- Email: [email protected]
Biotechnology, inquiry, and public education
BIOTOPICS The past ten years have seen our ability to fish for the genes involved in the control of the functioning of cells and organisms leap forward to where the genome, or entire catalogue of genes, of many organisms is available. The major challenge now facing the science of biology in
what is often called the post-genomic era, is to try to understand how the components listed in the catalogue function and interact with one another. It is from this understanding that many of the anticipated new medicines will flow. To achieve this goal we will need new tools, and
chip-based analytical instruments will play a major role in fishing out the vital information from biological systems. Keith Ashman (E-mail: [email protected])
Biotechnology, inquiry, and public education Ethan E. Allen and Leroy Hood Education of our children is arguably society’s most important task, profoundly shaping the communities in which we all live. Achievement and success in many facets of our culture depend critically on formal education. Education is widely perceived as the only viable weapon against the poverty, drug abuse, crime and teenage pregnancy that derail many citizens, particularly in the inner cities, from realizing their productive human potential. Beyond its value to individuals, education is the cornerstone of societal advancement.
n a world that is increasingly driven by science and technology, broad public scientific literacy is more important than ever before. Only a well-educated population can actualize a sound democratic process of societal decision-making on issues ranging from the use of pesticides, to genetic engineering of food crops, to production of novel medicines, to genetic sampling for insurance or law enforcement purposes. New technologies in general, and biotechnology in particular, often present us with dilemmas for which there are no neat, obviously correct solutions. Biotechnological advances typically come with challenges for which there are a range of imperfect answers, each with differing benefits and costs. Decision-making becomes a matter of assessing evidence, weighing alternatives, viewing situations from multiple perspectives, and so on. Although the what and how to teach students are fiercely debated in our heterogeneous culture, in the face of increasing numbers of such complex, multifaceted problems, a clear and common need is for all children to develop the capacity for rational, systematic inquiry.
I
The power and value of scientific inquiry Given an ever-expanding knowledge base, as exemplified by biotechnology, and increasing expectations for schools to educate a more diverse population of students more thoroughly and more effectively, inquiry is one of the most critical tools for meeting our society’s educational goals. Inquiry is mandated in the National E.E. Allen ([email protected]) is at the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and the K-12 Institute for Science, Math and Technology Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. L. Hood ([email protected]) is at the Institute for Systems Biology, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. TIBTECH AUGUST 2000 (Vol. 18)
Science Education Standards1 as both a science process skill and as content fundamental to understanding the nature of science. Scientific inquiry is a rational, systematic way of asking and pursuing answers to questions – by formulating answerable questions, doing appropriate observations and experiments, and critically analysing, interpreting and questioning the available data. Grounded in learners’ attitudes such as curiosity and skepticism, scientific inquiry teaches a set of skills – observation, categorization, deduction, inference, reflection, and so on – for learners to use in constructing knowledge. These attitudes and skills of scientific inquiry are broadly applicable to learning and problem solving in other areas both within and beyond the realm of formal education. Inquiry is one of the most important skills that citizens of the 21st century will require in order to succeed. Scaling up The broad renewal of science education is a task of immense scale and global implications. To enhance learning for all students, effective education renewal efforts must be: • Strategic: the thorough preparation of future teachers together with enhanced effectiveness of practicing teachers are key factors to improving education. Working with teachers provides enormous leverage because each teacher will teach dozens to hundreds of students each year. • Systemic: for educational innovations to be institutionalized effectively, entire units (e.g. elementary teachers, mathematics teachers in a district) of the educational system must go through the transformation processes together. In this way, they learn jointly and reinforce each other.
