"Science Education for The Next Generation"
Jack Andraka’s cousin died of pancreatic cancer, inspiring him to develop a new test for this deadly disease. He developed a method that costs 3 cents, compared to about USD 8,000 for the current standard. His test is 126 times faster, 400 times more sensitive, proved 100 percent accurate in a blind test, and detected the cancer at an early stage, when there is the greatest hope of effective treatment. Jack’s invention is applicable as well to the detection and treatment of ovarian cancer, lung cancer, and many other deadly diseases.
Jack Andraka is only 15 years old, and just finished his first year of high school. His invention is in the process of getting a patent and hopes to turn it into a business. Jack’s research just won him the top prize of USD 75,000 at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF). Although he was judged the best of more than 1500 students from 67 countries and territories around the world, there were many other students whose work was ground-breaking:
Braxton Harris developed boots that generate energy while hiking that can be used to power cell phones or reading lamps. Ari Dyckowsky explored a novel method of secure information transfer using quantum teleportation. Allison Martin, Shyamsunder Rhavagan and Toluwani Soares invented a paint that harvests solar energy, with the potential to turn buildings and rooftops into energy sources around the world. Morgan Sinko developed an environmentally safe solution for remediating oil spills on soil. Health care, robotics, social science, agriculture – wherever their passions and explorations led them, many of these students did work worthy of a Ph.D. and developed ideas that will qualify for patents.
As Executive Director of the Intel Foundation, I have worked for more than 22 years in efforts to improve math and science education. More than 7 million students around the world compete in the many local and regional competitions that are affiliated to Intel ISEF. It is clear to me that young people such as these are capable of far more than we typically ask of them. In schools all around the world, we teach students about science, asking them memorize facts and formulas, to repeat experiments where the outcomes are known, and to learn without a clear sense of how they will ever apply any of this information.
What if instead, more students – all students – had the opportunity Jack did? Young people at Intel ISEF all chose problems that were personally meaningful to them, and gave their full intellectual capability to solving those challenges. The results are staggering. Educators and academics, research and industry work together with interested students and at Intel ISEF, welcoming them into the world of science.
Science competitions like Intel ISEF offer students a wonderful opportunity to experience the life of science. A critical aspect of scientific advancement is the constant testing and argumentation around one’s ideas, theories and experimental rigor. At these competitions, students must defend their ideas and their work in direct face-to-face discourse with Ph.D.-level scientists and researchers. They learn to think clearly, to defend their ideas, and to do work that will stand up to the challenges of their peers and betters.
Equally as valuable for these students is the opportunity to meet others who share their passion for science. Working at Intel, and being married to a physicist, I see daily the truth of Thomas Friedman’s assertion that "the world is flat". For scientists especially, the world is not only flat, but fully networked – science knows no boundaries. Students leave Intel ISEF with the beginnings of the international network of intellectual peers who will shape the rest of their professional lives.
Not all students, of course, will pursue a career in the sciences or engineering. But scientific literacy is essential for every student in school today. The pace of change in the world requires that - in order to be a good citizen, to understand current events, to raise a healthy family, to manage their own health, and to hold virtually any job - young people today must understand science, technology and mathematics at levels far higher than was required of my generation. Those who don't will live limited lives and be a burden to themselves and society. What was 'good enough' for their grandparents' generation, will no longer serve them.
We must offer them both the challenge and opportunity not just of learning about science, but of being scientists, even if temporarily.
We owe it to them. And we owe it to ourselves.