What Kind of Crap Experiment Has No Results? Judging our local Science Fair

If this post sounds negative, it's not. Please keep reading! There have been so many negative things of late in education around here, but I had a bit of a pleasant revelation today. Our very talented coordinator/volunteer convinced about half our college's sciences division to serve as judges for the regional elementary science fair. Sometimes one might see the results as evidence for the decline of scientific knowledge in the society, but actually...not really. These are some talented kids, and many of them worked very hard to learn something new. One can see some of the normal concerns of their young lives (which kind of bike can jump further? How long can glowsticks glow?), but they learn. I was working through my section, and was handing out scores in the 70's and low 80's, until I got to the last two.

I was impressed with the first one. Here was a kid who designed an experiment to test the insulating properties of a variety of substances, by constructing boxes that would hold funnels, an ice cube, and the insulating materials. He or she (names weren't revealed to us) kept a meticulous diary about his/her thought processes, the design and direction of the experiment, and a fine story board showing the results (aluminum foil won running away). Score I gave: way up there (scores aren't announced yet, in the highly unlikely event that someone associated with the event is reading).

Then I sat down in front of the last poster board, and started scanning the results. There were none. There were the pictures of the experiment platform, the planted cups, bags of soil and fertilizer, and a graph of the results. The results? Nothing. Nada. Huh? I pick up the student's diary, and start reading the story. The search for a topic, the selection of the topic, the design of the experiment, the preparations, and the wait. Day one, no sprouts, week one, no sprouts, week two, no sprouts. Growing impatience...even frustration. Doubts about ever completing the science project. And finally, no sprouts, no roots, no nothing. EPIC FAIL!

But no, not at all. No data, but a student unwilling to see failure. He or she drew up the poster board, reported the lack of results, declared an inability to support or disprove the hypothesis, and a presented a conclusion that explored all the things that might have gone wrong (interestingly, the leftover seeds thrown into the garden DID sprout, kind of like Jack and the Beanstalk). Sometimes experiments fail, but we learn so many important things from failure. It's one of the most important lessons of scientific exploration.

I was impressed. Here was a student who gets science, and I hope he or she realizes it. We need kids like this in our society to be doing science as a career 10-15 years from now. Score? The highest I gave today.

A CEO, a Tea Partier and a Union Member...

It's the "joke" that's making the rounds today:

"A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.'"

It's been a hard day, a hard week, a hard couple of years. I'm finding I may have to say goodbye to a number of people with whom I've worked for years. For all I know, my own job was on the chopping block; many others at our school didn't think this would happen to them, and yet it did. We are lopping off entire programs: engineering, architecture, mass media and others. Deep cuts in others. The math is frightening; the state doesn't take in enough to pay for the education it is committed to provide. So the cuts come.

We can take steps; there is talk of offering a voluntary pay cut to save jobs and programs. There are other alternatives being suggested. But all of them represent a retreat from education.

I don't blame our local administrators; they've been dealt the cards they have. Many of them are new at their jobs, having been hired only in the last year or two. We will see how they deal with these hard issues. Today's cuts are the opening move and much is to be negotiated.

I do blame the politicians. I think that the people of our state might be willing to sacrifice a little longer to maintain the education of their children, their spouses, their parents. But there is a group, a political party, that is resisting letting the population even vote to continue a bit longer the taxes and fees that were instituted in the last year or two and are expiring. They should get out of the way and at least let us try to convince the population that education is worth saving.

And there is the bigger issue, the subject of the joke of the day. There is a yawning economic chasm between the rich and the rest of our society. More wealth is concentrated with the highest two percent of the population than at any time in the last century. And no one seems to ask, or even suggest that they could help in this time of dire need, by paying taxes at a rate equal to what they paid only a decade ago, before the Bush tax cuts and others decimated federal and state budgets. Instead we argue among ourselves over the crumbs.

The economists tell us the recession is over. But all I see happening around my community is more store closings, more employees being laid off, more houses being foreclosed. We are living in a depression, and I don't see the end of it. Maybe there is some economist who can explain to me how things are better right now.

A message to the ultra-rich: laid-off workers don't buy your products, invest in your hedge funds, or buy houses. Neither do people who are still working but are worried for their jobs and seeing their salaries cut. I paint with broad brush strokes and I know that there are many well-off people who understand this basic economic truth, but there are obviously many who don't. This society allowed you to become rich; to paraphrase the Bible, from those who are given much, much is expected. It's time for everyone in our society to step up to the plate and work together to get out of this horrific economic mess.

Education made this country and my state great. I knew many of the "greatest generation" who came home from the second world war, got an education, and proceeded to build the greatest economy ever seen on this planet. They went to the moon and the planets, they invented computers that transformed society, they built a society that took care of the aged, the sick, and disabled. They made unbelievable advances in medicine. They built the best cars and transportation systems in the world. I saw these things happen in my lifetime. Our children have that potential, if we can only guide them and inspire them.

But instead we are now in retreat; education is devalued and teachers and professors are demonized by politicians. We are made to do more, far more, with less. I despair and grieve at what our society has come to. We have huge challenges ahead as a society; the end of the oil economy, global climate change, resource depletion, water shortages, food production disruptions and many others in the earth sciences alone. Every other academic field can point to other big problems. And our response is to cut the pool of talented individuals by making education inaccessible to more and more members of our society.

Light a Candle in the Darkness: Volunteering for Science in Your Community

Photo Source: Modesto Bee

I noticed some of my comic strips were running a theme of volunteerism this week. Well, now my blog is too (and this would also by my contribution to this month's Accretionary Wedge)...

Here in California, K-12 education is in pretty much a chaotic mess, and our children are being shortchanged in the worst way. Class size is growing, budgets are getting slashed, and some of our best teachers are being fired. These are bleak times, and our community college system is no better off. But I am proud of what my colleagues at Modesto Junior College are doing. You can read the story here, but in short we are bringing fifth graders onto our campus every other Friday to give them an experience in science and to introduce them to our college campus. Most of our division (biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences) is volunteering to make the program a success. From the article:

About 60 students watched and performed experiments as part of MJC's Science Educational Encounters for Kids. Every second and fourth Friday of the month, fifth-graders converge on campus for a science lecture and then two 45-minute labs.

"We are drawing members of the community into the college. Some of these students maybe don't think college is a possibility, and we want to show them this is their community college," said Brian Sanders, dean of MJC's science, math and engineering division.

"Activities are a blend of fun and interest with real science," Sanders said. "We're not just playing with bubbles. We're matching the labs with the state's fifth-grade science standards."

And...these kids are a lot of fun, too. Full of energy and enthusiasm! Contact me if you would like more info on how we set up the program (hayesg at mjc dot edu).