Project Exploration Blog

America’s Public Schools fail more than half of its black males.

That’s the data-based story emerging in the fourth-annual report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Sometimes called the “Black Boys Report,” it offers access to data on educational achievement by African American males. In the newest report we learn the 2007/2008 graduation rate for Black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent. Half the states in the country have graduation rates for African-American males below the national average. In Illinois, where Project Exploration is based, the graduation rate was a nightmarish 47 percent; Chicago was even lower – 44%. New Jersey is the only state with a significant Black population with a greater than 65 percent high school graduation rate for Black male students, thanks to a targeted state-wide, systemic strategy.

I found the newest version of the Black Boys report in my email this morning when I came in from visiting one of Project Exploration’s newest programs: MACH 10 – the Men’s Aeronautics Challenge. We’re “piloting,” so to speak, a boys’ science program to compliment our girls’ services. It’s a project we’ve been wanting to do for years.

As I write, downstairs in our office building, in an unfinished basement, eight teen-aged men are immersed in the world of aerodynamics. For the past week they’ve met with pilots and engineers, learned the elements of flight, visited Chicago’s Air and Water Show and are today, practicing their own flight techniques with simulators. One of these young men told me he wanted to design planes. I challenged him to design a plane that would also contribute to having a positive impact on global warming…

Nearly all of the participants are African American and have been part of other Project Exploration programs this summer. These young men are America’s future – and based on their curiosity they’re building their own. Vincent, Kamal, Alexander, Jordan, Justice and Nick, Dashawn and Jamal remind us the state-by-state snapshot provided by the Schott State Report on Black Males and Education documents a reality that is mutable.

Research put forth by the initiatives like A Broader Bolder Approach to Education helps explain why the gap in achievement – particularly by students of color and students who are poor- is so entrenched. Much of the differences in aspiration and achievement are in large part due to the disparity of opportunities and experiences in out of school time. Summer learning loss and a dearth of readily-accessible, free, high-caliber, interest-based enrichment activities serve to widen the gap; disadvantage compounds over time. Based on Project Exploration’s decade of experience providing youth science programs we also know that when these kinds of opportunities are available, young people – including African American males – will take advantage of them.

It’s absolutely possible to launch the spirits and aspirations of young African American men; but they’re going to need a runway. We need to build it.

Me with Bill Nye the Science Guy at Sci Foo 2010. Self portrait by Bill.

Here it is as promised: the report back from Sci Foo 2010.

When three information-powerhouses (Google, O’Reilly and Nature) convene a bunch of scientists and science-thinkers one of the immediate results is that even waiting on line becomes fun.

I barely boarded the bus taking campers from the hotel to the Googleplex before I had Tom Fuller of nextjump willingly introducing me to the world of internet-based rewards and loyalty programs – which, in turn got us talking about new ways Project Exploration can pull tools from for-profit and internet world and apply them to our youth programs.

This kind of “cross-sector mash-ups” (you have to have the lingo right if you are going to go to Google) is just the kind of thing conference organizers hope will happen. 2010 Sci Foo “Campers” were willing facilitators. Introductory lines at Sci Foo basically came in three forms - What do you do? What are you into? What are you working on? – and you’d never knew what the answer would be; I met filmmakers, writers, inventors, cosmologists, programmers, entreprenuers, chemists, science educators in the first evening alone.

The event kicked off Friday evening and raced through Sunday afternoon. We first got our photos taken, picked up a t-shirt and got our name tags and then it was off to dinner under a tent.

LED light fun provided by Simon Quellen Field as Allison Gopnik looks on.

Within minutes of sitting down I found myself talking with toy maker Simon Quellen Field who, along with inventing, blogging and promoting science with household ingredients, follows Project Exploration’s Twitter feed! With this auspicious beginning the weekend began.

(From left) Conference organizers Sara from Nature, Chris from Google, Tim from O’Reilly, the Gong, Timo from Nature and Cat from Google.

