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STEM EDUCATION IN ACTION: 

LEARNING TODAY . . . LEADING TOMORROW 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND 

TECHNOLOGY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011 

Serial No. 112–26 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

HON. RALPH M. HALL, Texas, Chair 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland 

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma 

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois 

W. TODD AKIN, Missouri 

RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia 

SANDY ADAMS, Florida 

BENJAMIN QUAYLE, Arizona 

CHARLES J. ‘‘CHUCK’’ FLEISCHMANN, 

Tennessee 

E. SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia 

STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

ANDY HARRIS, Maryland 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota 

LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana 

DAN BENISHEK, Michigan 

VACANCY 

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas 

JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois 

LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

DAVID WU, Oregon 

BRAD MILLER, North Carolina 

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois 

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona 

DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland 

MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio 

BEN R. LUJA ́ N, New Mexico 

PAUL D. TONKO, New York 

JERRY MCNERNEY, California 

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland 

TERRI A. SEWELL, Alabama 

FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida 

HANSEN CLARKE, Michigan 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Thursday, June 16, 2011 

Page 

Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2 

Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3 

Opening Statements 

Statement by Representative Ralph M. Hall, Chairman, Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ..................... 7 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 8 

Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ........................................................................................................... 8 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 10 

Witnesses: 

Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan American, Parent 

to Pablo Vidal and Mentor to the i.streets (Intelligent Streets) Discovery 

Montessori School Team, McAllen, TX 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 14 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 15 

Master Pablo Vidal, third-grade student at Discovery Montessori School and 

member of the i.streets (Intelligent Streets) Team, McAllen, TX 

Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley and Mentor to the 

HEADS UP! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg, VA 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 17 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 19 

Master Jack Dudley, sixth-grade student at Virginia Virtual Academy and 

member of the HEADS UP! Team, Leesburg, VA 

Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea 

West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, MI 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 21 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 23 

Miss Claudia Cooper, seventh-grade student at West Hills Middle School 

and member of the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea Team, West Bloomfield, MI 

Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the 3Drenal: Kidney 

Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, NY 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 25 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 27 

Miss Alison Reed, 10th-grade student at the Stuyvesant High School and 

member of the 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Team, Brooklyn, NY 

Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions 

Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan American, Parent 

to Pablo Vidal and Mentor to the i.streets (Intelligent Streets) Discovery 

Montessori School Team, McAllen, TX ............................................................... 44 

Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley and Mentor to the 

HEADS UP! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg, VA .......................... 46 
Page

IV 

Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea 

West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, MI ............................................... 48 

Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the 3Drenal: Kidney 

Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, NY ............................... 50 

Master Jorge Vidal, student, McAllen, TX; Master Jack Dudley, student, 

Leesburg, VA; Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chen, and Mr. David 

Kurkovskiy, students, Brooklyn, NY .................................................................. 53 
(1) 

STEM EDUCATION IN ACTION: LEARNING 

TODAY . . . LEADING TOMORROW 

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in Room 

2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ralph Hall 

[Chairman of the Committee] presiding. 
2 
3 

HEARING CHARTER

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

STEM Education in Action: Learning Today . . . 

Leading Tomorrow 

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011

10:00 A.M.—12:00 P.M. 2318 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING

Purpose 

On Thursday, June 16, 2011, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

will hold the first in a series of hearings to highlight Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education activities across the Nation, their role in inspiring 

and educating future generations, and their contribution to our future economic 

prosperity. The first hearing, STEM Education in Action: Learning Today.. . . . 

.Leading Tomorrow, will showcase the finalists, parents, teachers, and mentors of 

the ExploraVision Awards National Competition, sponsored by Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association. 

Witnesses 

• Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan American, Parent to 

Pablo Vidal and Mentor to the i.streets (Intelligent Streets) Discovery Montessori School Team, McAllen, TX 

• Master Pablo Vidal, third-grade student at Discovery Montessori School and 

member of the i.streets (Intelligent Streets) Team, McAllen, TX 

• Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, Parent to Jack Dudley and Mentor to the 

HEADS UP! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, Leesburg, VA 

• Master Jack Dudley, sixth-grade student at Virginia Virtual Academy and 

member of the HEADS UP! Team, Leesburg, VA 

• Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach to the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea 

West Hills Middle School Team, Commerce, MI 

• Miss Claudia Cooper, seventh-grade student at West Hills Middle School and 

member of the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea Team, West Bloomfield, MI 

• Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher and Mentor to the 3Drenal: Kidney BioPrinter Stuyvesant High School Team, Brooklyn, NY 

• Miss Alison Reed, 10th-grade student at the Stuyvesant High School and 

member of the 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Team, Brooklyn, NY 

Overview 

• ExploraVision is a science competition for grades K–12. Students are asked to 

research a technology of their choice and explore what that technology could be 

like in 20 years. Teams explore how their visions of technology could work and 

what breakthroughs are necessary to make their ideas a reality. The competition is sponsored by Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association 

(NSTA). 

• In the U.S, student mastery of STEM subjects is essential to thrive in the 21st 

century economy. As other nations continue to gain ground in preparing their 

students in these critical fields, the U.S. must continue to explore a variety of 

ways to inspire future generations. Finding ways to improve STEM education 

activities beyond the scope of the Federal government, including using best 

practices derived from non-federal sources, is key to the future prosperity of the 

Nation. 

Background 

ExploraVision Competition 

Now in its 19th year, ExploraVision is a science competition that encourages K– 

12 students to work in groups of two to four assisted by a teacher and a mentor 
4 

1Data collected from ExploraVision Web site www.ExploraVision.org. 2http://www.toshiba.com/tai/. 

to simulate real research and development teams. Students are asked to research 

a technology of interest and explore what that technology could be like 20 years 

from now. The technology could be something as basic as a water fountain to something as complex as nanotechnology. Teams investigate how their visions of technology could work and what breakthroughs are necessary to make their ideas become reality. Since 1992, more than 287,000 students have competed in this handson competition, sponsored by Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association 

(NSTA), which inspires students and fuels imagination. 

ExploraVision is designed for students of all interest, skill, and ability levels. The 

competition is open to students enrolled in public, private, or home school in the 

United States and Canada. Students compete in four entry categories: Primary 

Level (Grades K–3), Upper Elementary Level (Grades 4–6), Middle Grade Level 

(Grades 7–9), and High School Level (Grades 10–12). Judges rate teams on creativity, scientific accuracy, communication, and feasibility of vision. Teams are organized into six regional areas of the United States and Canada. A judging committee 

selects 24 teams, one for each grade-level category in each of the six regions. All 

24 regional winning teams must complete a Web site for its future technology and 

prototype. Out of those 24 teams, a national judging committee consisting of leading 

science educators, as well as science and technology experts, selects eight finalist 

teams. From those finalists, the judges award four first-place and four second-place 

prize winners. 1

Prizes include the following: 

Students 

• First Prize (4 teams): $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond for each student. 

• Second Prize (4 teams): $5,000 U.S. Savings Bond for each student. 

• National Finalists (8 teams): An expense-paid trip to Washington, DC, in June 

for ExploraVision Awards Weekend for each national winning student and his/ 

her parents/guardians. 

• Regional Winners: A Toshiba CamileoT Camcorder for each student and an 

awards ceremony for each regional winning team at its school where the team 

will receive a winner’s banner, plaque and other gifts. 

• Honorable Mention (500 teams): A unique prize and certificate for each student. 

• All Participants: A certificate of participation, entry gift and a special discount 

on Toshiba computer products for every student whose team submits a complete 

entry. 

Coaches and Mentors 

• National Finalists: An expense paid trip to Washington, DC, in June for 

ExploraVision Awards Weekend for the coach and mentor of each national winning team and a one-year NSTA membership to coaches of the national winning 

teams. 

• Regional Winners: A Toshiba CamileoT Camcorder for the coach and mentor of 

each regional winning team. 

• All Participants: A special discount on Toshiba computer products, certificate of 

participation and an entry gift for each coach and mentor of every team that 

submits a complete entry. 

Schools 

• Regional Winners: A Toshiba laptop for each of the schools of the regional winning teams. 

Toshiba America, Inc. 

The Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation is a leading innovator and diversified manufacturer and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products, spanning information and communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions 

and services, electronic components and materials, power systems, industrial and 

social infrastructure systems, and household appliances. Toshiba employs over 

14,000 people in North America. Toshiba America, Inc., is the holding company for 

five Toshiba operating companies in the United States, with operations in 13 states 

and the District of Columbia. 2
5 

3http://www.nsta.org/. 4White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Winning the Race to Educate Our Children, STEM Education in the 2012 Budget, p.1. 5White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Winning the Race to Educate Our Children, STEM Education in the 2012 Budget, p.1. 6White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,Innovation, Education, and Infrastructure: Science, Technology, STEM Education, and 21st Century Infrastructure in the 2012 Budget, 

p. 2. 

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) 

Founded in 1944, the Arlington, Virginia-based National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) promotes excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning. 

NSTA’s current membership includes more than 60,000 science teachers, science supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved in science education. NSTA seeks to provide opportunities for scientific 

literacy, excellence in teaching, learning through collaboration, and research that 

will enhance and improve science education for all students. 3

STEM Education and the Federal Government 

A consensus exists that improving STEM education throughout the Nation is a 

necessary condition for preserving our capacity for innovation and discovery and for 

ensuring U.S. economic strength and competitiveness in the international marketplace of the 21st century. The National Academies Rising Above the Gathering 

Storm report placed major emphasis on the need to improve STEM education and 

made its top priority increasing the number of highly qualified STEM teachers. This 

recommendation was embraced by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee following the issuance of the report and was included in the 2007 America 

COMPETES Act. The 2010 America COMPETES Reauthorization Act continues this 

priority. 

Beyond activities authorized in America COMPETES, President Obama has called 

for a new effort to prepare 100,000 science, technology, engineering, and math 

(STEM) teachers with strong teaching skills and deep content knowledge over the 

next decade. As a component of achieving this goal, the FY12 Budget Request proposes an investment of $100 million through the Department of Education and the 

National Science Foundation (NSF) to prepare effective STEM teachers for classrooms across America. This proposal also responds to a recommendation by the 

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to prepare and 

inspire America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. 4

In addition, the FY12 Budget Request proposes $90 million for the creation of an 

Advanced Research Projects Agency–Education (ARPA–ED) with the mission of 

driving transformational improvement in education technology. 5

The President’s new ‘‘Educate to Innovate’’ campaign leverages Federal resources with over $700 million in private-sector resources. The goals of the program are to 

increase STEM literacy so that all students can learn deeply and think critically in 

science, math, engineering, and technology; move American students from the middle of the pack to top in the next decade; and expand STEM education and career 

opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and girls. 

With specific regard to K–12 STEM education funding beyond what has already been identified, the FY12 Budget Request calls for $206 million for the Department 

of Education’s proposed Effective Teaching and Learning in STEM program; $60 

million (28 percent) increase for NASA’s K–12 education programs; $300 million for 

an ‘‘Investing in Innovation’’ program (expansion of a Department of Education 

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act program); and $185 million for a new 

Presidential Teaching Fellowship program. The FY12 Budget Request devotes $3.4 billion to STEM education programs 

across the Federal government. 6 The 2010 America COMPETES Reauthorization 

Act called for the creation of a National Science Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on STEM Education to coordinate federal STEM investments. The first-year 

tasks of the committee are to create an inventory of Federal STEM education activities and develop a five-year strategic Federal STEM education plan. The inventory, 

as well as a similar Government Accountability Office (GAO) survey requested by 

the Committee on Education and Workforce, is currently underway and results are 

expected before next year. 

The GAO survey is an update of one last prepared by the Office in 2005. In a 

2007 inventory of Federal STEM education programs, the Academic Competitiveness Council (ACC) identified 105 programs and approximately $3.12 billion in 

FY06 appropriated funds across the Federal agencies for STEM education at all lev-
6 

els, including 24 programs designed for K–12 students funded at approximately 

$574 million. However, the ACC set parameters on its inventory, limiting the programs for inclusion to those ‘‘primarily intended to provide support for, or to 

strengthen, science, technology, engineering, or mathematics education.’’ As a result, 

the ACC inventory excluded many educational activities supported by the Federal 

R&D mission agencies that are managed through larger research programs and offices, including major research facilities, and that do not show up as separate line 

items in the budget. 

In the 112th Congress, the Science, Space, and Technology Committee will continue to hold oversight hearings and briefings on STEM education activities across 

the Federal government and will closely monitor the scope and findings of both the 

NSTC and the GAO Federal STEM education inventories. 
7 

Chairman HALL. The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will come to order, and I say to you a very cheerful good 

morning, and you have a right to say good morning back if you 

want to. 

I want to welcome you to today’s hearing. It is entitled ‘‘STEM 

Education in Action: Learning Today . . . Leading Tomorrow.’’ And 

by gosh, we have a lot of leaders in front of us, and every one of 

us from my right to my left and all of us here are very proud of 

all of you. I will recognize myself first for five minutes for an opening statement, and then we will recognize Ms. Johnson, who is the 

leader of the Democratic participants here to my right, and Ms. 

Johnson and I are not only close here physically, our districts are 

separated by a thin line. We work together, and I have known her 

for many, many years and always admired her. 

I would like to welcome everyone here today for what is the first 

in a series of STEM Education in Action hearings. The purpose of 

these hearings will be to highlight various science, technology, engineering, and math—that is the STEM—education activities 

across the Nation, their role in inspiring and educating future generations, and their contribution to our economic prosperity. 

The Federal Government is investing several billions of dollars 

on STEM education activities, primarily at the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation, but also in every 

agency under the Committee’s jurisdiction. However, there are numerous companies, foundations, nonprofit organizations and other 

groups who are doing their own part, and on their own dime, to 

successfully promote STEM education and inspire our next generation of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and our leaders. 

Today’s hearing focuses on one of those successful and impressive 

initiatives, the Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association 

ExploraVision Competition. This competition is open to students in 

grades K–12. Students are asked to research any science technology of their choice and explore what that technology will look 

like in 20 years. Our witnesses today represent four of the eight 

winning teams, who as a part of their prize, received an expensepaid trip to Washington, DC, and we welcome you here and we are 

happy that you received that. I congratulate and all of us congratulate all of the teams for your extraordinary accomplishment of first 

or second place in this national science competition that attracted 

over 4,000 entries. All of you are an inspiration to students, teachers and parents all over and all around this country from one ocean 

to the other. 

From 12:30 to 2:30 today, all teams will have their projects on 

display downstairs in the Rayburn Foyer. I encourage all of my colleagues to stop by and spend some time talking to these incredible 

students about their impressive award-winning projects. 

This Nation has always been the leader in innovation, and our 

children and grandchildren, like the ones in front of us today, are 

the key to our future success. I look forward to getting to know 

more about each of you, why you were moved to do the project you 

chose, and what all of you, students, parents and teachers, learned 

by participating in this competition. 

[The statement of Mr. Hall follows:] 
8 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN RALPH M. HALL

I would like to welcome everyone here today for what is the first in a series of 

STEM Education in Action hearings. The purpose of these hearings will be to highlight various Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education activities across the Nation, their role in inspiring and educating future generations, and 

their contribution to our economic prosperity. 

The Federal government is investing several billions of dollars on STEM Education activities, primarily at the Department of Education and the National Science 

Foundation, but also in every agency under this Committee’s jurisdiction. However, 

there are numerous companies, foundations, non-profit organizations, and other 

groups who are doing their own part, and on their own dime, to successfully promote STEM education and inspire our next generation of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Today’s hearing focuses on one of those successful and impressive initiatives, the Toshiba / National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) 

ExploraVision Competition. This competition is open to students in grades K–12. 

Students are asked to research any science technology of their choice and explore 

what that technology will look like in 20 years. Our witnesses today represent four 

of the eight winning teams who, as part of their prize, received an expense-paid trip 

to Washingon, DC. 

Congratulations to all of the teams for your extraordinary accomplishment of first 

or second place in this national science competition that attracted over 4,000 entries. All of you are an inspiration to students, teachers, and parents around the 

country. 

From 12:30 to 2:30 today, all teams will have their projects on display downstairs 

in the Rayburn Foyer. I encourage all of my colleagues to stop by and spend some 

time talking to these incredible students about their impressive award-winning 

projects. 

This Nation has always been the leader in innovation, and our children and 

grandchildren, like the ones in front of us today, are the key to our future success. 

I look forward to getting to know more about each of you, why you were moved to 

do the project you chose, and what all of you—students, parents, and teachers— 

learned by participating in this competition. 

Chairman HALL. At this time I recognize Ms. Johnson for her 

opening statement. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and good 

morning to all. I want to start by congratulating the students who 

are here today and welcoming you and your teachers, parents and 

mentors to the Committee. I was reading about some of the winning science fair projects, and I must say that I am truly impressed 

by all of the outstanding work you have done, and I know that you 

are proud. 

Unfortunately, there are too many students across the country 

who do not have the opportunities to participate in inspiring STEM 

activities or to receive a high-quality STEM education. The most 

recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, the NAEP, 

study found that less than half of our Nation’s students are demonstrating solid academic performance and proficiencies in science, 

and this is a startling statistic when you consider that the many 

recent experts report warning that our competitive edge will be lost 

if we do not vastly improve our STEM education in this country. 

No one entity can solve this problem alone. There is a role for 

all the key shareholders and stakeholders, including Federal and 

State governments, local school districts, higher education, informal education organizations and industry. I am pleased to hear 

today about the work Toshiba has done to support STEM education 

through this ExploraVision competition, and there are many other 

companies. My hometown company, Texas Instruments, is one of 

them, Exxon Mobil and also AT&T, so I know that there are many 

that help to participate. 
9 

I also want to emphasize the importance and the unique role of 

the Federal Government in improving STEM education. Many Federal STEM programs, including those supported by the National 

Science Foundation and the Department of Education, are really 

making a difference in our universities, our community colleges, 

and K–12 schools across the Nation. There are also many valuable 

programs being funded through other federal agencies, such as 

NASA, NOAA, NIST, EPA and the Department of Energy. These 

agencies are filled with thousands of scientists and engineers who 

make a difference in their own communities and for students 

across the country. As working STEM professionals, the real-life 

work that they do using STEM is so inspiring to our young people. 

