Claude Selitrennikoff calls it “Chindia.” It is the place where most of the world’s new scientists and engineers come from.
Selitrennikoff, interim chairman of the cell and developmental biology department at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, hopes to change that, at least a little.
He runs the center’s 2-year-old high school outreach program with evangelical enthusiasm.
Once a year, CU hosts dozens of the Denver metro area’s top science students. The university hopes to give those kids enough hands-on experience to attract them to fields in which their country lags in comparison with nations such as China and India.
“We divide (the students) into groups and give them a variety of hands-on demonstrations,” said Selitrennikoff. “We take them to the zebra fish labs. That’s a great model for studying development. People and zebra fish are not that far apart at the genetic and molecular level.”
It’s not that Selitrennikoff dislikes professional colleagues trained in China or India. He just wants America’s teenagers to understand science as he does – a joyous voyage of discovery.
Curbing the U.S.’s steady loss of research and technology primacy to Asia is a benign byproduct. Even if America’s youths weren’t on the verge of turning into a servant class of the “Chindians,” Selitrennikoff would single out science.
“I wear my geekness proudly,” he proclaims.
Actually, he corrects himself, it isn’t geekness. It’s intelligence, curiosity and the prospect of serving humanity in spectacular ways. It’s also hard work, which could explain the dearth of American children willing to make the commitment.
Littleton High School chemistry teacher Jill Mullarkey isn’t sure why more American students don’t gravitate to science and engineering. She is, however, positive that programs such as CU’s are critical to reversing the flow.
Even among Mullarkey’s Advanced Placement science students, misunderstanding persists.
CU’s outreach program “is a great eye-opener for those who have an aptitude for science,” she said. “There is a misconception about what scientists do. A lot of kids see scientists stuck in a lab alone. In fact, that’s totally untrue. There’s a team atmosphere. People collaborate.”
Selitrennikoff aims to provide the proof. He turns young would-be scientists over to graduate students or post- doctoral guides who can talk up biology to people close to their age.
“It is,” he said, “very interactive.”
Touchy-feely matters to Generation X-box. So working with computer images generated by a magnetic resonance imaging machine makes a difference.
“Our current culture is anti-science,” said Selitrennikoff, who was president of his high school science club. “Science isn’t cool.”
In fact, science has taken him farther than most of the “cool” kids or athletes with whom he graduated high school.
That still doesn’t resonate easily with teenagers. There still needs to be a hook.
“It is great,” said Littleton High’s Mullarkey, “for our junior and seniors to see science outside the classroom.”
It’s even better when kids can relate experiments and research to consequences.
That’s why Selitrennikoff gets teens into laboratories.
“We show them where we study how nerves grow,” he said.
Then, they explain how manipulating growth might one day help people with spinal-cord injuries walk.
Selitrennikoff will find spaces for five unpaid high school interns to work in CU labs this summer. But at this point, he admits that he’s preaching to the choir.
“We ask teachers to select their best science students to send (to the outreach program),” he said. “How do we branch out and convert the unconverted?”
Having the state make sure every school district can afford to participate would be a good start.
“We invite a variety of schools,” Selitrennikoff said. “Some don’t have resources to get their kids here.”
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