After dinner the 200+ Sci Foo Campers heard from conference organizers and received our first missive: “Come up with three words to introduce yourself.” If you took too long you got the gong so I stuck with the instructions:

“Gabrielle Lyon, Project Exploration. Science. Education. Activist.”

The second missive came from Google co-founder, Larry Page: “Ask yourself, ‘Is what I’m doing going to change the world? If the answer is ‘no’ then maybe you should be doing something else.”

Larry Page at the Googleplex addressing Sci Foo 2010 Campers.

Moments later there was a scramble to get to the boards. Oversized sticky-notes and large sharpie markers were put to work and within about 10 minutes a conference took shape. There were too many sessions to choose from and I went to more than it would be healthy to blog about so here are a few highlights….

The Sci Foo Conference Board

So many sessions to choose from!

Are there too many PhDs in science? This question has been roiling about in academic and policy circles, and, increasingly, more mainstream reporting. The answer depends on what you need them to do. If you need an academic there might be too many PhDs; if you need someone to interpret data but also effectively manage a team of people, work with interdisciplinary groups and communicate what they’re doing there may not be enough qualified PhDs. Geoff Davis, a quantitative analyst at Google, brought an industry perspective to the conversation. He also founded Phds.org – a robust site that ranks PhD programs based on personal priorities, offers career resources and posts a job board for PhDs.

Carl Zimmer offers some science communication "do's" and "dont's."

A session on Three Rules challenged three folks who really know their stuff to reduce it down to three basic rules. Molecular Engineer Eric Drexler offered guidelines for “How to understand everything.” New York Times stringer and Discover blogger Carl Zimmer offered pointers for considering “How are you going to be understood.” He directed participants to his “index of banned words in science writing.” For example, finding yourself inclined to employ the word “utilize” vs. “use.” Don’t do it. Adventure sports enthusiast and theoretical physicist Garrett Lisi offered “Three Rules for Being a Mad Scientist” – which included… you guessed it… Rule Number 4, “Break the Rules.”

Proof Peter Neufeld was where he said he was - getting input on data analysis for the Innocence Project.

In one of the most interesting sessions Peter Neufeld, co-founder of The Innocence Project, turned to the Sci Foo collective and posed some real life problems in search of feedback: how to be more effective and efficient at identifying cases in which innocent people have been wrongly convicted. Could data and analytic techniques at the heart of data-mining and marketing be put to use? The folks in the room seemed to think so.

Project Exploration in the HOUSE!

Paul and I spent a lot of the time talking about Project Exploration students and our personalized approach to making science accessible to students historically overlooked by science education efforts. People were sincerely curious about the obstacles that keep students like those in PE programs from getting involved with science. Paul presented a session on Galloping Crocs and I called a session to ask for help in coming up with a new, non-linear (non “pipeline” metaphor for science education.)

I’ve been working on this issue for a while and eventually I’ll do a full-blown blog piece on it but here are the punch lines from the Sci Foo session. Tim O’Reilly, developmental psychologist and philosopher Allison Gopnik, and documentary filmmaker Noah Hutton were amongst the diverse group who spent an hour considering what a new metaphor needed to provide and some ideas:

• Smartgrid and network models would offer a way to think about science happening everywhere at diverse sites, but ultimately connected. It also offers a measurement rubric – you could measure the number of connections
• Sports and Dance offer models that includes apprenticeships, the idea that you can play right away (jump right in), along with the opportunity to professionalize
• Organic metaphors abounded – a tree with a branching structure; maybe we could do something with “crop yield;” and, finally, a “trellis and vine” – build the trellis and let the vine grow.
• A watershed would allow for directionality; an ecosystem or ecology would help us think about variables in many forms.

Regardless of their professions, some things were just cool for everybody – magnetized materials, Lego-contraptions and especially the liquid sky screens provided by Google for people to test drive. Clusters of physicists and programmers, bloggers and blasters, builders and thinkers all the campers were drawn in to the “immersion” map: a surround-screen version of Google maps where you could fly yourself to the moon, or ask for a ride from an experienced driver for a ride to someplace on Earth. Paul and I tried to find fossil sites in Niger’s Sahara before zeroing in on Chicago’s south side.