But the Federal role is more than that. The National Science 

Foundation is the premier STEM education research organization 

in the country. For decades, the NSF has been a leader in improving our collective understanding of how students learn, and how we 

can develop the most effective and inspiring curriculum and train 

the most effective and inspiring teachers. This isn’t about the Federal Government taking over curriculum or teacher certification. It 

is about researchers contributing their deep expertise to making 

sure that our teachers are well prepared and our students are really learning. I would be interested in hearing from the teachers on 

the panel today about your own training, and how they have 

helped you to implement your best practices in teaching STEM in 

your own classrooms. 

While today’s hearing is about a non-Federal program, there was 

some discussion in the hearing charter about Federal programs and 

spending in STEM, so I just wanted to make a couple of comments 

about that. I hope you are not too quick to judge based on numbers 

alone. The OSTP, in response to the COMPETES Act, is leading an 

effort to inventory current programs across the government to improve coordination and develop priorities going forward. Many of 

the individual agencies are also responding to recommendations 

from outside advisory groups and restructuring their education programs and management. While this committee should continue to 

be vigilant in ensuring that our limited STEM education budgets 

are being used as wisely as possible, as we have been for many 

years, I want to express my own confidence in the coordination efforts currently underway. I believe we should let them play out for 

the next several months before we rush to judgment about what we 

should or should not be spending on STEM education. And finally, 

I hope that the committee will have the opportunity to review the 

OSTP report and other agency STEM efforts in hearings with administration officials. 

Today, though, I look forward to hearing from these student winners about what initially sparked their interest in STEM, and what 

role their teachers, parents and other mentors have played in helping them to reach their goals. This is an issue that I take seriously, 

and you can check my record. I have been interested in it and talking about it and working at it since 1974. This is an issue that is 

a serious one. We have an education crisis in this country, and 

there is a very real possibility that we will lose our competitive 

edge and that our children will no longer have the opportunities 
10 

that we had if we do not remain committed to investing in and improving STEM education. 

So thank you again for being here today and I look forward to 

this very interesting discussion. I yield back. 

[The statement of Ms. Johnson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RANKING MEMBER EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

Good morning and thank you, Chairman Hall, for holding this hearing. I want to 

start by congratulating the students who are here today and welcoming you and 

your teachers, parents, and mentors to the Committee. I was reading about some 

of your winning science fair projects, and I must say that I am truly impressed by 

all of the outstanding work you have done. You should all be very proud. 

Unfortunately, too many students across the country do not have opportunities to 

participate in inspiring STEM activities or to receive a high-quality STEM education. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) study 

found that less than half of our Nation’s students are demonstrating solid academic 

performance and proficiency in science. This is a startling statistic when you consider the many recent expert reports warning that our competitive edge will be lost 

if we do not vastly improve STEM education in this country. 

No one entity can solve this problem alone. There is a role for all the key stakeholders, including federal and state governments, local school districts, higher education, informal education organizations, and industry. I’m pleased to hear today 

about the work Toshiba has done to support STEM education through the 

ExploraVision competition. 

But I also want to emphasize the important and unique role ofthe Federal government in improving STEM education. Many federal STEM programs, including those 

supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education, 

are making a difference in universities, community colleges, and K–12 schools 

across the Nation. There are also many valuable programs being funded through 

other federal agencies, such as NASA, NOAA, NIST, EPA, and the Department of 

Energy. These agencies are filled with thousands of scientists and engineers who 

can make a difference in their own communities and for students across the country. 

As working STEM professionals, the real life work that they do using STEM is so 

inspiring to our children. 

But the federal role is more than that. The National Science Foundation is the 

premier STEM education research organization in the country. For decades, NSF 

has been a leader in improving our collective understanding ofhow students learn, 

and how we can develop the most effective and inspiring curriculum and train the 

most effective and inspiring teachers. This isn’t about the Federal Government taking over curriculum or teacher certification. It is about researchers contributing 

their deep expertise to making sure our teachers are well prepared and our students 

are really learning. I would be interested in hearing from the teachers on the panel 

today about their own training, and how they have implemented best practices in 

teaching STEM in their own classrooms. 

While today’s hearing is about a non-federal program, there was some discussion 

in the hearing charter about federal programs and spending in STEM, so I just 

wanted to make a couple of comments about this. I hope we are not too quick to 

judge based on numbers alone. OSTP, in response to the COMPETES Act, is leading 

an effort to inventory current programs across the government and to improve coordination and develop priorities going forward. Many ofthe individual agencies are 

also responding to recommendations from outside advisory groups and restructuring 

their education programs and management. While this committee should continue 

to be vigilant in ensuring that our limited STEM education budgets are being used 

as wisely as possible, as we have been for many years, I want to express my own 

confidence in the coordination efforts currently underway. I believe we should let 

them play out for the next several months before we rush to judgment about what 

we should or should not be spending on STEM education. Finally, I hope that the 

committee will have the opportunity to review the OSTP report and other agency 

STEM efforts in hearings with administration officials. 

Today, though, I look forward to hearing from these student winners about what 

initially sparked their interest in STEM, and what role their teachers, parents, and 

other mentors have played in helping them to reach their goals. This is an issue 

that I take very seriously. We have an education crisis in this country, and there 

is a very real possibility that we will lose our competitive edge and that our children 

will no longer have the opportunities that we had if we do not remain committed 
11 

to investing in and improving STEM education. Thank you again for being here 

today and I look forward to an interesting discussion. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady from Texas yields back. 

If there are Members who wish to submit additional opening 

statements, your statements will be added to the record at this 

point. 

I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Texas, Mr. 

Hinojosa, and the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Peters, be allowed 

to sit with the Committee and participate in the hearing. Is there 

objection? The chair hears none. 

At this time I would like introduce our panel of witnesses. I yield 

two minutes to my good friend and fellow Texan, Mr. Hinojosa, to 

introduce our first team. 

Mr. HINOJOSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

As the representative from the 15th Congressional district of 

Deep South Texas, it is truly an honor for me to welcome the Discovery Montessori School of Edinburg, Texas, to the House Science, 

Space, and Technology Committee. As the Ranking Member of the 

Subcommittee on Higher Education, we work closely with this 

Committee on Science and Space and Technology because together 

we hope that by 2020 we can be able to generate and accomplish 

a goal that was set out by the President, and that was to have an 

additional 100,000 engineers here in our country. 

I am delighted to be here to congratulate all the students being 

recognized from throughout the country but especially I congratulate the students, teachers, parents, coaches and administrators of 

the Discovery Montessori School for winning first place for grades 

K through three of the 2011 Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Science 

Competition. What an extraordinary accomplishment. Their winning project, Intelligent Streets, reduces intersection accidents by 

using smart translucent film installed on windshields that receive 

signals from either traffic lights or satellites. This clearly demonstrates that students in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas 

can become the scientists and the innovators of tomorrow. 

We in Texas are extremely proud of the Discovery Montessori 

School’s dedication to academic excellence and for creating a learning environment for children that fosters the development of highorder thinking skills, scientific discovery, exploration and creativity. Today we are fortunate to have three extraordinary individuals with us from that school. Pablo Marcelo Vidal, soon to be a 

fourth grader, is a resident of McAllen, Texas. We also have the 

pleasure of saying that Marcelo started school at the age of three 

at the Discovery Montessori School. He is extremely passionate 

about science and math and belongs to the Bronx Aquatics swimming team. This impressive young man is a role model for his 

peers. We also have Veronica Rego Martinez, the team’s coach, who 

is a graduate of the University of Texas at Brownsville and serves 

as the primary and lower elementary Montessori teacher. Ms. Martinez has a profound love for teaching young children. Dr. Karen 

Lozano, Pablo’s mother, serves as Julia Vechero Endowed Chair of 

the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas 

Pan America. Dr. Lozano earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering and material science from one of our Nation’s best, Rice 

University in Houston, and has received numerous awards for her 
12 

extensive research and exceptional teaching. Rita Caldwell from 

the National Science Foundation visited at UT Pan America and 

praised her as one of the best professors in the country. 

We welcome all of you to today’s hearing and thank you, Mr. 

Chairman, for allowing me this opportunity. 

Chairman HALL. I thank you, sir, and you yield back your time? 

Mr. HINOJOSA. Yield back. 

Chairman HALL. I say to those out there who have Mr. Hinojosa 

as your Congressman, you are very lucky. He represents his district well and we are proud to have him as we are you, and Jack, 

we are pleased that you brought your mother with you today, by 

golly. Actually, our second witness, Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, 

accompanied by her son, Jack, they are representing the first-place 

National winning team for the fourth through sixth grade age 

group. Their winning project, the Heads Up helmet, is a military 

helmet designed to protect soldiers on the battlefield. Joining Jack 

and his mom today are his teammates, Abby Porter and Jovia Ho 

from Tolbert Elementary School and Sydney Dayyani from Belmont 

Ridge Middle School. Jack is home-schooled and attends Virginia 

Virtual Academy. We also welcome the team’s coach from the academy, Mrs. Penni Harrison. 

I now yield two minutes to the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. 

Peters, to introduce the third team of witnesses. 

Mr. PETERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

It is my pleasure to be here today to introduce two of my constituents, Claudia Cooper and her coach and teacher, Amy Attard. 

Claudia is an outstanding student at West Hills Middle School in 

West Bloomfield, Michigan, and is joining us today because she is 

part of a winning team in the ExploraVision Science Competition. 

Her teammate, Samantha Tarnopol, is also here as well as teacher 

Russ Purdy, and I would like to welcome them to this hearing as 

well. 

The ExploraVision challenges students to envision new technologies that will make our society healthier and safer. Claudia’s 

team designed a surgically implantable disc called the Intra-Trachea Breathing System. The disc will improve the quality of life for 

millions of Americans who suffer from breathing problems and debilitating respiratory conditions. Claudia’s work demonstrates how 

the application of scientific concepts can improve the quality of our 

life and meaningfully impact our society. In addition to her scientific pursuits and excellent academic achievements, Claudia 

plays three sports and the oboe, participates in theater and devotes 

time to charitable pursuits such as working with children with special needs. 

Amy Attard is in her sixth year teaching seventh grade at West 

Hills Middle School. She holds an M.A. in educational technology 

and a B.S. in elementary education from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. In addition to teaching science, she is actively involved with extracurricular life in West Hills and is committing to 

promoting very positive culture and morale within the school. She 

sponsors and mentors students in the Student Leadership Club, 

which organizes community service projects and also leads the 

Count Me In Club, which teaches anti-bullying intervention strategies and self-esteem building. She serves as the grade-level team 
13 

leader and is a member of the school’s budget, leadership and social committee. 

When I speak to school groups back home, I always try to stress 

the importance of our young people in pursuing careers in science 

and engineering fields. It is certainly important for their future but 

it is also important for our country’s future, and we should be 

doing all that we can to encourage our young people’s interest in 

these careers. Claudia and Samantha are great role models for 

their peers, and I wish them the best in their future scientific endeavors. Claudia and Amy, thank you so much for testifying here 

today, and thank you, Chairman Hall, Ranking Member Johnson, 

and my Michigan colleague here, Mr. Clarke, for allowing me to 

stop by the Committee and welcome West Hills Middle School. 

Thank you for being here. I yield back. 

Chairman HALL. And I thank you for yielding back and thank 

you for that good visit with these youngsters. I know you are proud 

of them and I know they are proud of you. 

Our fourth witness is Ms. Ann Manwell, accompanying her student, Miss Alison Reed, from Stuyvesant High School in New York. 

They are representing the 10th to 12th grade age group with their 

second-place winning project, 3Drenal, a kidney bio-printer. We 

would also like to recognize Alison’s teammates, David Kurkovskiy 

and Norine Chan. 

Typically, I would now recognize our first witness, but before I 

do, I also would like to take a moment to recognize the other four 

winning teams that are joining us today and who will also be showcasing their winning projects in the Rayburn Foyer following today’s hearing. The Solar Tree Team from Countryside Montessori 

Charter School in Land O Lakes, Florida; the Blindsight Team 

from Plainview Old Bethpage Middle School of Plainview, New 

York; the Subway Smart System Team from Horace Mann School 

in the Bronx, New York; and the Bionic Auditory Prosthesis team 

from Hopewell Valley Central High School. You are all to be congratulated and commended for your hard work and impressive 

projects. We look forward to visiting more with you after the hearing. 

Before I ask unanimous consent that your names be made a part 

of the record, let me just tell you that you must be the cream of 

the crop, the leaders, and it might be of some comfort to you to 

know that your Chairman, I am from Texas, we have every type 

of leader here. Ms. Johnson is a leader in the medical field. She 

is outstanding in the nursing field. We have all types of folks that 

are skilled but we look to you all to give us testimony to write our 

record, and what you say here will be recorded and it will be read 

100 years from now and they will look back on this fine young 

group that came here. It may give you some ease to be here to 

know that your chairman was such a bad student, one semester I 

made four Fs and a D, and my dad whipped me for spending too 

much time on one subject. 

I ask unanimous consent that their names be made a part of the 

record, all of you. As our witnesses should know, spoken testimony 

is limited to five minutes, so we won’t just hold you to that. Try 

to stay as much as you can. We are so honored to have you here, 

we will go over, or if you want to give us back a little time, we will 
14 

accept it. After which the Committee will have five minutes each 

to ask questions. 

I now recognize the first witness duo, Dr. Karen Lozano and 

Master Pablo Vidal. I now recognize Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley 

and Master Jack Dudley. 

STATEMENT OF DR. KAREN LOZANO, 

PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PAN AMERICAN, 

PARENT TO PABLO VIDAL, AND MENTOR TO THE 

I.STREETS (INTELLIGENT STREETS) DISCOVERY 

MONTESSORI SCHOOL TEAM, MCALLEN, TEXAS 

Dr. LOZANO. Thank you very much. Thank you for the introduction. Congressman Hinojosa, thank you for the introduction. 

As Congressman Hinojosa mentioned, I am a Professor at the 

University of Texas Pan American, and growing myself in a field 

that is underrepresented, you know, by females. I was the fifth 

woman to get a degree in 25 years at my university had existed 

at the time in mechanical engineering, and when I went to Rice I 

also realized that I was only the fifth woman to get a doctoral degree, you know, in mechanical engineering. So I knew how engineering wasn’t something that kids will look after. 

So I started doing a lot of community service to try to encourage, 

you know, engineering with kids. So I was very happy when Jessica Vera, one of the former teachers, asked me to participate in 

ExploraVision. ExploraVision is just very well prepared. You know, 

the guidelines and everything is just an absolute, you know, program, you know, just an amazing program, and the kids go from— 

you know, they learn teamwork, history, ethical issues, they learn 

technology, and it is amazing how when I sit with them and I say 

okay, come up with ideas, you know, you need to think of something that, you know, will make the world better or will save people’s lives or, you know, will help people that are suffering. You 

know, they come up with amazing ideas that at our level as adults 

sometimes we don’t think of. You know, we can find all kinds of 

obstacles why that is not possible. 

So once they find an idea that they agree that it is possible, then 

we move into, you know, okay, let us study the present technology, 

let us study the history, and the future technology. You know, I explain to them, you know, concepts on, you know, how we think, you 

know, it is possible. Sometimes maybe I even think, you know, that 

it might not work, you know, but we have to explain the technology 

behind the idea, you know, to them, and it is just amazing how 

they learn. Like you can ask him about the electromagnetic spectrum and, you know, he goes oh, you know, the radio waves. You 

know, it is just amazing how they grasp, you know, the ideas and 

how the whole program, you know, helps them develop a desire or 

a passion to pursue science and to learn about what is around 

them, you know, go around and just think, you know, what is it 

they can improve, how can they be—how can they develop a technology that will benefit society. So they are engineers, and I guess 

we are all born engineers. You know, we all played with Legos. But 

I have seen, you know, working with K–12 how like around fifth 

grade they start losing that. You know, you get great ideas up to 
15 

fifth grade and then they kind of, you know, start tapering down 

and it kind of goes down, and I have implemented ExploraVision 

guidelines within my college classes, the senior-level classes, and I 

ask the students the same thing. I say you are going to follow 

ExploraVision guidelines and this is your final project, and they 

have to come up with whatever class we are doing, if it is plastics 

or nanotechnology or whatever the topic of the class is, they have 

to come up with a project, you know, that is nonexistent that could 

be here in 20 years from now, and it is amazing out of the many, 

many, many projects I have seen, the little ones, they still have 

brighter ideas, you know, than my college students. Of course, they 

do an awesome job explaining the technology, you know, in technical terms and all of that, but as far as the idea, you know, I 

guess the younger the kids, you know, the ideas are, you know, far 

better. 

So we can’t afford to lose that creativity, so within the school it 

is a good idea to give them that freedom to explore, you know, give 

them that—you know, just maybe implement something like 

ExploraVision, you know, within the classes. You know, the teachers can implement something related to ExploraVision because it 

allowed the kids to, you know, innovate. It allowed the kids to explore, and it keeps them engaged, you know, in finding out. Because once they learn that they can look around and find something that could work better, you know, that is a process that they 

will keep on, you know, for the rest of their lives. 

One of the things that I sponsored several years ago, now the 

kids are going into high school, they were fourth graders, and all 

of them are going into the science area. They are going into scitech, you know, most of the kids. So it really leaves a very good 

impression on themselves, you know, and they want to keep on 

doing it. Next year they are going to try again to do the 

ExploraVision competition, the high school kids. 

So I think it is a great model that could be followed for science 

education. Thank you. 

[The statement of Dr. Lozano follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. KAREN LOZANO, PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

PAN AMERICAN, PARENT TO PABLO VIDAL, AND MENTOR TO THE I.STREETS (INTELLIGENT STREETS) DISCOVERY MONTESSORI SCHOOL TEAM, MCALLEN, TEXAS

Good morning, Committee Members and ExploraVision winners. My name is 

Karen Lozano. I am a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of 

Texas Pan American, and the mentor and parent of one of the team members of 

the K–third first place national winners. 

