Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

NASA Launches Summer of Innovation

Summer is such a wonderful time of year—especially for our young people. School is out, the sun is shining—it’s time for less work, more play. Well you know that saying about too much of a good thing not being such a good thing? That theory applies to summer in some ways. Research shows that during the summer most students become victims of “summer slide”—the loss of academic skills that students gained during the school year. This slide appears to be even more pronounced for underserved and underperforming students and for those, such as girls and minorities, who are underrepresented in science and engineering professions. So how do we combat this problem? I have a plan.

Today at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA will kick off a new project called the Summer of Innovation, which supports the President’s Educate to Innovate campaign. This is NASA’s first initiative supporting intensive STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—summer learning opportunities for middle school students and teachers, with a particular focus on students who are underrepresented, underserved and underperforming in STEM. NASA is in a unique position to make this program successful, and at the same time, fun for the students. And when these students and teachers go back to school in the fall, NASA plans to be right there with them! Through direct interaction with our many missions and programs—together with the experts who run them—we’ll continue to convey the excitement of STEM learning and the marvelous opportunities that lie ahead for those who get engaged in it.

This is important to me! Education is a passion of mine, and you might say “I got it honestly”. I was born and raised in Columbia, SC, and my parents were public school teachers. That’s not an easy profession. The hours are long and the wages are modest, yet despite this, they loved each and every day of their work. They made the hard choice to remain in public education because they knew it was their opportunity to inspire thousands of students and to give them the foundation they would need to take their places in national, state, and local leadership. So it was my parents’ dedication that instilled in me this deep and personal passion for education.

But aside from my passion about education, there’s a more practical reason to advocate STEM learning. There is a crisis in this country that comes from the gap between our growing need for scientists, engineers, and other technically skilled workers, and our available supply. This crisis in education, if not resolved, will contribute to future declines in the number of qualified employees to meet demands in critical career fields that affect U.S. global competitiveness and the national economy. As the President has wisely noted, “The country that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.” Through the Summer of Innovation project, we at NASA want to inspire kids to get involved, to learn and to be part of an exciting and meaningful career path—and we have just the tools to do that. This is an exciting endeavor, and I promise you that these students and teachers will have access to NASA’s best and brightest to help ensure a successful Summer of Innovation experience.

I have said this before—NASA inspires the next generation through our compelling missions, but we must do more. We will continue to move things to the next level by directly engaging students in dynamic STEM activities that form the basis of our work. When students can get involved directly with NASA's missions in all their diversity, they just might take that next step to join us and take part in the nation's future in exploration. But we cannot do this alone. The Summer of Innovation will be a broad, nationwide program that leverages partnerships from many sectors—academia, industry and government. Together we will make a differenceby providing stimulating, relevant learning for our middle schoolers this summer. I look forward to the great things we will accomplish as we embark on this exciting journey.

Charlie Bolden is the Administrator of NASA

Conference Marks One-Year of Work Following President Obama's Speech

OSTP Director John P. Holdren delivers opening remarks at a conference yesterday marking the one-year anniversary of President Obama's Cairo speech. June 8, 2010. (by Phil Larson)

The Office of Science and Technology Policy yesterday convened a conference celebrating the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s momentous remarks in Cairo that called for increased partnerships with the Muslim world. Science and technology collaborations have played a critical role in developing the new relationships the President called for. And the number of productive exchanges between Federal agencies and their counterparts in Muslim communities around the world has grown considerably in the past year, said OSTP Director John Holdren.

“Almost a year to the day after President Obama made his historic commitment in Cairo to embark on a voyage of renewed engagement with the Muslim world, there is much progress to be proud of and much to celebrate,” said Holdren, speaking to about 150 representatives from embassies, non-governmental organizations, and Federal science agencies at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington, DC.

Other speakers at the event—which highlighted accomplishments in the past year and looked ahead to new commitments—included Ralph J. Cicerone, President of the National Academy of Sciences; Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.); Maria Otero, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs; Harold Varmus, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; and General James L. Jones, National Security Advisor to the President.

The event also featured presentations from the Nation’s first three “science envoys,” who were deployed around the globe during the past year to help build connections to scientists and engineers and their institutions in the Muslim world: Elias Zerhouni, former director of the National Institutes of Health; Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed Zewail; and Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Science. They were introduced by diplomatic officials from three of the more than ten countries they visited in the past year: Ambassador Sameh Shoukry, the Ambassador of Egypt to the United States; Ambassador Abdallah Baali, Ambassador of Algeria to the United States; and T.H. Salman Al Farisi, Acting Charde d’Affairs of Indonesia.

Among the envoy’s comments:

• “We were welcomed everywhere," said science envoy Ahmed Zewail, who traveled to Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and Dubai. Zewail spoke of the importance of improving educational opportunities in Muslim-majority countries and emphasized that there is a great hunger for better education in these nations. The heritage and culture of the Muslim world strongly promote education and intellectual development, he said, "despite what you read sometimes in the media."
• "The message of the President in his Cairo speech ... resonated very forcefully" with people in every country we visited, said science envoy Elias Zerhouni. Of course, Zerhouni said, there is still mistrust in some quarters. "We welcome the new beginning," people told him on his travels. "The problem is follow-through." In the past, people told him, Memoranda of Understanding have been signed but not always implemented, leading to what Zerhouni called "MOU fatigue." The good news, Zerhouni said, is that he got a strong sense in his travels that President Obama is seen as taking such commitments seriously. "I think the President has moved the needle," Zerhouni said.
• Science envoy Bruce Alberts reiterated the high regard with which the Muslim world holds the US science and technology enterprise. Indeed, he said, one thing young scientists in Indonesia said they wanted most from the United States is help modeling a merit-based system of science and technology funding like the one in America, which is renowned around the world for how effectively it has rewarded the very best science. "We take that for granted in the United States," Alberts said, "but there is almost no competitive science funding in Indonesia." Now is a great opportunity to provide such guidance, he added, as the Indonesian government has committed to increasing its investment in research and development.

Dr. Holdren noted that efforts like the President’s Cairo initiative cannot change the world immediately, but over a period of years can have a big impact. “The path will have some twists and turns and we cannot expect attitudes to wholly reverse themselves in a year or even two,” Dr. Holdren said. “But they can shift. And they must—both here and abroad. The important thing is to keep going.”

For more information on how we are pursuing the vision articulated by President Obama in Cairo last June, including a list of major accomplishments, visit OSTP's Global Science Diplomacy page.