Task Force Calls for Center to Push Science, Math
By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press writer
Business and education leaders who studied how other states get youngsters interested in math and science — and teach them ever more complex subject matter — say Indiana needs a statewide resource center to help its teachers with that daunting task.
In recommendations released this week, members of the Life Sciences Education Best Practices Task Force called for the creation of a resource center they said could play a crucial role in helping prepare Hoosier students for the high-tech jobs the state is eager to create.
The panel’s chairwoman, Alisa Wright, the CEO of Bioconvergence LLC, said the group discovered that between 35 and 40 states already have learning resource centers that give teachers ways to develop superior, and engaging, lesson plans for hard-to-teach math and science topics.
Wright said Indiana needs a resource center to give students as young as those in elementary school access to the tools they need to excel in math, science and technology.
“Most kids don’t decide what they’re going to be that early in their life, but we need to give our kids the best chance to be very successful in their lives,” said Wright, who founded Bioconvergence, a Bloomington life sciences company.
The task force studied learning and teaching resource centers in several states and found that centers in North Carolina and San Diego offer good models for Indiana to follow.
The Indiana panel’s members, who include representatives from K- 12 education, higher education and the private sector, recommend the creation of a statewide, Web-accessible science, math, technology and engineering resources for K-12 teachers and students, and their parents.
They will gather Nov. 17-18 with Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed and a coalition of other policy-makers for a conference at the University of Indianapolis’ Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning to discuss, among other things, how Indiana’s learning resources center might be funded and what it might offer.
Also up for discussion is whether it would be an actual staffed office or an online clearinghouse for teachers, parents and students. The coalition expects to announce specific proposals on the resource center by next May.
Whatever the center’s eventual form, Indiana needs to bring together its resources to help students master the skills needed for them to land high-paying life sciences and advanced engineering jobs, said Anne Shane, vice president of BioCrossroads, a public- private partnership working to invigorate Indiana’s life sciences industry.
“In Indiana, where life sciences continues to experience growth, even as a lot of other business sectors are falling behind, the fact is our work force has got to become more scientifically and mathematically literate,” Shane said.
She said the task force found that several Indiana colleges and universities have teaching and learning resources available but there is no central source that directs students and teachers to that information.
For example, she said the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology operates a homework hot line manned by students at the Terre Haute campus that public school students can call for help if they’re stumped by a particular concept.