As I started my college years, I realized that engineering was not a popular major, 

even less among girls, I was the fifth woman to graduate with a mechanical engineering degree in the 25 years that my university had existed. Pursuing later an 

M.S. and Ph.D. degree at Rice University and joining later the faculty at UTPA, I 

kept on realizing how little people knew about engineering and how severe the 

stereotypes were for girls. I was blessed that my mom supported me when deciding 

to study engineering and was blessed to have a Ph.D. advisor that was highly committed to K–12 education; therefore, it became natural to me that the only way to 

change perceptions was to be active in our community and be there to talk to kids 

and parents as well. At least once a month I give magic and science shows, talk 

to parents of middle and high school students, participate in science fair judging or 

offer lab tours to K–teachers. I have seen how important these activities can be and 

have also observed interesting patterns in science attraction of kids. 

Being involved in these activities, I was very attracted to participate in 

ExploraVision when my older son’s teacher brought it to my attention back in 2006. 
16 

I read the rules and visited the Web site and observed how many of the winning 

ideas expressed by kids 10–15 years ago were now in the market. Miss Jessica Vera 

and myself worked with the first team of third graders; I was amazed how kids 

could come up with great ideas and when guided into the technology behind their 

ideas, they learned and grasped technical concepts otherwise not taught until later 

in high school/college level. 

In 2006, the team won honorable mention; in 2007 now the kids in fourth grade, 

they became first place national winners, the experience was even better, now the 

kids not only learned about a technology but needed to communicate it verbally in 

front of an audience. This ability has proven extremely beneficial for these kids now 

starting high school next fall. In 2008, a different team of students (fifth and sixth 

graders) won second place national award. In 2009 I mentored two teams, with ages 

ranging from first to sixth grade, and this year one team of third graders. 

Besides being a mentor I have incorporated ExploraVision rules in my college 

classes. The ability to be creative while incorporating scientific knowledge is one of 

the basic definitions of engineering; therefore it has worked very well in my upper 

division classes. The ExploraVision competition is extremely well designed and at 

a young age allows the kids to ‘‘dream,’’ at a college age allows kids to develop technologies based on their current learned material, as I asked them, for example, in 

a polymer engineering class, to look for applications where polymers are not used 

yet and evaluate their implementation according to the ExploraVision rules or in 

the nanotechnology class, to develop a new application. 

Let me explain the methodology that we follow when preparing for an 

ExploraVision competition. The kids, teacher and myself meet for about five months, 

one afternoon a week at a local library room (to avoid distractions); the first four 

to five meetings are basically to come up with an idea, it is interesting to find out 

how their ideas are quite novel. Many of those already being researched or coming 

to the market though the kids were not aware of, therefore for them were novel 

ideas, and I have been very impressed how if they are encouraged or motivated to 

be creative they are full of surprises. This ability is many times lost in school age 

as time passes and kids stop play-pretend. It is very important to keep sparking 

technological creativity. How can society be benefitted by one of your ideas? A question that school age kids can be asked every year. After voting for an idea, students 

were asked to choose areas that they were most interested in working on though 

all of them needed to research all areas, as you are probably aware of. The 

ExploraVision sections are (I will use the current winning project I.STREETS as an 

example; in this project they decided to incorporate traffic lights within the windshield of the car): 

• Present technology; students researched how traffic lights work. 

• History: learned about the history of traffic lights. 

• Future technology: this area is where they explained how they envision their 

idea to work in the future though also need to explain it with some science principles; this is where the help from a mentor, especially for the K–six age groups, 

comes into play. In this case, as a mentor, I explained to them the electromagnetic spectrum (infrared waves, visible waves, radio waves), explained to 

them about smart films that could respond to a signal with colors; it is surprising how they grasp the information right away and then they are able to 

explain it. 

• Breakthroughs: they basically explained why their technology is not possible 

now, besides other aspects in their case is because we do not have yet a translucent film that could respond to a signal in only red, yellow and green colors 

in order to be glued between the windshield glass. 

• Design process: the kids basically do this section on their own, explaining how 

they worked, when they met, and what other ideas they thought of. 

• Consequences: here students find that all they invent will always have positive 

and negative results. They can also do this completely on their own and they 

come up with important ideas. 

• References: they learned that every time they research something they have to 

give credit to the one that had the idea first. 

As you can see, the ExploraVision competition is a project that not only encompasses technological creativity but encourages students to think beyond the technology and incorporate within the learning process, team work, history, entrepreneurship, and ethical issues (consequences) among other issues. Even though one 

student is the one that usually has the idea first, carrying out the project allows 

for a full development of the idea from conception to implementation; therefore, at 

the end all of them are considered inventors of the idea. 
17 

As you can tell, I am particularly impressed with the ExploraVision competition 

and have enjoyed working with all students since 2006. They usually have formed 

the team based on friendship, not necessarily they have been from the same school 

and actually if it is not carried out as a school project has proven beneficial to meet 

outside of school at a local library. I personally do not think this project is a matter 

of resources for the school; there are no costs that participants incur rather than 

their time. I am aware that some schools do it as part of a class project and I believe 

that is a great idea and from grades K–six could be incorporated within their curriculum where the different sections will be carried out during different courses (history, science, cultural). For the older age group kids, they can do it in the science 

class as a semester project. Just by asking the questions about inventing something, 

students will go around their life looking at what can be improved one way or another; you encourage them to keep their creative nature (as all kids are born engineers, always looking around, building and connecting dots) and problem solving 

skills rather than teach them to wait for information to be provided and expecting 

them only to learn what they are asked to learn. When kids are given the opportunity to explore through a project like ExploraVision they can surprise us greatly. 

One of the other winning teams that I had the pleasure to work with where they 

invented a spray that when placed in the tongue changes the taste buds so broccoli 

could taste as chocolate and sweets will taste as broccoli; it was, as I-Streets and 

the other projects, very interesting. 

As for parents’ and teachers’ participation, I believe their role is extremely important, as I always tell my graduate and undergraduate students when we are invited 

as judges for science school fairs of young kids, we will find projects that clearly 

you can tell that parents have been involved and that is absolutely great as long 

as the child can explain what they did and is excited about it. Parent participation 

is definitively very important and has proven vital for student success in academics, 

sports, arts, etc. 

Chairman HALL. I congratulate you. You were right on the dot, 

Five minutes. 

Now, Jack, is it okay with you if I recognize your mom? Okay. 

Brenda Conwell-Dudley, we recognize you for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF MRS. BRENDA CONWELL-DUDLEY, 

PARENT TO JACK DUDLEY AND MENTOR TO THE HEADS UP!, 

VIRGINIA VIRTUAL ACADEMY TEAM, LEESBURG, VIRGINIA 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Good morning, Chairman Hall, Ranking 

Member Johnson, Members of the Committee and to all the finalists, teachers, mentors and organizers of the Toshiba/NSTA 

ExploraVision National Science Competition. On behalf of our 

sponsoring school, the Virginia Virtual Academy, our coach, Mrs. 

Penni Harrison, and our team, I would like to thank the Committee for inviting us to this hearing. 

This is my second year as an ExploraVision team mentor for the 

fourth through sixth grade age group. I heard about ExploraVision 

from a mother at one of my son’s flag football practices about two 

years ago. Her son Joshua was a player on the team, was critically 

allergic to many foods and much of his surroundings. He had actually flatlined in an emergency room that summer and had been 

brought back to life using intubation without anesthesia after one 

particularly bad allergic reaction. He was nine years old. He was 

being treated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda for 

his condition, and while receiving treatment at the NIH, Joshua 

met another young boy named Colby Tomasello. Colby is a member 

of the 2009 ExploraVision second-place national winning team and 

he and his teammates designed an EpiWatch. It is a small, wearable, computerized watch that contains special codes and microneedles that instantly deliver painless doses of epinephrine when the 

wearer suffers an allergic reaction. 
18 

After hearing about Colby’s project and after visiting the 

ExploraVision web site, I was so impressed by what young children 

could invent that if the opportunity ever arose I promised myself 

that I would encourage my son to participate. Not more than a 

week later, his school posted a notice in the student newspaper 

that they would be sponsoring teams for the first time. I immediately asked my son about participating. He agreed, and invited 

three of his friends from the fifth grade to join. His 2010 team designed a food poisoning detection device, and it was lightweight, 

portable and could be used to detect dangerous pathogens in food. 

Now we would like to present background and information on 

our team and our project for Members of the Committee. Our team 

is comprised of four students who came to know each other through 

swimming. An important distinction with this year’s team is that 

our four students represent three different schools. Jack was homeschooled using Virginia Virtual Academy’s online sixth-grade public 

school program. Abby Porter and Jovia Ho attend fifth grade at 

Tolbert Elementary School in Leesburg, and Sydney Dayyani attends sixth grade at Belmont Ridge Middle School in Lansdowne. 

I would like to take a moment to thank the Virginia Virtual Academy for sponsoring our team and for giving us an unparalleled opportunity to work together: male and female students, elementary 

and middle school students, home-schooled and brick-and-mortar 

public school students. I think our team represents the best of the 

collaborative spirit, and as we all know, collaboration in the field 

of science is how society will find solutions to the complex and very 

serious problems that confront us as a Nation. 

Starting last September, our team began meeting every week for 

two hours. The team read news articles and news magazines to become familiar with current events and advances in science and 

technology. The team brainstormed and discussed multiple ideas 

over several weeks. The team communicated with our coach, Mrs. 

Harrison, using Illuminate Lives Web conferencing program. My 

son frequently uses the program for his online schooling, and it 

proved to be a great resource for our science team too. 

Our team brainstormed several projects, and then Jack saw the 

picture of Specialist Robert Warren in the Washington Post. Specialist Warren is a soldier who suffered traumatic brain injury from 

an IED while serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in May 2010. Jack 

selected the idea of creating a helmet that would protect U.S. soldiers from traumatic brain injury due to roadside bombs with a device the team called the Heads Up helmet. The team’s design features overlapping polyethylene plates, sophisticated heat and airpressure sensors, bullet—and shrapnel—stopping gels, and a 360- 

degree neck collar that inflates to protect the brain and neck in 

case of a bomb blast. 

The team further decided that they would take the proposed 

technology from the battlefield to the playing field in 20 years or 

less to help prevent the growing number of concussions in children 

and athletes with a device called the Heads Up headgear. 

Our team has learned a lot about working on an interdisciplinary 

project. They have learned how to organize and present their 

knowledge more effectively, and as a result, they have sharpened 

their communication skills. I am hopeful that participation in this 
19 

competition will ignite an interest for members of our team in 

STEM-related fields but I know that they have at the very least 

developed a better understanding of the world around them, and I 

would like to thank the Toshiba Corporation for sponsoring the 

competition and the National Science Teachers Association for administering this event. Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Mrs. Conwell-Dudley follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MRS. BRENDA CONWELL-DUDLEY, PARENT TO JACK DUDLEY AND MENTOR TO THE HEADS UP! VIRGINIA VIRTUAL ACADEMY TEAM, LEESBURG, VIRGINIA

Good morning to Members of the Committee and to all of the finalists, teachers, 

mentors, and organizers of the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision National Science Competition. On behalf of our sponsoring school, the Virginia Virtual Academy, our 

coach, Mrs. Penni Harrison, and our team, I would like to thank the Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology for inviting us to this hearing. This is my second 

year as an ExploraVision science team mentor for the fourth through sixth grade 

age group; I mentored a regional winning team in 2010, and I am a mentor for the 

first place winning team in 2011. I would like to describe my motivation for participating in ExploraVision’s program. 

I heard about ExploraVision from a mother at one of my son’s flag football practices, in the fall of 2009. Her son, Joshua, a player on the team, was critically allergic to many foods and much of his surroundings. He had flat-lined in an emergency 

room that summer and had been brought back to life using intubation without anesthesia after one particularly bad allergic reaction. Joshua was nine years old, and 

he was being treated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda for his 

condition. While receiving treatment at the NIH, Joshua met another young boy 

with similar critical allergies. This second little boy was Colby Tomasello; Colby is 

a member of 2009 ExploraVision second place national winning team and he and 

his team mates designed an EpiWatch—a small, wearable, computerized watch that 

contains special codes and microneedles that instantly deliver painless doses of epinephrine when the wearer suffers from an allergic reaction. The EpiWatch utilizes 

cell phone and GPS technology to alert medical officials in the event the wearer suffers a life-threatening allergic reaction. 

After hearing about Colby’s project, and after visiting the ExploraVision Web site, 

I was so impressed by what young children could invent that if the opportunity ever 

arose, I promised myself that I would encourage my son to participate. Not more 

than a week later, his school posted a notice in the student newspaper that they 

would be sponsoring teams in the ExploraVision National Science Competition for 

the first time. I immediately asked my son about participating—he agreed and proceeded to invite three of his friends from the fifth grade to join. Jack’s 2010 science 

team designed a food poisoning detection device that looked like a thumb drive, was 

lightweight and portable, and could be used to detect dangerous pathogens in food. 

This year’s team designed a military helmet to protect soldiers from traumatic brain 

injury from roadside bombs. I am a huge fan of ExploraVision’s science competition, 

a contest that encourages children in grades Kindergarten through 12th to select 

a current technology and imagine what it might be like in 20 years. And I am continually amazed by the originality of the students’ inventions and the great advantage to society that all of these ideas could potentially provide. 

Now I would like to present background information on our team and more detailed information on our project for Members of the Committee. Our team is comprised of four students who came to know each other through swimming. All four 

team members swim year-round for the nationally recognized Curl-Burke Swim 

Club and in the summer for the Old Dominion Swim League. As I mentioned, my 

son had been part of a regional winning team the year before, and in accordance 

with the rules of the competition, he was not allowed to compete with members of 

his previously winning team—nor will the children sitting with us today be allowed 

to compete together as a team next year, or ever again. My son has benefited greatly in this regard: his 2010 regional winning team was all male, and each of the four 

boys were in advanced math class together. This year’s team is predominately female, and while all of these girls excel in math, my son’s association with them is 

through sports. Suffice to say, successful teams come in all shapes and sizes. 

Another important distinction with this year’s team is that our four students represent three different schools; Jack was homeschooled using Virginia Virtual Academy’s online sixth grade public school program, Abby Porter and Jovia Ho attend 
20 

fifth grade at John E. Tolbert Elementary School in Leesburg, and Sydney Dayyani 

attends sixth grade at Belmont Ridge Middle School in Lansdowne. I would like to 

take a moment to thank Virginia Virtual Academy and Suzanne Sloane, who is the 

Head of the School, for sponsoring our team and for giving us an unparalleled opportunity to work together: male and female students, elementary and middle school 

students, homeschooled and ‘‘brick and mortar’’ public school students. I’m a little 

biased, but I think our team represents the best of the collaborative spirit, and as 

we all know, collaboration in the field of science is how society will find solutions 

to the complex and very serious problems that confront us as a nation. 

Starting last September, our team began meeting every week for two hours. The 

team read news articles and news magazines to become familiar with current events 

and advances in science and technology. The team brainstormed and discussed multiple ideas over several weeks. The team communicated with our coach, Mrs. Harrison, using Elluminate Live’s Web conferencing program. My son frequently used 

this program for his online schooling, and it proved to be a great resource for our 

science team too. Mrs. Harrison provided us with constructive and invaluable feedback every step along the way, and the team was always eager and excited to use 

the new communication platform to present their ideas to her. 

Some of our team ideas included a stress-releasing ball that would decrease workplace stress, a protective satellite shield to minimize space junk collisions, and a 

brain-powered car. With Google’s announcement of a ‘‘Self-Driving Car’’ within the 

same time frame, the team realized how quickly the world around them was changing and how important it is to stay on top of the latest developments in science. 

And then Jack saw the picture of Spec. Robert Warren in the Washington Post. 

Spec. Warren is a soldier who has suffered traumatic brain injury from an IED 

while serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in May 2010. Jack selected the idea of creating a helmet that would protect U.S. soldiers from traumatic brain injury due to 

roadside bombs with a device the team called the HEADS UP! HELMET. The 

team’s design features overlapping polyethylene plates, sophisticated heat and air 

pressure sensors, bullet and shrapnel-stopping gels, and a 360-degree neck collar 

that inflates to protect the brain and neck in case of a bomb blast. 

The team further decided that they would take the proposed technology from the 

battlefield to the playing field, in 20 years or less, to help prevent the growing number of concussions in children and athletes with a device call HEADS UP! HEADGEAR. This futuristic design features micro layers of impact-resistant, molecularweight polyethylene sheets spun and covered with highly sensitive temperature and 

air pressure sensors to detect concussive force. These impact-resistant sheets are 

also encapsulated with shock absorbing gel that expands to form a protective cushion; instant cold crystals provide metabolic cool-down to prevent intracranial pressure (ICP) build-up—one of the most dangerous results of TBI; and lavender or eucalyptus aromatherapy beads deliver post-impact sensory relief to prevent shock. 

These composite materials expand under force, extreme air pressure or temperature 

to ultimately protect the brain from mild, moderate or traumatic injury. 

Our team used all of the research tools at their disposal, including conducting 

email interviews of doctors, engineers and researchers from across the United 

States—from the University of Washington in Seattle to the University of Maryland 

in College Park. Using interviews, the library and the Internet, our team worked 

diligently to learn as much as they could about healthy brain function, traumatic 

brain injury and the science behind the state-of-the-art technologies surrounding 

helmet design. 

The team’s 11-page written submittal and five-page simulated Web designs documented the history and the present technology of helmet design, and included a detailed description of their future design, the scientific breakthroughs necessary to 

make their new invention a reality, and the future technology’s positive and negative consequences. I’m proud to say, the team finished their submittal for the regional competition a full three weeks in advance of the February deadline. 

As regional winners, the team was required to expand upon the work they submitted in the first phase in order to compete in the national competition: The team 

began working right away and they were back to meeting two hours every week, 

AND on the weekends! They began by building the prototype models. The team felt 

it was necessary to build a model of both their present AND future inventions in 

order to better explain their Helmet’s design process. After the models were complete, the team worked to find the most compelling clips for their two-minute video. 

