyone with an interest in science ask any question they want (within
reason!) and get an answer
from a professional scientist or researcher who knows what they’re
talking about! We would draw from a list of volunteers from the
BioScience Community who are passionate about their areas of
expertise and would generously
give up their own time to answer questions and to pass on their
wisdom to others. The questions could be emailed to experts who would
then reply. The questions could be posted to a virtual discussion
board for
response and follow up comments. The expert could arrange a mutually
agreed upon time to meet the students in-person or online in a
virtual meeting, webinar or conference call to have a Q&A
session. The expert could also utilize video note resources to
respond and send/post the responses for students.
“Meet
a Scientist”
This
would be a presentation mode where experts have a chance to meet
students and classes and present to them
what they do and what they are working on. This could be done again
through prearranged class visits or online through video
conferencing with virtual meeting tools. Meet the Scientist would be
directed by the scientist or researcher choosing to share what they
want to talk about (their work, their career path, their
experiences). This could then be extended by having a Q&A based
on the presentation. This initiative could foster motivating the
students to learn more about the world of BioScience thus having the
potential for students to choose courses or look at potential career
options/paths within the BioScience field.
“BioScience
Buddy”
Match
a scientist or researcher with a class or school designed to provide
real time access for a class of students to a researcher or expert
from a leading PEI research institution for a month, semester or
longer. School or classes form a group and then can utilize the
community resources to have the mentor support them throughout a
period of time, (their year of study, semester, project). The
BioScience Buddy would provide direction and advice to enhance a
curriculum component. Questions could be posed, Q&A's held, site
visits, Video Conference presentations, virtual tours, chat and
ongoing discussion board dialogue carried on throughout their course
of work and study. Experts would agree to be the on call – go to
person where students and classes could build a relationship through
regular contact with the expert. This BioScience Buddy could be
invaluable when students and classes are conducting project work or
periods of work over extended periods of time and require a
knowledgeable, familiar expert to rely on.
“BioScience
WoRX”
We
understand that the future of innovation lies in our children and
that a child’s interest in BioScience could be sparked in the
classroom. We also recognize that PEI's science teachers are key in
igniting this spark and that it’s their commitment that compels a
child’s desire to pursue their interest further.
To
address the unmet need among science teachers and their students,
BioScience WoRx, would be a local mentoring
program (Professional Development) an online resource network for
science teachers. The program focuses
on instilling an understanding of BioScience’s role in society and
is designed to inspire the next generation of scientists and support
science teachers’ needs both in and outside the classroom. Science
teachers or specific interest groups could be matched up with a
scientist or researcher to provide mentoring support throughout the
course of a school year. A support person for the teachers who can
access who, what, when and where information of BioScience and how it
might be applied within the classroom with what they are teaching.
With
teachers, scientists and researchers located all across the Island
the use of virtual web conferencing tools could be deployed to allow
meeting, communication and the sharing of knowledge and information
to take place without the demands of travel, time and added expense.
NOTE:
Virtual Tools such as referenced here are currently being utilized by
Partners In Research (National Sponsor for the SBCC). PIR are
facilitating professionals in science meeting students online using
Virtual Researcher On Call (VROC) http://www.pirweb.org/vroc/en/
“BioScience
Continuum”
(used in the Toronto District School Board)
A
larger initiative and one which would require considerable
consultation with the Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development would be the insertion of a BioScience Curriculum. One
such as used by the Toronto District School Board (attached). If the
province is serious about BioScience being one of the 4 growth
pillars of our Island economy it will have to be all inclusive and
ensure our youth of today are versed in the benefits the sector has
to offer and the opportunities available for our youth to learn and
work in the sector in the future. To accomplish this over the long
term BioScience will have to be more than optional program
initiatives and become embedded into the curriculum being offered to
our students.
Considerations:
Although
a problem has been identified it will take acknowledgement from both
the school system and the BioScience Community that both are part of
the solution. Only with understanding and cooperation from both sides
will any suggested initiatives have a chance of success. The
following considerations after thought and reflection have been put
forth by the education system. The same exercise needs to be carried
out with the BioScience Community to bring forth their
considerations.
Education
Considerations:
● To
address the needs of both the English and French streams of Science
in schools having some experts and
mentors who are bilingual or speak French would be an asset
●
There
are a number of resource sites on the Internet now providing
resources etc. There is competition for the
students and teachers attention. The BioScience outreach programs
need to be relevant and promoted as
current and accessible to have a chance of success
●
Industry
will need to be supportive in offering up support experts to assist
with the suggested initiatives
●
The
list of experts willing to help must be kept current and relevant
Support
and cooperation from the Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development , the school boards
and the schools themselves is essential to any success. Meetings have
been held to date with the Intermediate/High
School Science specialists in both English and French and they are
both supportive having provided both content and feedback for this
position paper. Department specialists have also agreed to
participate in, promote and help market any initiatives taken to and
within the school system.
BioScience
Community Considerations:
The
following excerpts were taken from the Next
Generation Prosperity
Strategy For Prince Edward Island BioScience Cluster Development
2012-2015
It
appears evident from the statements below that the BioScience
Community sees itself as having a role involved with the education,
training, recruitment and retention of Island talent to sustain and
grow the sector. Creating awareness of, education about and
interaction with the BioScience cluster and community with K-12
education would appear essential to this mandate.
THE
OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
- Valued and nurtured relationships among businesses, research and academic institutions, and federal and provincial government partners Commitment and active involvement of all partners in achieving our shared vision
G
O A L S
It
is critical that the PEI BioAlliance partners achieve acceptable
results in the
following
areas:
- 4. Increased availability of qualified human resources within the bioscience sector of PEI, in the management, technical, process engineering, and scientiļ¬c knowledge areas
HUMAN
RESOURCES
- Implement recruitment, retention, and training priorities of the PEI Cluster Human Resource Development Strategy through the partnership of Skills PEI, academic organizations, and private sector companies
- Utilize the PEI Bioscience Cluster brand as a means of attracting and retaining skilled employees
- Identify champions and work to address the key barriers to successful recruitment:
- Quality of K-12 education
- Increased attention to Early Childhood Development. Improved quality of education K-12, literacy, numeracy
Summary:
With
this mandate in hand the Science/BioScience Community and the education
system in partnership could initiate any number of creative and
innovative program ideas listed above to bridge
the gap
between the lack of awareness of, education about and interaction
with the BioScience Community. The cluster could bring forward a
wealth of knowledge and resources to support our Island youth thus
leveraging future opportunities in human resources and business
development within the BioScience sector.