Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
This past Thursday (Aug. 23) I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation at the Bonsall Rotary Club, by Dr. Steven Snyder, CEO of the Fleet Science Center. He reported on an initiative his organization has embarked upon.
Based on research to determine why the United States is losing ground in innovation to the rest of the world, the Fleet Science Center has launched a community-based program to stimulate curiosity among our youth. It involves establishing neighborhood operations similar to gyms, except offering exposure to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It targets elementary school kids and attempts to be so close to them that they can visit on foot or bike, from their neighborhoods.
The U. S. has remained strong in innovation and development, while transferring offshore a large part of manufacturing to bring new products to market. So, the U. S. jobs of the future are in STEM fields.
However, this year for the first time in 60 years, the U.S. came in less than first in the publication of scientific papers.
Research has shown that inventors and innovators are highly correlated with high math scores in third grade. Furthermore, high math scores are correlated with homes which encourage curiosity. Conclusions have been drawn that kids do well on STEM subjects when they are first curious about them and then are exposed to them in school.
Unfortunately, California doesn't rank very high in STEM scores for school age children. In fact, California ranks 47th.
It is encouraging that the Fleet Science Center program is offering stimulus for curiosity to our youth.
Another big plus is that we have schools, such as Bonsall High School, that is focused on STEM course work, as a High Tech High.
It seems the right thing to do to get Bonsall High School into a real facility on the coming election with passage of Bond Measure EE. That way we can expand the school beyond the current level which is able to take only about half of the kids graduating from middle school in Bonsall.
Jeff Johnson
Reader Comments(4)
SaveGirdValley writes:
BUSD's 2018 graduating class was just 57 students. There are 32 public (and 15 private) high schools ringing BUSD, plus online and home schooling options competing for fewer students. BUSD can't afford to operate its current campuses and California predicts we are moving into a long term declining enrollment trend at public schools and. Voting NO on Measure EE is the right thing to do. See NOonMeasureEE.com for more info.
10/20/2018, 10:57 pm
SaveGirdValley writes:
For more on this issue, see SaveGirdValley.com and please attend the meeting at the Fallbrook Library, Sept 18th 6:30 PM. Thanks!
09/05/2018, 2:36 pm
VillageNews writes:
Completely untrue that Bonsall High is only able to take half of the 8th grade students. They choose to go elsewhere because Bonsall does not have sports, vocational, or many college prep & AP classes. This model of a high school is expensive to operate and does not meet the needs of the majority of high school students.
09/01/2018, 12:59 pm
Strider writes:
The current high school, housed in a large 2- story building completed in 2016 and complete with science labs, is only able to accommodate half of the students who graduated form Sullivan Middle? The physical size of the campus isn’t responsible for half of the middle school not attending Bobsall High School.More than half of the BUSD 8th graders CHOOSEnot to attend BHS, for a variety of reasons.These include the lack of sports programs, including football,no Band and limited course selection
08/31/2018, 11:24 pm