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Banneker Newsletter January 2009
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The challenge ahead is real. Opportunities in the fields of math and science abound, and African Americans must be positioned to take advantage of them. |
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT GREETINGS!! A new day is dawning in America! We face difficult times ahead, but with a new sense of freedom, purpose, and possibilities. This is a great time to be a scientist! Let’s pray for new and better outcomes in the 2009 budget for the America Competes Act. Congress passed the Act last year but zero dollars were appropriated for its implementation. Despite all the media attention afforded The Green Revolution, we still have a very long way to go to heighten our national sense of urgency regarding the need to act on what I refer to as the Sputnik of the 21st Century. This is the triple threat to our national security of global warming, energy independence, and national competitiveness. These are not unrelated challenges. My friend, Leon Feurth, calls them social tsunamis. They are on the move and will inexorably overtake us if we fail to act quickly. I believe that African Americans are uniquely positioned to do the nation a great service in this regard. The Black science community in America is robust, productive, and 500,000 strong – not as large as it should be, could be, will be, but still quite substantial. I have been saying for over a year now that our assuming responsibility for promoting awareness of the importance of these issues, keeping them high on the national agenda, and participating actively in evolving solutions would have a salutary effect on the stature of Black scientists in America. We care about this at the Banneker Institute because our mission is to increase the number of African Americans involved in STEM fields. A prominent, active, and engaged Black science community would provide a wonderful backdrop against which to suggest to our young people that these fields could be a part of their future as well. For better and for worse, we have owned a piece of this great nation from the very beginning. While it is true that the nation’s economy was built on our backs, it is also true that Crispus Attucks, a Black man, was the first person to die in defense of this nation at the start of the American Revolution. And we now stand poised to install an African American as the nation’s 44th President. I submit to you that the natural path of evolution from this position of sacrificial service is toward a position of service-oriented leadership in matters crucial to the nation’s survival. Join the Network of Networks and become a part of the solution! Thank you, Claudia C. Pharis SCIENCE MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATIONS HONORED The third annual Benjamin Banneker Legacy Awards Ceremony has been proclaimed the best yet! The science membership organizations were out in force. Dr. John Slaughter, Former Director of NSF, President of Occidental College in Los Angeles, Chancellor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and currently President and CEO of NACME, won the Benjamin Banneker Lifetime Achievement Award. Our Keynote Speaker, Reg Weaver, former President of the NEA, and Carl Mack, Executive Director of NSBE who delivered the Call to Action, each in turn had our audience full of staid scientists on their feet cheering!! Dr. Slaughter, the nation's premier African American scientist, and Reg Weaver, the nation's premier African American educator, have agree to work together to forward the Banneker mission. This cooperation carriers with it the promise of bringing the science community and the educator community together to improve the quality of STEM education available in under-resourced classrooms around the country. The theme of the 2008 Awards was “Alignment, Accountability, and Leadership! The focus of the event was Black science membership organizations and their role not only in increasing the number of African Americans involved in STEM fields, but also in helping to shape national science policy. The membership organizations honored for their service were: American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE), National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG), National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), and the National Society of Black Engineers. Receiving the Award for youth science membership organizations was Maryland MESA. The event drew strong participation by sponsors who were delighted because it gave them the opportunity to connect with the leadership of the Black science membership organizations. Lockheed Martin did not sponsor as a company, but five Lockheed Martin employees attended. Boeing sponsored and was there in force. We had huge support and participation from the Navy, with two flag officers in attendance: Navy Surgeon General Admiral Robinson, and Commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command, Admiral McCoy. The Exxon Mobil Foundation continued their strong support, and we welcome the personal involvement of their Foundation President, Gerald McElvy. We also wish to express our gratitude to Areva, the Edison Electric Institute, Dr. Bruce and Aulana Peters, Ms. Linda Munich, The Association of American Medical Colleges, The American Institute of Physics, The American Society of Civil Engineers, The American Mathematical Society, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for their generous sponsorship. Each year the Awards Ceremony provides a launching platform for the Banneker work program for the coming year. Accordingly, Banneker Institute President, Claudia Pharis, announced that the Institute’s focus in 2009 would be on engaging educators in the Network of Networks. The 2008 Student Showcase was again an attention grabber. The Students’ projects explored a variety of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) topics including Solar Energy, Nuclear Energy, Geothermal Energy, Wind, Biomass, and Electricity. The students gave outstanding presentations while answering questions from the crowds of gala attendees. To view photos of the 2008 Student Showcase, click here.
