Friends, I know that science and engineering have taken much of the blame for much of our world's environmental woes. Much of this blame is rightfully placed. The sad result of many decades of blaming scientists and engineers (and their employers) for these environmental disasters (global warming, ozone depletion, water and air pollution to name only a few) has resulted in a whole generation of youth who abhor the sciences.
As a teacher of Chemistry and Physics, I see the tragic results of this process every day: students who only take science courses because they are required to; who have absolutely no plans to major in science or engineering in university.
As a former chemical engineer, I have been on a personal mission these past eight years to show students that their blame of scientists and engineers in misplaced... that whatever the past has given us, we will only be saved by informed, inspired and dedicated scientists and engineers who will do what it takes to solve the environmental and energy problems that plague our world.
I have been able to have a small success in my own little part of the world here in Madera: as both a teacher and the head of the science department of my school, we have in a few short years become a school of science-impaired youths, to one of the highest-performing schools in the state in science.
We have done this in three ways: First, we make science fun; second, we make sure that the knowledge gained by the students is relevant to their lives; and third, we take the mystery out of science to make the learning of science easy.
In the near future, I will expand on how we have accomplished these three. Thank you for reading; let me know what your ideas are.
Larry
Here's more from Obama on his support for increased funding for research:
"...today, we are clearly under-investing in research across the spectrum of scientific and engineering disciplines. Federal support for the physical sciences and engineering has been declining as a fraction of GDP for decades, and, after a period of growth of the life sciences, the NIH budget has been steadily losing buying power for the past six years. As a result, our science agencies are often able to support no more than one in ten proposals that they receive, arresting the careers of our young scientists and blocking our ability to pursue many remarkable recent advances. Furthermore, in this environment, scientists are less likely to pursue the risky research that may lead to the most important breakthroughs. Finally, we are reducing support for science at a time when many other nations are increasing it, a situation that already threatens our leadership in many critical areas of science.
**Please make a donation of at least $5 to support the future of scientists:** http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Scientists4Obama
This situation is unacceptable. As president, I will increase funding for basic research in physical and life sciences, mathematics, and engineering at a rate that would double basic research budgets over the next decade. Sustained and predictable increases in research funding will allow the United States to accomplish a great deal. First, we can expand the frontiers of human knowledge. Second, we can provide greater support for high-risk, high-return research and for young scientists at the beginning of their careers. Third, we can harness science and technology to address the “grand challenges” of the 21st century: energy, health, food and water, national security, information technology, and manufacturing capacity."
Source Scientists & Engineers for America (http://sharp.sefora.org/people/presidential-candidates/barack-obama-presidential-candidate/)
Which candidate sounds like he understands the needs and benefits of scientists?
Americans should be Outraged by the Outsourcing of American jobs.
If you share my Outrage or or are concerned with the future security of the U.S. or are concerned about the future of the American Middle Class then continue reading and check out the following website:
http://outsourceoutrage.com/
We have been exporting our high tech. knowledge and jobs for the past 20 years, and the rate rapidly increased during George W.'s administration. I am a recent victim of this unfortunate trend after training 1000's of software engineers in Russia, China, India, Brazil, France and other countries to do my job, developing wireless phone software.
I was "laid off" from Motorola's Mobile Device division in Nov. 2007 while performing critical work required to develop furure mobile phones. The Russian contractors in our team (working in Russia), who had almost no written or verbal knowledge of English AND had mediocre to poor software engineering skills, were kept on because they were much cheaper. I spent the last 2 years attempting to train these people to become decent engineers and to help them improve their English skill level.
Not surprisingly, Motorola is now failing to develop new phones that the customer wants to buy. Creative problem solving and inovation have been seriously stifled by the loss of much of the good talent and by the fear experienced by most of the remaining employees within the US.
More recently, a major controversy has been reported by Lou Dobbs and others about the Outsourcing of Military contracts. Please watch the following video to learn about the US Air Force's decision to award a major contract to Airbus (France) rather than Boeing (US). This Outsourcing trend in not only hurting our economy and jobs, it is also risking our security.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/03/06/intv.murray.outsourcing.defense.cnn?iref=videosearch
Hello to those out there reading my first ObamaBlog post. Basically the reason I set up this blog is to help me in my business venture that I am wanting to start. I am a young entrepreneur, still in college (20 years old). I am wanting to start a solar panel development company, and I believe Barack Obama will be the greatest asset I have in order to start this. I have been thoroughly reading through ALL of Obama's issues related to this (i.e.-technology, economy, environment). All I can say is wow, I need him. He is who I want as my president in order to be successful at this. I can honestly say, for the first time ever, I am VERY excited about the presidential race. This one is going to change history, I'm going to be pushing hard for him. If anyone out there knows ANYTHING AT ALL related to my challenge, please contact me. I'm pretty new at a lot of this, so I want to here from you. Anything related to Photovoltaics, Business/investing, to government funding, among other things would be awesome.
Thank you all for reading, I hope to hear from a lot of you soon. Stay tuned for my next post, as I bring everyone along with my progress. We are all in this together, get excited.
Blake Tiggemann
Im an engineer and have been for 13 years. In a way, my fellow engineers and I in the US are lucky in that we hold a certain amount of experience that keeps us valuable in the marketplace. We also help to keep the US competitive in the technical global marketplace.
Most people are aware that technical jobs are being outsourced to foreign labor. Engineering jobs have been affected by outsourcing to a smaller degree then other fields, but that is slowly changing. China for example, is turning out a higher percentage of engineering graduates than the US. Engineers in foreign countries are gaining more experience and are catching up with their US counterparts. Its only a matter of time.
I cant help but wonder what the long term effects of outsourcing will be? Certainly, the world has become a global marketplace, this fact cannot be changed.
But what role should our government be taking to keep the US competitive? How can we motivate younger generations to get involved in technical fields when their prospects for employment are reduced?
Im setting aside this Saturday morning to join in with Senator Obama's conference call, and hope to ask him these questions.