Google can now fly you to the moon - or your backyard.

The group at Sci Foo – demographically speaking in terms of race, age, gender seemed pretty representative of science and technology at large – not many African Americans, Latinos or Native Americans and though more women than the group in 2007 certainly less than 50%.

One way to think about the work ahead of us at Project Exploration is to imagine SciFoo 2020 looking like the 2010 Junior Paleontologists… That’s the work we’ve carved out to do.

And so, Larry Page, we’re in the midst of considering, quite seriously and practically YOUR question to Sci Foo Campers: Project Exploration IS doing something that will change the world. And in a few years, our students just might change Sci Foo Camp, too.

7-30-10, Chicago

Heading out tomorrow to SciFoo with Paul.

Where am I going? To an invitation-only conference at Google in Mountain View, California… It’s right near Sunnyvale, California. (As a Buffy fan it’s not lost on me that we’re essentially at the proverbial Hellmouth.)

Google's headquarters, the Googleplex. (Of COURSE they call it that!)

So into the belly of the beast I’m headed with stories and snapshots of Project Exploration’s scientists-in-the-making (AKA our students) in tow.

Sci Foo is conference held yearly at Google since 2005. Three guys –Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, Timo Hannay of Nature and Chris DiBona of Google. (Note: Chris Rocks!!) – invite about 200 or so “thought leaders” involved with science in one way or another to come together for a two and a half-day free-for all for folks to learn from each other and share big (and small) ideas in a great space while being well fed.

There’s a video intro to the conference that was made in 2009 that will give you a feel for what it’s all about.

After you watch the video, you might not need to read any more of my blog posts but that’s your call.

That said, the video is somewhat misleading–it’s polished and well produced. Sci Foo is messy, frenetic even, with ideas and snippets and conversations, demonstrations, arguments, happening at once.  The only thing that is really produced is the food – and HOW! (I’ll give a flavor for the food when I’m actually there; I’m a big fan of food!)

How it works

The conference gets planned the first night in a kind of free-for-all. Attendees propose sessions; if they’re brave, self-centered, or prepared enough they write their session proposals into a slot on the big paper conference “board.”

Sci Foo Omniscient Conference Board

Then, for the rest of the time people go to sessions, hang out talking in the halls, or or on the Google campus. Or they’re eating. (Have I already mentioned I’m looking forward to the food?)

How I know…

At the 2007 SciFoo Conference.

I was lucky enough to be at the 2007 conference, covered in detail by my buddy Bora Zivkovic on Blog Around the Clock.

Gleaning from the Grist

The conference wiki for invitees gives glimpse of what’s to come. The invitee list  includes writers, inventors, artists, economists, graduate students and scientists galore from the States as well as a few from Europe and Latin America. Though it’s called “sci” foo – as in “science” – the invitees have their toes in design, technology, data, social science (behavior, learning, imagination), law, and there are even a few outliers like me who root themselves in education.

We have been encouraged to post session suggestions and get the conversation going in advance of arrival at the Googleplex.  Here’s a sampling of what’s been posted so far:

• How to feed 9 billion people in 2050
• Can the human brain be built by humans?
• How do people get interested?
• Fast forward/SloMo (sneak peek at a new cool camera –and a chance for people who come to the session to brainstorm neat experiments it could be used for)
• Star Trek Transporter: Coming Soon?
• Noninvasive Neural Prosthetics and Beyond…

These might not actually end up being sessions but they’re the kind of things people are thinking about leading up to the conference.

Putting SciFoo to Work for Me. (And You.)