They edited and practiced their parts to ensure the video would tell the complete 

story of their invention. The Web site is a compilation of all the work the team has 

done to date and provides a degree of user interface that makes the Web site educational and interesting. Once again, I’m proud to say, the team finished their final 

submittal for the national competition well in advance of the April 8th deadline. 
21 

The national winning teams were announced on May 2, 2011, and here we are. 

Our team has learned a lot about working on an interdisciplinary project. They have 

learned how to organize and present their knowledge more effectively and, as a result, they have sharpened their communication skills. I am hopeful that participation in this competition will ignite an interest for members of our team in STEMrelated fields, but I know they have, at the very least, developed a better understanding of the world around them. I’d like to thank the Toshiba Corporation for 

sponsoring the competition and the National Science Teachers Association for administering this event. 

And on a tragic, personal note, I would like to offer our coach, Mrs. Penni Harrison, our deepest sympathy on the loss of her husband. We have collaborated with 

Mrs. Harrison since September 2010, and in all of our team discussions regarding 

the design of our military helmet, we did not know until six days ago that her husband, COL James W. Harrison, Jr., was killed in action in May 2007 while serving 

as the Corrections and Detainee expert in Afghanistan. We are very, very sorry for 

her loss, and we realize that our research, discussions and presentations may have 

revived painful memories for her—and yet she was always so kind, supportive, and 

positive when we presented our information to her. Mrs. Harrison truly exhibits the 

patriotic selflessness of the American military family. It is an honor and a privilege 

to have worked with her, and we could not have asked for a better teacher, coach, 

and role model. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you. You too are right on the dot. You 

all might set a record here today. 

I now recognize Amy Attard and Miss Claudia Cooper for five 

minutes. Thank you. 

STATEMENT OF MRS. AMY ATTARD, SCIENCE TEACHER 

AND COACH TO THE I-TBS: INTRA-TRACHEA WEST HILLS 

MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM, COMMERCE, MICHIGAN 

Mrs. ATTARD. Good morning, Chairman Hall and Ranking Member Johnson, as well as the other Members of the Science Committee. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to share 

the amazing experiences that students at West Hills Middle School 

have the opportunity to take in, to be a part of in the science classroom. 

The ExploraVision program has become a tradition here at West 

Hills. This is my sixth year being a sponsor of the program, and 

every year it evolves and it gets better and better. This year along 

with Claudia Cooper and Samantha Tarnapol, we also in addition 

to the second-place title had nine honorable mention teams as well, 

and back in 2008 I had the privilege and honor of coming back to 

the ExploraVision weekend and I was also the coach of a team back 

in 2008 who also took the second-place national title. So the 

ExploraVision program is near and dear to my heart. 

Over time, as I have carried out this program with the students, 

changes have been made to make it better, to increase the amount 

of science skills, math skills, engineering skills and this year we 

really focused on the process of the program. We decided to create 

an interdisciplinary unit where myself as the science teacher, along 

with Russell Purdy, the language arts teacher, decided to work in 

tandem with the students this year to make it more meaningful for 

the students to bridge their learning process between science education and the language arts classroom. 

In science, we focused on what is called the design cycle, which 

is part of the international baccalaureate program, where the students had to investigate possible invention ideas. They then together as a team had to research the positives and negatives of 
22 

their invention and then they had to decide and reflect on which 

invention they wanted to choose to carry out for this project. In 

science, they worked together as a team. In language arts, they 

worked together as a team but more at an independent level. In 

language arts, the language arts teacher focused on teaching the 

research process as well as note taking, citing sources of information, and in science, we focused on the collaboration and the communication that needs to take place in order for a team to be successful. 

The unit question to get the ball rolling for students was, how 

can my creativity impact society. We wanted this project to be 

meaningful for the students so they would have that personal buyin, so they would be engaged in the topic at which they were researching. So we posed the question: what technology do we currently have today? We looked at current technology, how it has 

changed and evolved over time, and we also looked at famous inventors and what they have contributed to our society that we still 

use and benefit from today, and these questions that the students 

had kind of set the structure and the framework for them to get 

the ball rolling in terms of what impact did they want to make, 

who did they want to improve, who was their audience going to be. 

So again, we wanted this to be more about human ingenuity, 

their innovation, their creativity, the limit—or the possibilities 

were endless. There was no limit to their research, as long as they 

were learning at the same time and the process that they went 

through in terms of reflecting and going back and starting the process all over again if they found that, you know what, my idea 

wasn’t working or the technology isn’t possible. So from our end, 

from a teacher’s perspective, yes, the project was amazing but it 

was more about the process: how did you get from point A to point 

B, to build this wonderful innovative idea. 

In addition to the ExploraVision program, we also offer other 

competitions, science competitions to spark STEM education, which 

involve the Dupont Science Essay Competition, the Detroit Science 

and Engineering Fair as well as the Sunrise with Shade Poster 

Contest. From a teacher’s perspective, we have homework that we 

can check. We work with the parents for the support that they give 

the school district and they help their children, but going through 

programs like the ExploraVision and these other science competitions allow the community, whether it be the local community or 

the global community, to be able to see what is really taking place 

in the classroom and all the wonderful things that students are 

now doing today, and it is a great way for them to showcase and 

highlight their own successes. 

ExploraVision is a great venue for differentiation. It allows students to reach their maximum potential. The students that wanted 

to learn more about one area of technology had that opportunity to 

do so. Students became experts based on their own invention that 

they chose to do for this project. So we had multiple groups working in multiple directions, but at the end, we were all able to come 

back and collaborate at the same time. 

Along with the human ingenuity, our goal is to strive for lifelong 

learners. We want students to become inquirers. My goal as a 

teacher is to make students want to ask questions. I want them to 
23 

ask me questions. I don’t want to force-feed them information. It 

is more meaningful if they have that personal buy-in and that engagement in science education, and through the ExploraVision program and all of these other wonderful science competitions, we are 

moving in that direction, and as a teacher, to see my students 

smile every day when they come in and say what are we doing 

today, I can’t wait, what are we learning today, can we look at this, 

can we talk about this today, to me, my job is easy. They are the 

ones who are coming in with the inquisitive mindset of wanting to 

learn more about science. 

So I want to thank you for this opportunity to share my passion 

as a science teacher and the importance of enriching and engaging 

students in STEM education to become lifelong learners and successful members of society today and 20 years from now. Thank 

you. 

[The statement of Mrs. Attard follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MRS. AMY ATTARD, SCIENCE TEACHER AND COACH TO THE

I-TBS: INTRA-TRACHEA WEST HILLS MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM, COMMERCE, MICHIGAN

Good morning, Committee Members and national winning teams. My name is 

Amy Attard, and I teach seventh grade science at West Hills Middle School in West 

Bloomfield, Michigan. I have been teaching for six years in the Bloomfield Hills 

School District, which serves suburban students north of Detroit. I would like to 

take this opportunity to share with all of you the wonderful enriching and engaging 

experiences students can have as part of their science class. 

The Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision Program is just 

one venue that provides a challenging opportunity for students to become excited 

about science. This program encourages students to think of an invention that could 

come to life 20 years in the future. West Hills Middle School has been participating 

in the ExploraVision Program for over 10 years; it has become a tradition at the 

seventh grade level. This year we were fortunate to have one of our teams take 

home the second place title in the nation for the seventh–ninth grade category. The 

Intra-Trachea Breathing System Team (I-TBS) team made up of seventh graders 

Claudia Cooper and Samantha Tarnopol chose to work successfully as a team of 

two, which meant they had double the amount of work compared to a team of four. 

This year’s top winners were selected from a group of 4,346 team entries. Through 

Claudia and Samantha’s hard work and determination, they won a number of prizes 

for themselves and West Hills alike. West Hills was awarded a Toshiba laptop computer and the mentor, Russell Purdy, and I were awarded Toshiba HD camcorders, 

along with Claudia and Samantha. In addition to the amazing technology, both 

Claudia and Samantha were awarded a U.S. EE Savings Bond worth $5,000 and 

an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, to attend the ExploraVision Awards 

weekend along with their families and teachers. In addition to Claudia and 

Samantha’s great success, nine other teams from West Hills earned honorable mentions in the ExploraVision competition. Along with receiving notoriety, the honorable mention groups also received a gift for their accomplishments in addition to 

every participating group receiving an award and a small participation prize. We 

continue to promote the ExploraVision Program at West Hills because it allows students to think creatively, and provides them an opportunity to look into their future. 

In doing so, students are challenged to use their ingenuity to plan, research, and 

design a product that will benefit mankind. This model forces students to think 

globally, use problem solving skills and incorporate technology, all skills that are 

paramount in the future of education. Overall West Hills has done very well in the 

competition. For the past six years that I have been enriching students with this 

project, we have always been awarded with at least one honorable mention 

team,and in 2008 I had the privilege of coaching another team that also took home 

the second place national title. 

The ExploraVision competition is part of a mandatory class assignment in both 

science and language arts classes. The unit is designed to be interdisciplinary between the two subjects, as both classes worked in tandem to complete the rigorous 

requirements of the program. Through their science class, students chose their own 

partners for the project. Each group was made up of seventh graders, and they are 

all from West Hills. Two hours of each day, one hour in science and one in language 
24 

arts, were devoted to work on this project, which was three weeks in duration. During science students worked collaboratively, and in language arts they worked independently. In science the unit was looked at through the lens of scientific research, 

and the process of the project was presented using the Design Cycle model. The Design Cycle model, which is part of the International Baccalaureate program, is a 

way for students to problem solve and continually evaluate and reflect on their process as they worked through the project. In addition to the scientific research aspect 

of the project, the students focused on collaborating and communicating with their 

team as they worked through the Design Cycle to brainstorm invention ideas and 

proceed through the research process. At the same time, in language arts class students learned how to properly take notes from various sources, write a research 

paper, evaluate sources, and cite all of their information correctly. Overall, this 

project allowed students the opportunity to be creative and forced them to think 20 

years into the future. But more importantly, through this project students developed 

the skills of being an inquirer, a problem-solver, and a communicator and hopefully 

they will take these skills with them as they move forward in school and eventually 

out into the real world. 

In order to inspire students we looked at famous inventors and how their inventions have contributed to our everyday lives, and to stimulate the innovative minds 

of the students we posed the question ‘‘How can my creativity impact society?’’ In 

order for students to move forward they had to answer the following questions: (1) 

What did I want to improve? (2) Who was my audience going to be? (3) Why would 

people want my invention? These questions set the stage for students to investigate 

possible invention ideas, which then led to sketches and design briefs of each invention, and finally students researched the positives and negatives of each idea and 

its impact it would have on society. From their investigation, each group then collectively selected the idea they wanted to move forward with for the project. Russell 

Purdy and I provided the structure, deadlines, and rubrics for the students in both 

science and language arts class, while the students divided up the project equally 

among their team and set their own goals and expectations for each individual 

member. While working on this project, students researched information, interviewed family members who had knowledge in certain areas, and in some instances 

even held phone interviews with companies that sold products related to their invention ideas. The final piece of the project was the culminating research paper and 

the creation of the Web page graphics, which provided a great opportunity for students to learn various drawing programs on the computer and actually see their 

process and invention come to life in front of their own eyes through their graphics 

they created. 

In addition to the ExploraVision competition, I also encourage students to participate in other science competitions throughout the school year. Other science competitions in which some of my students participate in are the Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit, The DuPont Challenge Science Essay Competition, and 

the SunWise with SHADE Poster Competition. Students have done particularly well 

in these science competitions. This year a current seventh grader took first place 

in the nation for her poster entry in the SunWise with SHADE Poster Competition 

and five students across grades seven and eight placed in the Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit. 

Overall STEM projects, such as the ExploraVision competition, continue to emphasize the relevance and real-world application of science, math, engineering, and 

technology. These projects also allow schools to showcase the amazing skills that 

many of our students possess; skills that might otherwise go unnoticed in the community at large. As teachers it is our role to make sure our students are ready for 

the future. Whether the future is the next grade level, college, or the workforce, 

having a good foundation and knowledge in the areas of math and science are important in and out of the classroom. As our society continues to grow into a digital 

world, technology skills are becoming more of a necessity rather than just a skill. 

Furthermore, when looking at engineering, the process of being able to problem 

solve, collaborate with others, and continually reflect is relevant in and out of the 

classroom, and more importantly it is what makes students become inquirers. As 

curriculums continue to become more rigorous for students, it is important for 

teachers and parents to work together and support students so they can reach their 

maximum potential and, more importantly, see the relevance in what they are 

learning in order to become life-long learners and successful members of society. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you. You were just almost on time, by 

gosh. You and Jack’s mom and Dr. Lozano really expressed your-
25 

self well, and it was interesting, everything you said, and we thank 

you for it. 

I now recognize Ms. Ann Manwell and Miss Allison Reed to 

present testimony. 

STATEMENT OF MS. ANN MANWELL, SCIENCE TEACHER AND 

MENTOR TO THE 3DRENAL: KIDNEY BIO-PRINTER 

STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL TEAM, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 

Ms. MANWELL. Good morning, Committee Members, colleagues 

and students. I am Ann de Sostoa Manwell and I have been teaching at Stuyvesant High School, a specialized New York City public 

high school for math, science and technology, for 14 years. 

All the students at Stuyvesant took a qualifying test to be offered 

a seat at the school, and we have a very rich history of student research and success in student science competitions like Intel/ 

Science Talent Search, Siemens Competition and the International 

Science and Engineering Fair. We can boast four Nobel laureates 

among the many scientists, mathematicians, engineers and physicians who are alumni. 

But schools like Stuyvesant and all the specialized high schools 

in your States do not operate in a vacuum. We need the farm 

teams that you heard about earlier today. I would like to take this 

opportunity to speak to you today about the role competitions like 

Toshiba ExploraVision play in developing the students with the 

skills necessary to participate in our programs. 

We at Stuyvesant have found that engaging students in these 

competitions allows them to be creative, think broadly and critically of the world around them, work in teams, develop time management skills and take ownership of a project. No one now at 

Stuyvesant remembers when ExploraVision became part of the 

10th-grade research chemistry curriculum, but it was probably very 

close to its 1992 launch. The current chemistry teachers, Samantha 

Daves and Zhen Chuan Li, have continued to use ExploraVision as 

a powerful motivating force to develop student skills in scientific 

thinking. 

As you have heard, the ExploraVision competition requires teams 

of students to take a current technology and push it 20 years into 

the future. Ms. Daves’ teams bounced ideas off of each other, 

brought in classmates from other sections, grilled parents, consulted online sources for their choice of current technology to develop. The 3Drenal team of Norine Chan, David Kurkovskiy and 

Alison Reed took an article found by Alison’s mother on bio-printing and combined it with what they knew about adult stem cells 

and signaling molecules and began to see into the future. 

Critical at this stage of the students’ development, Ms. Daves divided the project into smaller tasks, established a timeline for completion of the various stages of their project. The 3Drenal team recognized their different skill sets and divided up the labor accordingly. Alison was the artist, David provided overall organization, 

and Norine did background research. They knew that they could 

consult on various faculty members, especially research coordinator, Dr. Jonathan Gastel, for leads to more detailed information 
26 

or to clear up any technical questions they had. They finally put 

it all together and sent it off. 

On the day the awards were made, around school, around the 

computers at school there were clutches of 10th graders eagerly 

awaiting to see the results. They did quite well. 3Drenal placed 

first in the northeast region, and both Dr. Li’s and Ms. Daves’ research chemistry class had numerous honorable mentions, and 

there were many honorable mentions in Ms. Daves’ regular chemistry class, which were not assigned the Toshiba project as required. 

The 3Drenal Team and their classmates were pleased with the 

performance but really the difficult part had just begun. The team 

had just four weeks to create a Web site to show off 3Drenal. They 

had won a Toshiba computer loaded with Web design software, but 

they had little experience using it. Consultants were needed. Paul 

Oratofsky, class of ’67, helped with the initial Web site design, and 

later Digital Resource Incorporated, a company headed by Alison’s 

father, David Reed, was enlisted to help with 3D imagery and Web 

site orchestration. After many hours after school, on weekends, at 

school or the Chans’ or Digital Resources, the Web site was completed and submitted. 

A few weeks later, the 3Drenal Team were surprised at school 

by Toshiba and NSTA representatives announcing their secondplace national position in the senior division. They now had to 

build a prototype. A more detailed design had to be developed, materials had to be chosen, dimensions measured. Scott Thomas, the 

chemistry physics chair, volunteered to teach Norine enough 

AutoCAD so that she could program our very real 3–D printer to 

print parts of the print corners for the control in the future 

3Drenal printer. Finally, they had to fashion a clay kidney to represent 3Drenal’s innovative product, a new kidney formed by the 

patient’s own bone marrow stem cells stimulated by various molecules to develop into kidney-specific tissues and then have it assembled by the 3Drenal bio-printer. 

The 3Drenal Team had pushed an existing technology to future 

uses. They had to work as a team. They had to recruit experts to 

help them. They had to articulate their problem and innovative solution clearly and accurately. They had to complete their project on 

time and had to deal with unfamiliar technology and tools. All 

these skills will serve them very well if they continue in any of the 

STEM disciplines or, for that matter, in any discipline they choose 

to follow. 

I hope you have time in your busy schedules to see the prototypes and listen to these students talk about the ideas that they 

have brought to Washington and for which you so graciously have 

provided a national venue. Thank you. 

[The statement of Ms. Manwell follows:] 

STATEMENT OF MS. ANNE MANWELL, SCIENCE TEACHER AND MENTOR TO THE

3DRENAL: KIDNEY BIO-PRINTER STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL TEAM, BROOKLYN, NEW

YORK; AND MISS ALISON REED, 10TH-GRADE STUDENT AT THE STUYVESANT HIGH

SCHOOL AND MEMBER OF THE 3DRENAL: KIDNEY BIO-PRINTER TEAM, BROOKLYN, 

NEW YORK

Good morning Committee Members, colleagues and students. I am Anne de Sostoa 

Manwell and I have been teaching biology at Stuyvesant High School, a specialized 
27 

NYC Public School of math, science and technology, for 14 years. All students at 

Stuyvesant took a qualifying test to be offered a seat at the school. We have a rich 

tradition of student research and success in student science competitions like Intel/ 

Science Talent Search, Siemens Competition and ISEF. We can boast of five Nobel 

Laureates among the many scientists, mathematicians, engineers and physicians 

who are alumni. 

