Shawn Carlson, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Society for Amateur Scientists

Heather Smith
Director of Program Development, LABRats
Society for Amateur Scientists

America is in trouble.

If the United States is to continue to lead the world in the coming decades, it will need to draw upon a citizenry that is both scientifically literate and socially minded. Unfortunately, America is falling far short. According to the National Science Board (NSB), America is failing to train enough of its citizens to fill its science and technical-related jobs. NSB’s August 14, 2003, report reveals that 17 percent of all science and engineering jobs in America that require a bachelor’s degree are held by foreign-born workers. For masters-level positions the number jumps to 29 percent, and for Ph.D.-level jobs the number reaches a staggering 38 percent. In an increasingly high-tech world, these figures will certainly rise unless we can better educate our children in science and technology. The older kids—grades 6 though 12—are the most critical to reach, because they make choices that could derail a technical career.

It is natural to look to the schools for the solution. Unfortunately, however, when it comes to teaching science and mathematics, America’s schools rank near the bottom of the Western world, we believe, for systemic reasons. The best way for teens to gain a full understanding of how science works and to develop their own interest is to actually do science. The traditional classroom setting makes it difficult to incorporate open-ended student research into the STEM curriculum. Certainly, it is important that we as a nation continue to do everything possible to improve our public schools. However, these institutions are overburdened and unable to meet this challenge by themselves.

To solve the problem, the NSB report calls for "national-level action" to "ensure our country’s capacity in [science and engineering] in an increasingly competitive and changing global labor market." We agree. This proposal outlines a program that would be national in scope, and stand apart from the public school system. It would also be self-sustaining and tailored specifically to identify, to train, and to encourage any young person, grades 6 through 12, with an interest in science to develop that interest and to consider pursuing a technical career.

The Solution — Mentoring: Mentoring outside the classroom is an extremely effective way to excite young adults about science. The results are often remarkable. For example, nearly all of the winners of the Intel Science Talent Search have received extensive help from mentors who live in their communities.

One of these winners is Lisa Glukhovsky, a student at New Milford High School in New Milford, Connecticut. Lisa (right) took first place honors at this year’s Junior Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. With her project, "A Rapid, Accurate Method of Determining the Distance to Near Earth Asteroids," she won more than $75,000 in scholarships and prize money.

Lisa would not have won were it not for the mentoring she received from the Society for Amateur Scientists, specifically from members of the Western Connecticut Chapter (WCCSAS). Moreover, Lisa could not have done her project without the McCarthy Observatory (photo), a world-class educational facility that WCCSAS volunteers built at her high school.

Even when the result isn’t a top prize at a science competition, the relationships that young people develop while working on their own projects with local scientists and technologists enrich their lives. The students get a positive experience with science. By carrying through a project from start to end, they gain self-confidence. Moreover, they learn first-hand that science is as much a process of carefully figuring out how the world works, as it is the facts discovered by that process. Mentored students learn that the process of science boils down to a simple phrase—"make sure that you aren’t fooling yourself." They learn to apply that kind of care in all areas of their lives. And mentors provide positive role models of people who give back to their communities. Ordinary classroom instruction can never provide these benefits to the degree that mentors can.

Taking Mentoring Nationwide: Although community-based mentors have already proven their potential, there is no national effort to organize this resource, and so they achieve only a fraction of their potential. In our view, they represent the single greatest unused weapon in the fight for science literacy. Nearly every community in the United States is home to scientists and engineers—working and retired, professional and amateur—who would love to help spread their own passion for science and for public service to the next generation. What’s more, their passion for science and technology is truly infectious—and it will infect any receptive young person they work with.

The challenge is to find a way to integrate these local experts into the lives of young men and women nationally. In addition to increasing the quality of STEM education for all children in grades 6 through 12, the program must also encourage participation by underrepresented groups, such as girls and minorities.

To answer that challenge, we propose to create a highly structured program, called LABRats, to offer young men and women a place to come and explore under the mentorship of adult science experts drawn from their own or nearby communities. Each local organization would be a place where anyone, including those who are often outcasts (the "nerds"), could find acceptance for being who they are—and where everyone would be rewarded for following their own passions in science and technology.

But more than that, LABRats would teach good citizenship and help young people to live rewarding lives by directing each member’s interest in science towards developing their self-esteem, building their character, and instilling a strong commitment to community service.

LABRats has a unique set of goals, with two main areas of emphasis for young adults in grades 6 through 12:

1. To mentor students in exceeding national science literacy standards and conducting open-ended research, and
2. To use science as a vehicle for personal development of self-esteem, leadership, and good citizenship.

Once developed, LABRats will be a self-sustaining national program that will:

1. Encourage the participation of girls and minorities in STEM.
2. Maintain young adults’ interest in science though the teenage years when career choices are made.
3. Establish local, regional, and national communities of like-minded youth and adults who share a passion for STEM, and
4. Provide opportunities for higher education in STEM through scholarships.

