Statement of Rollie Otto Before The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education

Essential Educational Elements for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Pipeline

Rollie Otto
Head Center for Science and Engineering Education
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Feb. 3, 2006
San Diego, CA

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the future of higher education and to provide comments related to innovative public/private sector models.    My comments and recommendations will focus on the science, technology, engineering and mathematics   (STEM) pipeline.   I will take the position that the responsibility for the preparation of the 21 st Century STEM work force does not rest with colleges and universities alone and that the public and private scientific and technological enterprise has a direct role with the education of students and faculty.

I have spent 31 years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory a multiprogram national laboratory operated by the University of California for the US Department of Energy.   The Laboratory is adjacent the University of California Berkeley and was founded by UC physics professor Earnest Orlando Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron, resulting in a legacy of advances in nuclear science and medicine, particle physics, and accelerator physics that continues today.

Berkeley Lab has been an internationally recognized leader in science and engineering research for 75 years.   It holds the distinction of being the oldest of the US Department of Energy's National Laboratories.   It has 3,800 employees of which about 1000 are staff scientists and engineers and 500 are graduate students and post docs.   Berkeley Lab conducts unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines with key efforts in fundamental studies of the universe; quantitative biology; nanoscience; new energy systems and environmental solutions; and the use of integrated computing as a tool for discovery.   In the last 10 years Berkeley Lab has won 10 R&D 100 Awards many of which have been licensed through technology transfer agreements.   Berkeley Lab technology has formed the basis for start up companies capitalized at $1.9 billion. Leading private sector technology companies utilize the advanced user facilities at the lab.   Berkeley Lab typical of the large DOE Office of Science multipurpose national laboratories collaborates with and host scientist from universities and government research facilities around the world.   These DOE   Labs, often seen as national treasures for economic development, stand apart from both universities and private sector science and technology companies.

Berkeley Lab has as part of it mission and tradition the education of the next generation of scientists and engineers.   Berkeley Lab's Center for Science and Engineering Education was established in 1988 to extend its education outreach beyond graduate and post doctoral professional development.   The Center develops, implements and evaluates programs that utilize the resources of the Berkeley Lab to improve the quality of mathematics, science and technology education.   It supports projects and activities for public science and technological literacy, precollege (K-12), community college, undergraduate and graduate education.   And it serves as a coordinating center for outreach programs, and for the formation of partnerships with schools and school districts, science and technology education centers, colleges and universities and the private sector.

Over the years we have developed strategies and approaches to utilize the human and technical resources of the Berkeley Lab to achieve the following goals:

• Promote equal access to scientific and technical careers for all students
• Improve the quality of science and engineering teaching and learning
• Increase the number of US students who become scientists and engineers with emphasis on those students groups historically underrepresented in the scientific and engineering enterprise.
• Promote scientific literacy.

Support for CSEE programs is provided by the Department of Energy's Office of Science.   The comments and recommendations I will make are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory or the Department of Energy Office of Science Directors.

You have asked for comments on innovative public/private sector models as you consider "how best to improve our system of higher education to ensure that our graduates are well prepared to meet our future workforce needs and are able to participate fully in the changing economy."   Therefore I would like to take some time to focus on the question: What are the essential elements of students' learning experiences in higher education that will prepare them to "enhance the science and technology enterprise so that the United States can successfully complete, prosper and be secure in the global community of the 21 st Century?" (Rising Above the Gathering Storm).The short answer to this question is mentored scientific research and technology development experiences with access to scientific tools, equipment and computational capabilities for all students in the STEM pipeline.

You have sufficient testimony regarding problems and challenges as well as evidence and statistics that we are not meeting the educational needs of many students in our K-12 schools and colleges which I will not repeat.   I will discuss strategies we are using at Berkeley Lab to address these problems.   I am not advocating these strategies as specific models because they are uniquely matched to the resources Berkeley Lab brings to education partnerships.   I am advocating policies and support for school, public, private partnerships that find innovative ways to their combined resources to provide mentorship and access to scientific problem and tools for students in the STEM pipeline.

What are we preparing students for and what skills and knowledge will they need?

The next several decades will be marked a burst of technological innovation and scientific discoveries.   I recently read "that what will happen in the future is already happening now."   My experience at Berkeley Lab supports that what is happening at our and other Department of Energy Office of Science labs provides a view of the future of science and technology and by extension an understanding of what skills and knowledge today's STEM students will need.

