"Given Cornell's strength and diversity in the fields of science, math, engineering and technology, and given our unique position as a private university with a public mission, this initiative is a natural choice," said Cornell Provost Biddy Martin.
The "initiative," sponsored by the provost's office and spearheaded by Francille Firebaugh, vice provost for land grant affairs, is Cornell's first universitywide conference on K-12 science, math, engineering and technology (known as SMET) outreach. The Oct. 13 morning conference, in 700 Clark Hall at 8:45, will bring together the many disparate groups and individuals on campus working to enrich K-12 SMET education. One-on-one grant-proposal counseling will be offered at the end the conference. The public is invited to attend without charge, but must register before Oct. 4.
Some Cornell outreach programs disseminate print or other materials to classrooms, some offer web-based learning experiences, some train teachers and/or develop curricula and some place Cornell students and educators in local classrooms. What all of the programs have in common is a commitment to sharing the resources of Cornell with the K-12 school system, on local, state, national and international levels, in a way that John Silcox, vice provost for physical sciences and engineering, argues "is emerging as a responsibility for all active scientists."
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| Charles Trautmann, right, Cornell adjunct associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and executive director of Ithaca's Sciencenter helps local students with a hands-on exhibit at the center a few years ago. Frank DiMeo/University Photography |
The conference is particularly important, said Silcox, because educational outreach "is high on the national agenda both in Congress and in the federal agencies who support science. It is also a logical part of the land-grant mission of Cornell."
Many NASA grants, including the funding of Cornell's Athena Space Program -- a package of scientific instruments that will be launched to Mars in 2003 to be carried on the planet on twin exploration rovers -- involve an education and public outreach component. The National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1999 for the first time articulated the agency's inclination toward outreach activities. Today, when the NSF considers the academic merit of a research proposal, it asks not only about how the proposed activity will advance knowledge and understanding but also these questions: "How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning?" "How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)?"
The conference will show Cornell applicants what works and what doesn't in submitting applications for research funding, and it will share some of the federal agencies' preferences.
Programs on campus that are active in K-12 SMET include such varied projects as the Lab of Ornithology's "Citizen Science in the Schoolyard," the education department's "Cornell Education Resources Program," the mathematics department's Math Explorers Club and various programs run through Ithaca's Sciencenter.
One of the oldest science outreach efforts at Cornell is the NSF-funded Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR), which in the last year has offered 38 separate outreach programs for more than 39 undergraduates, 2,400 K-12 students, 620 parents, 194 teachers, 20,000 upstate New York newspaper readers and numerous community members. CCMR programs have introduced students to the concepts of density, surface tension and suspensions by experimenting with household materials, and they have used ice cream- and candy-making to teach students how materials change from a liquid to a solid.
Another well-known outreach program is the Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers (CIBT), which brings teachers and students to the campus for summer institutes. It also offers academic-year programs, outreach personnel and an equipment lending library. In its 2000 impact statement, CIBT administrators noted: "In today's global economy, new urgency exists for promoting the science and math skills of the nation's next generation. At the same time, however, funding cuts and other constraints make it increasingly difficult for pre-college teachers to keep up with recent advances in science and to develop effective labs."
CIBT exemplifies Provost Martin's view that "Cornell is committed to increasing its visibility and utility in the community." She continued: "Education outreach is an excellent way to use our strengths to help others and to learn from them. Furthermore, the spirit of partnership is particularly apparent in educational collaboration; Cornell educators find their own research, teaching and learning enriched through their interaction with schools."
For more information or to register for the conference, call or send e-mail to Nev Singhota, educational outreach coordinator for CCMR, at 255-1486 or at nev@ccmr.cornell.edu before Oct 4. When registering, indicate whether you will stay for lunch and whether you would like a grant/outreach consultation after lunch.
The conference speakers and topics are:
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