For a while now, we have been able to sequence the genomes of organisms, giving us a glimpse of the base of life. The practical applications of this ability are in biotechnology and engineering. Making organisms that produce things for us or disabling pathogens are only two examples of the versatility of breadth of the opportunities. Early in 2010, scientists were able to sequence the genome of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, something that causes thousands of deaths in America each year. Tracking a Superbug with Whole-Genome Sequencing shows the advances and the possibilities here for advancement.
By sequencing the genome of all sorts of strains, scientists can then construct an evolutionary tree for Staphylococcus aureus and track it. This is accomplished by comparing the genomesof multiple strains of this bacterium with each other to see the percent same of the amino acid sequence. Actually, the common man can do this online through various search engines, but the evolutionary biologists can track this bug across the world.
Some people are critical of the improved technology, saying it's not enough to be of medical significance, but these improvements aren't meant to be a final solution. This is a place to jump from, into eradication of pathogens without creating resistant strains. Antibiotics are decreasing in effectiveness because they select for those bacteria that have resistance factors in their genome, and these pathogens reproduce, even thrive, in the very environment that is supposed to kill them. At this point, with our overusage of antibiotics, we can use any advances in technology we can get.
The way to keep moving forward is simply that. I'm reminded of the movie Meet the Robinsons where the main character had to keep moving forward, look past failures and use them as stepping stones to greater success. Everybody overquotes Thomas Edison, but his perserverance has shaped the modern world. In America, we need to teach the students to think creatively and problem solve with the top minds of the world. Expose the children early, foster their curiousity, and let them think they can conquer the world, because they can.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
I Love Online Textbooks! (Kind of)
Each year, I buy new book covers in anticipation of the textbooks I will have to carry around for 9 months. But in the past few years, online textbooks have become available. Theoretically, I should be thrilled; my AP bioloy book could just gather dusk at home, my AP US history book could remained unopened, but they don't. Every day, I lug at least one 1000 page textbook to and from school because for me, online textbooks aren't practical yet. I couldn't use them in study hall because I have no way of accessing them, and there's just something about taking notes from a screen that throws me off. But if we're going to make this transition to any degree, we should be thrilled and completely embrace it.
Compared to most of my friends, my technology is very limited. For instance, I was sitting in my math class, happily copying down some word problems and trying to figure out how to work a derivative into the problem, and I looked to my right to see the girl next to me snapping a picture of the page with the problems, just like that. I believe that in that moment, my outdated pencil (which I have cherished since freshman year) drooped just a little. How I wished I could be done with copying and moving on to the math! Obviously, we all don't have this technology, but if we are moving in this digital direction, we shouldn't be afraid of it or hang on to our tree killing textbooks too long. An abrupt change is out of the question; it's too extreme. However, if -- bit by bit-- we try and digitalize over the next decade, school districts will save money and students might stand a little straighter without the added weight. The French curriculum in my high school is changing. The books we have are from an age the students have never known -- one of our vocabulary words in the computer section last year was la disquette... a floppy disk. I vaguely remember something like a floppy disk, but obviously it's just a tad outdated. If this was a digitalized book, the transition to a better book would be easier and quicker. However, this system would require computers in the classroom for all the students, which would be expensive. I think it would be worth it. You would get the same deal with less hassle and more flexibilty.
One of my friends likes to take notes in the textbooks, making an online textbook a nightmare for her. Regardless, our educational system needs to "move with the times", needs to continue on a path of digitalization. Based on the computer availability, schools are already on the right course.
