SCIENCE EDUCATION GETS A BOOST articles & photos BY susan spencer Worcester East Middle School students Joshua Garcia and Ronald Piers show off their magnetic linear accelerator at the regional Science Fair. 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the Soviet's successful launching of Sputnik, a barrier-breaking event which caused the United States to make science its top education priority. Textbooks, films, and lesson plans were churned out, and five years later President John F. Kennedy decreed "We choose to go to the moon." A half century later, the U.S. is facing another science education challenge. This time the stakes are for jobs. Today's children will need to compete in a global, innovation economy. Are our schools up to the task? Schools from Leominster to North Attleboro are getting help in teaching math and science from the Regional Science Resource Center in Shrewsbury, an initiative of the University of Massachusetts Medical School's community outreach program. Practicing scientists serve as mentors to teachers, and hands-on laboratory experiences are made available to students on site or by bringing science materials to classrooms. Bridie McKenna and Jaimie Kender, seventh graders at Oak Middle School in Shrewsbury, perform DNA analysis at the Regional Science Resource Center's laboratory. The Regional Science Resource Center is a model of the kind of integration between higher education, business, and elementary-through-secondary schools called for by policy makers. When students do the same type of science that's being done in biotechnology laboratories or high-tech companies, it becomes meaningful to them. At the third University of Massachusetts STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) summit held in Sturbridge last October, Massachusetts Commissioner of Education David P. Driscoll said bluntly, "We have to find ways to get kids engaged in what STEM careers are all about. We have to get kids to stop looking at engineers as nerds. After all, engineers invented iPods." Sandra H. Mayrand, a cellular and molecular biologist, has been director of the Regional Science Resource Center since the early 1990s. She works with scientists at UMass Medical School and technology businesses like Intel to connect with students in kindergarten through grade 12. Aarane Ratnaseelan, Melican Middle School, Northboro, stands by her award-winning "To Rust or Not to Rust" science project at the Central Mass. Regional Middle School Science and Engineering Fair. "K-12 science education is key to economic development," Mayrand says. "There are not many years before eighth-graders are knocking at your door looking for a job. "(The Resource Center) is in the middle - the glue. We're not K-12, we're not business and we're not higher education," she adds. "But we get the different sectors talking. We can translate K-12 to business." The watchword for science these days is "inquiry-based," which means hands-on experiments including forming a hypothesis, observing and recording data, and analyzing results. The mecca for inquiry-based science among sixth-to-eighth graders is the Middle School Science and Engineering Fair, which the Resource Center is instrumental in coordinating at both the state and Central Massachusetts regional levels. Sandra Mayrand, director of the Regional Science Resource Center, packs a Science to Go tub for a hands-on ecosystem study in an elementary classroom. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Alden Hall last May, 100 students from 18 schools participating in the Central Massachusetts Regional Middle School Science and Engineering Fair stood patiently by their tri-fold posters and model creations while scientists examined the students' work, asked them questions and judged their projects. Twelve-year-old Aarane Ratnaseelan, a seventh-grader at Melican Middle School in Northboro, compared how different types of liquids affect the speed of rusting nails. Her project, "To Rust or Not to Rust," went on to win a first-place award at the state Science Fair in June. Science is full of surprises, and Aarane didn't expect her finding that vinegar was more corrosive than soda. But she was excited by the process of conducting her own experiment. "It's more individual, you have to learn things on your own. You discover new mysteries and problems and have to figure them out. You don't just take notes from your teacher." Aarane's interest in science has already sparked career goals: "I want to research autism and try to find a cure for it." Worcester East Middle School science teacher Fredericka Solomon has been a supporter of the fair since her students started participating five years ago. "For me, this is the nuts and bolts of the whole science teaching experience. That's where they really learn the true science process," she says. Solomon, who teaches at an urban school, recalls the motivation that followed her first year with the fair, when four of her students - not just the honors students - won awards. "That's what hooked me: the idea that our kids could compete at the highest level, and get some self worth out of it." One of the fair's judges, Jeffrey Fitzgerald, is a sales representative with Affymetrix, Inc., which makes computer chips that analyze genetic information. He was impressed with the types of problems students were solving. "These kids are pretty spectacular. Some of the things I've heard them talk about are what my customers talk about." "The Science Fair's role is to really get students excited, to do more inquiry, to question things, do experiments and think about things a little differently," says Lisa Greenwald, a science teacher at Sarah W. Gibbons Middle School in Westboro and co-chairman, with Mayrand, of the regional Science Fair. But how do students go from the classroom to discussing genetic analyses or corrosion rates with professionals at a science fair? The Resource Center helps elementary classrooms get a good start in handson learning through a program called Science to Go, a collection of prepackaged instructional materials based on the National Science Foundation's standards. Kits are delivered to schools in tubs and include such curriculum tools as "Pebbles, Silt and Sand," which is used to study ecosystems. Judith Sumner, science director for Arlington Public Schools, uses the Science to Go kits to supplement the hands-on material used in the district's 135 K- Grade 5 classrooms. She says, "It really enlivens the classroom. It takes us away from a dry, reading approach, to actually making observations, and integrating it with math and literacy through writing reports. Rather than reading about butterfly metamorphosis, the kids actually see it." Older students, like those in Barbara DePalo's seventh-grade biology class at Oak Middle School in Shrewsbury, take field trips to the Resource Center's laboratory to conduct experiments with Mayrand and scientist Susan Heilman, Ph.D. During a visit in May, students identified genotypes affecting cystic fibrosis using simulated DNA samples from a mother, father and fetus. The students analyzed DNA through a process known as gel electrophoresis, which uses electricity to separate different lengths of gene fragments in a gel solution. Mayrand explained to the class that what they were doing was real-world stuff: "They do genetic testing for cystic fibrosis two buildings up (at UMass Medical Center.)" DePalo says, "We bring the kids here because it's a real lab. Every seventh grader spools DNA from plants to test for genetic disorders." Teams of three-to-five students worked at lab benches measuring liquid in graduated cylinders, heating it in a microwave oven - the modern version of the Bunson burner - and carefully filling DNA sample trays using a pipette. Student Jaime Kender likes the handson approach. "We actually get to see how they work. It's not like a textbook; it's more interesting," Not every school has the luxury of walking down the street to a working laboratory, so the Resource Center offers professional development to K-12 teachers so they can bring inquiry-based science and math to their classrooms. This summer, teachers in Grades 3 through 8 learned about "Assessing and Addressing Misconceptions in Physical Science," and middle and high school teachers studied "Blueprints for Science: How to put Inquiry-Based Science in Your Curriculum," a program funded by Intel. Mayrand says, "The big push (for STEM education) in this state is for economic reasons. Business is getting really involved. They're getting to know the issues, and the issues are complex. If they were easily solved, they would have been solved years ago." Susan Spencer is an award-winning freelance writer who lives with her husband and two children in Whitinsville and Brewster.