The end of June brought with it the closing of BU’s Science and Mathematics Education Center (SMEC). Inspired in part as a response to the landmark 1983 report on education, “A Nation at Risk,” the Center was created to address national demand for better science and mathematics education. For more than twenty years, SMEC admirably filled this role, bringing together BU’s top research scientists and education professionals to develop a series of innovative new approaches to teaching STEM subjects.
One could argue that the origins of Boston University’s Science and Mathematics Education Center (SMEC) actually go back to the sudden appearance in 1957 of a tiny silver ball transmitting a faint signal from a distant orbit in outer space. The ball was Sputnik, the first man-made satellite—an achievement not of American technology but of Soviet determination. The shocking realization that our Cold War rivals had accomplished such an astounding technological feat had profound repercussions, culminating most directly in the “space race,” but also setting off a wave of soul-searching among academics and educators embarrassed at the prospect of the country having lost its scientific and technological edge.
An immediate response to the rude awakening of Sputnik—above and beyond putting our own satellites in orbit—was to launch an education offensive. Fearing that schools in the USSR were superior to American schools, Congress reacted by passing the National Defense Education Act of 1958, one of a suite of science initiatives launched by the federal government to bolster the nation’s technological sophistication and power.
Since Sputnik, America has been shaken by a number of technological or economic crises, and each time, the effectiveness of American education in science and technology has been called into question. SMEC owed its immediate existence to a crisis ignited by a report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform, produced by President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education in 1983. Considered a landmark in American educational history, the report maintained that America’s schools were failing, resulting in a call for reform at local, state and national levels.
In particular, A Nation at Risk cited deficiencies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. In response, scientists and educators across the country were challenged to come up with ways to improve instruction in these critical areas. At BU, faculty members and deans in the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Education got together to meet this challenge, and in 1989 entered discussions with the Provost on how the University could lend its support to improving STEM education.
At this time, a cadre of BU professors with a passion for science and technology education came forward with a unique approach to STEM education. At CAS, professors Kenneth Brecher, Robert Devaney, H. Eugene Stanley and Glenn Stevens, with colleagues in the School of Education (SED) and the College of Engineering (ENG), developed a model for a program to improve STEM education that would be linked to research funded by the National Science Foundation and other agencies. The end result of these discussions was the creation of the Science and Mathematics Education Center in 1990.
As a cross-university center, SMEC’s core consisted of CAS science and mathematics faculty members, SED science and mathematics education professors, and professors from the College of Engineering. SMEC—BU’s STEM program—was the only STEM program in the country in which the colleges of education and arts and sciences collaborated. The great success of SMEC’s programs can be attributed in part to the formal review each received by SED’s education professionals.
SMEC’s primary purpose was to improve the quality of formal college and pre-college science and mathematics instruction and materials, and to promote informal and public science education. Over the course of its history, the Center addressed these issues by leveraging the resources of faculty members from across the University to develop new materials and technologies to help students acquire science and mathematics skills more effectively. SMEC also served as a resource to elementary and secondary schools by designing development and training programs for pre-college science and mathematics teachers.
In time, SMEC emerged as a hub for pre-college and informal science and mathematics education programs across the University. Throughout its existence, SMEC drew on the talents of the University’s best professors, who developed a wide range of techniques and methodologies to improve the quality of instruction in the STEM subjects in elementary and secondary education. Some of the best known and most successful of these programs include the following:
On Growth and Form: Learning Probability Concepts by Doing Science (OGAF)—Designed by H. Eugene Stanley, professor of physics and director of the Center for Polymer Studies, this project used computer technology as a resource for teaching specific topics in mathematics and science. It focused on random processes in nature and their strong connection to concepts in probability and fractal geometry. Computer simulations and visualizations were used to aid the understanding and study of phenomena not visible to the naked eye, such as the growth of snowflakes or the disordered geometric configurations of polymer chains.
Learning Science Through Guided Discovery: Liquid Water and Molecular Networks (WAMNET)—Also designed by Professor Stanley, this project used powerful computer workstations and supercomputers to explore the submicroscopic world of water. Through advanced graphics and real-time simulations, students learned about the properties of water at a molecular level. WAMNET developed a cycle of hands-on activities, games and experimentation, combined with computer animation that allowed students to discover concepts on their own.