I suggested a session on the wiki yesterday. If I still feel brave enough, and can make it to the session board while there are still slots available, I’m hoping to get some help with a big problem I’ve been chewing on in my work to change the face of science. Here’s what I proposed:

WANTED! A NEW METAPHOR (AKA ‘The Pipeline is the Problem’)

The dominant metaphor used to talk about becoming involved with science is the “pipeline.” This metaphor – which is used to describe the development of science skills through high school, college, graduate school and into the ranks of research and industry – leaves out MOST people. If you CAN do science but choose not to professionally you’ve “leaked out;” if you’re curious about science-y things but don’t want to be a scientist, science isn’t for you. And, I’d argue, worst of all this metaphor has served to entrench the gap in participation and achievement by students of color, students who are poor, and girls. The pipeline concept as been in place since the late 1950s – it’s time for a new one. Let’s do it at SciFoo! Brainstorm, draw, sketch, build a metaphor that can engage a broad and diverse public, capture people’s imagination and help change who gets to do science!

What better way than amidst a bunch of well-fed, geeked-up, super-brainiacs who are designers, engineers, artists and writers to come up with a solution to THIS problem?!

We’ll see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.

Next time, LIVE from GOOGLE!

-gabe

Shout out to SouthSide on the Town’s blog post! In its entirety below!

Thanks SouthSide! (posts, stories, shout-outs and photos coming soon!)

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Hey, blogspot readers, are you brave enough to eat dinner with a dinosaur? SouthSide was …even brave enough to touch a live alligator too! On Friday, this reviewer had the extreme pleasure of attending Project Exploration’s annual dinner and charity auction event at the historically famous Union Station. This nonprofit’s Dinner With A Dinosaur X brought the world of science alive for all of its attendees and honored guests.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary, Project Exploration was cofounded by paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno and Gabrielle Lyon in 1999 as an idea sketched on a napkin. Their goal was to form an organization which would find a way of making science more accessible to students (mostly inner city youth and girls) who otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to it academically. Through after school programs and hands-on field experience during the summer with real scientists, Project Exploration has seen many of its students attending colleges/universities and majoring in science-related fields. Recently this organization received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring on January 6. Also, it received a proclamation by Mayor Richard M Daley (signed on Thursday March 12) for 10 years of service within the community bringing Science and Mathematics to inner city youth and girls. For more information about Project Exploration, visit www.projectexploration.org.

During this dinner-charity event, SouthSide witnessed a live demonstration by Michael Davis, Professor of Chemistry. He showed the fun things that can happen when dipping marshmallows and mini 3 Musketeers candy into dry ice. There were also tents around part of the Great Hall of Union Station with exhibits presented by some of Project Exploration’s students. These students were very knowledgeable in explaining to SouthSide and others the difference between a chicken’s anatomy to human’s or about fossil discovery and how actual paleontologists carefully clean bones and fossils. Another fascinating exhibit at this event was about the many different birds in Illinois and Chicago. There this reviewer met a wonderful young lady named Brittany (age 13) from Calumet Prospective Middle School who was quizzing attendees – “Is The Statement True for Birds, Bats or Both?” Let’s just say, SouthSide needs to take a science class again however she asked Brittany what did she like most about Project Exploration. And according to her, she enjoys learning about forensic science and meeting new scientists to learn new things. She also loves the field trips taken and then showing her teachers what she has learned the next day. Though haven’t deciding on what she wants to be when she grows up, this reviewer expects great things and new discoveries to happen from Brittany when she does.

And SouthSide could see that same excitement and enthusiasm like Brittany’s in the eyes and voices of the other students at the event. They were were certainly passionate about being involved in the programs in which Project Exploration provides. She also met Chicago Public School teachers who are part of Project Exploration programs like Lorel Madden of Seward Elementary School. She was part of a group who went to Montana for an actual dinosaur expedition. According to Ms Madden, it was a life changing experience for her and soon her students will start their own fossil hunt. SouthSide while chatting with Ms Madden held a real T-Rex bone and was told how she herself can tell if a bone is a real dinosaur bone (by sticking her tongue on it – if it’s sticky, then it’s a real dinosaur bone). Plus she touched real coprolite i.e. fossilized dino poop and coal rock.