0167-7799/00/$ – see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0167-7799(00)01471-2
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BIOTOPICS
• Sustainable: successful long-term educational renewal requires a deep community commitment to continuous improvement. School districts, universities and other community partners must provide a coherent, coordinated range of intellectual, technical and financial resources over the long term. • Sequential: improving elementary-school education can help students become powerful advocates for change as they advance to middle and high school. Reform efforts at higher levels can be guided by and adjusted to the improvements at earlier grades. • Societal: the social, political and economic contexts in which schools operate, and the knowledge and beliefs of education’s stakeholders all impact the success and sustainability of improvement. All key stakeholder groups must come to share a vision of effective approaches that ensure the equity of opportunity for high-quality instruction from master teachers. In actualizing such broad-reaching principles, the task of education renewal parallels a large endeavor from biotechnology, the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project began in 1985 when Chancellor Robert Sinsheimer (University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA) held a meeting to explore the possibility that a recent gift of US$35 million could be used to create an institute to sequence the human genome. The power of the DNA sequence analysis of genes was evident to biologists; the question was whether or not the whole genome sequencing would merit the significant required investment. Sinsheimer invited a handful of scientists to consider this topic over several days. All came away convinced of the power of the genome vision to transform biology and medicine. This small group of scientists became advocates, making the case to a very skeptical and even hostile scientific community. A leading scientific administrator in the Department of Energy (Washington, DC, USA) saw the power of the genome vision and threw the weight of his agency behind this genome project. Perhaps the turning point came when the National Academy of Science (Washington, DC, USA) committee (composed of roughly half proponents and half opponents) wrote a report on the genome project, and unanimously endorsed the vision. The scientific advocates convinced the Congress of the merits of the Human Genome Project based on its promise to promote
competitiveness in the biotechnology industry and to revolutionize the nature of human health care. Formally initiated in 1990, the Human Genome Project proposed to sequence the human genome (and those of five model organisms) in 15 years at a cost of roughly US$3 billion. As it stands today, the project is likely to be finished several years early and under budget. Already the project has transformed the practice of biology and is transforming medicine of the 21st century. Lessons learned It is useful to consider the lessons learned from the Human Genome Project with regard to the realization of a vision catalysing profound change throughout biological science and medicine: • A bold and clear vision must be articulated. • Sanctification of the vision by an established and highly respected national committee will enable its more rapid adoption by a broader community. • Highly respected advocates must actively take this vision to the scientific and educational establishments, government officials and the public, all of whom must embrace the vision. • A carefully constructed and successful pilot program could be central to realizing the vision. Given the success of the Human Genome Project, it is useful to consider how these lessons might be realized in the realm of education renewal. As history shows, in 1985 many people did not believe in the value of the approach and yet, with leadership and support, the project has triumphed. Can we now articulate a powerful new vision for education? Will enough of the recognized educational leaders stand together to promote its acceptance by the broader education community? How do we identify and empower advocates for this vision to ensure its ownership amongst the diverse stakeholder groups? Do we have the confidence and fortitude to carry out a large-scale pilot in the face of the inevitable criticisms? Now is the time for bold leadership and determined optimism. Reference 1 National Research Council (1996) National Science Education Standards, National Academy Press
Collaboration... Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Biacore International AB (Uppsala, Sweden) are to enter a three-year R&D collaboration focusing on the development of a novel generation of high-throughput surface plasmon resonance array technology aimed at increasing productivity in drug discovery. There will be a research team from each company committed to this combined R&D project. The SPR technology expertise, instrumentation, array chips, consumables and software will be provided by Biacore; Millennium will supply expertise in specific assay and drug discovery applications in order to develop defined assay methods. The right to commercialize technology-related developments resulting from this collaboration will be reserved by Biacore, and Millennium will have the advantage of early access to the technology.
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TIBTECH AUGUST 2000 (Vol. 18)
what is often called the post-genomic era, is to try to understand how the components listed in the catalogue function and interact with one another. It is from this understanding that many of the anticipated new medicines will flow. To achieve this goal we will need new tools, and
chip-based analytical instruments will play a major role in fishing out the vital information from biological systems. Keith Ashman (E-mail: [email protected])
Biotechnology, inquiry, and public education Ethan E. Allen and Leroy Hood Education of our children is arguably society’s most important task, profoundly shaping the communities in which we all live. Achievement and success in many facets of our culture depend critically on formal education. Education is widely perceived as the only viable weapon against the poverty, drug abuse, crime and teenage pregnancy that derail many citizens, particularly in the inner cities, from realizing their productive human potential. Beyond its value to individuals, education is the cornerstone of societal advancement.
n a world that is increasingly driven by science and technology, broad public scientific literacy is more important than ever before. Only a well-educated population can actualize a sound democratic process of societal decision-making on issues ranging from the use of pesticides, to genetic engineering of food crops, to production of novel medicines, to genetic sampling for insurance or law enforcement purposes. New technologies in general, and biotechnology in particular, often present us with dilemmas for which there are no neat, obviously correct solutions. Biotechnological advances typically come with challenges for which there are a range of imperfect answers, each with differing benefits and costs. Decision-making becomes a matter of assessing evidence, weighing alternatives, viewing situations from multiple perspectives, and so on. Although the what and how to teach students are fiercely debated in our heterogeneous culture, in the face of increasing numbers of such complex, multifaceted problems, a clear and common need is for all children to develop the capacity for rational, systematic inquiry.
