Science Crisis? Add excitement.

Back in high school I was lucky enough to have a teacher named Mr. Beck.  He would send ball bearings sailing through the air, blow things up, and make students' hair stand on end.   And he'd get you involved.

"Dr. Van Amburg'...he would say, 'could you come to the front of the class to assist in this lesson?"

Science was cool.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama, as have all recent national leaders, underscored the great and pressing need for science achievement and competency in a competitive world.

The same day, a huge national assessment of our students' grasp of science showed only 30% of 8th graders, and 21 % of 12th graders rated as proficient.  And only 2% of 8th graders, and 1% of 12th graders qualified as advanced.

What's going on?

Clearly we aren't getting science across in a way that will allow us to, as President Obama says, "win the future." Math and science drive technological innovation, and innovation creates the new industries of the future.  What we don't want, is for those industries to be created, and dominated, by our competitors overseas.

Science has an image problem.

There's no doubt that young people love what science does.  This is embodied the universal appeal of hand-held wonders like  iPad and iPod, their love affair with smart phones, and the explosion of Facebook and all of the rest.  And, what 8th grader doesn't like to send a rocket into the air, or blow something up?  That's science too.

Problem is, students say they don't like to do science at school.   They don't see it as fun, or relevant.  They think it's nerdy.

So it seems to me, this begs the question, "how do we get kids excited about science, and take it from nerdy to coolness?"

One answer, and the one we advocate here at Earth Explore, is to make it a tactile experience.  Make it hands on, and therefore real.

When students are doing science, in the field, they don't think it's nerdy.  They know it's fun, and active, and exciting, and relevant.

While EE programs put kids in beautiful and exciting places with field experts, the same thing can be done in the classroom.  But we have to break the rules.  We have to do more of the learning hands-on.  Blow things up.  Make them boil over.  Make a student's hair stand up with static charge.  And send a rocket into the air. When the weather is good, take a walk in the woods and make the sky, the trees, the soil, and the air part of the lesson plan.

At Earth Explore, we've found that it works.  Science interest grows.  Science becomes the cool thing to do, and not the nerdy subject to be avoided.

Inspiration is Everything

I like to think that at Earth Explore, we're in the inspiration business.  In a half century of living, of watching people of all kinds make changes, and learn new things, the single common place it all begins, is inspiration.

This is especially true of young people.

Kids are eager for inspiration.  We all know about, or once were, the student who was inspired to do more, or to be more, by an especially encouraging, nurturing, or exciting adult.  Maybe it was a teacher, maybe it was a parent, or maybe it was a pastor or rabbi who provided the spark.  But whomever it was, and whatever the spark might have been, that person sent a life into a whole new trajectory, and opened up for that young person a world of possibilities never imagined.

Earth Explore is a tool for inspiration, but it takes people, great people, to provide the spark.  And that's where our teacher chaperones, and our on site educators come in.  They help to get our students excited about what they're doing, in large part by being excited themselves.  They show them the amazing possibilities out there, because, at the end of the day, it is still a wondrous world in which we live.

When you inspire, you provide a great light to another person.  The kind of light that illuminates possibilities in a world that too often is darkened by despair and the opinions of cynics.  And, let's face it.  Nothing great was ever accomplished by through despair, or by making the world more jaded.  But great things have always come, and always will, through simple acts of inspiration.

If you know of an inspiring teacher, or other adult, tell us about them.  http://www.earthexplore.com/

Make this New Year an Opportunity

I'm not much one for preaching.  Except when I've found something that works.  And boy, have I ever. 

This is a post about change. The story begins over a year ago.  It's not new.  Man goes to doctor for checkup, finds he has high cholesterol and low vitamin D levels, and panics.

Now here is where it gets interesting.  But only if you can agree that convention wisdom is just that...conventional.  That sometimes what we have known (or thought we knew) for our whole lives, is, well, wrong.  Consider that at one time we all believed that the world was flat...and you could be burned, yes burned, for disagreeing with that conventional wisdom. 


But let's back up.  Two years ago I had a moderately disappointing cholesterol test.  Just over 200...lousy level of HDL (you know, the good kind).  Curious, I thought.  I'm not overweight, am physically active, and no health issues. 

So, two years ago, I did what I was told.  What conventional wisdom requires.  I virtually cut out cheese, and eggs, ate low fat everything.  Virtually no saturated fat, or cholesterol in the diet.  It was a year of lean, lean, lean.

Fast forward to a year ago.  Doctor emails that my cholesterol has gone from average...to, well, nasty.  That it had shot up by more than 50 points in the past year, and that my levels of vitamin D and good cholesterol were pathetic.

The first day I wandered around the grocery store in a daze.  What could I eat?  It seemed that doing the right thing, had the opposite effect than had been promised.

Out of fear, came action.  I began to read.  Not what had been "known" for so long, but what the latest research was uncovering about the relationship between food, and health.

You know what?  The truth is out there, if you care to find it.  But, for now at least, it isn't the conventional wisdom.  Not yet.  No wonder our nation is facing an obesity crisis, a heart disease crisis, a health crisis, which has been building for the past 50 years.

At this point I'll acknowledge that you probably don't want to read a long post about a "journey to health."  Or how early research upon which our conventional food wisdom was built was well intentioned, but went badly off the tracks.  So let me sum it up for you clearly, and without confusion.

Carbohydrates = Fat in the Body, and Fat in the Blood, and High Cholesterol.

There it is.  From grains (yes, bread and rice), to sugary drinks, to pasta in every form, to chips, and cake, we just eat too much of it.  We didn't evolve the body systems to handle it.  Our early forebears didn't have access to it.  But in our country, and in most others, there are billions of dollars at stake each day in making sure we continue to overindulge in these things.  Think Coke, Pepsi, Frito Lay, Archer Daniels Midland.

Now I'll admit.  It's hard to believe that a loaf of bread can be evil.  Really, a loaf of bread??  That a potato can be like sugar.  I know.  I am just here to tell you that, that is precisely how the body sees it.  They are all carbohydrates, and are converted to sugar, and then to triglicerides, then to cholesterol, and then to the bad cholesterol, in our livers, and in our blood stream.

So, unless you're running a daily marathon, or riding a 100 miles on your bike and can burn them, consider cutting back.  If you make a real change, I guarantee you'll feel, and see, the difference.

If you'd like to read more about this topic, look up "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, and check out the Heart Scan Blog by noted cardiologist Dr. William Davis Heart Scan Blog, or check out The Healthy Skeptic Blog