PerspectivesAre you interested in submitting a Perspective Article? Be sure to read The Science Advisory Board's Editorial Guides for Perspective Articles. Click here. Science Education by Wim D'Haeze, Ph.D. In the second part of a recent and very timely perspective entitled "Immigration, Education, and Respect for Science: Where is the Biotechnology Community?" published by BioWorld® Today (BioWorld Today, October 4, 2007, Vol. 1, No. 41), life sciences venture investor and entrepreneur Charles Hsu criticizes the current US policy makers and wonders how we can remain competitive with developing countries that are teaching real science in their schools. The author states that due to conservatives hunting for votes, the long lasting American leadership is melting away as glaciers in the era of global warming. The author continues that "the [current] administration's unprecedented hostility to science-based policy-making, from stem cells to the environment, is not only dangerous, it has been deeply demoralizing to the scientific community on whom we rely for direction on such matters." It even gets worse when we evaluate the public education system in the US and the author remarks that "our leaders are guilty of under-funding, and in fact actively undermining, our public school system." This happens to uncover only a tip of the iceberg. One may wonder whether this is accurate and how things could have evolved this way? The answer to the first question is likely "yes" as other eminent individuals and organizations are ringing the alarm bell. The problems that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that controls the funding of numerous research groups within this country has been facing during the past years are well know among the scientific communities and the public. But also organizations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appears to be chronically underfunded as well which may put consumer's health at risk. It was suggested that the FDA should receive an annual funding increase of 15% during the next five years in order to keep up with the increased number of cases and responsibilities. A recent article published in BMC Medical Education (Grudzen and Legome, BMC Medical Education, 2007;7:47) reports that due to impasses in the funding of graduate medical education programs, International Medical Experiences (IMEs) are not offered anymore in all training programs and are at risk to be reduced if not already canceled. IMEs, however, offer student physicians to spend time in developing countries where different health care systems are in place and where a majority of the inhabitants might be poor and living in cumbersome conditions. Such experiences provide the American student physicians with unique experiences in clinical, epidemiologic, cultural, and political areas that they cannot necessarily experience or be taught effectively in their home country. Moreover, IMEs have been shown to stimulate the importance of community health, voluntarism and other humanitarian initiatives, and serve underserved populations in the US and abroad. In light of the upcoming presidential elections, one may wonder what the major democrat and republican candidates for presidency think about the education reform. Despite some candidate-dependent differences, the democrats are strongly in favor to allocate extra funds for education in the US and to strive for a reduction in class size, recruitment of more teachers and the encouragement of student mentoring programs, and to renovate schools. Plans are on the table to effectively support low-income students - yes, low-income students should have equal opportunities to follow college as they may be bright as well - to pay for college. Republicans, at the other hand, debate on the lack of parent control over which school their children attend and tend to support a more conservative policy in which governmental spending for education of our children is minimal, encouraging a higher student/teacher rate, bigger class sizes, and an education system that is focused on those fields that are important to maintain the US military and economic power. In the latter scenario, funds for scientific education might reach an absolute minimum. Remarkably, however, one republican candidate supported the system practiced in some European countries where children and students run school and college at no cost for them nor for their parents as the cost for education is carried in its entirety by the government. The importance of high-level science education and the fact that it's time for a change in a better direction as it concerns science education is reflected in the valuable initiatives that are organized by major research institutions, and pharmaceutical and other companies. One of the major biomedical research institutes in the country, The Scripps Research Institute, has for almost two decades several community programs in place to educate and stimulate middle and high school students and teachers in current developments in science, thereby promoting science education and awareness. The Academic Preparation & Educational Outreach Program among others focuses on biomedical and chemical sciences and aims to foster an understanding in the general public of the relationship between biomedical research and human health. Selected students and teachers are given the opportunity to work for an 8-week period during summer under the supervision of senior faculty on topics such as cell biology and structure, medicinal chemistry, combinatorial chemistry, drug development, HIV, and forensics. The Scripps Research Institute receives support for organizing those