Besides exhibits, there was a full scale Nigersaurus which was discovered in 1997 by Dr. Paul Sereno. Its scientific name, Nigersaurus taqueti, was derived from where it was found (in Niger) and a French paleontologist, Dr. Philippe Taquet, who led the first fossil expeditions in Niger in the 1960s. Nigersaurus was a bizarre-looking, long-necked planteater which measured in length at 9 meters (30 feet) with more than 500 tiny teeth (in which old teeth were replaced by new ones). Plus there were live “dinosaurs” too. The Chicago Herpetological Society had an array of turtles to snakes for attendees to meet very up close and personal. SouthSide met Rosy the North American Boa Constrictor and a Blue-tongued Skink (from Australia). And yes, she even dared to touch (not hug) a real, live alligator named Bubba (handler Mike of Cold Blooded Creatures stood nearby).

Attendees were encouraged to buy raffle tickets to win prizes such as a Dr. Paul Sereno painted chair, Lucky Strike King Pin Party or a limited edition Suchomimus Claw. Then after dinner, there were items up for bid during the auction part of the program like exploring the gardens of METTAWA MANOR with Bill Kurtis and Donna LaPietra or being part of Sereno Dinosaur Expedition in the Summer of 2011. All proceeds from the raffle ticket sells and auction went to benefit Project Exploration’s youth programs and public outreach. Each dollar goes to expanding access of science and continue impacting the lives of youth and girls as well as send approximately 1000 kids to summer programs this year. Robert Jordan from WGN News was the event’s Master of Ceremonies. Governor Pat Quinn and Senator Dick Durbin were named Honorary Co-Chairs.

It was a fun and memorable learning experience, blogspot readers, for SouthSide. She would like to thank the wonderful staff and volunteers of Project Exploration for the opportunity of meeting the faces who benefit from their programs.

Until next time, support the local scene,
SouthSide

Dinner with a Dinosaur 1. Maggie Daley helps Paul Sereno and Gabrielle Lyon launch a new organization dedicated to personalized science education for Chicago's youth.

The photo above was taken more than 10 years ago at the Chicago Cultural Center. The evening gave birth to Project Exploration.

Tonight we launch our 10th anniversary at Dinner with a Dinosaur X.

And to commemorate the event, Mayor Daley has officially proclaimed March 12th “Project Exploration Day“ in the City of Chicago!

This evening at Union Station we will host more than 480 guests from around Chicago and the country.We’ll have a life-sized dinosaur, live reptiles courtesy our friends and partners from the Chicago Herpetological Society, and our amazing Project Exploration students working their science magic for the guests. Proceeds from the raffle and live auction will help fill the coffers and get us a strong start for summer programs and beyond.

It will be a commencement for our NEXT ten years. Here’s an excerpt from the speech Paul and I will be giving later this evening:

• Inspiring students to graduate high school and go on to further education
• Placing students on a path to science
• Creating a national model

Tune in for a full report next week – with snapshots and stories – and the transcript from keynote speaker Shureice Kornegay.

In the meantime, Happy Project Exploration Day, Chicago. And CONGRATS on our first 10 years! Can’t wait to see what happens in the next decade!

-gabe

President Barack Obama speaking to the Nation January 6, 2010.

January 6th, 2010

9:30pm EST

Today President Barack Obama commended Project Exploration’s Junior Paleontologists program in his remarks to the nation during the second “Educate to Innovate” event. He said,

Before I get to the Presidential remarks, I will go back to the beginning of this incredible day and share some highlights. The 22 Presidential Awardees for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring headed out with our guests to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for the official award ceremony.

Reggie Whitten of the Whitten-Newman Foundation with Project Exploration cofounders Gabrielle Lyon and Dr. Paul Sereno.

 Awards were presented by Dr. John Holdren, Director of Office of Science and Technology Policy and Scientific advisor to the President along with Dr. Aden Bement, Director of the National Science Foundation. But the real stars of the show (other than the awardees) were Dr. Wanda Ward and Dr. Cora Marrett who set the tone of the event with stories from mentees and telling us the event, the day, was more like a commencement than an event – the end of something but also the beginning of something.

