++(Science Education in Schools), my 10/12/91 talk at the Education Council, Optical Society of America, and 1990 March 7 letter

[Thirumala Raya Halemane]

13 EAGLES PASS

PRINCETON, NJ 08540

++(Science Education in Schools), my 10/12/91 talk at the Education Council, Optical Society of America, and 1990 March 7 letter

In the 14 images here, we see, "OSA Guest Scientist Program - A Proposal" 10/12/91, my talk at Optical Society of America Education Council with 1990 March 7 letter, and here below is an attempt to type out their contents

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OSA Guest Scientist Program - A Proposal

T Raya Halemane   10/12/91

Optical Society of America

Education Council Meeting

Washington, DC

SCIENCE EDUCATION EFFORTS

Diagram of shirt with

Missing buttons fixed

 1. Tools & Programs for Educators

     (Optics Kit, Educator's Day etc)

 2. Assistance for graduate and undergraduate students

Hole to be fixed

  Needs of school children

What is it that restrains the children of America from getting better science education, in spite of all the advanced facilities that are available in the schools ?

It is time that we, the OSA Education Council in particular, and the scientific community in general, addressed and looked into this aspect of the needs of the American children. 

GUEST SCIENTIST PROGRAM

Goal: Increase appreciation and awareness for the role of science in society and help turn out better educated students by making sure students take more science courses in school and college

Strategy

Influence young children more positively towards science, and remove the phobia they have against science, so that they see themselves with a "I can also do it" attitude, before they get turned off towards science

Right age: 8th or 9th grade

Solution

Provide opportunities for children to interact with successful scientists / engineers and expose them to some science. 

It is important that children see them in person, listen to them, and be listened to. Children see the real people, and "size themselves" up in comparison, and build their self-image based on that.

FALLOUT

- Better educated students

- More scientifically aware public

- Better funding for science

- Higher quality and ample supply of scientists / engineers

- Increased capability (because of better scientific background) for people in other fields

- Less people on drugs

- More efficient American industry

A small step today will make a big difference in the future

How to do this mammoth task ?

 Mammoth task = sum of many, many, co-ordinated. self-governing small tasks

 Resource pool : scientists / engineers in universities / industry

Match voluntary scientists / engineers with a school in their neighborhood that they will visit once or twice a year

 OSA Responsibility

  1. Make the match

  2. Empower the scientists and the schools to interact

  3. Monitor

What needs to happen ?

 1. Education Council Approval

 2. OSA Board of Directors Approval

 3. Literature and forms to be distributed at OSA meetings

 4. Letters to be mailed to schools

 5. Forms for monitoring purposes to be mailed to schools and the guest scientists every year to solicit feedback and monitor activity

Supporting Evidence

  Volunteer Admission Network program of U of R

What we are doing is setting up a structure to make it easy for individual volunteers to do their bits by themselves

 The structure ties the bits together into a national network and automatically completes the MAMMOTH TASK.

Diagram of BEE-HIVE

  with Box and Bees flying outside

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(On AT&T Bell Labs letterhead, My letter dated March 7, 1990 to Prof Donald C O'Shea, Chair of OSA Education Council to which I was appointed as a member, served one term, in 1989-91 (?))

March 7, 1990

 

Prof Donald C O'Shea

School of Physics

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA 30332

Dear Don,

I apologize for being unable to attend the Education Council meeting last week since I fell ill only a few hours before I expected to leave for Washington. Please let me know if there is anything coming out of the meeting that you would like me to do or help you with.

As you would recall, we discussed during the Fall 89 meeting some new initiatives proposed by the undergraduate committee. I had promised to pursue one - the idea of forming a network of optical scientists and engineers working in industry/academia to perform as voluntary guest speakers to schools in their locality

The purpose of this letter is to update you on this item. Although I have not been able to do a whole lot because the last few months have been extremely hectic for me (in all the areas that I have had responsibilities for, both at work, and outside, in community organizations that I have been associated with), I have made some progress, and have developed a recommendation for the Education Council to study.

I met with Dr Mathew Hermann, principal of Howell High School, and three of his science teachers, and talked to them about the visiting scientist network idea on February 22,1990. They all felt very warmly about it and wanted to schedule a date for my visit right away ! Some companies in New York are already doing something of that nature. one of them said. While they first proposed that such lectures would naturally be  directed at the physics class, further discussion made me conclude that the general student population of the ninth grade was the right audience for what we had in mind. I mentioned that the object of the program we are contemplating was not necessarily to seek an increase in  the number of optics/science graduates per se, but rather to make more students appreciate the advantages of getting some sort of scientific groundwork (by including a good number of science courses in their program curricula) while they are majoring in any field of choice. This field of choice would perhaps be determined by the students based on what is likely to get them a good job. That is, someone intending to major in business for example, would do very well if he/she gets a good scientific education besides the business education. So this proposed, "OSA Guest Scientist" program" will make the maximum impact in the ninth grade before most of the students turn themselves off to science.

So, the following is my proposal to the Education Council. If the council finds this a worthwhile goal to pursue, an initial plan of action might consist of the following: The Education Council members (including myself) offer themselves as guest scientists to their local schools, in a pilot program to be run by the Education Council. Based on the feedback from that we make appropriate recommendations to the Optical Society of America Board of Directors. Once the program is defined and the guest scientist volunteers signed up, the program will run on its own, and not much financial and other support from OSA will be needed, except continued publicity and monitoring.

With best regards,

Dr. T Raya Halemane

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