For complete Finalist and Presenters biographies please click here NETWORK OF NETWORKS ROUNDTABLE The June 3rd Network of Networks Meeting was a huge success! With Dr, John Slaughter, President of NACME, as Convener, House Majority Whip, Congressman James Clyburn, as Keynote Speaker, and David K. Owens, Executive Vice President of the Edison Electric Institutes, as MC, the Black science membership organizations and University faculty gathered on Capitol Hill for a spirited Roundtable to launch this strategy. Through the Network of Networks, STEM membership organizations will work with educators to increase the quality of science and math education available in educationally disadvantaged K-12 classrooms. In addition, it will mobilize Black scientists to add their voices, their unique perspectives, and their creativity to the national conversation surrounding important science policy issues like national competitiveness, alternative energy, and global warming. The Network of Networks was deemed a viable mechanism for increasing the quality of science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education available in under-resourced classrooms. The followings next steps were identified:
To learn more about the Network of Networks please visit the website and view the conference proceedings at www.thebannekerinstitute.org. UPCOMING BEST PRACTICES SYMPOSIUM In celebration of Black History Month, the Benjamin Banneker Institute for Science and Technology will hold a best practices symposium for K-12 interventions by science membership organizations. This symposium will occur on February 25, 2009 in Washington DC on Capitol Hill. Papers are sought describing successful strategies. Authors of selected papers will form the panel on February 25th. The symposium will be built around lunch and dinner, and will include workshops and a concluding plenary. The symposium output will be broadly shared to improve the quality of science education in under-resourced classrooms around the country. Papers should be brief (no more than 10) pages and should be submitted to info@thebannekerinstitute.org. Submission deadline is February 10, 2009. Papers should describe the design of programs employed by your organization to serve the science education and/or exposure needs of K-12 students including, where available and relevant, such program elements as:
The objective of the symposium is to facilitate collaboration and to begin the process of taking successful interventions to scale. LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES We have said that it is important that Black STEM professionals participate in shaping national science policy. Banneker staff is working on three legislative proposals to submit for review through the Network of Networks:
We welcome your suggestions for legislative proposals and as well as you comments on the ones we have underway. DECADE OF BLACKS IN SCIENCE TRACKING MECHANISM As a programmatic element of the Decade of Black of Science, a baseline of the status of African Americans in STEM disciplines has been created. This baseline is intended to track the performance of African Americans in the STEM pipeline from kindergarten to post-doctoral level. At the K-12 level, African American scores on various math and science testing and assessments mechanisms are tracked. At the associate through doctoral level the numbers of Black students pursuing STEM disciplines are tracked. To the extent permitted by available data, The Banneker Institute will track this information for the 10 years that marks the Decade of Blacks in Science (2007-2017). Gaps in the data will be filled as missing data becomes available. For the time being, reports will be presented in summary form as available data are not sufficiently conformable to permit presentation of the kind of charts originally envisioned. The nation’s data systems need serious attention if we are to be able to monitor our progress toward national competitiveness. To view the Benjamin Banneker Institute Baseline please click here. DECADE OF BLACKS IN SCIENCE The Decade of Blacks in Science is a campaign to mobilize, co-ordinate and coalesce the human and material recourses needed to solve the problem of the low level of participation of African Americans in STEM fields. It grew out of the Year of Blacks in Science declared by Catalyst in 2006, and is embarked upon in recognition of the amount of work it will take to close that gap between where we are and where we need to go. The response of the Black Science Community to this initiative has convinced us that we can move the needle of this important issue.
Join the Banneker Institute as a collaborating partner in pursuit of this important mission. The four possible levels of collaboration are: Click your level of interest to find out more. OUR SPONSORS The success of The Benjamin Banneker Institute for Science and Technology’s programs depend on the generous contributions of our partners. The following organizations have demonstrated a commitment to our mission. To learn more about sponsorship and collaboration opportunities, please click here. We would like to thank our new sponsors* for joining in support of the “Decade of Blacks in Science.”
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A Project of Catalyst |
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