Young scientists at work

The sad state of science education in U.S. secondary schools is rightfully lamented by officials, concerned parents and students who understand that a strong foundation in the subject is basic to a well-rounded education. Despite the concern, science scores for U.S. students continue to lag behind their international peers. While the overall picture is discouraging, some U.S. students do demonstrate excellence at the highest levels of science. Students from California and Tennessee are the latest examples.

Angela Zhang, from Cupertino, Calif., and Cassee Cain and Ziyuan Liu, from nearby Oak Ridge, Tenn., were winners in the Siemens Foundation's annual science competition. Zhang won the individual award and Cain and Liu won top team honors in the contest. Zhang won a $100,00 scholarship. The Oak Ridge team will share a similar grant.

The students' research is cutting edge, the type that requires a deep understanding of scientific principles and a wide mastery of subject matter. Zhang's winning project, for example, created a tiny particle that can deliver cancer drugs directly to tumor cells without affecting nearby cells that are healthy. The particle still requires additional research and clinical trials before it can be used on patients, but her work already has won praise from respected scientists in the field.

Cain and Liu, students at Oak Ridge High School, won for research that used video gaming technology to analyze the motion involved in walking. They hope the software they developed can be used to help those with prosthetic limbs in developing countries to improve their gait. Currently, such help is only available at sophisticated labs and hospitals. Since the software the team used in their project is available almost everywhere, experts say it is likely to be employed in far-flung places in a relatively short period of time.

Zhang was motivated by personal experience. One of her great grandfathers had liver cancer and a grandfather died of lung cancer when she was in middle school. Her research, she said, was fueled by her desire to answer her own questions about why cancer causes death and about ways to address the disease. Cain and Liu, well-versed in video game technology, used that familiarity to develop a new way to approach a long-standing problem. Zhang, Cain and Liu might be seniors in high school, but their approach to science certainly was adult and professional.

Their work and the achievements of a relative handful of similarly exemplary students prove that the United States can compete at the highest levels of science. Progressive schools, excellent teachers and supportive parents are fundamental to their study and research.

The problem is that a considerable number of bright students don't get similar support and guidance. Indeed, many capable youngsters purposefully steer clear of the sciences, wrongly believing that the subjects are too hard or boring. That mindset can be altered, but only if policymakers, educators, communities and parents provide the assets -- academic and financial -- to make change possible.

If they are unwilling to do so, secondary science education in the United States likely will continue to produce a handful of brilliant students like the winners of the Siemens and other competitions. It's equally true, though, that the nation will be unable to regain the international primacy in the sciences that its students once held if those changes are not implemented.

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