Profile of a LABRat: LABRats will be open to all young men and women in grades 6 through 12. However, the program will certainly not attract all kids. Members will be self-selected by their intrinsic interest in science and successful completion of an introductory "On-Ramp" project, that is designed to "bring them up to speed" so they can participate in LABRats activities. It will therefore not be a common-denominator type program that must teach students with no desire to participate. That is why LABRats will be able to create a national fellowship of like-minded young people and adults who want nothing more than to learn science and to teach it to others.

Model for Structure: The design is based on current science education research and successful aspects of other long-standing youth organizations, particularly those that teach skills as part of a program of character building. One such organization is the Boy Scouts, and elements of the program have been modeled on their success.

Packs and Pack Structure: LABRats will organize young people into "packs." The individual packs will be led by local adult volunteers and will meet regularly to develop and maintain a sense of community. The packs will meet one weekday evening each week for 2.5 hours to work on projects and advance each member’s science skills. These meetings will take place in the evenings to allow adults with regular jobs to participate. The packs will also meet one weekend each month for a fun science-related experience, like taking data for a NASA experiment, going into the field with an experienced ecologist, or taking a behind-the-scenes tour of a local natural history museum. In addition, the packs will be sub-divided into separate "Groups," with elected Group Leaders and Assistant Group Leaders to organize and run Group activities, including after-school projects. This structure will be entirely analogous to Patrols in Boy Scouts.

Meeting Organization: All members, grades 6 through 12, will participate in the same pack meetings. Mixing kids of such different ages would not work in a typical classroom, and so the learning environment must be structured in a decidedly non-classroom way. The Boy Scouts do this by rapidly changing activities and by emphasizing teamwork and social responsibility, with older members mentoring the younger ones.

Gender Segregation: The packs will be strictly segregated by gender. Studies show that adolescent girls and boys learn science and mathematics much better when they are not distracted by the inevitable social and sexual issues that arise when they work in mixed groups. This is especially true for girls. Strict gender segregation is the best way to train young women to be leaders in science.

Inter-pack Collaboration and Competition: Collaboration among packs will be encouraged locally and nationally. Locally, boys and girls groups may work together on science-based community service projects. On a national level, each member will be encouraged to use the LABRats website to communicate with members with similar interests in other packs across the country. For example, the Web site will organize "rapid response teams" of young people who volunteer to take data on various transient phenomena that may occur in their areas. Boys and girls groups will also come together through a series of science competitions run by the national organization which will pit one pack against another as they vie for top honors on local, regional, and national levels.

Rank-Based Advancement: Every young person who goes through the LABRats program will receive a broad-ranging inquiry-based introduction to all major fields of science. By demonstrating an ever-increasing level of competence in basic science skills, as well as showing an increasing awareness of how science serves humanity, each member will advance through a series of ranks. The highest rank will be analogous to Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts, and will be quite difficult to obtain. Along with the core studies, members will be able to tailor the program to their own interest by earning elective science badges.

Mentor-based Independent Study: Independent study with professional and amateur scientist mentors will be focused on inquiry-based activities to prepare members to ultimately pose and answer their own questions through open-ended research. Conducting open-ended research is a complex process, and this type of mentoring will ensure that older members are well-prepared to be successful.

Character Development: LABRats will also emphasize the great human virtues like self-esteem, respect for one’s self and one’s fellows, citizenship, and the value of community service. All members will participate in organized public-service events and be encouraged to focus on things that they can do to make the world a better place to live. In this way, LABRats will prepare young people to live productive lives no matter what they choose to do as adults.

Higher Education and Scholarships: LABRats will encourage participants to pursue higher STEM education in several ways. We intend to make the highest rank so difficult to earn that anyone who does so will be recognized by colleges and universities all over the country as being a person of great drive and solid scientific talent, in other words, a perfect person for recruitment. Ultimately, we anticipate that businesses, foundations, and even some individuals will sponsor LABRats scholarships for top participants to stimulate members to excel in fields these entities wish to encourage. In addition, all participants who stay the course, even if they don’t achieve the highest rank, will exceed national science literacy standards and be well-prepared to succeed in college-level STEM courses.

Because of the poor quality of urban schools, many colleges find it difficult to identify those young men and women from urban areas who have what it takes to succeed academically. By keeping the academic standards of LABRats very high, we hope to be able to create a program that will vet its participants for college scholarships. Any organization wishing to increase STEM participation among underrepresented communities will be able to look to LABRats to supply candidates who have the tools to succeed. In this way, we hope LABRats will become a vehicle for moving talented and driven young people out of America’s inner-cities and ghettos and into her finest colleges and universities.

Uniting Force for Other Programs: By promoting participation in educational science-related activities, LABRats will be a uniting force among informal science education programs. LABRats will help populate and disseminate other programs by developing enthusiastic and qualified volunteers and participants and by including references to and materials from these other programs within the LABRats website and program.