Scientific research and technology development at Berkeley Lab can be characterized by the integration of core competencies to solve the key problems facing humankind in areas of heath, energy, materials and the structure of matter.   To quote "Steve Chu, Berkeley Lab Director, Nobelist and member of the National Academies committee that produce the "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" report: "A new Lab-wide initiative is starting to develop sustainable, CO2-neutral sources of energy that will draw upon many of the core strengths of the Berkeley Lab.   While energy efficiency will play a huge role in defining how much energy we will need, we must also have a diversified portfolio of investments in energy sources.   Among America's most serious concerns are national security (intimately tied to energy security), long-term economic competitiveness, and dangers of global warming.   The need for CO2-neutral energy is central to all of these concerns and this is the single most important societal problem that science and technology must solve."   At Berkeley Lab "we are contributing to fusion research, the waste storage problems associated with fusion energy, and carbon sequestration of the combustion products of fossil fuel. The answers may also lie in improved photovoltaic generation, efficient methods to convert electricity into chemical energy and synthetic mimics of photo synthesis.   Another promising avenue is to apply advances in molecular biology to develop faster-growing, self-fertilizing plants and more efficient methods to convert biomass (including biowaste) into more useful forms of energy."

"Berkeley Lab is uniquely positioned to tackle this challenge, with it's strengths in biological, chemical, and computational sciences."   Central to these strengths is the world class facilities with state of the art tools that attract international cooperation, participation and a core of dedicated and talented scientists, engineers and computer scientists.

Berkeley Lab's recently published annual   report "A View to the Future" offers further evidence of what is to come.   The field of health will see scientific and technological breakthrough difficult to imagine 20 years ago.   "At the start of 21 st century, scientists now have the tools needed to study living cells at the molecular and atomic levels.   The information gained from this ever-expanding array of tools is opening entire new avenues for the prevention and control of some of our deadliest and most   pernicious diseases, including major forms of cancer, HIV-AIDS,   and malaria.   It is also paving the way for learning to repair or replace damaged cells and tissues. The same tools that promise so much for the life sciences offer new possibilities in other arenas as well, most notably carbon-neutral production, environmental remediation and homeland security."

One example of a view into the future is "Synthetic Biology" which aims to design and construct novel organisms and biologically inspired systems that can solve problems   natural   biological systems cannot."   Berkeley Lab scientists are developing   an organism designed   specifically to produce the chemical precursor to one of the most promising and potent of all the new antimalarial drugs - artemisinin.    This drug is proven to work but it is far to expensive to produce to impact the 500 million people who annually become infected with malaria.   Jay Keasling, UC and Berkeley Lab research and Director of the Lab's Physical Biosciences Division leads the work that will lead to an inexpensive, synthetic anti-malaria drug which will be produced and distributed thanks to a $42.6M grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Atomic and molecular level imaging at Berkeley Lab, along with the development of nano scale materials is creating new technologies, tools and capabilities.   One example is the ability to track the path of a single molecule in the nucleus of living cells using nano-sized particles called quantum dots.   An important application is tracking the interactions in living cells to determine effectiveness of disease fighting drugs.

One of the premier National User Facilities of the Berkeley Lab is its Advanced Light Source (ALS); the world's brightest source of ultraviolet and soft x-ray beams - making previously impossible studies possible in all fields of science.   Synchrotron light sources, like the ALS, are being built around the world.   Today with advanced computational capabilities and the human genome completed, we are able not only to find genes but to describe the three dimensional structure of the proteins produced by those genes.   With the advanced light sources data can be collected and analyzed using advanced computation and the entire process which only several decades ago took months to years is now done in a matter hour and days.   A major paradigm of biology has been the relationship of structure and function.   We are now seeing this at the atomic and molecular, cellular structure level.   In the last two decades we have moved from genomics to proteomics entering the stage of atomic and molecular description of biological subsystems.

The US Department of Energy's Office of Science provides supercomputing facilities and computational tools for non classified research for faculty and investigators throughout the nation.   Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Supercomputing Center is solving problems "in silica" that cannot be addressed in the lab.   The result has been new discoveries and predictions related to energy, climate, nuclear reactions and biological systems.   Along with these supercomputing capabilities are computational tools for scientific and technology collaborations that will bring the latest findings in labs around the world to investigators in a matter of days.

What skills and knowledge will today's student need?

