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Beryl -
"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. . . "

This change has actually been a long time in coming. There was a huge 
effort afoot to integrate math, science and engineering in the early '90s. 
There was a lot of inertia from those innovative programs and I think what 
Eric is referring to is the fruit of those labors. Back in 1990, when we 
were using image-bases and network diagrams to teach science, even to 
kindergartners, we thought the fight to teach meaningful math and science 
was over and we had won. Now, these kids are graduating high school. 
Hooray for us! But, in the period since those early days I have seen cold 
water thrown on a lot of these programs and support undermined by the 
teach-to-the-test types (like Bush, Spellings, and Mills [in New York 
State]), particularly in the formal ed arena. The buzzwords are still out 
there, but I am afraid that for many, drill and kill is the prescription 
for success. We need to do everything we can to fight back and really help 
these kids to think critically on all fronts. I agree that there are lots 
of programs still out there, but I believe its more complex and dynamic 
than j  ust the stats. This is just my take from the trenches (I spent 
about a decade in k12 science classrooms and the past few years teaching 
science teachers in grad school). Perhaps if we look at a bunch of 
longitudinal studies on what happened to cohorts in inqury-based programs 
versus traditional programs it might help to understand the trajectory of 
this, hopefully how good or bad it really is and where we go from here.





Re: Another STEM article

Beryl Rosenthal 
to:
ISEN-ASTC-L
10/30/07 10:30 AM


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Not to throw cold water on what appears to be a wonderful change, but 
from what my colleagues at many universities are telling me, the 
attrition rates for undergrad engineering students is as high as 50%, 
largely occurring when students run up against calculus and physics.  Is 
it unpreparedness at the high school level?  Is it that only the 
"gifted" can make it?  Who are we to believe?
Beryl


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