But schools like Stuyvesant and specialized high schools in all of your states do 

not operate in a vacuum. We need students prepared by elementary and middle 

schools to feed our programs. I would like to take this opportunity today to speak 

to you about the role competitions like Toshiba ExploraVision play in building the 

skills needed for students to participate in our programs. 

We at Stuyvesant have found that engaging our students in competitions allows 

them to be creative, think broadly and critically, work in teams, develop time-management skills, take ownership of a project, and be proud of their work. No one now 

at Stuyvesant remembers when ExploraVision became a part of the 10th grade Research Chemistry curriculum, but it was probably very close to its 1992 launch. The 

current Research Chemistry teachers, Samantha Daves and Dr. Zhen Chuan Li, 

have continued to use ExploraVision as a powerful motivating force to develop student skills in scientific thinking. 

The ExploraVision Competition requires teams of students to take a current technology and push it 20 years into the future. This nurturing of a young person’s 

imagination, starting as young as kindergarten, ensures that as she gets older, she 

will continue to ask questions and explore her world. Ms. Daves’ teams bounced 

ideas off each other, brought in classmates from other sections, grilled parents and 

consulted online sources for their choice of current technology to develop. The 

3Drenal team of Norine Chan, David Kurkovskiy and Alison Reed took an article 

found by Alison’s mother on bioprinting and combined it with what they knew about 

adult stem cells and signaling molecules and began to see into the future. 

Critically at this stage of their development, Ms. Daves gave the teams a timeline 

to complete the various stages of their project. The 3Drenal team recognized their 

different skill sets and divided up the labor accordingly. Alison was the artist, David 

provided overall organization and Norine did background research. They knew they 

could consult with other faculty members, especially the research coordinator, Dr. 

Jonathan Gastel, for leads to more detailed information or to clear up any technical 

questions they had. Finally it was all together and sent off. 

This initial phase can be done in any educational setting. With the motivation of 

the ExploraVision competition, any STEM teacher can engage students in the creative and innovative thinking necessary to look into the future. 

On the day the awards announcement was made, there were numerous clutches 

of 10th graders crowded around computers to see results. They did quite well. 

3Drenal was first in the Northeast region, and both Dr. Li’s and Ms. Daves’ research chemistry classes had numerous honorable mentions. And there were many 

honorable mentions in Ms. Daves’ regular chemistry classes for whom the 

ExploraVision project was not required! Toshiba and the National Science Teachers 

Association (NSTA), ExploraVision’s sponsor and administrator, were impressed 

with the numbers and helped arrange a press conference for all the students, parents, upperclassmen research students, and faculty. Speeches were made, reporters 

asked questions, pictures were taken and veggies were dipped. 

The 3Drenal team and their classmate were pleased with their performance but 

the really difficult part had just started. The team had just four weeks to create 

a Web site to show off 3Drenal. They had won a Toshiba computer loaded with Webdesign software but they had little experience using it. Consultants were needed. 

Paul Oratofsky, SHS ’67, helped with initial Web site design, and later Digital Resources Incorporated, a company headed by Alison’s father, David Reed, was enlisted to help with 3D imagery and Web site orchestration. After many hours after 

school and on weekends, either at school or the Chan’s or Digital Resources Inc., 

the Web site was completed and submitted. 

A few weeks later the 3Drenal team was surprised at school by Toshiba and 

NSTA representatives announcing their National Second Place in the senior division. This was at 10:30a.m., by 11:40 everyone knew the news and was congratulating David, who was in my molecular science class. But now they had to build a 

prototype. A more detailed design had to be developed, materials to use had to be 

chosen and dimensions measured. Scott Thomas, the chemistry/physics chair, volunteered to teach Norine enough AutoCAD so that our very real 3D printer could build 

the printer corner controls for the future 3Drenal bioprinter. Everyone had to learn 

to wield an Exacto knife to cut foam-core for the printer cabinet. Finally they fashioned a clay kidney to represent 3Drenal’s innovative product, a new kidney formed 

from the patient’s own bone marrow stem cells that were stimulated to develop into 
28 

the various kidney tissues, in vitro, by tissue-specific signaling molecules and then 

assembled by the bioprinter. 

The 3Drenal team had pushed an existing technology to future uses. They had 

to work as a team. They had to recruit experts to help them. They had to articulate 

their problem and innovative solution clearly, accurately and persuasively. They had 

to complete their project on time. They had to deal with unfamiliar technology and 

tools. They have accepted acknowledgement for their efforts. All these skills will 

serve them very well if they continue in any of the STEM disciplines or for that 

matter in whatever discipline they choose to follow. 

I hope you have time in your busy schedules to see the prototypes and listen to 

the ideas that the ExploraVision teams have brought to Washington and for which 

you have provided a national venue. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you for a good presentation, and I thank 

all of you for your testimony and reminding Members here that 

Committee rules apply to us also on the five minutes, and the chair 

at this time will open the round of questions and I yield myself five 

minutes. 

My first question will be to Alison. Alison, I think you are the 

senior member of all this group here. Is that right? 

Miss REED Yes. 

Chairman HALL. That means you are the oldest. Is that right? 

Miss REED. Yes. 

Chairman HALL. Well, you will feel good to know I am the oldest 

guy in the House or Senate, so we have something in common, and 

I picked you to start with. You are what they call a rising junior. 

Does that mean you are going to be a junior next year? 

Miss REED. Yes, I am. 

Chairman HALL. I think I was a junior three years. Do you and 

your teammates know what you really want to study in college yet? 

Miss REED. I am actually not sure what I want to do. I feel like 

I have many options and pathways I can go down. I know that 

Norine is really interested in becoming a doctor. I think she definitely wants an overall liberal arts education, and she wants to explore every possibility, and so does David, and David is very interested in becoming a writer. 

Chairman HALL. Well, I might ask you this. Has winning this 

competition had any bearing on your decision or changed or hastened your decision? 

Miss REED. Yes, it definitely has because we had so much fun 

and it was so interesting to research and develop our idea, and I 

think that getting more involved with science and our project has 

really opened up that area to us and made it more available and 

more interesting, so I definitely really liked it. 

Chairman HALL. Okay. Well, we thank you. 

I will ask all students this, and you can give me a loud yes or 

no and we will kind of determine by the—we have a noise tester 

up here. Did you like science and math before you started your 

project? Yes or no. This thing says yes wins by about eight to 10. 

Another question: do you like it even more now? That is yes again. 

All right. I have some time left here. Let me see what else I 

have. I might ask to all the students, anybody that wants to suggest an answer, what did you enjoy the most about your project 

and what did you like the least? Who wants to answer that? Hold 

up your hand. Jack, do you want to answer that? I have been doing 

business with you ever since you have been here. All right, 

Marcelo. 
29 

Master VIDAL. Painting the prototype. 

Chairman HALL. Painting the prototype? 

Master VIDAL. Yes. 

Chairman HALL. That’s a yes. Okay, does anybody else want to 

say? Yes, Claudia. 

Miss COOPER. Hi. My name is Claudia Cooper. I am a seventh 

grader at West Hills. I think the most enjoyable part about this 

whole project was when Samantha, my partner, and I first started, 

we had no idea, honestly it started as a required curriculum activity—not activity, assignment that Mrs. Attard proposed to us, and 

when we got our inspiration to help people who are suffering from 

respiratory insufficiency, it really was, I guess, cool to know that 

we can help people and to see what our generation is capable of 

and to know that there is possibility as long as someone out there 

has ideas and minds to think of them. 

Chairman HALL. Okay. Thank you. 

To all the adults, let me ask you this. Several of you commented 

on how impressed you were with the ability of your teams to come 

up with novel ideas such as integral pieces of this competition that 

you are in. Can you talk about how you helped the students to drill 

down on their broad concepts, or how did you have to help them 

do that at all? Perhaps it was a natural part of the process. Anybody want to answer that? Yes, Mrs. Conwell. 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. We started by reading newspaper articles and news magazines. I felt it was important for the children 

to become aware of the news around them, to look at what was 

going on in current events, and so we started brainstorming from 

that, and that is where we got most of our ideas, and so they were 

based in fact and they were relevant issues, you know, current to 

today’s ongoing problems, and that is how we started. 

Chairman HALL. Did you read anything about any of the current 

activities of any of us Congressmen? 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Of course. 

Chairman HALL. Does anyone else care to comment? Yes, Ms. 

Manwell. 

Ms. MANWELL. Yes, and after the kids come up with an idea, you 

have to ask them, is it feasible, what do you know about it, where 

does it take you, what do you need to know in order to go forward. 

Chairman HALL. All right. I cheated for 10 seconds, and I thank 

you all for the good answers you gave me. 

At this time I recognize Ms. Johnson for five minutes. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much. It has been informative to 

listen to the testimony. 

As Mr. Hall indicated earlier, we are both Texans, and in Texas, 

we have around 1,100 school districts, and because of that, we pioneered some distant learning, but I am becoming more and more 

concerned about the cost of the administration of all these school 

districts and have wondered whether or not we could substitute 

some of the administration with distant learning, so I am interested in trying to get information from you of how you feel that 

using distant learning in STEM education could be successful. I 

wonder, because we have home schooling involved here, and so perhaps I can ask you, Mrs. Conwell-Dudley, about your experience in 

feeling that it could be successful. 
30 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Well, as I mentioned, we used—we are 

sponsored by Virginia Virtual Academy in Herndon, Virginia, and 

we used the online public school program this year for Jack’s sixthgrade schooling, and we felt very fortunate that they were willing 

to sponsor a team, and we used what is called Illuminate Live— 

it is a Web conferencing program—to correspond with our coach, 

Penni Harrison, who actually lives in Colorado, and it is how we 

did our schooling throughout the year and it is how we ran many 

of our science meetings, and we would send things electronically. 

We would send attachments. We would, you know, upload our presentations. She could take a look at it in advance and then when 

we had our meetings, we would, you know, share information that 

way, and well, here, we are, so it apparently worked very, very well 

for us, and it was a lot of fun and I felt like we were sort of on 

the cutting edge of it. So I have to say there was little or no cost 

involved, and it was fantastic. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Now, were you home all the time with Jack? 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Yes, I was. I was his parent coach, and 

so this was a temporary option for us. Jack will be in a brick-andmortar school next year but we did this for some personal and academic reasons, and we were very thankful that we could use their 

program. It was outstanding. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you. 

Now, Jack, how did you like going to school on a camera? 

Master DUDLEY. It was fun, and I learned a lot. It was good having somebody actually there to work with you one on one, in this 

case, my mom, to help me with all of my studies and I think it was 

a great curriculum. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Have you compared that to being in a classroom 

with other students? 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Well, we live in a neighborhood full of 

children who go to both public and private school, and I would have 

to say that I think my son’s education was on par or perhaps even 

better in some respects, but I am a little biased. 

Ms. JOHNSON. I am not trying to criticize. I am seeking information. 

Jack, did you miss having students sitting next to you or you felt 

you got that through the virtual experience? 

Master DUDLEY. I missed having students around me but I just 

got a lot better learning experience because my mom can just work 

with me with nobody else asking questions. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you. You have a wonderful private teacher. 

Dr. Lozano, my time is running out quickly, but in your biography I read that you were the first Mexican-American woman in 

70 years to receive a Ph.D. from Rice, and the fifth woman to ever 

get a Ph.D. from Rice’s mechanical engineering and material 

science department. The underrepresentation of women is quite apparent, and minorities, and I wonder whether you are beginning to 

see any breakthrough or whether you think it still takes a lot of 

outreach effort? 

Dr. LOZANO. You mean for girls in general? 

Ms. JOHNSON. Girls in general. 

Dr. LOZANO. You know, girls somehow are taking over, you know, 

in college in most of the majors where they were, you know—I 
31 

don’t know, like a lot of the liberal arts and a lot of business, and 

there are now more girls than boys enrolled in college. 

Ms. JOHNSON. In college in general but in—— 

Dr. LOZANO. In college in general, but in engineering, it is still 

no higher than 17 percent, so still in my classes of, like, 60 kids, 

I have, like, maybe five girls and 55 boys. So still, you know, I 

haven’t seen any change since, you know, 10, 15 years ago. So still 

the girls make a lot less. And it is a very severe cultural stereotype, you know, when you ask people, even boys, you know, what 

does a mechanical engineer do, and everybody will imagine a hat 

and oil and boots and, you know, like a dirty type of profession, 

and in reality when I take them into my lab, I do a lot of tours 

for—you know, at least 1,000 kids pass by my lab every year, and 

they are surprised to see that oh, so you actually deal with, you 

know, prosthesis for the knee and the hip and, you know, so that 

doesn’t have to do anything with oil. You know, mechanical engineer, we also do scaffolds for tissue regeneration. We need to take 

mechanical properties for the cells to anchor and grow without falling down, you know, and the scaffold has to sustain the load. 

So they don’t really know exactly what engineering is. So even 

though engineering is all around us, you know, very small percentage of people know what it is. Even like, I don’t know, my son 

plays piano beautifully and I say you could be the best piano player, but if the materials in the piano are not good, if the, you know, 

surroundings of the room are not well prepared, you know, you will 

sound awful, and engineers are around all of that but you don’t 

really see them. You go to the doctor and you see the X-rays and 

MRIs and laparoscopies and everything and you see a doctor but 

you don’t see the engineer that was behind all that development. 

So we really never see what engineers do, and every time—I went 

to Barnes and Noble and kind of just went through books, and I 

found engineers are either the ones that drive the trains in the 

kids’ books. Or there is an astronaut and right behind are two guys 

carrying a case and it says engineers. I said, man, those are—you 

know, the astronauts are the engineers. So really the profession 

hasn’t really been attractive to kids, so we still have to do a lot. 

And this is all engineering, you know, the creativity that comes 

with ExploraVision. That is basically what engineering is, just be 

creative, use science knowledge to develop technology that can benefit society. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much. My questions were within 

five minutes, Mr. Chairman. I didn’t promise the answers would 

be. 

Chairman HALL. The lady’s ten minutes is up. 

I now recognize—that was a good answer. We would have tapped 

here saying, you know, please start slowing down, but thank you 

for a good, long—a good answer, an honorable answer. 

I recognize Mrs. Fudge, the gentlelady from—Mr. Smith, Lamar 

Smith, the gentleman from—he is chairman of the Judiciary Committee from the State of Texas. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. Lozano, I thank you and Marcelo for making the trip up from 

south Texas. We don’t mean to be picking on you today but it is 

probably no surprise that those of us from Texas are going to ask 
32 

you questions first, and I would like to do so but then invite the 

other witnesses to comment if they would like to as well. I have 

sort of a general question with a specific question component to it, 

and the general question is, well, maybe I should say you already 

provided part of the answer because I understand you developed a 

science and magic show for K–12th grade. I wish you could have 

shown that to us today. That would have been fascinating, I am 

sure. 

But it seems to me that that is one of the answers to the overall 

question about how do we attract young people to become interested in science and math. The figures have been mentioned but 

we have about half as many young adults majoring in science and 

math today as we did 20 years ago, and the trend is now good and 

other countries are picking up the slack and we would like to see 

our own American students start majoring more often in those 

types of subjects. So the real question is, how do we inspire young 

people, how do we get them interested in those subjects? You 

showed us in a number of ways how that is possible. 

Let me go on and ask a more specific question that you might 

want to address as well as the general question, and that is, to me, 

one of the barriers we face is that of false stereotypes, that maybe 

children from broken homes or from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or whose parents don’t speak English well or girls who are 

oftentimes thought not to be good in math, those are the types of 

false stereotypes that need to be broken down and that will allow 

these young people to achieve their potential and give us millions 

of more young people who might major in the sciences and math, 

and I think part of the answer is better mentors and frequent tutors and inspirational and better teachers, more money dedicated 

to those subjects and so on. But do you want to answer the question more generally as to what we can do beyond what you have 

already mentioned and also how we can counter those false stereotypes? 

Dr. LOZANO. That is a very hard question. I guess one of the 

things is to get, you know, leaders into the classrooms, professors, 

you know, science teachers, you know, get them into the classrooms, and I think National Science Foundation does an awesome 

job. You know, every grant that top researcher gets from National 

Science Foundation, in order for you to get it, it needs to have 

broader impacts and the broader impacts have, you know, outreach 

within it. So you need to have great science in order to be given 

the grant, but if you don’t have that section filled, you know, you 

don’t get it. And that forces, you know, everybody within the scientific community to outreach, you know, to K–12, and I think that 

is a beautiful model, you know, what NSF does. 

I think, you know, a lot of kids, they go into high school and they 

have never—as Congressman Johnson was mentioning, women 

have never been given the opportunity to see, you know, what is 

beyond so when they, for example, tour the lab or when we go to 

the classroom, they give you thank you letters saying that, you 

know, I wish I could have known you 4 years ago and I would have 

made very different decisions, you know, about my life. 
33 

So I think, you know, we just need to go back to the community 

and do a lot of that because there is no other way to, you know, 

get kids, you know—— 

Mr. SMITH. Hard work, dedication, commitment from all the 

adults involved. I think you are right. 

Mrs. Conwell-Dudley, would you have anything to add to that? 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Yes, I would. Thank you. We live in 

Loudon County, and I can’t really speak to the counties that the 

other schools represent or reside in, but in fact there is a lot of interest in science and technology, and one of the things that pains 

me as a parent is, and I will give you an example. I have been attending open houses for the Academy of Science, which is a program in Loudon County that is open to all Loudon County high 

school students, and I have been for the last two years and I have 

been amazed that every spot in the parking lot is full when they 

have an open house. It is heartbreaking, really, and you get into 

the auditorium and it is practically standing room only, and the 

really unfortunate aspect of this is that there are only 60 to 65 

spots in this Academy of Science and there are hundreds of students who are interested in going, and I look at the auditorium, 

and these aren’t kids who are being dragged out of bed in the 

morning. These are kids who are actually there with their parents 

deeply interested in getting into this program and yet they can’t 

get in because the competition is so great and there is only one program in Loudon County that addresses the sciences and math in 

a really advanced way, and it is the Academy of Science. There are 

60 to 65 spots. So when you look at the 15 middle schools that are 

feeding into that program, that is really an opportunity of four kids 

per school. 