Quantum Science Across Disciplines (QSAD) —This project, conceived by Peter Garik, clinical associate professor of education, and Dan Dill, professor of chemistry, introduced high school students and undergraduates in biology, chemistry and physics to quantum science through activities that integrated computer modeling tools, resource databases, and hands-on experiments. The materials were designed to introduce quantum science at levels appropriate for interdisciplinary inquiry with hooks and paths between biology, chemistry and physics. QSAD also allowed education researchers to observe how the students responded to new, technology-rich approaches to teaching interdisciplinary science.
Project LITE: Light Inquiry Through Experiments—Designed by Kenneth Brecher, professor of astronomy and physics and SMEC co-founder and director, Project LITE originated as a two-year proof-of-concept project involving materials development, course instruction, and student learning assessment. Project LITE has continued to be funded for over 15 years. The project developed a set of integrated educational materials, including take-home laboratory experiments, written guides, Web-based software, and lecture demonstrations, all designed to explain the nature of light, optics, color, and visual perception. One of the project’s major innovation was a set of “homelabs”— experiments using inexpensive optical materials that students could conduct in their dormitory rooms. The project also has produced over 300 software applications for exploring visual perception.
GK-12: A Blueprint for Integration of High School & Middle School Science and Mathematics: The Virtual Science Laboratory—A collaborative effort by a number of SMEC professors, the purpose of the program was to expose graduate students to the K -12 environment, establish teacher-graduate student relationships, and to bring university-generated science ideas into K-12 classrooms. The project brought together graduate student fellows in science, mathematics and engineering from across BU, School of Education faculty members and teachers from local schools systems.
Contemporary Mathematics and Technology as a Driving Force for School Reform—Developed by Professor Devaney, this project was a collaborative effort between Boston University and several school districts in the Boston area. Its purpose was to train high school mathematics teachers to incorporate new topics from dynamical systems and fractal geometry into the secondary school mathematics curriculum (grades 7-12). Teachers attended seminars during the summer and learned the new knowledge base. They also used computers, software and related materials to gain the practical experience needed to explore the new mathematical concepts in their classrooms. It was anticipated that within five years the teachers would have enough confidence with the new topics to incorporate them into the mathematics curricula at their schools.
Focus on Mathematics—Professor Stevens served as the P.I. on this community-focused initiative. Boston University, five school districts in the Greater Boston area (Arlington, Chelsea, Lawrence, Waltham, and Watertown Public Schools) and the Education Development Center, are creating a targeted Math and Science Partnership focusing on mathematics teaching and learning in grades 5-12. The Partnership’s approach to increasing student achievement and teacher quality is through three inter-related programs that provide teachers with solid content-based professional development, place students into rigorous courses and curricula, and establish a mathematical community in which mathematicians and precollege educators work together to put mathematics at the core of 5-12 mathematics education. The project expects to impact over 19,000 students and 400 teachers across the five school districts.
SMEC also was highly successful at fostering informal science education through collaboration with local science-focused institutions. One such project with the Boston Museum of Science brought together the museum’s exhibit designers with SED and Department of Physics faculty members to develop new exhibits, including some that have become permanent installations at San Francisco’s Exploratorium.
During its twenty-three years of operation, SMEC generated more than $45 million in grants from such sponsors as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA, as well as grants from private foundations and corporations and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The major impact of the Center inside BU was to promote creative collaborations across disciplines. SMEC brought together faculty members from a variety of CAS departments, including Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Psychology; from the School of Education, and from the College of Engineering. All of these SMEC participants found partners for grant proposals that otherwise would not have been possible, resulting in multiple collaborations for educational materials development, K-14 professional development, and science education research. SMEC exemplified the idea of “One BU,” inviting and nurturing innovative educational initiatives whether or not they originated at the Center.
Beyond BU, SMEC developed cooperative educational research and development projects with local, state, and national resource centers and corporations involved in science, mathematics, and technology education, including the Boston Museum of Science, the Boston Children’s Museum, the Educational Development Center (EDC), the Technical Education Research Center (TERC), and the Concord Consortium.
As BU’s research profile evolved in recent years, the role of developing educational material to support STEM-related education has diffused throughout the University, and the need for a centralized SMEC diminished. In addition, as the future of STEM education funding from the federal government has become more uncertain, the SMEC funding model, which has only received IDC support for its administration, became less tenable. These factors contributed to the decision to deactivate the SMEC at the end of FY2013. During its more than twenty years as a fixture on the BU campus, SMEC achieved an impressive list of accomplishments as a center dedicated to research and development of STEM educational materials while playing a leading role in student, teacher and public STEM education.