We headed out from the award ceremony for a working lunch with representatives from the Office of Science and Technology policy, the National Science Foundation and the Office of White House Council on Women and Girls.  Our group by this time had gotten its groove on and we could raise some of the core ideas that taking shape:

Laura sharing lessons from mentoring K-12 engineering.

Now for the good stuff. THE WHITE HOUSE.

Taking photos of ourselves with photos of President Obama and Michelle in the White House.

We made our way into the White House and took pictures of ourselves with pictures on the walls. Our group finally got settled in the “blue room” where we waited for President Obama. Our room was just above the First Lady’s garden and we craned our necks around the windows for a glimpse. We were hosted by a member of the Navy while we waited for the BIG MOMENT — the MOMENT when President Obama would walk in…. and when he did he looked each person in the eye, shook our hands or gave us a hug and thanked us.

President Obama with the group as we got ready for the photo.

It was just a few minutes but it was GREAT!!!!

Then NEXT the remarks to the press. We had not known until this morning that there would be an event like this. Awardees relocated to the East Room, bedecked with gold, and cameras. Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden were there along with former Chicagoans Secretary Arne Duncan and our Michael Lach.

Arne recognized me and asked congratulated PRoject Exploration. “I hope this is helpful for you – you’re doing such good work.”

Remarks on the Educate to Innovate Campaign and Science Teaching and Mentoring Awards

President Obama entered to great applause and began his remarks to the Awardees for Mentoring, Awardees for Elementary Science TEaching, a host of staff members involved with Educate to Innovate and the nation.

And the best was about to come.

As he moved into the closing President Obama began to describe what “Educate to Innovate” needed to be about at its heart…. (I’m just going to repeat the opening quote because I’m still a little giddy):

(You can watch a webcast of the video courtesy of CSPAN)

It would be enough to end here but actually the day continued- with an hour-long session with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Dr. Holdren at the Willard Hotel. The two awardee groups were convened for a discussion about what it would take to transform (and fast!) science and mathematics teaching in the United States. The two issues that seemed to resonate most with people: 1) raising teachers’ salaries and 2) overhauling schools of education.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking for recommendations from Presidential Awardees.

After Duncan and Holdren left, so did the teachers. Mentors had one last round – a discussion with Michael Lach, Steve Robinson and ?Kumar – they were sincerely curious to hear ideas for what could work, what could be scalable, and some easy-to-do things.

• The minorities of science are not just students of color and girls, they are students who come from families who are poor and students who struggle in school. If we want to transform who gets involved with science we need to create access for these students.
• Out-of-school experiences need to be on the table alongside formal K-12 education – and we need to look at the equity of out-of-school science opportunities as a critical factor.
• We need a new metaphor – the pipeline isn’t helping us move forward.

Michael Lach, ?, and Steve Robinson during the final round of discussions for the day.

The day closed with a dinner at a nearby restaurant. But what satiated our souls was what filled us up after lunch, a moment for our work to be in the sun.

And for me, and all of us at Project Exploration a dream came true today. The President of the United States held up our program as a national model. Our kids are helping the Nation think about how to change the face of science.

All you JPs out there, all you Sisters4Science, Best Science Program Evah’ members, Dinosaur Giants, Advanced Science Team, All Girls Expedition, Team Leaders, Interns, keynote speakers, today was for you.

Project Exploration Cofounders Gabrielle Lyon and Paul Sereno.

Gabe with the Project Exploration Poster

January 5, 2010

Today launched bright and early with group work. The question on the table: what’s up with mentoring?

Laura and Phil

I was part of a group of Awardees mentoring at a programmatic level (in contrast to working as individuals at an institution or looking at how to build mentoring communities institionally, though as we got into the thick of things it became clear that these three strands-  individual, prgorammatic and institutional mentoring are inseparable.

