Middle School Service

Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Even though I am not an Inuit my language is peppered with words relating to snow and ice. The word today is greasy. Apparently late last night in the predawn hours a light dusting of snow passed through the area. Despite the temperature now being relatively warm for this the first month of the year (37 F/3 C) the roads are greasy.
Greasy in my mind means that a road has an undercoat of ice overlaid with moisture making stopping and directional control tricky. When we went out to the car I noticed it on the front concrete steps first there being a little unexpected give in what should have been a firm footfall. My wife has to drive into the neighborhood city which due to its budget woes is lax about salting and thus deicing the streets. My hope is that she is safe.
Last night I spend time in a middle school parent teacher organization meeting. The hope topic was reviving the science fair. In years past students were given extra credit for participation in the fair. I remember seeing projects on acid rain, on computer detection of line interference and of some kind of computer/telescope interface to look in a very specific region of the night sky for some odd phenomena. It was all very cool stuff. Funny thing really how when you live in a university town the ante is upped to win among 6th and 7th graders (and their parents) at the local middle school science fair.
The extra credit thing was a bit of a ruse. You were awarded 50 points for doing the fair. While it was possible to theoretically earn an A in the science courses without the science fair, practically you needed those points to get an A. However the teacher who ran the program this way retired and the program has languished. Parents last night wanted to offer an ipad mini as top prize. I stated that having watched the judging in previous years, and the acrimony that followed the award of first place for a mere plastic loving cup, I would refuse to judge where serious money was on the line. The thought then shifted to a mere entry into the fair with a substantive entry would put you in the running for a raffle for the ipad mini. I will see what happens.
In the conversation on the science fair it was discussed that 7th and 8th grade are where our schools lose girls in the STEM track. Over the years I have heard of number of reasons posited for this, limited role models, social normative pressure, lack of support and lack of opportunity. It is an issue that must be addressed because we need all the trained scientific personnel we can get going forward in this 21st century. The good thing about this meeting last night is that the positions of power in the room were roughly equally divided among male and female participants. This is a positive change.