Mr. SMITH. So the solution is more programs? 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. More programs, and whether it is joining up with businesses, partnering with businesses. Like you look 

at Loudon County and all the businesses in that area, Aerospace 

Corporation, for one, is one my husband works with, but Boeing 

and Northrup Grumman. Maybe I am misrepresenting the names 

because they are merging so often, I can’t keep up with them. But 

I am sure that they are engineers in businesses located within our 

areas who could partner with the schools to bring science into the 

schools, to make it more readily available. 

Mr. SMITH. Good idea. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman HALL. The gentleman’s time has expired. 

I recognize Mrs. Fudge from Ohio for five minutes. 

Mrs. FUDGE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank all 

of you for being here. 

Let me first congratulate all of the contest winners. You should 

be extremely proud of your accomplishments, and I am very proud 

of you. I hope you all pursue some career in a STEM field. We certainly need you, and I am looking for great things from each and 

every one of you. 

I would also like to thank our Chairman for holding this hearing, 

which clearly demonstrates the need for federal education reform 

and investment in STEM education. The schools represented here 

are home to brilliant young students. However, they also each rep-
34 

resent some form of privilege or lack of accessibility. Discovery 

Montessori in Texas is a private school. Virginia Virtual Academy, 

while free to students living in Carroll County, Virginia, is a modern form of home schooling and requires significant parental involvement. Many of the struggling families in the United States 

are either single parent who cannot stay home with their students 

because they must work or two parents who must both work. 

Schools such as this simply are not an option for many low-income 

families. West Hills Middle School in Michigan, though public, has 

less than one percent of students eligible for free or reduced school 

lunches. In my district, just take the city of East Cleveland, that 

number is more than 85 percent. And finally, Stuyvesant High 

School requires students to take a standardized test for admission, 

which means expensive test prep courses for the students who can 

afford them, putting low-income students at a severe disadvantage. 

As a New York City public school, only 2.2 percent of students at 

Stuyvesant are African American. This number is incredibly low, 

especially considering that across all public schools in the city, 32 

percent of students are African American. The numbers are even 

more drastic when you look at Hispanic students, who represent 40 

percent of the students in the New York City public schools but 

only 3 percent of the students at Stuyvesant. 

Clearly, this is not a level playing field, and I believe that it is 

our job to ensure that all students in this country have access to 

quality education and the opportunity to win a contest like 

ExploraVision. 

Now, to my question, which is for Mrs. Conwell-Dudley. Virginia 

Virtual Academy seems to be very effective in getting kids familiar 

with technology and interested in science. Do you think that there 

is some part of the curriculum which you use now in your home 

that could be transferred to students in the classroom setting that 

would have the same kind of an effect? 

Mrs. CONWELL-DUDLEY. Absolutely. I think the Illuminate Live 

conferencing program could be used extensively in the schools. I 

don’t see why it couldn’t. it worked extremely well for us, and I am 

not that sophisticated. I am not that smart, but I am smart enough 

to know that our kids have got to be a lot smarter and so, you 

know, I am going to do everything I can, and I really think this 

program, the Web conferencing program, would be a great thing for 

schools to use. 

Mrs. FUDGE. Thank you. I want to again congratulate all of the 

brilliant young people sitting here today, young men and young ladies, for the work you have done. You have accomplished a great 

deal. I hope that some day you will be sitting on this Committee 

talking to young people just like you. Keep up the good work, and 

to all of you who have assisted and mentored and encouraged, 

thank you as well. 

Thank you. I yield back. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady yields back her time. 

I recognize Mr. Bartlett, the gentleman from Maryland. 

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you very much. I want to use my brief five 

minutes to emphasize two areas. One is the importance of teachers, 

and the second, our need as a country to dramatically increase the 

number of our students going into science, math and engineering. 
35 

It was a teacher who changed my life. I went to college in 1943, 

Washington Missionary College in Takoma Park, Maryland, to become a medical missionary. My first degree was in theology, which 

has served me very well in Congress, by the way, because I learned 

to love the sinner and hate the sin. I was going to be a medical 

missionary so I had to take some courses to go to medical school, 

and I had a really fantastic teacher and I took all of his courses 

and enough other courses that when I finally graduated from college in 1947, that I had a major in biology and a minor in theology. 

I had a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. I went on to 

get a doctorate in science, and I taught for 24 years. 

Our youngest son of 10 children was a terrible student. He 

wouldn’t pay any attention. We were going to lose him. Every year 

we would wonder should we keep Ross back. And finally it was a 

teacher in his sixth grade, a science teacher in the sixth grade that 

turned him on. Now, Ross graduated from UMVC number one in 

a class of 140 some engineers. He has five children, a Ph.D. He is 

returning to Maryland, thankfully, and he works for one of our big 

government labs. So here are two lives that have been dramatically 

turned around by teachers, so thank you, thank you very much for 

what you do. 

I was listening to the news this morning and I was reminded 

again of our priorities, which I think are pretty darn distorted. A 

Vancouver team lost. I have no idea who they are because I tuned 

out sports because I think they are kind of the equivalent of gladiators in Rome and we know what happened to Rome. But, you 

know, their team lost so they are really upset and they are turning 

over police cars and breaking windows and the riot police are out 

trying to quiet them down. I watch the White House and the people 

that they invite there and slobber all over and they are not scientists and mathematicians and engineers, they are not academic 

achievers, they are athletes and entertainers. 

This year, the Chinese will graduate seven times as many engineers as we graduate, and about half of our graduate engineers 

will be Chinese students. And by the way, they don’t stay here anymore because there are plenty of good jobs back in China so they 

are going there. 

We represent less than five percent of the people in the world 

and we have a fourth of all the good things in the world, and I 

have a huge concern that we are not going to be able to retain our 

position as the premier economic and military power in the world 

if we are turning out one-seventh as many scientists, mathematicians and engineers as our competitor is. What can we do as a 

country to change the culture? Because, you know, you get a culture, a community, a society gets what it appreciates and we just 

don’t appreciate our bright young kids in science, math and engineering. When I was a kid, they called us squares. That is an old 

term, isn’t it? Now, what are you, geeks and nerds now? And, you 

know, pretty girls won’t date bright boys and a really bright girl 

plays dumb to get a date. This is a really sad reflection on our society. What do we need to do so that we can capture the imagination 

of the American people and get more of our young people to go into 

careers in science, math and engineering. I know you won’t be able 

to give an adequate answer to this in the minute and seven sec-
36 

onds we have remaining so I would encourage you to please write 

for the record something that will help us so that we will know 

what we can do here in this Committee to do a better job of turning 

on our people and getting more of our young people to go into 

science, math and engineering. 

Chairman HALL. The gentleman’s time has expired. Do you have 

any figures on how many lawyers they are turning out over there? 

Mr. BARTLETT. Actually, you know, I go to groups of young people 

and I ask them what they are going to become, and they are going 

to become lawyers and political scientists. Now, we have enough of 

both of those, quite enough of both of those, don’t you think? We 

just need to turn that around. A society gets what it appreciates. 

We just don’t appreciate science, math and engineering, but that 

is what makes the wheels go around and, you know, that is going— 

if we aren’t able to get around this, we are not going to be number 

one. 

Chairman HALL. Your point is made. 

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you, sir. 

Chairman HALL. We have about 18 votes in another 15 minutes. 

We are going to try to go on through. Mr. Clarke, the gentleman 

from Michigan, I recognize you for five minutes, five quick minutes. 

Mr. CLARKE. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

I am from the city of Detroit. I represent metropolitan Detroit. 

I am on this Committee at the recommendation of Representative 

Peters, who is right here who is your Member of Congress, and I 

just want to thank West Hills Middle School for making us really 

proud in Michigan. 

This is a little personal story. This is really to Claudia and to 

Samantha. You know, when I was growing up in elementary 

school, I was one of the few kids that had asthma, so I went back 

and visited, you know, some of these elementary schools now that 

I am an elected official. I remember asking one class, anybody raise 

your hand if you have asthma. Half the class raised their hands. 

And where I was raised too, you know, we have an incinerator 

right near us a few blocks away, and we had plants there. My dad 

used to work in the Rouge plant. So a lot of people have breathing 

problems because the contamination, because of pollution, because 

we smoked cigarettes and my dad smoked them without filters before he realized that it was a problem. This was a long time ago. 

So the fact that you have created a prototype of a way to provide 

people with oxygen who need it without having to carry those big 

tanks, that is going to really give people a lot of freedom because 

a lot of us, more and more people are growing older and living 

longer and will likely have to live with these chronic breathing 

problems. 

My question, and if I could, Mr. Chair, I would like to just ask 

this to Claudia and also Samantha. I know you are not sitting, but 

after Claudia responds. What did you either enjoy the most out of 

developing this intra-trachea device enjoy or learned about it the 

most or what you got out of it? I am just curious. Now, here is the 

reason I am asking you this. Because in your answer will probably 

be the actual value that other students would get, and that would 

probably encourage them to do this type of research that you are 
37 

doing right now that can actually save people’s lives, or at least 

give somebody a better quality of life as they grow older. 

Miss COOPER. Well, thank you, Mr. Clarke. Our inspiration actually came from my grandma, who was oxygen dependent for the 

last few months of her life, and as you were saying, it weighs down 

your freedom, and this device would hopefully restore that freedom 

and let patients do what they want to. It is the sheer joy of knowing that there are possibilities out there, like I said before, and 

that our minds, our generation can do that. I think working with 

Samantha was one of the most amazing parts of it because she is 

so funny and she is very, very bright, and we couldn’t have done 

it without her. I think just opening our minds, because neither of 

us were very into science before this competition, and when we 

first heard of it, it was just an assignment. It was not anything 

that we wanted to do necessarily, but once we started going, we 

saw how incredible this competition can be and how great this is. 

Mr. CLARKE. Wonderful. And if possible, if Samantha, you could 

just come up and share with me your experience about doing this 

research. 

Miss TARNOPOL. Well, I would probably say most of the same 

things as Claudia because we did most things together, but I 

learned so much from this competition because before this I was 

really not into technology, and I was not—and I learned so much 

from this and I learned so much about our invention, and I really 

like helping people, so it is probably what I would say the most. 

Mr. CLARKE. Well, this is wonderful. I am going to yield back my 

time, but I think we have got the answer. So all the students right 

now who are watching this, you don’t even have to be into science 

or math or technology, but if you want to help somebody, you see 

somebody that you know has a problem, could be in your family or 

a friend of yours, this is a way to really help them and help a 

whole bunch of people fast is to get involved in these projects, so 

that could be it. Let us not worry about the science and the math 

and the technology. Let us try to help people, and that way we can 

actually help our country. Thank you so much. 

And also, the last point, I wanted you to testify so you would get 

used to this so when you come up here, if you choose to do this in 

a few years from now, you have already had the training. 

Chairman HALL. The gentleman yields back. Thank you, Claudia 

and Samantha. They call you Sam or Samantha? Good testimony. 

At this time I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. 

Rohrabacher, for as much of five minutes as he wants to use. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, 

and let me just note that I did not do well in math and science 

when I was a kid. I wish I would have, and I think that if I would 

have done better in math and science, I wouldn’t be here today. 

But I want you to know, the only good side of that story is that 

I did not become a lawyer. In fact, when I ran for Congress the 

first time, my most effective slogan was: vote for Dana, at least he’s 

not a lawyer. 

And I want to segue in with the kids on this. You know, the bottom line is that kids can see what our priorities are in our society, 

and they notice that lawyers are the ones with the nice houses and 

nice cars and a lot of times they see the engineers as not having 
38 

such a nice reward for this profession that they have chosen. I believe the way we get more engineers and more scientists and such 

is we pay them better, and how we pay them better is, we just 

make sure that our own children have the opportunities to get good 

jobs that pay well, and I am sorry to bring up other issues, but the 

fact is, we seem to be bringing in people from all over the world 

in order to depress the wages of our engineers and our scientists 

when instead we should be elevating the pay of those people who 

are teaching science and those people who get into science and engineering. So that is just a couple thoughts. 

I also am a little bit concerned that movie stars and athletes, you 

know, they make huge amounts of money and everybody knows 

that, and people will begrudge an inventor the money that he gets 

from a patent. I mean, the fact is, it is a good thing for someone 

to invent something that changes the lives of so many people, and 

for that person to benefit by making a lot of money from a patent 

is a good thing, and you would not believe how much we have got 

here where the powers that be are coming down on these small inventors for insisting that they get a royalty for what they have invented, and there is a big patent fight looming right now in Congress where some of us are trying to protect the little guy, the 

small inventor, and there are other people who have a lot of interest here who are, you know, protecting the interests of some big 

corporate leader who started off as a lawyer, of course. 

But with that said, I think that we can make scientists and inventors cool, and I want to ask the kids whether or not our engineers and scientists, people who are engaged in these types of 

things, are they considered cool by your fellow classmates now or, 

no, they are not. I am seeing heads shake. What about you, 

Marcelo? Do some of your classmates look at someone, an engineer 

or a scientist, as someone who is cool? 

Master VIDAL. Well, after my mom does, like, a magic show but 

it is really engineering, all my classmates are like, oh, wow, that 

is so awesome. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. All right. There you go. Hey, dude, that is 

great. 

Master VIDAL. Yeah. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Jack, what about you? What do your fellow 

students think about it? Is it cool to be an engineer or a scientist? 

Master DUDLEY. My dad, he is an aerospace engineer, and whenever I told my friends about it, they would always be wowed about 

that and they thought it was really cool that I was able to see a 

rocket launch and they thought engineers actually were very cool. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Oh, that is great. Okay. All right. Claudia? 

Miss COOPER. Well, you know, I am in that squirrely seventhgrade time where it depends what you mean by cool, but I guess, 

when Mrs. Attard first started the unit showed us inventions that 

were created and asked us if we knew who those inventors were, 

and after she gave us the names and we said oh, yeah, that is kind 

of cool, and then of course he is before our time a little but she 

showed me Bill Nye, the Science Guy, the TV show. So I think that 

is what really triggered our minds, and bringing the competition 

into our school kind of set off—I mean, there were people who went 

home, they went on Google, and they went on Bing and they typed 
39 

in who invented the microwave and they would come to school the 

next day and share it with everyone. So I guess that is kind of 

what—— 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Okay. All right. Alison? 

Miss REED. I go to Stuyvesant High School, which is a very 

science-oriented high school, and we are kind of nerdy, so I don’t 

know if we really represent everyone, but to become an engineer, 

a lot of kids aspire to be a scientist, and a lot of our parents are 

scientists or engineers or doctors, and everyone admires their parents so much and I think everyone really admires scientists. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Okay. That is cool. Being admired is cool. Let 

me just say, I admire each of you, and my heroes are people who 

have come up with things that have changed people’s lives for the 

better, and too many times kids hear only the negative side, how 

horrible things are getting. Well, you should also know and be 

taught about what great opportunities we have to make things better, and you are the kids who are going to make it better, so congratulations for participating in these wonderful projects and all 

the good things you are going to do now for the rest of your life. 

Thank you. 

Chairman HALL. The gentleman’s time has expired. In defense of 

lawyers, I will tell you a quick story. A guy was making a speech 

and he said I hate all lawyers, they are all geeks, and a guy in the 

crowd said I object to that, and he said well, I am sorry, I didn’t 

mean to offend you, are you a lawyer. He said no, I am a geek. 

The chair recognizes Mrs. Edwards. 

Mrs. EDWARDS. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the Ranking Member, I feel that there has to be some redemption because, 

you know, as my colleagues know, I spent several years as a systems engineer working on the Spacelab program at Goddard Space 

Flight Center and then I became a lawyer and now I am in Congress. There is a lot of redemption going on out there. 

But I am just so excited to see all of you here, your educators, 

your mentors, your parents, and of course the students, and I think 

when we ask ourselves, you know, are we going to be okay in the 

next generation, the next decades, I think we look at you young 

people and we know that we are going to be just fine because we 

will be in your hands. So thank you very much for your participation today and your testimony. 

Like the Ranking Member and our Chairman said, education in 

the STEM fields is really important to me. I mean, I see, you know, 

all across this country that it is really clear that the challenges of 

the future are going to be solved by us grabbing ahold of technology 

for the 21st century, and the way that we do that is to educate in 

our STEM fields, and, you know, although I know that some of my 

colleagues have expressed, you know, concern about whether these 

same kinds of things can take place in a public school setting 

versus a private school setting, I think it takes the collection of 

that to happen, and I think as parents, and I know as a parent 

that my goal was to just find the best place for my child to be educated because I always described that our children aren’t science 

experiments but they are works in progress and what works for 

one child may not work for another, even though I recognize that 

the vast majority of this country’s children are going to be educated 
40 

in our public schools and so we have to figure out a way that we 

can get that right in the STEM fields. 

In my Congressional district in my state, we are home to some 

of the best science and technology supported by government and 

our private sector any place in our country. We are home to the 

Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA’s premier program around the 

earth sciences, and NOAA, that helps us figure out our weather 

and climate across the country and around the world, the National 

Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where so much good 

work is coming out of there, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and I know I look to all of these agencies and 

the various private sector corporations that develop around there 

to also have a robust relationship with our school system and with 

our young people because I think it is important for us to figure 

out how we take some of that private sector energy that you mentioned, Dr. Lozano, and that we channel that into a relationship 

with our schools, and that is not always an easy relationship because sometimes we create barriers that make it difficult for those 

who are in the STEM fields and professions to participate actively 

in our school system, so I think that we have to figure out ways 

that we can better encourage those things. 

I just really have—and there is a bell, but I am not out of time 

yet—really just one question for the students, and I wonder if each 

of you can tell me the other things that you do in addition to your 

work around science that contributes to your learning, whether it 

is arts or music and sports that means that we are really developing whole children. Go right ahead. 