Compared to most of my friends, my technology is very limited. For instance, I was sitting in my math class, happily copying down some word problems and trying to figure out how to work a derivative into the problem, and I looked to my right to see the girl next to me snapping a picture of the page with the problems, just like that. I believe that in that moment, my outdated pencil (which I have cherished since freshman year) drooped just a little. How I wished I could be done with copying and moving on to the math! Obviously, we all don't have this technology, but if we are moving in this digital direction, we shouldn't be afraid of it or hang on to our tree killing textbooks too long. An abrupt change is out of the question; it's too extreme. However, if -- bit by bit-- we try and digitalize over the next decade, school districts will save money and students might stand a little straighter without the added weight. The French curriculum in my high school is changing. The books we have are from an age the students have never known -- one of our vocabulary words in the computer section last year was la disquette... a floppy disk. I vaguely remember something like a floppy disk, but obviously it's just a tad outdated. If this was a digitalized book, the transition to a better book would be easier and quicker. However, this system would require computers in the classroom for all the students, which would be expensive. I think it would be worth it. You would get the same deal with less hassle and more flexibilty.
One of my friends likes to take notes in the textbooks, making an online textbook a nightmare for her. Regardless, our educational system needs to "move with the times", needs to continue on a path of digitalization. Based on the computer availability, schools are already on the right course.
NYC and Science
New York has found that their students are somewhat less than proficient in science. This is a NY Times article about the findings, which distinguished between ethnicity and race as well as age. Science is the explanation and the study of life, is something that is important to our existence, and the city that most foreign people associate with the essence of American life is falling behind.
The reason probably has a lot to do with the amount of poverty in New York city. Science isn't important in the life of people who can't get by. Children are the hope for the future in this instance. Most children are curious about everything, and if the NYC school district put out a genuine interest to expose underpriviledged children to the wonder of science, they might be more excited to learn. In my freshman AP human geography class, we studied poverty in detail, and determined that the trend of people who come from nothing to stay in that same position as a result of a combination of environmental factors and their personal choices. The children in elementary schools who aren't proficient in academics are usually the product of their home life, but the senior in high school who is failing more classes than he's passing is responsible for his own choices.
In large cities, there is more racial diversity. For contrast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is 92% white and has a very small low-income area. For somwhere out in the middle of the country, Iowa has some of the highest test scores, AP test rates, and graduation rates in the country. The test mentioned above showed that Asian and white people outperformed black and Hispanic people, as is the normal trend. There are a number of reasons why large populations of black and Hispanic people correlate to high levels of poverty, but it has nothing to do with their skin color or ancestry. I believe that failure has more to do with personal choices. Environment can stop a person, but prevailing ove those circumstances is success itself. NYC needs to get to the children, to help them learn what it means to be successful and its importance. Science is only the tip of the iceberg.
The reason probably has a lot to do with the amount of poverty in New York city. Science isn't important in the life of people who can't get by. Children are the hope for the future in this instance. Most children are curious about everything, and if the NYC school district put out a genuine interest to expose underpriviledged children to the wonder of science, they might be more excited to learn. In my freshman AP human geography class, we studied poverty in detail, and determined that the trend of people who come from nothing to stay in that same position as a result of a combination of environmental factors and their personal choices. The children in elementary schools who aren't proficient in academics are usually the product of their home life, but the senior in high school who is failing more classes than he's passing is responsible for his own choices.
In large cities, there is more racial diversity. For contrast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is 92% white and has a very small low-income area. For somwhere out in the middle of the country, Iowa has some of the highest test scores, AP test rates, and graduation rates in the country. The test mentioned above showed that Asian and white people outperformed black and Hispanic people, as is the normal trend. There are a number of reasons why large populations of black and Hispanic people correlate to high levels of poverty, but it has nothing to do with their skin color or ancestry. I believe that failure has more to do with personal choices. Environment can stop a person, but prevailing ove those circumstances is success itself. NYC needs to get to the children, to help them learn what it means to be successful and its importance. Science is only the tip of the iceberg.
An American Way of Thinking
Every few years or so, an organization publishes a report on the American educational system, saying that the United States is falling farther and farther behind in the world as a result of its underrigorous, uncompetitive education. We are consistently compared to nations such as China and Japan, and we pale in comparison. In my language arts class, we were asked to write an essay in class about how the United States educational system fosters social responsibility and democracy in its students based on John Dewey's views of schooling, but it seems to me that the more important thing is to encourage creative thinking and problem solving, which the United States does to some degree already.