I
The power and value of scientific inquiry Given an ever-expanding knowledge base, as exemplified by biotechnology, and increasing expectations for schools to educate a more diverse population of students more thoroughly and more effectively, inquiry is one of the most critical tools for meeting our society’s educational goals. Inquiry is mandated in the National E.E. Allen ([email protected]) is at the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and the K-12 Institute for Science, Math and Technology Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. L. Hood ([email protected]) is at the Institute for Systems Biology, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. TIBTECH AUGUST 2000 (Vol. 18)
Science Education Standards1 as both a science process skill and as content fundamental to understanding the nature of science. Scientific inquiry is a rational, systematic way of asking and pursuing answers to questions – by formulating answerable questions, doing appropriate observations and experiments, and critically analysing, interpreting and questioning the available data. Grounded in learners’ attitudes such as curiosity and skepticism, scientific inquiry teaches a set of skills – observation, categorization, deduction, inference, reflection, and so on – for learners to use in constructing knowledge. These attitudes and skills of scientific inquiry are broadly applicable to learning and problem solving in other areas both within and beyond the realm of formal education. Inquiry is one of the most important skills that citizens of the 21st century will require in order to succeed. Scaling up The broad renewal of science education is a task of immense scale and global implications. To enhance learning for all students, effective education renewal efforts must be: • Strategic: the thorough preparation of future teachers together with enhanced effectiveness of practicing teachers are key factors to improving education. Working with teachers provides enormous leverage because each teacher will teach dozens to hundreds of students each year. • Systemic: for educational innovations to be institutionalized effectively, entire units (e.g. elementary teachers, mathematics teachers in a district) of the educational system must go through the transformation processes together. In this way, they learn jointly and reinforce each other.
0167-7799/00/$ – see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0167-7799(00)01471-2
329
BIOTOPICS
• Sustainable: successful long-term educational renewal requires a deep community commitment to continuous improvement. School districts, universities and other community partners must provide a coherent, coordinated range of intellectual, technical and financial resources over the long term. • Sequential: improving elementary-school education can help students become powerful advocates for change as they advance to middle and high school. Reform efforts at higher levels can be guided by and adjusted to the improvements at earlier grades. • Societal: the social, political and economic contexts in which schools operate, and the knowledge and beliefs of education’s stakeholders all impact the success and sustainability of improvement. All key stakeholder groups must come to share a vision of effective approaches that ensure the equity of opportunity for high-quality instruction from master teachers. In actualizing such broad-reaching principles, the task of education renewal parallels a large endeavor from biotechnology, the Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project began in 1985 when Chancellor Robert Sinsheimer (University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA) held a meeting to explore the possibility that a recent gift of US$35 million could be used to create an institute to sequence the human genome. The power of the DNA sequence analysis of genes was evident to biologists; the question was whether or not the whole genome sequencing would merit the significant required investment. Sinsheimer invited a handful of scientists to consider this topic over several days. All came away convinced of the power of the genome vision to transform biology and medicine. This small group of scientists became advocates, making the case to a very skeptical and even hostile scientific community. A leading scientific administrator in the Department of Energy (Washington, DC, USA) saw the power of the genome vision and threw the weight of his agency behind this genome project. Perhaps the turning point came when the National Academy of Science (Washington, DC, USA) committee (composed of roughly half proponents and half opponents) wrote a report on the genome project, and unanimously endorsed the vision. The scientific advocates convinced the Congress of the merits of the Human Genome Project based on its promise to promote
competitiveness in the biotechnology industry and to revolutionize the nature of human health care. Formally initiated in 1990, the Human Genome Project proposed to sequence the human genome (and those of five model organisms) in 15 years at a cost of roughly US$3 billion. As it stands today, the project is likely to be finished several years early and under budget. Already the project has transformed the practice of biology and is transforming medicine of the 21st century. Lessons learned It is useful to consider the lessons learned from the Human Genome Project with regard to the realization of a vision catalysing profound change throughout biological science and medicine: • A bold and clear vision must be articulated. • Sanctification of the vision by an established and highly respected national committee will enable its more rapid adoption by a broader community. • Highly respected advocates must actively take this vision to the scientific and educational establishments, government officials and the public, all of whom must embrace the vision. • A carefully constructed and successful pilot program could be central to realizing the vision. Given the success of the Human Genome Project, it is useful to consider how these lessons might be realized in the realm of education renewal. As history shows, in 1985 many people did not believe in the value of the approach and yet, with leadership and support, the project has triumphed. Can we now articulate a powerful new vision for education? Will enough of the recognized educational leaders stand together to promote its acceptance by the broader education community? How do we identify and empower advocates for this vision to ensure its ownership amongst the diverse stakeholder groups? Do we have the confidence and fortitude to carry out a large-scale pilot in the face of the inevitable criticisms? Now is the time for bold leadership and determined optimism. Reference 1 National Research Council (1996) National Science Education Standards, National Academy Press
Collaboration... Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Biacore International AB (Uppsala, Sweden) are to enter a three-year R&D collaboration focusing on the development of a novel generation of high-throughput surface plasmon resonance array technology aimed at increasing productivity in drug discovery. There will be a research team from each company committed to this combined R&D project. The SPR technology expertise, instrumentation, array chips, consumables and software will be provided by Biacore; Millennium will supply expertise in specific assay and drug discovery applications in order to develop defined assay methods. The right to commercialize technology-related developments resulting from this collaboration will be reserved by Biacore, and Millennium will have the advantage of early access to the technology.
330
TIBTECH AUGUST 2000 (Vol. 18)