There have been many reports and studies to answer this question.   I offer the following list with apologies for not fully recognizing these sources or their contributions.   The list reflects largely reflect my experiences with undergraduate from universities and colleges across the country and high school student interns and teacher participants at Berkeley Lab.

1. A solid foundation in the basic concepts, principles and theories of all fields of science.   Ideally this science literacy level knowledge would be taught in high school in four years of science courses.   (See The Science Content Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten to Grade Twelve)
2. Professional level knowledge and skills of one field of science, engineering, technology, or mathematics.   This is the undergraduate preparation provided by community colleges, colleges and universities.
3. Ability to recognize and make connections between 1 and 2.   It is surprising how frequently student miss these connections during their undergraduate preparation.
4. Understanding of the relationship between science, technology and societal issues.
5. The nature of scientific inquiry and the ability to apply it to scientific investigations.
6. Math concepts and the ability to use advanced computational tools.
7. Communication and collaboration skills using technology.
8. Willingness to learn and integrate knowledge from areas outside of their own expertise to solve complex interdisciplinary problems
9. Persistence and willingness to work hard.

Who should be we preparing?

The short answer is all students with ongoing support for those students who show an interest in STEM careers.   One aspect of our current education system is that we are underserving are most talented and motivated students early in the STEM pipeline. Further we have not extended sufficient effort to reach those groups underrepresented in STEM careers, namely Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Chicano, and women.

Strategies for Success

Engineering departments at colleges and universities have long recognized the importance and value of internships.   Federal science agencies (Energy, NSF, NIH, NASA, Agriculture and Homeland Security) are increasing their support for internships at the undergraduate level.   Minority serving institutions have utilized mentored internships to provide increase student graduation and graduate school going rates.

Following are some strategies we have used at Berkeley Lab to extend the practice of mentored research experience using "real" science and technology tools to more students and further down in the pipeline.

• Required mentor interviews at the start of an internship with the requirement of writing an abstract that connects the students assignment to mission oriented work of the group.

• Writing coaches and effective presentation workshops for undergraduate interns.

• Frontier science lectures by leading Berkeley Lab investigators.

• K-12 outreach opportunities for undergraduate interns

• Faculty-student teams to develop faculty mentors at community colleges and minority serving universities to promote scientific collaborations with Berkeley Lab investigators, increase on campus mentoring and identify student for internships at Berkeley Lab.

• Summer teacher research internships for secondary science teachers with generous academic year support for materials and professional society meetings.   Partnerships with local urban school districts to identify and support teacher leaders for internship appointments.

• High school student research participation internships utilizing partnerships with teachers of high minority student populations to identify students to participate along with those who self identify from high performing schools.

• Preservice teacher science research and science education emersion internships for K-12 teachers of math and science.   Partnerships with California State Universities with NSF sponsored preservice teacher programs.

• Hands-on science investigations for high schools and college students connected to research activities and professional level tools at the Berkeley Lab with concurrent training of teachers and faculty.

A major factor contributing to our efforts has been a cooperative agreement between the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy Office of Science that allows students and faculty in NSF sponsored STEM program on university campuses to receive supplemental support for internships at the DOE Labs.   Access to mentored research experiences leverages the extensive investment by NSF, especially for underrepresented minorities, and allows DOE fuller utilization of its national science and technology investment for STEM education.   

Recommendations:

Continue and preferably increase support in federal science and technology agencies for research internships for high school and college students and faculty.   At the same time recognize mentors and provide additional funding to support long term follow-up including tracking participant through graduate school and into careers.

Provide support for minority serving institutions to obtain state of the art of scientific research equipment and technologies to support on campus mentoring and research for their students. Develop financial and material incentives for faculty training.   Consider some of the successful strategies to increase minority participation and retention at these institutions as models for major research universities.

Encourage the private sector science and technology businesses and industries to partners with schools and colleges and to participate in outreach to high school and college students, and faculty supporting mentored research and student access to science and computational tools.

Recommend that funding for successful STEM pipeline programs and activities, that meet a set of implementation and follow up criteria, be flexibly funded for terms longer than five years, provided innovative methods keep pace with scientific technological advances and students needs and interests.

Encourage all STEM programs to push student mentoring and access to "real science tools and equipment" as far down the educational pipeline as possible.

Encourage public/private/university/school partnerships for mentoring and access science tool and equipment.  

Some innovative partnership descriptions will be submitted as part of my remarks.