Valerie, Laura and Ashanti

The folks in the “program” group: Valerie Wilson, Leadership Alliance; Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University (who served as scribe, group shepherd and spokesperson. She’s also a whiz with metaphors and similes!); Phil Kutzko, University of Iowa; Kennedy Reed, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Benjamin Flores, University of Texas, El Paso; Vladimir Strelnitski, Maria Mitchell Astronomy Assocation; Ashanti Johnson, Institute for Broadening Participation; Frank Bayliss, San Francisco State University; Stacy Phelps, American Indian Instiute for Innovation.

Phil and Kennedy

Why mention everyone in the group? because they really represented the face and forms of mentoring. They work with students at commuter campuses and Ivy League institutions. Their mentees include first generation college bound students, students who are parents, the only students of color in their departments, the best and brightest – and some students are in more than one category.

Jill (from the National Science Foundation), Vladimir and Ashanti

A full report is really merited but for tonight here are a few highlights of the conversation:

Ben and Stacy

Mentoring is about long term relationships and mentoring over critical junctures; many people giving small amounts of time and some people carefully stewarding everyone along. Students need different kinds of mentors at different moments in their develoment for different things – academic and career advice being just a piece of it all. Mentoring is also about, and must increasingly be about developing talent, not only supporting talent that is already obvious.

Discussion with National Science Board Members

The title quote captures some of what was at the heart of the conversation: when it comes to recruiting and retaining students from historically underrepresented populations to science the pipeline metaphor is too limited – we need to create communities and systems wtih lots of paths and paces; we need to find ways to anticipate and embrace a reality in which the road to degrees in science, and careers in science, come with detours, turn offs, broken-down vehicles. Running out of gas doesn’t mean the trip is over.

Gabe with Dr. Bement, Director of the National Science Foundation, and a Project Exploration Award for Mentoring.

At Project Exploration we say, “You can’t miss the boat – the boat is always leaving.”

Today I left with two dozen new ships ready to take our students on board.

Tomorrow we’ll receive our awards from Dr. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. And, if we’re lucky, we might just get a photo op with President Obama.

Gabe with Dr. Kleppner, Medal of Science Winner, and Eileen Sweeney, Motorola Foundation. Eileen was Project Exploration's guest of honor at the VIP dinner at the Library of Congress.

Stay tuned for more tales. And send me some questions!

Remeber this snapshot? Senior Celebration 2009!

The waning days of 2009 are upon us and Project Exploration is looking forward to a terrific 2010. Thank you for being part of our work, encouraging our students and helping us to spread the word to family, friends and science-enthusiasts everywhere. Thanks especially for following along on our blog and commending our students and scientists for their endeavors.

We launched this blog in May 2009 with a story about Discover Your Summer. Snapshots from our Senior Celebration, updates from the field from the Best Science Program Evah’, the All Girls Expedition and the Junior Paleontologists Program soon followed. We’ve been going strong this fall with Sisters4Science in action, and an amazing public showing of When Crocs Ate Dinos. All of these programs were free for participants. Thanks to people exactly like YOU!

We can always use rocket fuel! Please consider making a donation of any level before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st! Just CLICK HERE and make a tax-deductible donation. The benefits of membership are terrific, and your donation will help us change the face of science, one student at a time.

The January 6th we’ll be in Washington DC representing the nearly 1000 students of Project Exploration and our scientist partners to accept a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring from the White House. Keep an eye out for stories from the DC world – and send us your thoughts and questions.

P.S. Don’t forget to “friend us” on Facebook and stay posted about news you can use and science in the making! We’re at 259 friends and counting. (Oh, and you can become a member of Project Exploration right from our Facebook page).

Happy New Year from all of us at Project Exploration!

Hot on the screen! Earlier this morning “Huffpo” (as I’ve learned it’s called by people way more in the “know-po” than me) published an Opinion Editorial piece I submitted.

Check out “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Science Street?” on the Huffington Post website. It’s a piece I wrote in response to the recent launch of “Educate to Innovate,” a major new national initiative that brings together corporations, foundations and education efforts to light a flame on the bunsen burner of science engagement.

My sense is that we’re going to need to “innovate how we educate” if we’re going to see changes in who gets to do science… but don’t let me spoil the punch line for you… Happy reading, sharing and posting!

-gabe