The Best of Our Knowledge
(2006-03-13)
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ALBANY, NY
(WAMC) -
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION SERIES
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POWERFUL SIGNALS: TRANSFORMING THE ROLE OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
THE YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL , Pt. 2 of 2 -
Two years ago, The Young Women's Leadership Foundation took
a group of science students to the Mississippi Delta. That research
won them the Young Science Achievers Award. They are part of the
science program at The Young Women's Leadership School in East
Harlem, New York City. It's a public school. It's all girls. It's 100-
percent minority. And it's also been enrolling 100-percent of its senior
girls into college every year. Last week, we spoke with several teachers
and students at The Young Women's Leadership School to learn about
the math and science curriculum, and to find out what goes on inside
classrooms. This week, students tell us about their college goals, we
go with a marine science teacher and her class on a rain-drenched field
trip, and we discuss the school's formula for success.
Blue Chevigny reports. (12:09)
**(Attention Program Directors. For more details about this particular
school mentioned in the above story, the website given listeners is:
www.tywls.org.
Also, if listeners would like to hear more stories like this one from our
exclusive radio series, just visit our own special website: www.womeninscience.org.)**
The preceding material is supported by the National Science Foundation,
under Grant HRD-0436130. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this story are those of the authors,
and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.
(MUSIC BRIDGE)
EDUCATION HEADLINES AND UPDATES -
- The Premieres of Canada's ten provinces and three territories held
a summit on higher education a few days ago. They said the country
needs a vision that will create a culture of higher learning if Canadians
want to maintain their standard of living and compete internationally.
Ontario Premiere, Dalton McGuinty, asked, Why do we Canadians
insist that our hockey players are the best in the world, but we settle
for less with our postsecondary system? Canada's new conservative-
led government, just elected in January, has promised to restore funds earmarked for higher education. But it has not revealed how much
money that will be.
- And in our Intelligent Design watch segment, an official newspaper
of the Vatican has published an article supporting a U.S. judge's opinion declaring Intelligent Design to be a religious concept, not a scientific
one. According to a translation of the article by a professor of
evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, in Italy, he wrote,
It is not correct methodology to stray from the field of science,
pretending to do science.
Dr. Karen Hitchcock reports. (1:45)
THE NEXT EINSTEIN -
Last year, 2005, was the anniversary of Albert Einstein. Germany has
been using the occasion to revive its own name as a former world leader
in science and technology. If figures from the German Federal Statistics Authority are to be believed, there is a brain drain with a high percentage
of well-educated Germans emigrating to other countries for better paying
jobs. According to Germany's PISA study benchmarking educational
systems throughout Europe, Germany ranks well below average. That's
why more and more voices are saying Germany's chances of producing
another Einstein are relatively slim. But some people there are doing something about it. This report from Duesseldorf begins with a professor
from the University of Applied Sciences.
Euroquest's Ben Fajzullin reports. (2:00)
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH / MILEVA MARIC EINSTEIN -
As recently as the 1970's, women's history was virtually an unknown
topic in the K-12 curriculum, or in general public consciousness. To
address this, in 1979, an Education Task Force in California initiated
Women's History Week. It met with such success, that by 1987, the
U.S. Congress adopted a resolution expanding the week to make
March, National Women's History Month. Continuing TBOOK's
recognition of Women's History Month, Actress Kate Mulgrew
(internationally known for her role as Captain Kathryn Janeway in
Star Trek Voyager ) provides us this profile of Mileva Maric Einstein,
who many believe, contributed to the Theory of Relativity.
Kate Mulgrew narrates. (2:00)
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