My youth pastor's sister-in-law is a teacher in China, and as an American in a foreign country, it was interesting -- no, more than interesting -- to hear her perspective on the Chinese mindset. My mother and I were talking to her, and she mentioned that in China, finals begin in kindergaten. Kindergaten? My finals are this coming week, and I feel as though I could sink under their pressure. I'm not sure that kindergaten should be so crucial to a child in such an obvious way. The teacher said that the children begin to learn English, math, and history in kindergaten, putting them years ahead of our own students. From this early age, Japanese and Chinese students are drilled in facts, making them exceptional mathematicians and scientists. The very last thing the American teacher said was that her Chinese students find it difficult to look at an academic problem and come up with a unique solution based on their knowledge. This carries up the educational ladder in China. In my math class, it is commonly known that there will be a problem on the test that you will not know how to do. It is similarily expected that you man up and figure out a way to do the problem, orthodox or not. In my teacher's words, "It says advanced on the door."
I can't help but wonder if all this problem solving might come in handy some day. I want to be a research scientist in the field of microbial genetics, and I am excited to go study it in college. Not for the opportunity to simply know more, but for the opportunity to build a foundation on which a house of experience will be erected later. If I only know facts, there is no way I could ever begin to think outside of the box.
For a long time, Americans have been creative. Our ancestors tamed this country; pioneers, miners, homesteaders, politicians, factory workers, and entrepreneurs. These people, their experiences, are encoded in our genetic code through our parents and their stories, our grandparents and their memories. We were born with innate creative ability, and it shows in our entire society, especially in our education.
If we change anything about our educational system, it should to make it even more American. There is no need to make it more rigid and less open. That is not who we are as a people, as nation. Americans need to realize that despite their faults, they are a creative, resourceful population, and that may be one of their few really redeeming qualities. Suffocate that, and we lose the good part of us.
My youth pastor's sister-in-law is a teacher in China, and as an American in a foreign country, it was interesting -- no, more than interesting -- to hear her perspective on the Chinese mindset. My mother and I were talking to her, and she mentioned that in China, finals begin in kindergaten. Kindergaten? My finals are this coming week, and I feel as though I could sink under their pressure. I'm not sure that kindergaten should be so crucial to a child in such an obvious way. The teacher said that the children begin to learn English, math, and history in kindergaten, putting them years ahead of our own students. From this early age, Japanese and Chinese students are drilled in facts, making them exceptional mathematicians and scientists. The very last thing the American teacher said was that her Chinese students find it difficult to look at an academic problem and come up with a unique solution based on their knowledge. This carries up the educational ladder in China. In my math class, it is commonly known that there will be a problem on the test that you will not know how to do. It is similarily expected that you man up and figure out a way to do the problem, orthodox or not. In my teacher's words, "It says advanced on the door."
I can't help but wonder if all this problem solving might come in handy some day. I want to be a research scientist in the field of microbial genetics, and I am excited to go study it in college. Not for the opportunity to simply know more, but for the opportunity to build a foundation on which a house of experience will be erected later. If I only know facts, there is no way I could ever begin to think outside of the box.
For a long time, Americans have been creative. Our ancestors tamed this country; pioneers, miners, homesteaders, politicians, factory workers, and entrepreneurs. These people, their experiences, are encoded in our genetic code through our parents and their stories, our grandparents and their memories. We were born with innate creative ability, and it shows in our entire society, especially in our education.
If we change anything about our educational system, it should to make it even more American. There is no need to make it more rigid and less open. That is not who we are as a people, as nation. Americans need to realize that despite their faults, they are a creative, resourceful population, and that may be one of their few really redeeming qualities. Suffocate that, and we lose the good part of us.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Women and Science
Science and mathematics are traditionally male fields, but all that is changing, especially as culture and social norms shift. What many experts refer to as the "gender gap" in performance in science and math is seeming to narrow as the scores of girls on standardized testing and college entrance exams rise. However, many scientists bring evidence to the table that females lack an "intrinsic aptitude" for math and science that is based in biology, making it very unlikely that women will ever make up any sizable percentage of the top mathematical and scientific thinkers in the world.