Master VIDAL. I do swimming one hour a day Monday, Tuesday, 

Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday morning with Davin all the time, 

and I just finished the soccer season, so now I am watching TV. 

Mrs. EDWARDS. All right. Well, thank you. 

And Jack, what about you? 

Master DUDLEY. I play piano. I take Chinese. Occasionally I will 

play flag football, and my swimming season is just about finished, 

and me and two other teammates are on a robotics team. 

Mrs. EDWARDS. Congratulations. 

And Claudia? 

Miss COOPER. Well, I go to summer camp in the summer. I do 

a lot of acting in musicals, and I play a little tennis. I do a lot of 

extracurricular stuff at school, a lot of community service, and I actually do a little bit of circus performing arts too. 

Mrs. EDWARDS. Excellent. Thank you. 

Alison? 

Miss REED. I do a lot of art, and that really helps me visually 

and that helped me on the project with realizing what everything 

would look like and how it would be structured. I play sports. I 

play tennis and I swim and I play the piano, and yeah. 

Mrs. EDWARDS. Well, thank you all very much for being here, 

and I think what that indicates is that we have a lot to do to educate the whole child in addition to what we are trying to develop 

in the science and STEM fields. Thank you. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady yields back her time. 

I thank all the witnesses for their very valuable testimony, all 

of you and your input. The members of the Committee might have 
41 

additional questions for any of you, and we will ask you to respond 

to those in writing if they write to you. The record will remain open 

for two weeks for additional comments from members. 

I want to recognize Ms. Johnson for a minute; however, she 

needs a quick response. I recognize you at this time and then I will 

dismiss you. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to say to Alison and Claudia, Jack and Marcelo and 

Samantha and all the rest of you that I have not learned your 

names, you have been really a spark in my life this morning because we struggle so hard to try to pinpoint what direction we need 

to go to make sure that this quality education is available, and you 

are letting us know that you are some of the examples of what we 

strive for, and so I want to thank you, thank all the teachers and 

parents who are here. We really honestly do depend on you to carry 

our future, and I just want to thank you for what you are doing 

and keep it up, and encourage many more to join you. Thank you. 

Chairman HALL. Well said, and thank you. The gentlelady yields 

back her time. 

Let me remind everyone that science fair and all of these teams 

and their projects are in the Rayburn Foyer from 12:30 to 2:30, and 

that is on the first floor, so I am going to be there and I am going 

to try to ask Jack if he missed the girls more than he did the boys 

or the boys more than he did the girls. So I have some good questions to ask you, Jack. I hope I see you down there. 

The witnesses are excused and this hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

(43) 

Appendix I 

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
44 

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Dr. Karen Lozano, Professor at University of Texas Pan American, 

Mentor to the I.Streets (Intelligent Streets) Discovery Montessori School Team, 

McAllen, Texas 

Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. We need the best and brightest to become scientists and mathematicians, but we 

also need the best and brightest to become teachers of all subjects, particularly 

math and science. What do you think we could do to encourage more bright and 

articulate students to consider education as a profession? 

A1. Something that I have implemented (following my professor from Rice University, Dr. Barrera) at The University of Texas Pan American is to have my research 

assistants (Undergraduate and Master students) help me when I give magic and 

science shows to K–12 students as well as helping with the development of the activities that we will present. These activities expose engineering students to K–12 

student learning experiences and several of my students had chosen teaching middle 

and high school. National Science Foundation had a program called graduates into 

K–12; this program promotes faculty to be very creative as to activities where their 

STEM graduate students participate in education related activities and possible 

could ignite the students to consider teaching as a profession but if not, it leaves 

in them the knowledge and experience that they have to be involved with the community. Such programs are very important to promote teaching experiences while 

developing a passion to work with K–12. 

Engineers are quite practical people in nature; the current environment in K–12 

education where teachers are heavily restricted by many rules and regulations imposed into their curriculums and the need to teach for standardized tests drives 

them away from this honorable profession since some experience a level of frustration and either decide to leave the profession or they do not consider it. Teachers 

are the core of the education process and their focus and energies should go to their 

students though they feel that administrators are now their primary customers. If 

their students were their primary customers, even larger size classrooms could be 

handled; all my education from 1-12th grade I was in classroom of 50 students and 

one teacher though we were the focus of the teacher not filling up forms and forms 

for evaluators and so. 

Q2. What elements of your pre-service or in-service training have been most helpful 

in meeting the daily demands of working with students, developing innovative 

classroom strategies, and delivering content-rich instruction to students of all 

levels and abilities? 

A2. In reality I have never taken courses aimed at developing pedagogical techniques, though having been exposed since my fifth–12th years as a volunteer (well, 

in high school and college as required for all as community service hours) to teach 

younger students religion, math, crafts, and organization skills to build/beautify 

schools and rural areas (paint buildings, cut grass, repair streets, etc). Then having 

experienced as a graduate student the opportunity to do science and math with 

younger students has allowed me to develop the ability to communicate simple and 

complicated issues to people of all ages. It is important to present practical, real life 

issues as examples; students can then identify abstract facts and think of possible 

solutions. Once students are engaged and understand the problem they can work 

on a solution. Personally I experienced situations where I never understood the 

problem though learned the complicated math and sequence to obtain a correct answer without ever understanding (at that time) what I was doing. 

Q3. As a parent and mentor, what were the biggest challenges for you helping the 

students with their projects? 

A3. The biggest challenge when working with my own children as a mentor is the 

fact that I expect more of them and set the expectations quite high. I am present 

to guide them in their brainstorming process, and help them divide the tasks though 

they have to do all the work, and I quizzed them quite often in their acquired 

knowledge, when they are ready to think on how their ideas could work in the future I explain to them science concepts that are usually way too elevated for their 

age so I have to prepare the material in a way they could grasp it. After that they 

are again on their own to continue with their project; K–third grade students need 

much more help than fourth-sixth or older students. The older they are, they basically work on their own after initial meeting. Working with the ExploraVision objec-
45 

tives is quite an easy process; the rules have been very well thought of and are clear 

and easy to follow, not to mention the ‘‘award’’ that students can get; this motivates 

them considerably. 

Q4. You are a college professor and testify that you mentor in a number of ways beyond ExploraVision. Can you please expand on these community activities and 

your experiences? How many students and teachers do you think you influence 

each month with your lab tours, talks, and magic and science shows? Who is 

funding these activities or do you volunteer your time? 

A4. I strongly believe that engagement with K–college students is an important 

mission of a faculty member; we have been very blessed and have worked so hard 

to obtain an advanced degree that it is a responsibility to communicate the walked 

path. As many kids, I also had a childhood where ‘‘money’’ was not around, there 

were many, many sacrifices that my family went through for education (it was always a top priority), the schools that I attended did not have air conditioning, even 

less heaters, we had windows! I try to communicate to all kids the importance of 

appreciating everything, they have what is needed in school, so with my presentations I try to instill in them a ‘‘possible dream’’ and a sense of appreciation. 

I do several ‘‘Magic and Science’’ shows where I do demonstrations and explain 

the science behind while asking questions as to what practical application they see. 

These presentations are on an average one per month of about one and half hour. 

They can be either at the University where students take time to tour the facilities, 

or I go to the school and conduct the presentations either in gyms, cafeterias or 

classrooms. Have also participated in Parent Nights where I do similar presentations to parents and talk about college opportunities while sharing my own experiences as a female in a male-dominating field. ExploraVision is a type of ‘‘one-onone’’ mentoring activity since the benefitted kids have been at the most eight per 

year though this year have been invited by a school that will start an ExploraVision 

club where the participation will be mandatory, and I will host several weekly sessions on innovation and creativity classes. Have also developed some experiments 

to teach science to fourth–sixth grade students where I attended their school every 

other Friday and offered practical examples of the concepts they were learning during the week. I did this in a private school given the opportunity for the teacher 

to accommodate the hours without affecting the required curriculum, it was very 

well received by students. Have also worked with Region I and several programs 

such as TexPrep, ABC of Science, Science camps and so. I could say that about 

1,000 kids are influenced per year, with about 10–20 teachers. National Science 

Foundation had funded most of the activities and many others are as a volunteer. 

Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer 

Q1. The students before us today seem to have a genuine interest in the projects they 

have undertaken, and they appear to enjoy taking the initiative to learn and better themselves. What techniques do you find are most successful in encouraging 

students to become engaged in math and science projects? How should we be 

capturing the imagination of young students through STEM programs? 

A1. Young students are the easiest to work with since by nature they are scientists 

and engineers, they like to observe and experiment with. The best technique is to 

show them something exciting such as an experiment with liquid nitrogen or a 

chemical experiment such as the ‘‘elephant toothpaste.’’ Then I tell them that if they 

succeed in their math and science classes, they can later come to play with such 

experiments when in college. I make sure to tell them that many times they might 

ask themselves why are they learning some aspects of math or science, for example 

when learning algebra, at that time it might seem useless and they might not find 

an answer as to the importance of learning such material though I tell them that 

in order to be able to experiment as I do, they need to develop an analytical mind 

(a problem solver ability) and the only way to do it is to solve many, many, many 

math problems, such as swimmer who swims miles and miles to develop muscles 

and abilities to compete in a 100-yard event. Same with their brain, a problem solver ability will develop only after mind training. So I ask them to see homework and 

math as training for their brain. As for ExploraVision kids, I tend to invite them 

to my lab at the beginning so they can get excited into solving problems. 
46 

Responses by Mrs. Brenda Conwell-Dudley, 

Mentor to the Heads Up! Virginia Virtual Academy Team, 

Leesburg, Virginia 

Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. We need the best and the brightest to become scientists and mathematicians, but 

we also need the best and the brightest to become teachers of all subjects, particularly math and science. What do you think we could do to encourage more 

bright and articulate students to consider education as a profession? 

A1. As the daughter of two public high school teachers, I can tell you, based on my 

parent’s frustration with the U.S. education system, that the following issues dominated conversations at our dinner table: 

• Men and women who entered the teaching profession (regardless of the subjects 

they taught) to have their summers off. Men and women who entered teaching 

because it was ‘‘easy’’ and because they couldn’t get fired. Men and women who 

had little or no interest in teaching as a profession, or working with kids, in 

general. 

• Students who wanted a ‘‘B’’ for showing up to class and an ‘‘A’’ for handing in 

homework— regardless of quality. Parents who felt the same way. High school 

students who were incapable of writing coherent sentences and complete paragraphs. 

(Note: My parents consistently taught in predominately white, middle class to 

upper-middle class high schools.) 

Encourage the best and the brightest into teaching by giving them and highly 

sought after teachers MORE AUTHORITY, RESPECT and BETTER PAY. In hardto-staff schools, set up the hiring process like a four-year stint in the military and 

keep cycling in new and motivated young teachers by providing great benefits and 

compensation. Reduce the Administration staff ranks. Cycle the poorly performing 

teachers into adult education where they will be held more accountable or simply 

let them go. 

Q2. As a parent and mentor, what were the biggest challenges for you helping the 

students with their projects? 

A2. The biggest challenge for me was motivating my students by engaging them in 

conversation and research without also having to entertain them. We live in an entertainment and celebrity obsessed culture; all of our children are being raised on 

a steady diet of televised dance and singing contests, YouTube stupidity and video 

gaming. I had to constantly challenge my team to stop waiting for me to lead the 

discussions and to stop expecting that every science meeting would be ‘‘fun.’’ 

Q3. As a mentor to the HEADS UP! Helmet team, what role did you play beyond 

being a parent to Jack? 

A3. I set up the team schedule and I conducted all of the team meetings. I assisted 

the team, when necessary, with their research, brain storming, project selection, delegation of work and research efforts, model building, Web site design, and video development. I was with the team at every step of the process. 

Q4. You commented on how impressed you were with the ability of your team to 

come up with novel ideas, such an integral piece of this competition. Can you 

talk about how you helped the students drill down on their broad concepts, or 

did you have to help them do that at all, perhaps it was a normal part of the 

process? 

A4. As a mentor, I wanted to initiate the students as to the importance of following 

what is going on in the world. I’ve mentored two winning teams, and I’ve learned 

that children in this age group (Grades four–six) really need an adult to help them 

focus their attention on the issues that are important to our nation and our planet. 

That is why this year’s team started their initial research by reading current issues 

of the Washington Post. Most children I’ve encountered do not read newspapers, 

news magazines, and they do not follow the news in the media (online, televised, 

etc.) nor do their parents. My son follows the news on a daily basis and he is quite 

well informed; he is particularly interested in U.S. military efforts in Libya right 

now. I’m guessing he knows more about current events than some adults. 

Q5. . . . What techniques did you find are most successful in encouraging students 

to become engaged in Math and Science projects? How should we be capturing 

the imagination of young students through STEM programs? 
47 

A5. Answer: P-U-B-L-I-C-I-T-Y. If science and math students received as much publicity and public adoration as football players and cheerleaders, we would have a 

surplus of engineers and scientists in this country. 

Case in point: When our science team won first place in this year’s Toshiba 

ExploraVision Science Competition, our local paper, Leesburg Today, printed a bulletin about the team that was 1′′ tall by 2′′ wide—no photo—and our team’s accomplishment was buried at the back of the paper. At the very same time our press 

release was available, Dr. Ballard of the JASON project (a program designed to excite and engage middle school students in science and technology) was lecturing in 

the Leesburg area on the importance of STEM education. It was so heartbreaking 

to see, that in spite of our team’s hard work, the article that ran adjacent to the 

article highlighting Dr. Ballard’s work and his plea for more students in the 

sciences, was a lengthly article about a new skateboard park, complete with a large 

color photo of a teenage boy doing a very dangerous flip on a curved ramp . . . without wearing a HELMET! 
48 

Responses by Mrs. Amy Attard, Science Teacher and Coach, 

to the I-TBS: Intra-Trachea West Hills Middle School Team, 

Commerce, MI 

Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. What inspired you to become a science teacher? 

A1. I wanted to become a science teacher because of the inquiry-based experience 

I can provide for students. I love the hands-on application of science, along with the 

real-world connection that science can allow students to discover. Part of my inspiration came from knowing that I can gear my instruction using an inquiry based 

model, and I can encourage students to ask questions and apply what they are 

learning in science to their everyday life, which makes it more meaningful and relevant. The science curriculum sets the stage for exploration, so to be able to watch 

students learn and go above and beyond the curriculum because they are excited 

and curious is what inspires me on daily basis. 

Q2. What elements of your pre-service or in-service training have been most helpful 

in meeting the daily demands of working with students, developing innovative 

classroom strategies, and delivering content-rich instruction to students of all 

levels and abilities? 

A2. I was very fortunate to have had an amazing college experience that provided 

numerous opportunities for me to go into classrooms across many different school 

districts, grade levels, and subject areas. This diversity allowed me to see different 

teaching styles, programs, strategies, and classroom management techniques that I 

was able to pull from and apply to my own classroom as a teacher. It was through 

these pre-service opportunities and my student teaching that I was really able to 

have a hands-on experience and begin to apply everything that I learned and read 

about in my education classes to the real science classroom. In addition to my preservice experiences, now as a professional working teacher I can also say that I 

learn everyday from colleagues. I work on a team with other professional educators 

who have the students’ best interests and needs as a top priority, and through our 

daily communication and collaboration I continue to grow as an educator every day. 

Q3. We need the best and brightest to become scientists and mathematicians, but we 

also need the best and brightest to become teachers of all subjects, particularly 

math and science. What do you think we could do to encourage more bright and 

articulate students to consider education as a profession? 

A3. Students look up to their teachers as role models, and I think that teachers 

need to encourage students to go into education as a profession. Students watch 

their teachers’ every move, and if a teacher is showing they are enthusiastic and 

enjoy what they are doing everyday, then that can encourage students to follow in 

the steps of their role model. Communication about career education and opportunities for professional growth as an educator are conversations teachers need to have 

with their students to encourage and inspire them to take on the challenge of educating the next generation so they, too, can have a good-quality educational experience. 

Q4. A hallmark of a good teacher, it is said, is the ability to inspire curiosity in students. In my own experience, I have found that students are naturally curious— 

born scientists, really. Yet many older students do not like science or math and 

are not particularly interested in it. What happens to that spark, that natural 

curiosity? How do we re-ignite it for those who have had it extinguished? And 

how do we fan the spark for those who still have it? 

A4. I think as students get older they have more demands and pressures placed on 

them to do well, pass tests, get into a good college, and land a good job, so students 

are still curious but don’t have extra time in their day to explore their curiosity. 

Unfortunately, as students get older, doing well on tests take precedence over exploration. I think that offering classes throughout the school day that partner with 

local businesses that revolve around an area of science is a great for students to 

see how they can use science once they are out of the classroom and regain their 

enthusiasm for the subject. Furthermore, this type of educational experience can 

really open doors for students to explore their curiosity and redevelop their passion 

for science because they will once again be able to see its relevance to the real 

world. For those students who still have a passion for science, offering extra-curricular programs, clubs, and competitions for students to get involved in will provide 

additional opportunities for students to test new ideas and further explore their cu-
49 

riosities about science education so they can continue to enjoy learning about science 

outside the classroom. 

Q5. It is interesting that West Hills Middle School uses ExploraVision as an interdisciplinary activity, involving both science and language arts. Do you know 

how many other teams make this a multi-subject activity? How many teams did 

West Hills support this year? Do you limit the competition to seventh graders 

at your school, or do you encourage other grades to participate? 

A5. Making the ExploraVision competition an interdisciplinary project/unit was new 

this year, and we plan on using the same model in future years because is was so 

successful. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any other teams outside of our own that 

took this approach to the competition and would highly recommend it for future 

teams. This year we had just fewer than 50 teams take part in the competition, 

which represented every seventh grader at West Hills Middle School. As of today 

the competition only takes place in the seventh grade because it aligns with the seventh grade science and language arts curriculum; however, we encourage students 

to participate in the competition as eighth graders who want an additional science 

challenge and experience, since they have already been through the process and 

don’t require the direct teaching that takes place. 

Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer 

Q1. The students before us today seem to have a genuine interest in the projects they 

have undertaken, and they appear to enjoy taking the initiative to learn and better themselves. What techniques do you find are most successful in encouraging 

students to become engaged in math and science projects? How should we be 

capturing the imagination of young students through STEM programs? 

A1. I find that any real-world connection I can make encourages students to become 

engaged. Whether it is through open-ended unit questions, music, television, video 

games, or live demonstrations I can do in front of students, as soon as they can 

apply what we are discussing or learning in class to an area of their life outside 

of school their motivation and excitement skyrockets. STEM programs provide the 

opportunity for students to become problem solvers, and I find that when I pose a 

competition like ExploraVision to the students, I have them wear the hat of a problem solver and look at their own life. Personal buy-in can add to engagement and 

motivation so if students can reflect on what we currently have today and follow 

a problem-solving process, similar to an engineer, they have a drawing board to 

change their future for the better. 
50 

Responses by Ms. Anne Manwell, Science Teacher, 

Mentor to the 3Drenal: Kidney Bio-Printer Stuyvesant High School Team, 

Brooklyn, NY 

Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. It is impressive that Stuyvesant High School can count five Nobel Laureates 

amongst its alumni. Clearly, you are doing your part to inspire future generations, but you make a valid point that students must be well prepared in elementary and middle school in order to attend your school. What is your current enrollment and do you have to turn students away? How many different schools 

feed into Stuyvesant and are they specialized schools as well? Please expand on 

the make-up of the student population at Stuyvesant. 

A1. Stuyvesant High School is one of eight selective NYC Public High Schools that 

rely on the Specialized High School Admissions Test. (LaGuardia HS is a ninth specialized school that admits students by portfolio or audition.) In the fall about 

26,000 (yes, twenty-six thousand) eighth graders take this test for the approximately 5,300 seats available. They also list three schools in order of their preference 

for admission. 24,000 students named Stuyvesant as one of their preferences. This 

past spring Stuyvesant offered 961 students seats for the Class of 2015. Of these 

816 accepted. These students came from about 150 NYC public middle schools and 

30 private/parochial schools. But six public middle schools contributed over 40% to 

the class. Two are magnet schools for the Gifted and Talented, and three others 

have a math/science leaning as their names indicate, Christa McAuliffe, Pasteur 

and Curie. 

Congresswoman Fudge was correct in identifying the low percentage of our black 

or Hispanic students, but that does not reflect the other minority groups served by 

the school. The first group are students from families falling below the poverty line. 

Stuyvesant HS receives Title 1 funding as do four of our larger feeder schools. About 

45% of students qualify for free or reduced-fee school meals. This means limited 

family funds available for ‘‘expensive’’ test prepping. 

Surnames of Stuyvesant’s graduating classes from the early 20th century are a 

pretty good indicator of the prominent immigrant groups in NYC, and that has continued into the 21st century. Therefore, the next minority group is our immigrant/ 

first generation population, which is reflected by 72% of the Class of 2015 identifying themselves as Asian. ‘‘Asian,’’ of course, lumps together everyone with roots 

from Turkey to the Far East. Chinese and Korean students were the first to show 

up in NYC and Stuyvesant. Now there is a noticeable rise in students from Pakistan-India-Banglagesh area. Tied to this is the home language of our students. Indeed, of the three students on the 3Drenal team, David speaks Russian exclusively 

to his parents, and Norine speaks Mandarin to her grandmother who lives with her. 

At parents’ conferences, about a fourth of parents I see bring someone to translate 

for them. And another fourth probably should have! 

The final group served by Stuyvesant is a minority in STEM fields, girls. Every 

student, not just the XY individuals, graduating from Stuyvesant must have completed a pre-calculus or advanced algebra sequence and four years of science. Our 

Robotic Team has had girls in Chief Engineer positions. Science Olympiad officers 

and captains have been girls. I cannot give you the percentage of girls who have 

taken AP classes in STEM areas because of summer recess, but two-thirds of my 

Advanced Topics Research class were girls and 60% of a research track Molecular 

Science course were girls. 

I will not pretend that Stuyvesant students are not elite. They have been selected 

for this. Certainly, not all of them represent minority groups but many are poorer 

than their classmates, from families newly arrived in America, or are under-represented in STEM fields. 

Q2. Do you know what percentage of your students attend college? Pursue a STEM 

degree? Pursue a graduate STEM degreee or enter a STEM field? 

A2. Stuyvesant has consistently seen 99+% of its graduates go on to a four-year college and mostly to tier one colleges. Neither the College Office nor the Alumni Association keeps rigorous data on the areas that our graduates enter, but there was 

a survey done in 2004, the 100th anniversary of the school’s opening, that asked 

alumni what career they entered. I’ve gone through that data base and pulled out 

occupations consistent with a STEM undergraduate degree. Of the 9,200 alumni reporting, 38% listed occupations from accounting to veterinary medicine. I am unable 

to get a number of advanced degrees in STEM fields, but 550 reported being physi-
51 

cians/surgeons and another 270 were university professors, with their field 

unnamed. 

Q3. What elements of your pre-service or in-service training have been most helpful 

in meeting the daily demands of working with students, developing innovative 

classroom strategies, and delivering content-rich instruction to students of all 

levels and abilities? 

A3. I think that the key to your question is ‘‘delivering content-rich instruction to 

students of all levels.’’ A teacher must know her subject matter. Therefore, the most 

important element in my pre-service training was a BS degree with a major in biology (36+hrs.) and a minor in chemistry (20+hrs.) and an MS in biology (49 hrs.). 

This strong background in science allows me to ask questions that direct students 

in their study. If a bright sixth grader questions gravity, I can draw on this background knowledge to ask the student when gravity kicks in as he walks along a line 

on desktops. Similarly, I can lead a student with a weak background in science with 

questions that break down the topic into manageable bits. 

The most helpful element in my in-service years has been a program at NYU. Directed by developmental biologist Malka Moscona, a promoter of ‘‘life-long learning,’’ 

Recent Advances in Science Seminar Series is a monthly Saturday morning session 

at which research faculty from NYU and other research institutions present their 

current research to NYU School of Ed students, high school teachers and students. 

The atmosphere is informal—‘‘stop me anytime for questions’’—and some really cool 

stuff is presented—Harold Varmus told us about Gleevec. I can keep current and 

network with professional scientists and other teachers and students who attend 

bring back to the classroom a bright-eyed enthusiasm for research. 

Q4. We need the best and brightest to become scientists and mathematicians, but we 

also need the best and brightest to become teachers of all subjects, particularly 

math and science. What do you think we could do to encourage more bright and 

articulate students to consider education as a profession? 

A4. That’s a hard sell. Bright kids interested in STEM areas who are entering college want to work in STEM areas. It is probably easier to recruit potential teachers 

in their post-graduate years or after they have worked in their field for a while. Not 

only will they be more experienced, they probably be more mature and more able 

to cope with the rigors of the classroom. 

Q5. What inspired you to become a science teacher? 

A5. Two instances when I was working at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center 

probable played important roles propeling me into the classroom. First when my son 

was in kindergarten I got a mouse from E. A. Boyce, a section head there, to put 

into a ‘‘Science Box’’ for Paul’s class. At each side of the box the kids were encouraged to use one sense to describe what was in the box. Chandradat used his sense 

of smell to discribe an open field! Wow, that was cool! The second event was when 

I was volunteering at a Brooklyn non-profit, Project Reach Youth. Their afterschool 

program worked with disadvantaged youngsters and I would bring in some science 

project on occasion. One time I brought in different types of fish and we were going 

to look at different scale types, body shapes and fin arrangement. The take-home 

part was a crayon rubbing of a fish. Everything was going fine except one little boy 

grumpily said ‘‘I can’t do this!!’’ ‘‘Yes, you can. Hold down the tail and paper with 

this hand and use the crayon in this hand.’’ Only later when he was happily displaying his rubbing did I notice that he had little use of his hand! If I could influence these two little kids to see and do something in science with these little 

projects, maybe I could do it on a larger scale by becoming a teacher. 

Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer 

Q1. The students before us today seem to have a genuine interest in the projects they 

have undertaken, and they appear to enjoy taking the initiative to learn and better themselves. What techniques do you find are most successful in encouraging 

students to become engaged in math and science projects? How should we be 

capturing the imagination of young students through STEM programs? 

A1. This is a two-pronged exercise. First you have to lead the student to the project. 

Requiring one for the class is the surest way to do this. Now you have to make the 

student engaged—a much, much harder proposal. The student has to take possession of the project to become engaged. The teacher cannot assign a topic. I will often 

start off by asking the students to complete their interest inventory with categories 

from ‘‘really cool!!!’’ to ‘‘wouldn’t touch it with a 10-ft pole.’’ Next, reading science 

can stimulate questions. Scientific American, SciAm Mind, Discover, National Geo-
52 

graphic and NYTimes Science section are available in the classroom. Often working 

in a small group will generate the question. After all the work is done, data collected and analyzed it is important to have the student scientists communicate their 

findings. Each project that my freshman research class worked on is displayed in 

a poster session on the hallway walls outside of the classroom and each group presents the poster to the rest of the class. The posters stay up well into the next academic year and the students can see other students, teachers and visitors examining 

their work. 

Participation in competitions is a great tool to sustain student interest in a STEM 

project. Local science fairs to national competitions are a way to show off students’ 

work. In this regard ExploraVision is unique. Traditional science fairs require some 

sort of experimentation to be completed. Often this requires specialized equipment 

or chemicals not always available to student in every type of school. Students involved in an ExploraVision project use their imaginations to come up with an idea, 

develop skills to accumulate background information, use logic to project their idea 

into the future and then hone communication skills to present their idea to the national judging panel. Each of these steps develops a core skill present in every district’s, every school’s, every grade’s educational plan. With four grade-level categories and 500 Honorable Mention Awards, the ExploraVision competition can be 

used as a strong motivator for engaging students at all levels in STEM fields. 
53 

Responses by students of Dr. Karen Lozano (Jorge Vidal), Mrs. Brenda 

Conwell-Dudley (Jack Dudley), and Ms. Anne Manwell (Alison Reed, 

Norine Chan, and David Kurkovskiy) 

Questions submitted by Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. How do you find time to be involved in all the extracurricular activities and 

focus on school work and win national science competitions? 

Response by Master Jorge Vidal 

A1. The more you have to do, the quicker you get everything done. You see I am 

a ‘‘A’’ honor roll student in one of the top middle schools. I swim 22 hours a week, 

eight times a week year round. I also play several instruments, including piano, guitar and harmonica. I am a 14-year-old who has won the ExploraVision national 

science competition twice. Now how does one person do so much in one day? It’s 

simple, every time you get a free minute you do your homework, or projects. All 

schools have study hall or tutorial period during school hours, take advantage of 

that time. Get your homework done there so you can do other activities after school. 

Since I know that I will not be getting home till 8:30 p.m., I won’t have much time 

to do homework when I get home, so I do it in school. On the other hand, kids who 

go home after school have the whole afternoon to do homework so they procrastinate 

and leave it for later, knowing that they will have time later, but they procrastinate 

so much that before they know it, it is 10:30 and they haven’t started their homework. It is good to have a full schedule even if it is with house chores in the afternoon. The more you have to do, the quicker you get everything done. So what does 

that mean? I have a lot of things to do in 24 hours, and I have to get everything 

done and do it right. So I work fast and efficiently with my work and do time management and don’t waste time playing video games and watching TV, or texting/ 

playing on my cell phone. On the weekends I rest, spend time with my family and 

go to church. If I can do it, then the other tens of millions of teenagers living in 

America can do it, no excuse! Being involved in sports is very important. Having 

a hobby such as playing piano, taking art class, etc., is also very important. And 

good grades in school to top it off. If all the kids in America had a full schedule, 

you will see a big difference in grades, promised. It is not easy, but possible. 

Response by Master Jack Dudley 

A1. I find time to be involved in extracurricular activities (e.g., national science 

competitions) and time to focus on school work by not participating in too many extracurricular activities. I also try to do as much of my homework at school as possible. 

Response by Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chan, and Mr. David Kurkovskiy 

A1. As students in Stuyvesant High School, one of the most rigorous and demanding public high schools in New York City, we are often faced with the challenge of 

balancing schoolwork and extra-curricular activities. It is something we have been 

doing since freshman year, as we are urged to devote ourselves to community service, school sports teams, school publications, and extra projects in addition to the 

learning we do in classes. David Kurkovskiy writes for the school newspaper, participates in Stuyvesant’s literary magazine, and volunteers periodically for his 

school. Norine Chan is part of Stuyvesant’s fencing team, and competes for 

Stuyvesant’s speech and debate team. Alison Reed is a member of the tennis team, 

and contributes to art for school productions. All three of us have devoted countless 

after-school hours in working on the Toshiba ExploraVision contest. 

With such packed extracurricular schedules, it is difficult for us to complete assignments and study for our classes. Stuyvesant offers advanced classes, and all of 

us took an advanced placement course in history this year. Some of the arduous 

honors classes we took included trigonometry and chemistry. In order to balance the 

time of our studies and other activities, we would have to make the most of any 

free time we had. This meant that hour-long train rides to school would involve 

cramming for the day’s exams. Many lunch periods would be spent completing 

homework in advance, so as to make up for the time spent on the project after 

school. There would be nights when we all returned home at 11 p.m.; in one case, 

this was the day before a difficult trigonometry honors test. In times like these, we 

would have to sacrifice long-deserved sleep on weeknights. In spite of this all, all 

of us are relatively good in managing and making the most of our time, and all of 

us completed the school year with averages above 96. Because of the strong foundation in academics and time management we received as high school freshmen, we 

were able to balance the Toshiba project, schoolwork, and extra-curriculars. 
54 

Q2. One of the interesting themes I have heard each of you touch on is that of teamwork. Often in grades K–12 there is little emphasis placed on learning to work 

together; instead we focus on understanding facts and concepts individually. 

What has this experience taught you about working together with others, fellow 

students, teachers, and mentors? 

Response by Master Jorge Vidal 

A2. There is not a single job in the world where you won’t have to work with other 

people, and listen to what they have to say and use your communication skills to 

brainstorm ideas and other concepts. If this concept of working with others is not 

taught as a little kid it will be very hard to develop as an adult. Just like a language, a kid will learn the language like a sponge, but try and teach a language 

to an adult and it will be very difficult. ExploraVision forces students to work with 

others, brainstorm ideas, listen to what others have researched and what they have 

to say. Very similar to what an individual has to do in a job. Working as a team 

from when you are a little kid helps develop those communication skills needed for 

the future. It is easier and faster at times to work alone. Not having to listen to 

what others have to say and do everything your own way, but really when is that 

going to happen in a job. You have to listen to what your boss has to say and what 

your coworkers have to say. For example in Montessori education teamwork, interacting with other individuals is highly encouraged. ExploraVision does an excellent 

job in incorporating this skill. And more of this should be incorporated into schools 

across the United States. 

Response by Master Jack Dudley 

A2. This experience taught me that working together with others, fellow students, 

and adults is much better than working on my own. I have learned that you can 

get much more done with a team and it is more fun. It is also easier to generate 

good ideas, and filter out the bad ones. 

Response by Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chan, and Mr. David Kurkovskiy 

A2. Working together on the Toshiba project has taught us that a group project requires the contribution of all its members. We would all have to share opinions on 

whichever part of the project we were working on, be it the color scheme of the Web 

site we had to create, or how to phrase certain ideas in our written proposal. Many 

times there would be a disagreement, and knowing when the right time to yield to 

the others became difficult. In order to overcome these disagreements, we learned 

to compromise. Compromise, in addition to bettering our project, is an important life 

skill we learned over the course of our project. It allows an efficient work ethic and 

furthers team building. 

Working as a team also fosters friendships, and it has strengthened the bond between the three of us. By facing looming deadlines and difficult decisions together, 

we’ve learned to trust and respect each other. In addition to working as a team, we 

had to employ the help of teachers, and other students while working on our project. 

Our coach, Samantha Daves, helped keep us organized by giving us periodic deadlines and overseeing the development of our project. Our mentor, Ms. Manwell, consulted us for biological accuracy in our Web site and paper, and worked with us in 

strengthening our ideas. We’ve also received much help from the assorted faculty 

of Stuyvesant High School, whose different talents helped us throughout our project. 

Biology teacher Jonathan Gastel gave us constructive criticism on our idea during 

its early stages. Technology teacher Elka Gould taught us elements of video editing 

and reviewed the video on our Web site with us. Finally, the assistant principal of 

the chemistry and physics department, Scott Thomas, helped us in building our prototype. In addition to enlisting the help of teachers, other students have offered 

their services. For example, friends of ours helped us in cutting pieces for our prototype and designing the initial logo for our Web site. By working on the Toshiba 

project, we’ve learned to work with each other, our teachers, and other students. 

Question submitted by Representative Randy Neugebauer 

Q1. What has been the most rewarding part of your experience with these projects 

and competitions? After participating, do you think you would be more or less 

likely to pursue science or math as you get older? 

Response by Master Jack Dudley 

A1. The most rewarding part of my experience with these projects and competitions 

is the thrill of winning, and the excitement of learning new things. Another rewarding part of my experience is working as a team to solve problems that the world 
55 

is facing today. After participating, I think that I am more likely to pursue science 

and math when I grow older. I would like to be a rocket engineer like my dad, and 

that definitely involves math and science. 

Response by Miss Alison Reed, Miss Norine Chan, and Mr. David Kurkovskiy 

A1. The most rewarding experience of the Toshiba ExploraVision contest was learning to work as a team and seeing an idea come to fruition. We were able to see 

our idea of building a 3D bio-printer through from the initial concept to its final 

stage as a prototype. Seeing it as a final product was rewarding because countless 

hours were spent in writing the paper and creating the Web site. Completing the 

Toshiba project has made us aware of the scientific opportunities in our future. All 

three of us consider science as an important subject and a possibility for our career. 

Norine Chan wishes to become a doctor when she is older. David Kurkovskiy, 

though undecided about his future profession, will be participating in the Intel 

Science Talent Search competition for social science in the next year. Alison Reed, 

too, considers pursuing a career in science as a possibility for her future. 

Æ