As the Nation's Report Card shines the light on science achievement in public schools — with Utah above national averages — 13 local teens achieved glowing honors at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, including a $100,000 scholarship and a trip to the Nobel ceremony in Sweden.
Schools have apparently furthered these students' science education. But three of the top winners say there could be some improvements.
American Fork senior Shannon L. Babb, Northern Utah Academy for Math Engineering and Science junior Andrew Gilbert and Woods Cross junior Lindsey Marie Hubley said fourth-grade teachers first interested them in science. But eighth grade lacked the challenge Babb and Gilbert sought.
"By eighth grade, I was beginning to find out most of my scientific learning was outside of the school system," Babb said. "It took until high school for me to be excited about science classes in school."
Gilbert transferred from a traditional school to NUAMES charter school because he wanted more science rigor.
"Science in Utah is lacking horribly — we don't require enough of it, and we don't require the level that we need to require of it," Gilbert said. "Schools need to provide more opportunity to further research skills and fine-tune scientific endeavors. Science is where it's at; without science we'd have nothing."
But such experiences don't indicate Utah's science curriculum lags. The state science core curriculum matches national standards, state curriculum director Brett Moulding said. Utah's eighth-grade scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are above average.
"It depends on the individual teacher that they had," state science specialist Velma Itamura said. "A lot of time students learn from teachers who cared about them . . . I think we have lots of great science teachers and teachers who do a great job."
Laboratory work with eighth-graders is tough, Moulding said. Class sizes are often too large — Utah's are the nation's biggest — for individualized instruction, particularly needed for their maturity level.
Middle school lays groundwork for more advanced science instruction, said Jay Allen, American Fork High science teacher. While students might desire more than the required physical sciences, they often lack the maturity to delve into subjects such as genetics, which requires a background in physics and chemistry and maturity to discuss ethical issues.
"I'm a firm believer that the age level on the biological sciences makes a huge difference on how they'll succeed," Allen said. When junior highs experimented with more science offerings, he said he saw "a definite plunge in students' performance in high school."
The students praise their high school science instruction. Hubley has taken Advanced Placement biology and physics and looks forward to next year's AP chemistry class. But she worries science is pushed to the side in favor of math and English — the cornerstones of the No Child Left Behind Act.
The State Board of Education is mulling whether to require students to take an extra year of science, English and math classes to graduate from high school. The idea: to inject more rigor into high school, as favored by the Utah Legislature. The concern: Students who want to pursue other disciplines, such as technical careers or the arts, would have fewer opportunities to do so.
Hubley shares the latter concerns. She suggests improving science by making classes more interesting.
"A lot of science classes, you just go in, read a textbook and you take tests," she said. "I think science is more interesting. You have to really get into it and understand it. It's not about a textbook. You have to find real-life applications that apply."
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com