Here I thought I could actually be successful in the field of science, but obviously it is more likely that I prefer the communication and psychology end of studies. Silly me. In my school, I am in advanced precalculus as a junior, AP biology, and have A's in both. In fact, I have better grades in those subjects than most of my male counterparts. But some researchers would counter that males have inborn cognitive abilities that make them infinitely more able to handle mathematical problems and analyze science. It is true, however, that more males are at the top in these subjects than females, but that is more likely because of environment and choice rather than natural ability.
When we start analyzing what makes people smart or not, we get into trouble. Some people don't care about school, others have natural abilities at memorization and do almost nothing, and a select few take what talents they have and combine it with an enormous work ethic to become the top performers. In the modern era, most girls are not suffering extensively from negative stereotypes, although they still are prevalent. Casual talk and banter brings "woman in the kitchen" jokes, almost all the famous scientists listed in the textbooks are male, and yet women are increasingly becoming involved in the professional world.
Here I thought I could actually be successful in the field of science, but obviously it is more likely that I prefer the communication and psychology end of studies. Silly me. In my school, I am in advanced precalculus as a junior, AP biology, and have A's in both. In fact, I have better grades in those subjects than most of my male counterparts. But some researchers would counter that males have inborn cognitive abilities that make them infinitely more able to handle mathematical problems and analyze science. It is true, however, that more males are at the top in these subjects than females, but that is more likely because of environment and choice rather than natural ability.
When we start analyzing what makes people smart or not, we get into trouble. Some people don't care about school, others have natural abilities at memorization and do almost nothing, and a select few take what talents they have and combine it with an enormous work ethic to become the top performers. In the modern era, most girls are not suffering extensively from negative stereotypes, although they still are prevalent. Casual talk and banter brings "woman in the kitchen" jokes, almost all the famous scientists listed in the textbooks are male, and yet women are increasingly becoming involved in the professional world.
The Tower of Babel
In first grade, I coveted learning, each new shard of information a wonderful mystery that would bring new depth to every facet of my existence. So, when Miss Jane taught us a French song about a little bird, I was immediately fascinated with the beautiful flow of those foreign sounds and the lovely waves of voice that were brilliantly colorful. For the rest of my childhood, the impression of the language stayed with me, and when I had to choose a language course to take in high school, I remembered. I didn’t pause to consider anything other than French. As I investigate what I want my future to be, I am beginning to fully appreciate the practicality and the versatility of foreign language. In today’s global and integrated society, not only can people contact each other on separate sides of the Earth, but companies of all sectors are becoming increasingly multinational and opportunities for jobs are reaching past cultural barriers. Unfortunately, many students in my French class are unable to form a coherent sentence or reproduce the distinct sounds of the language. This deficiency in the skills of most of the students reflects the lack of emphasis the foreign language curriculum is given in the American education.
As competition rises worldwide and humans become more interconnected with each other, the American educational system has remained unchanged in regards to foreign language study, maintaining the same levels of fluency acceptable in years past. American students would be in a better position to learn if state governments required that all schools begin the mandatory study of a foreign language at the beginning of elementary school and also required its continuation through the whole of public education. This system would allow for increased rigor with exposure to the language and culture that cannot be consistently provided by the general present curriculum.
Although the education system is garnering more and more attention in the political realm, government policy towards the encouragement of foreign language study is stagnant. Politicians such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan advocate radical change in the world language branch of the educational system, using President Obama’s call for raising standards as a foundation for change. Duncan reasons that by giving the American people a wider base of opportunity for jobs and careers through foreign language, the economic interests of the United States will become more grounded outside of America helping to pull the American economy from the depths of a recession. In order to achieve this, Duncan hopes to provide American children with a world-class education that emphasizes not only math and science, but also foreign language study . Though the assertion is a noble one, government policy does not support it. Only two programs are in place to further world language education. First, the Foreign Language Assistance Act, part of No Child Left Behind, promised to pay 50% per year of the cost to establish new programs in schools. Second, the Foreign Language Assistance Program gives grants to local educational agencies to encourage programs in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and other languages in the Indic, Iranian, and Turkic families. These programs are hardly sufficient to encourage overall improvement in the American world language curriculum because they are too narrow in their scope of funding and also do not support established programs.
