Soccer-playing Robots and Solar-Powered Cars No Surprise to Tomorrow's Scientists: Insights from the 2010 USA Science & Engineering Festival and Expo

“Born digital” describes the majority of today’s American children.  Kids today enter the world having their pictures snapped on smartphones and their fingers touching a computer keyboard not long after they learn to grasp a bottle.  Saturated with technology yet hesitant to take on careers in science, youth find themselves the focus of several national efforts to boost interest in science and engineering careers.

Students, parents, professional and amateur scientists and engineers poured into Washington D.C. on October 23-24 for the 2010 USA Science & Engineering Festival and Expo, paired events designed to popularize the technical and celebrate the scientist within each of us.  With over 1500 exhibits, 75 interactive stage shows, mobile labs and miniature experiments, the Expo aimed to  “re-invigorate the interest of our nation’s youth in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science gatherings in the United States.”  Set against the splendor of the National Mall, the Expo was the grand finale of the Festival, which involved two weeks of teacher workshops, innovative talks and visits to local schools by professional scientists.  The Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI) took part in the festivities, explaining developing world scientific challenges to participants, stirring interest in creating global partnerships, and completing a few small experiments ourselves. 

At the Expo, students from kindergarten to university-age experimented with physics, robotics and chemistry and gawked wide-eyed at hundreds of displays featuring disciplinary areas from biology to astronomy. An actor playing 17th century mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler roamed the crowd, telescope in hand, while modern astronomers at NASA demystified elements of aerospace engineering by helping participants construct their own paper airplanes and test them in a wind tunnel.  Exhibitors included a number of American universities, like Purdue University.  Engineers at the Purdue display shared their perspective on the need for technological innovations and global collaboration to promote energy-saving discoveries.

GKI caught up with Shania Brown, a middle school student from Virginia who shared her love of science class “because of the experiments.”  She proudly displayed to GKI her “scientific jewelry,” exclaiming “I made a plant on a necklace with a seedling.”  While GKI hopes Shania and other children maintain their excitement for science, transforming that enthusiasm into a STEM-based career involves more than just an interest in plant biology.  Exposing Shania and her peers to the many ways that science and engineering contribute to the creation of a better and more sustainable world is a vital part of cultivating a lifelong passion and commitment to STEM. 

Undergraduate and graduate students from over 40 universities facilitated interactions between the children and the experiments, and often a just-as-excited parent.  GKI spoke with Jason Klein, a junior at Duke University, about his experience with Duke ENGAGE, a summer immersion program aimed at addressing critical human needs around the world through service in education, health, environmental sustainability and community support. For Jason, his abroad experience in South Africa was “humbling,” an “eye-opener”, and a “game-changer.”  He commented on the importance of connecting institutions of higher learning in developed countries with those in developing countries to solve global challenges.  Klein noted that although there are groups in developing regions doing work, partnership and the resources to build on collaborative research and training programs  are lacking.  Linking these institutions is valuable “for the student and the community you’re going to work with.” 

His colleague, Tomalei Vess, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke, added that although there is an interest in integrating research science into education and citizen scholarship particularly in the developing world, there is yet to be a critical mass of projects combining all these elements in which students globally may participate.  The programs of GKI seek to fill this gap.  Our projects aspire to connect talented researchers, students, and problem-solvers with opportunities to address developing world challenges and transform temporary solutions into long-term, sustainable ones. 

Tonja Richards, public relations and marketing manager of Iowa Math & Science Education Partnership agrees , stressing the importance of collaboration and communication.  "It is important that we get together to work on these issues.  Academic effort is good, but meeting people, making connections; that is how we get things done."  She believes in working with organizations that can enhance connections between the United States and the developing world.   For Richards, global partnerships to solve global science and engineering problems offer a way forward. 

Measured according to the degree of palpable enthusiasm among the thousands of participants, the Expo was a tremendous success.  Scoring it against the degree to which that excitement translates into a larger pipeline of students focused on STEM careers defies simple measurement.  For such translation to occur what is needed, suggests Alan Gomez, national curriculum director of the STEM Academy-- a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing STEM education and literacy, is a more holistic approach to STEM education. “STEM is not only an acronym, it’s a word,” he offers. “If you talk about STEM only as an acronym, you build a silo but you just can’t alienate STEM from  the rest of education.” Taking such a holistic approach involves helping students realize the impact they can make on the world by pursuing STEM careers and exposing them to the excitement and impact those careers afford. Then, it means linking STEM resources to the people who need them to solve shared global challenges--a call we heard from the Expo and one that GKI aims to answer.   

Christina Golubski, Andrew Gerard, Andrew Robinson

Photo credits:  Sara E. Farley