How does the Department of Education plan to support creative approaches to science teaching?
One of the best ways to strengthen science instruction is to get more scientists into the classroom to teach and share their real-world knowledge. President Bush has proposed an Adjunct Teacher Corps, which would provide an opportunity for talented and dedicated industry experts from outside the teaching profession to share their knowledge in middle and high school classrooms. On a recent trip to New Mexico, I visited a local high school where scientists from Sandia National Laboratories were teaching chemistry. We need to find ways to provide similar opportunities to students all over the country. Is there any way that your department can encourage families to push more kids into science and math? One of the things that I’m working on—and it’s a collaborative effort with a lot of external organizations from the Girl Scouts to the Sara Lee Foundation—is engendering more enthusiasm about science in girls. Parents need to understand that their kids really need to know more than they do a