In order to modernize, state governments need to overhaul this specific branch of their education systems, requiring that a foreign language be taught in all public schools. Models for this system exist around the globe, in Europe and Asia alike. Children begin to learn English in elementary school and continue through high school, adding new languages as the student matures. A system such as this does not limit the student to the one language taught in the beginning of elementary school, even though in the United States the school districts or states would be forced to choose between equally important languages. However, the study of one language is a perfect segue into another. By learning French, it has become easier for me to understand the structure of my own language and the specific rules that English uses. Conversely, by learning exactly how English is meant to be spoken and written, my ability in French has increased. The inherent similarity between all human communications is something that has become apparent to me as I continue to learn and grow in both French and English, and it would be the same for children who were taught any language in addition to their native one.
When foreign language education is first undertaken in freshman year of high school, the hardest part of learning is usually listening and speaking it. This is because when the teacher first begins to say phrases and words in the language, they are not considered by the brain to mean anything in particular because it doesn’t know how to differentiate among the noises. As the exposure continues, connections form between adjacent neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain, allowing the student to distinguish specific words and phrases. Pathways are also made between the auditory complex and other areas, creating associations of taste, sight, or smell with words. Eventually, the sounds of the new language can activate the neural circuits, increasing fluency. Initially, these neural circuits are incomplete and require a lot of energy to activate, but with experience and practice, foreign speech becomes gradually easier. As a French tutor, I have tried to expose my student to the language through listening and speaking. Over time, she has become increasingly able to answer questions and make statements that were extremely difficult for her only two months prior. The extra practice and exposure to the language is the key to her ability. For all students, the traditional four years of language study in the American high school is insufficient time to create this skill and does not match the inner workings of the human brain. Because the teachers must begin to teach students as if they were infants, exposure is limited, neural connections remain incomplete, and the abilities of the student suffer. If education were to begin in elementary school, children would have the opportunity to develop recognition of sounds and associations with words, greatly improving the quality of American world language education.
The government seeks to raise the scientific and technological standards in America’s schools, trying to broaden the economy and develop a talented base of research, development, and industry. However, it is time that our ability to maneuver in different cultures and languages matches our goals of international cooperation. Many different sectors of businesses have international firms, allowing their employees to move across the globe and interact with people of every different nationality. When I realized that I wanted to be involved in molecular biology research, I learned that many companies in that sector operate out of France, Switzerland, and Germany as well as China and Japan. Job candidates with the language skills that matched where the companies are located stand a better chance of being hired than does the person who speaks only English, and jobs are hard to come by in today’s economy. Extended foreign language education is important not only for the economic benefit to the United States as a whole, but also to the individual competing for jobs in today’s market.
The Tower of Babel is a Bible story about the emergence of different languages, how one man suddenly couldn’t understand the sounds coming out of another man standing next to him. Because the builders couldn’t communicate, they couldn’t work together to finish the Tower of Babel, eventually abandoning the project. In today’s society, opportunities for multilingual interaction are everywhere, making our world a more interconnected place. American citizens will be increasingly involved in lines of work where knowledge of a foreign language is extremely helpful, or where it can aid in securing a position in the highly competitive job market. The state governments of America need to address the concern that our foreign language curriculum won’t hold up to that of other societies, causing not only the United States to suffer, but also the individual. By beginning to learn languages in elementary school and continuing through high school, children will be better equipped to move into the world, to cultivate a powerful American economy, and to make sense of our personal, global Tower of Babel.
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