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ALUMNI CORNERColumbia’s Science InitiativesBy Jess H. Drabkin ’79 There is a crisis in science education. The United States, which once ranked third among countries awarding science and engineering undergraduate degrees, now ranks 17th, according to New York’s Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. Professor David Helfand, chair of the Department of Astronomy and co-chair of the Frontiers of Science Program, also sees a steep decline in the science skill sets of students who are graduating high school. He believes that the manner in which students are taught science has created an “anti-intellectual attitude” in which students may be well-prepared to excel on standardized tests but have little real aptitude for applying science. Helfand describes it as a “soul-destroying focus on metrics” that produces intense frustration for teacher and student. “Students need to understand the language and culture of science,” says Donald Hood, James F. Bender Professor in Psychology and professor of ophthalmic sciences. “Our colleges and universities are not doing an adequate job of producing students who are good consumers of science … people who can understand the great debates in science that will become part of the great political debates in our society in the coming years.” Literacy in 21st century society will require increasing knowledge and comprehension of science. Consistent with its leadership role in steadfastly holding to the Core Curriculum while other academic institutions have abandoned such rigorous requirements, Columbia has stepped into a leadership role in the teaching of science, and it deserves alumni support. Frontiers of Science: Frontiers of Science (FOS), a pilot program now in its fourth year, is a one-semester course taken by all College students as a requirement of the Core Curriculum. It is aimed at teaching first-year students that science, in Helfand’s words, is “not just a set of facts that you memorize, but a set of techniques for examining the world.” The course covers such diverse areas as astronomy, climate change, biodiversity, neuroscience and nanoscience, and emphasizes the common threads that cut across scientific disciplines. FOS is designed to increase interest in science by teaching students compelling, state-of-the-art material, rather than requiring them to first take a series of ever-more specialized preparatory courses before gaining access to current research. The structure of the class is part lecture by some of Columbia’s world-class scientists and part seminar, and Columbia’s science faculty is continually striving to improve it. Darcy Kelley, HHMI Professor of Biological Sciences and FOS co-chair, has been working with Frontiers of Science faculty to develop an online resource that includes lectures (videos and podcasts), problem sets, suggested experiments and background readings, in addition to the online textbook written by Helfand, Scientific Habits of Mind. FOS also has a public Web site: www.fos-online.org. First-years who were not planning to major in science but who did well in FOS may participate in a new program called Frontiers of Science Try-Out Research (FOSTOR), which will provide them with paid laboratory experience during the summer in an attempt to attract them to science. Beyond the goal of making science a part of the intellectual discourse for the liberal arts student, the College and the University are seeking to ensure that Columbia continues to improve the academic experience for all students as well as to increase the number of science graduates. Recruiting Science Students: Since 1999, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has been working in close collaboration with the College’s senior science faculty to increase the number of students, who, if admitted to Columbia, would major in science. The faculty reads 500–600 applications each year and recommends approximately 125 students who they believe will be more likely to graduate with a degree in science. The result has been that today, approximately 85 percent of students who are admitted with an interest in science graduate as science majors, up from 60 percent before the program was initiated in 1999. Rabi Scholars: Each year, the College selects incoming first-year students who are exceptionally talented in the sciences and are named Rabi Scholars, guaranteeing them paid summer internships in scientific research. The College currently has 42 Rabi scholars. Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences Nicholas Christie-Blick, who chairs the Rabi Scholars program, views it as “extraordinarily successful in attracting talented science students to Columbia.” The program enables Columbia to compete with the top schools in the nation for some of the best science students. In fact, seven of the last 12 College valedictorians have been Rabi Scholars. Northwest Corner Science Building: The 14-story Northwest Corner (NWC) Science Building, which the University is constructing at Broadway and West 120th Street, will provide critical new research and academic facilities for chemistry, biology, engineering and physics. The 188,000-square-foot building, designed by acclaimed architect Jose Rafel Maneo, will house a 200-seat lecture hall, café, two floors dedicated to a science library and classroom space and seven laboratory floors. Construction costs are estimated at $179 million, with an anticipated completion date of fall 2010. According to Ann McDermott, asoociate v.p. for academic planning and science initiatives in the Arts and Sciences, “We expect the NWC building to provide much-needed and excellent quality laboratory space, and to activate opportunities for inter-school and interdepartmental collaboration.” E3B: Columbia has continued to expand its horizons in the sciences, and in 2001 established the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology to enhance its position in the biological sciences. The creation of E3B marked the first time in more than 40 years that Columbia established a new department. E3B brings to Columbia the study of the natural world, from ecosystems to the biosphere, including all plant, animal and microbial species. Its mission is to educate a new generation of natural scientists whose training in ecology and evolution can be brought to bear on some of humanity's most pressing environmental issues. These include climate change, biodiversity loss, emerging diseases and achieving environmental sustainability. E3B benefits from its association with the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), a consortium that includes the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society (formerly known as the New York Zoological Society; i.e., The Bronx Zoo) and the Wildlife Trust, a leading non-governmental organization that focuses on wildlife conservation. Together with CERC, E3B offers extraordinary opportunities for students in field and laboratory research. Among the five CERC partners, there are nearly 700 field sites globally from which students choose to conduct research. A student who majors in E3B can elect to perform research that is mentored by a research scientist from one of the five institutions, which becomes part of his or her senior thesis. Majors also are expected to take policy-related courses, usually in such areas as economics and political science, in the hope that students will learn how to translate their science skills for use by policymakers and the general public. E3B recently created a newly-endowed professorship in sustainable development, which will add a faculty member who will focus on the teaching and research of sustainability science. SURF: The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, run by the Department of Biological Sciences, offers summer research fellowships to a select group of motivated undergraduates who will benefit from the opportunity for hands-on laboratory research. Participants in the competitive 10-week program receive a stipend of $4,000 and work on independent study projects under the guidance of research scientists, either in the Department of Biological Sciences on the Morningside Heights campus or in the biomedical labs at the Health Sciences Center. All of these initiatives indicate the depth of Columbia’s commitment to improving and enhancing departmental programs and courses of study in the sciences. While Frontiers of Science represents an important recognition by the College that the 21st century requires knowledge and literacy in the sciences for all students, the creation of E3B is an important step in promoting serious scientific education and research in areas that may very well be vital to our survival. Programs such as the Rabi Scholars are helping to encourage more top science students to attend the College, and facilities like the NWC Science Building will complement this effort. As alumni, we need to support the initiatives of the College and the University to expand and enrich the study of science in undergraduate education.
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