This seems pretty much on track with what I’m hearing about science contests in this country…
In the big science contest in Canada, two thirds of the participants are girls. This is great news…let’s just hope they stick with the interest, including through graduate school and careers. If women pick up the slack from men, then we have no problem…as long as they actually pick up the slack. To date, the data suggest otherwise.
Tags: women science
May 18th, 2009 at 11:12 am
What did you expect after a couple of decades of educational favoritism towards girls? Note that the story points out that there is program of internships to encourage high school girls to study science and nothing for boys. It is not very different from what happens here.
But the federal science emphasis is beginning to shift from an overemphasis on biology and medicine to a concern with other problems as well. Energy-related areas are hot topics, and so are attempts to re-envision other areas of industrial production. It is a welcome change from the 1990’s-2000’s during which NIH was the congressional darling (and even it faded in the latter years of the Bush administration) and the other science/techology agencies were neglected.
Obama does understand the boy problem, although he prefers to allude to it rather than confront it directly. Just as importantly, high school boys can hardly fail to notice the widely publicized collapse of old-line American manufacturing or the effect of recessions on construction.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:30 am
” . . .then we have no problem . . .”
Is that what it is about? That is the issue, enough bodies for the SMED field? The boys don’t matter for themselves?
OK, then.