For the past decade, the CRPC's Education/Outreach Program has focused on training and encouraging new generations of scientists that represent the full spectrum and diversity of our population, from kindergarten through adult education. Support for and development of K-12 math and science programs is especially critical if our girls and boys are to have the tools and knowledge they need to participate in science and technology fields­the backbone of our country.

"The country is in danger of losing critical ground unless immediate steps are taken to encourage and inspire members from the entire population to become involved in the ever-changing world of computational science and engineering, as well as in other engineering and scientific fields," says Richard Tapia, CRPC Director of Education and Human Resources. "Including the broadest cross-section of people also helps us better understand what science is about and helps us overcome the problems that occur when science isolates itself from the rest of society."

Recent anti-affirmative action legislation has amplified the need for creative and effective ways to increase minority participation in the sciences. It is important that these efforts begin when students are young. Middle school is an especially vulnerable time for many minority and female students, who may be discouraged from pursuing or excelling in scientific fields.

"There's something we're doing right in the early grades, but there is something we're doing incredibly wrong from the 6th grade up," concluded Tapia during the "Steering Minority Education in the 21st Century" conference held at Rice University last summer. Documented in a recent report, the conference centered on finding solutions to increase minority participation in the computational sciences. (See "Report Addresses Future of Minority Education.") Discussions at the K-12 level focused on ways to ease transitions between high school and undergraduate school, the importance of mentoring, and the need for parental involvement in children's education from kindergarten on.

According to a March 1997 Gallup Poll, we may be making progress toward getting girls interested in computers. The survey found that there were relatively small differences between girls and boys in terms of their general orientation toward technology. The 13 to 17-year-old boys and girls surveyed reported equal levels of both computer usage and skills. However, a related issue is that fewer women are entering the field of computer science. Between 1985 and 1995, women went from earning 36% of the computer science Bachelors degrees to only 28%. Statistics for minority students in computer science are even lower. This serious technology gap threatens to disadvantage these students as they confront 21st century demands. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists computer scientists, computer engineers, and systems analysts as the top three occupations with the fastest employment growth from 1996- 2006.

GirlTECH is a prime example of a program that has quickly leveraged the training of a few participants to significantly impact the greater K-12 community. K-12 teachers are taught how to use the Internet, publish and share lessons electronically, and consider gender and minority issues in the classroom. A recent evaluation of the GirlTECH program by the UW- Madison Lead Center found that participants significantly increased their awareness of the field of computational science, their understanding of how issues of gender and ethnicity affect this field, and their Internet and programming skills. (See "Evaluation of GirlTECH: Outcomes and Elements for Success" http://teachertech.rice.edu/gtSC98.html.)

• Susan Boone, a mathematics teacher at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, Texas, is working with the Math Forum, an online collaboration of educators and students, on a 1999-2000 project called "Bridging Research and Practice." She was recognized in Roberta Furger's book, Does Jane Compute?, for her work inspiring girls in math and computing. Her mathematics Web lessons have been cited by numerous Web-based education services. She serves as a lesson author for Datacast Learning Network and participates in the Park City/Institute for Advanced Studies Mathematics, among other activities.
• Lois Johnson, a librarian at the E.O. Smith Education Center in Houston, presented a workshop on computer assisted realtime translation (CART) at the state conference for the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) this year. "CART in the Classroom" demonstrated the benefits of computer assisted translation to both hearing and hearing-impaired students.
• Georgia Louviere, a mathematics teacher at Vidor Middle School in Vidor, Texas, led a team of four students to capture the ThinkQuest Junior 1999 Best of Contest title. ThinkQuest Junior is an Internet contest for students in U.S. schools, grades 4 to 6, who work in teams with teacher coaches to create innovative, educational Web sites. (See "GirlTECH Teacher Coaches 5th Grade Student Team to Top Honors in Web Site Contest.")
• Physics teacher Peggy Schweiger co-wrote a $750,000 Texas Technology Integration in Education (TIE) grant for Klein Oak High School. It was the highest-ranked application in the state in its category. The grant was used to install two computers and one printer in each classroom, as well as other tools such as data projectors. Schweiger has presented numerous workshops on how to integrate Internet technologies into the classroom and was one of 100 teachers who won honorable mentions in the Radio Shack/Tandy Scholarships Program.
• Karen Shaw, a technology coordinator at Revere Middle School in Houston, is a frequent speaker on classroom gender and technology issues and has presented at TCEA Region IV, the TCEA state convention, the Texas Middle School Association, and the West District Library group meeting. She also coached five groups of students in the TCEA State Web page design contest, where one of her teams won second place. Last year, she trained potential webmasters from Houston Independent School District schools on how to develop school Web sites.

The Internet is an excellent tool for teaching and disseminating educational information. Its use has increased dramatically in K-12 education in recent years, partially because of training programs offered by the CRPC and other research groups, educational institutions, and computer training facilities throughout the country. Teachers and students are now taking advantage of the vast amount of educational information available over the Web, and at the same time becoming more confident in the use of computers. They are sharing lesson plans over the Internet to take full advantage of Internet resources and teach mathematics and science concepts in new and exciting ways. (See "CRPC GirlTECH Lesson Plans," http://teachertech.rice.edu/Lessons.)

Acknowledging that affirmative action of the past 20 years is gone, we must rely more than ever on K-12 education and the latest technologies to prepare our students for the best possible future and ultimately, strengthen the health of the nation. It is critical that we as teachers encourage female and minority students to begin taking the highest levels of math, science, and computer science offered at their schools. We must expect them to become computer scientists, not expect that they won't.

"As we have carried out our programs, people have asked why we need more underrepresented students involved and excelling in scientific disciplines," says Tapia. "I tell them that our scientific disciplines can proceed without underrepresented students, but a country in which one group controls mainstream activity becomes economically and socially unhealthy. As the number of minority role models increases, younger generations will become involved in scientific fields, helping to reverse cycles of alienation, underachievement, and poverty. Eventually, the need for women and minority 'jump-start' programs will diminish, and we will consider this aspect of our mission a success."

For more information about CRPC Education/Outreach programs, see http://www.crpc.rice.edu/CRPC/Education.