Bayer Corporation's Rebecca Lucore is worried about the future. "We're a science and research-based company, so science is the lifeblood of everything we do, and students in the United States are just not taking an interest in science or pursuing science," says Lucore, the company's manager of community affairs. "When we look down the road, will we have a future workforce to pull from?"
This concern has spurred the company's investment in its 13-year-old Making Science Make Sense (MSMS) program, designed to get elementary and middle school students excited about science. Keeping the workforce vital will require tapping into the talent of under-represented groups, Lucore notes, and while MSMS isn't targeted solely to minority students, the changes it brings about are often most noticeable in under-resourced schools.
MSMS's largest component is its Science Education Reform Program, which provides materials and training to help public school teachers turn their science lessons ...
