英语泛读教程新闻

第十二周

New college graduates: How well prepared to be global

problem-solvers?

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Staff writer May 30, 2015

Kevin Lyman has a shiny new degree in computer and systems engineering. But instead of tossing a cap during Saturday’s commencement ceremony at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., he was busy relocating a company that he started with fellow students to Mountain View, Calif.

The business, Resumazing, uses artificial intelligence to knock down a hurdle for job seekers: Often the skills for doing a job well aren’t the same as the skills needed for landing a job. This tool will a help great engineer or a talented artist tailor her resume for particular jobs she’s pursuing.

Mr. Lyman couldn’t have launched his career as a serial entrepreneur (yes, he’s already been involved with other startups) without the interdisciplinary teamwork cultivated among students and professors at RPI. Six-month jobs with multinational companies like Microsoft, through the school’s Co-op program, didn’t hurt either

RPI is among a growing number of colleges and universities that have been redesigning their curriculum to prepare students to be problem-solvers for the world.

While higher education has long sought to boost study abroad and promote cross-cultural understanding, an ―emerging trend is a focus less on knowledge acquisition and more on applied and integrative skill development … in real-world settings,‖ says Debra Humphreys, vice president for policy and public engagement at the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) in Washington.

―In a lot of the work we do, we’re exploring not just the solution to an individual problem, but how that problem fits into a larger picture,‖ says Jim Hendler, a professor and director of the Rensselaer Institute for Data Exploration and Application.

The shift is happening in response to two main factors: Research has been showing a range of positive effects on student learning when they do hands-on projects and interdisciplinary research, and employers have been clamoring for more of the skills that such activities foster, Ms. Humprheys says.

For students, these experiences aren’t just about strengthening resumes. ―It surprised us how many alumni cited the projects as being responsible for helping them develop a stronger personal

character … and that came with being asked to do something that mattered to somebody else,‖ says Richard Vaz, dean of WPI’s Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division.

About 7 out of 10 alumni from the classes of 1974 to 2011 reported in a survey that their project work at WPI had contributed ―much‖ or ―very much‖ to their ability to develop ideas, integrate information from multiple sources, solve problems, and take responsibility for learning.

As a computer scientist, Mr. Narayan says, ―I look at the problems from one approach, but the biology major looks at it differently…. [Working on teams] allows me not to get shoe-horned.‖

Science and technology institutions aren’t the only ones embracing the applied learning and signature project approach.

In addition to technological proficiency, ―we want our students to have intellectual agility, multicultural sophistication, and a global view,‖ says RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson, a theoretical physicist. ―The problems we face are inherently global…. Rensselaer people have made a difference through the years‖ she says, and the changes afoot are meant ―to give modern meaning to that legacy.‖

SUMMARY:

When kids hear 'scientist,' most think 'man.' How can we end this stereotype?

By David Miller, May 28, 2015

Children learn to associate science with men at early ages. Over 40 years ago, less than 1% of American and Canadian elementary

school children when asked to draw a scientist. , published in Journal of Educational Psychology, shows that gender-science stereotypes persist even now, worldwide. Using data from nearly 350,000 people in 66 nations, my colleagues and I found that these stereotypes prevail even in supposedly ―gender-equal‖ nations like Norway and Sweden. These stereotypes matter because they can cause actions such as and that favor in some .

Identifying the extent of the issue is one thing. It is another matter to learn how to change these beliefs so they reflect the diversity of actual scientists – and the children of both sexes who hope to grow up to join them.

According to , taking chemistry and engineering courses from female versus male professors can even strengthen gender-science stereotypes if students do not identify with the professors.

suggests that the attitudes and messages that teachers convey can be more important than the teachers’ gender. In , for instance, kindergarten girls endorsed gender-math stereotypes if their female teacher was anxious about mathematics. Integrating stories about scientists into classroom instruction could have . In , for instance, learning how scientists struggled in their research increased students’ content understanding and interest in science.

These studies reflect how firm gender-science stereotypes are, consistent with the Greek root ―stereos‖ meaning ―solid, firm.‖ Our cross-national findings nevertheless suggest optimism that stereotypes can change as people see more women in science. But changing cultural beliefs will be .

To accelerate cultural change, we need to heralding single examples of eminent female scientists such as Marie Curie. We even need to move beyond creating lists of accomplished female scientists, and instead directly integrate those examples into diverse cultural messages. Most recently, Disney Junior it will work with Google and NASA to create TV characters of both young boys and girls interested in coding and space science.

I applaud such efforts, but more needs to be done to integrate female scientists into other cultural artifacts such as news articles, movies, and textbooks. These efforts are needed so that it’s not seen as atypical to discuss a woman scientist.

SUMMARY:

California oil spill: Did official cleanup start soon enough?

By Michael R. Blood and Alicia Chang, Associated Press May 30,

2015

Los Angeles — The leader overseeing a massive oil cleanup along the California coast defended the initial response, saying there were workers on the ground after the spill that stained popular beaches.

The first wave of workers deployed booms in the water to corral the oil slick and placed them along the shoreline to protect ecologically sensitive habitats. Others vacuumed up oil from the site of the underground pipeline that ruptured on May 19, sending up to 101,000 gallons of crude oil down a culvert and onto the beach north of Santa Barbara. An estimated 21,000 gallons escaped into the Pacific and quickly spread.

As more crews arrived the next day, they began raking oily sand and cleaning rocks on the beach — an exercise that continues more than a week after one of the largest coastal oil spills in California in 25 years.

The early response has come under scrutiny in recent days by environmentalists and witnesses who felt little on-the-ground cleanup was done on the first day.

California's U.S. senators issued a statement Thursday calling the response insufficient and demanding Plains All American Pipeline explain what it did, and when, after firefighters discovered the leak from the company's underground 24-inch pipe.

Aside from a couple of boats skimming oil from the surface, she didn't see any other cleanup effort.

Williams said agencies had a playbook to follow including having a cultural monitor on the beach so workers didn't accidentally trample on artifacts.

Steve Calanog, deputy on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said:

On Friday, there were 1,200 people on scene including 600 tasked with cleaning up the beach.

There is extensive preparation and planning for potential oil spills along the California coast, where a 1969 oil platform blowout and spill on the same stretch of shoreline helped spawn the modern environmental movement. Plains' response plan alone is over 1,000 pages of detailed information on how to quickly and methodically react.

Plains officials and emergency workers had gathered at a fire station near the site on the day of the spill to train for that very emergency.

Plains said in a statement that after the release was confirmed, the company immediately activated its emergency response plan and moved

Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal was on the site the morning after the spill, where oil-slicked waves were crashing onshore and rocks were coated with black muck. Looking along a long stretch of beach, he saw a few clusters of workers, numbering about a dozen or so in each group.