The Europe branch of Castme - the Commonwealth Association for Science, Technology and Mathematics Educators - is to organise a one-day conference entitled Promoting Science, Technology and Mathematics Careers: Attracting More Students Through Social, Moral and Ethical Issues on November 17.
The conference will be held as part of the activities of the Expo Science Med 2006 on November 13-17 at the University of Malta. This Expo is being organised by a team of full-time students within the National Student Travel Foundation (NSTF) with the help of the International Movement for Leisure in Science and Technology (MILSET).
It is estimated that ESM 2006 will attract more than 10,000 visitors during the event which shall consist in four workshop areas, a hall seating 150 persons, an exhibition area featuring the participants of ESM 2006, the Fusion Expo, the Little Scientists' Village and a special sponsors' exhibition area for platinum and gold sponsors.
The Castme conference is to target national and European issues. The European Union is currently experiencing rapid social, economic and technological change as well as an aging society. It also has the challenge to work towards achieving the Lisbon target that it has set in 2000 to become by 2010 "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustaining economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion".
Such challenges require, within one aspect, that there is a continual provision of science graduates to ensure the constant contribution to innovation and development essential within a knowledge society.
Europe is thus working towards attracting more students to take up science and engineering careers as it competes with other technological countries such as Japan, China and America.
The Bologna and Copenhagen processes are both working towards the restructuring of higher and vocational education across Europe to promote mobility, comparability, transparency and quality assurance of the training provided in the individual EU members.
There remains, however, the challenge of finding ways of attracting more students to science and engineering studies both in the higher education and vocational tracks. In fact, one finds reference to this challenge specifically in the National Reform Programme where Malta states how it plans to work towards reaching the Lisbon targets.
Science educators have for some time looked at the reason for which the number of students choosing to specialise in science- related areas is decreasing steadily. Questions that arise relate to various aspects of the science education system.
Concerns raised included questions such as:
• Why are so few students opting to take up science and engineering studies?
• Why are so few girls attracted to science, technology and mathematics related careers?
• Are science and engineering studies only for the "brainy students"?
• Is it true that the least creative are attracted to science, technology and mathematics?
• Why do students' attitude to science decrease so much during the secondary years?
• Are we teaching science subjects as detached from everyday life?
• What approach would make a more relevant science and technology education to youths?
These are some of the questions which probably any teacher poses during his/her lifetime in schools. Science educators have tried to address a number of these concerns separately or collectively through schemes and approaches which they then tested. However, one must accept that science education in schools has not changed much these past few decades and many students are getting a science education that is more or less the same that which their grandparents got.
The one-day conference will be an opportunity to bring together teachers to reflect and discuss the issue of attracting more students to science. There will be a comprehensive review of the important issues relating to achieving the goals as set in the local National Reform Programme to promote more science and engineering graduates, the opportunity to discuss what the possible problems may be, as well as a few examples of different approaches to science education that may bring about a change in the way that science is taught as well as to how to bring about change in the local education system.
Registration to participate in the conference is free of charge. Teachers and other educators interested in participating in the conference need to register by sending an email to Suzanne Gatt on suzanne.gatt@um.edu.mt. Dr Gatt is responsible for the organisation of the conference.