programs from private sources, but also from major companies such as Biogen Idec. Furthermore, Hsu mentioned in his perspective that IT giants such as Hewlett Packard are making substantial investments in information science education. Although those initiatives are crucial to our education system, their occurrence is relatively rare, the programs are local, and only a handful of selected individuals are able to participate. Obviously more action is needed. Indeed, chances are that it will not be sufficient to allocate national resources for the adjustment of class sizes and to ensure that every student has equal opportunities to follow education of his/her choice. Due to the exponential enhancement of our knowledge and capacities over the past years, it is simply not possible anymore to explain and understand scientific processes by applying one narrow scientific discipline such as biology or chemistry. Times when a doctoral thesis was based on the functional analysis of one human protein are long gone. Scientists try to understand entire pathways and processes at a systems biology level. Students, educators, and scientists need a multidisciplinary training and knowledge in order to work at the forefront of science. In a recent article (Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2007;117:3128), Dennis Ausiello, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School, mentioned that "the skill sets and tool kits of our generation will be insufficient to create the next generation of physician-scientists, who must work in a team-oriented, multidisciplinary arena, and require more rigorous education in a defined scientific discipline." Unraveling functional and dysfunctional process in a human body requires nowadays interdisciplinary research where scientists conduct research at the edge of chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics, among other fields, applying nontraditional methods and thinking. In order to meet this goal, all disciplines must become interconnected and fine-tuned from middle school through college. The science courses of the 21st century need to be revisited in order to align them with each other in such a manner that the knowledge gained can be applied to design a set of experiments and tools to understand complex biological process. Some universities have already begun with the creation of new departments such as Departments of Systems Biology and Developmental and Regenerative Biology. The MD/Ph.D. program has enjoyed more recognition among the students, however, only 1/30 MD students takes a Ph.D. program simultaneously. Notwithstanding, these important developments should be echoed in the classrooms of middle and high schools, countrywide which will require time, resources, and additional funding. Funds to alter research and science education are allocated by the government and thus, obtained in part, from the tax payers. It is therefore crucial to maintain effective and informative communication with the public. The public needs to be informed of the required changes in scientific research and patients who participate in clinical trials as well as the general public need to understand, for instance, why so many subjects are needed to establish safety data for a given drug in production. A vast majority of the public is not aware of basic scientific processes that affect all of us and this discrepancy is likely due to a poor communication with the public and a lack of general interest from the public. Before we enter a vicious circle, one needs to develop novel ways to effectively reach the public to explain what is going on in the universities, research institutions, and the science industry in this country and abroad. The education of scientists is equally important as the education of the public. In summary, it is time to financially and logistically boost science education from middle school through college in order to meet requirements to conduct multidisciplinary research while maintaining contact with the public through effective science communication. Europe and Asia have science education friendly systems in place in combination with their flourishing academic research, and if the US wants to keep catching this high-speed train, it might from a scientific, economic, and educational point of view indeed be more thoughtful to spend budgets that are now spent to fight difficult-to-win battles abroad at home. Wim D'Haeze is Bio-Engineer in Chemistry and received his Ph.D. in Biotechnology at Ghent University (Belgium) in June 2001. His doctoral thesis work was focused on the understanding of several early steps of the symbiotic interaction between the Gram-negative soil bacterium Azorhizobium caulinodans and the tropical legume Sesbania rostrata. The initial steps require the production of bacterial compounds including signal molecules and complex surface polysaccharides that are pivotal for invasion of the plant tissue and the formation of new organ tissues. In the three subsequent years, he performed post-doctoral research at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia (Athens, GA) dealing in part with the structural and functional characterization of azorhizobial extracellular polysaccharides. When employed as Science Writer, Wim D'Haeze focused on understanding the molecular basis of devastative neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, in order to screen for and develop new therapeutics. He is currently a Senior Technical Writer in the pharmaceutical industry. E-mail: wim.dhaeze@sbcglobal.net ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Perspectives ] |
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