Math, Science Musts

May 30, 04:37 PM

Current Headlines: In reference to the Op-Ed by Zhu-qi Lu and David E. Putnam, "U.S. must count on math" (BDN, May 21):

We believe that access to hands-on and age-appropriate opportunities in science and junior engineering must be made available in the elementary and middle schools in order to help determine our future. Students with advanced degrees in engineering were able to take in middle school the math courses they needed to prepare them for the field.

Every two years the National Science Board publishes the Science and Engineering Indicators. In preparing this publication, they have observed a troubling decline in the number of U.S. citizens who are training to become scientists and engineers, whereas the number of jobs requiring science and engineering training continues to grow. These trends threaten the economic welfare and security of our country.

The Science and Engineering Indicators states that if these trends continue, three things will happen:

The number of jobs in the U.S. economy that require science and engineering training will grow;

The number of U.S. citizens prepared for those jobs will, at best, be level;

The availability of people from other countries who have science and engineering training will decline, either because of limits to entry imposed by U.S. national security restrictions or because of global competition for people with these skills.

Even if action is taken today to change these trends, the reversal is 10 to 20 years away. The needs of the future should be communicated in the context of age-appropriate challenges beginning in elementary or middle school.

There are no quick fixes. Years or decades of transition in culture is needed to support students through an educational pipeline of 16 years or more to build the science and engineering work force.

Making engineering and science part of the culture, are benchmarks in creating a high quality environment that attracts and retains workers to create new products, processes and services.

Eva J. Szillery

American Mathematics Competitions

state director

Orono

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