Etsu President, Dr. Brian Noland, at Stem Conference

Thank you all and good afternoon! I've got to admit I've given a number of addresses over the course of my career but this is the first time I've ever worn one of these crazy mikes, so I don't know if I should speak or if I should sing but for your all's benefit I'm not going to sing. I want to thank everyone for taking the time out of your busy schedules, to invest two days of time on, what is from my perspective, one of the most critical discussions facing our country, and that is how do we inspire a new generation of Americans to invest their time, energy, and talents in the STEM fields. Our ability to inspire Students, our ability to inspire Faculty, our ability to build connections across disciplines with an emphasis on STEM is critical to our ability as a country to sustaining everything that we take for granted. And, a lot of us struggle with STEM. You know, the question was made, 'why would a political scientist give a STEM address?' My wife asked that on a number of occasions. Why do I give addresses on much of anything other than politics or Higher Ed? But I'm a baseball fan and, a little bit earlier today, and a little bit of time last night I spent studying the physics of baseball, and if you were to examine the physics of baseball you'll understand that the foundational underpinnings of science, technology, engineering, math, physics, the things that many folks, when you bring up those topics, say 'wait, that's not for me.' As the Superintendent stated last night, 'you know I'm not so good at math,' everyone looks at u sympathetically. But if you were to take the physics of baseball and put that in front of the young Student, I think we could inspire a new generation of Americans to get excited about science and I want to take a little moment to talk about individuals, because at the end of the day, it's the individuals in this room who are going to change the outcome of conversations. In the mid-1980's, there was a report that was released called "Nation at Risk," and the Nation at Risk highlighted maybe the same issues we're highlighting today. Our Students are not prepared, were falling behind in a global marketplace, we're seeing our SAT scores and ACT scores decline, we're struggling with college remediation, our data systems do not align across K-12 and higher education. Fast forward 25 years, other than hairstyles and music, nothing has changed. We're still struggling with aligning K-12 and Higher Ed curricula, we're still struggling with data issues, far too many of our Students are still requiring remedial developmental instruction when they get to college. But somewhere in there, I think what's gotten lost, in the focus on accountability, is Students. I'll get to my comments in a second but I want to talk about the importance of Students, because here's where political scientists saw the light of STEM. Within my first couple of months of assuming the position in my former state, I got a call from the Secretary of Education and the Arts, a woman named Kay Goodwin. Kay called and said 'Brian, do you know anything about this Imagination Library? You're from Tennessee!' As if because I'm from Tennessee I'm supposed to know anything about Tennessee, and I said, "Well, yes ma'am, that involves Dolly Parton, my son received a book Books from Birth on... She goes, 'yeah, that's it, you know about it, come with me, tomorrow we're gonna go somewhere.' So the somewhere that we went was Lincoln County, West Virginia. Lincoln County, West Virginia is the county that neighbors Kanawha County, the state capitol of Charleston, and from the time we left Charleston until the time we arrived, in Ranger, West Virginia, took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. When I walked into Ranger Elementary School, there was a group of shiny faces that didn't look any different than the shiny faces in my son's school and we read, and I had my little book that I read. I read 'Goodnight Moon,' if any of you are familiar with the book 'Goodnight Moon.' And I talked to Students and I had a great, great morning, and as I was leaving, the Principal, spelled her last name hospital last name N-a-p-i-e-r. Mark, how would you pronounce that? It's "napper" in Lincoln County Principal Napier said to me, "Doctor Noland, would you please return because, do you realize, you're the only gentleman in a suit who's not a parole officer or a mortician that these individuals see, and the young boys in this classroom have no role models, because many of their fathers are in jail or receiving transfer payments. So I told her I'd come back but I'd come back only if she never agreed to talk about it. She agreed never to talk about it, no newspaper stories, no pictures. I would just come. So every month for five years, I went to that elementary school and the Third Graders grew into Fourth Graders who then grew into Fifth Graders and we started all over again. But I found within that group of Students, in the most impoverished section of the state, (a county were less than ten percent of the population has a college degree, so if you strip out teachers, nurses, the occasional physician, and some lawyers, there's not a lot left,) that those students had the same spark of creativity from knowledge of Students anywhere in the country. And each year we would take the Students on a field trip. First year I asked, "Where do you want to go?" A little bit a back-and-forth so we took them to Marshall, because the Students, while they were forty five minutes from Marshall University, no one had ever been to a college campus. The next year we asked, "Where do you all want to go?" and we took him to the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences which is an environment in which, in a hands-on setting, similar to the Hands-on Museum, they could understand the connections between science and what they saw in an applied setting. But by the Fifth Grade things had begun to change Boys were looking at things differently. They were looking at the girls differently. But something had changed. That light that I saw in Third-Graders was no longer there. So the time came, we were playing this little game where I gave out dollars for questions and most of it was around math and science because I'd hate to admit, as a political scientist, they were beating me left and right and they enjoyed the fact that they could beat me and took dollars home. So, I said, "Where do you all want to go this year?" and the vote that won, was to be exhibition coal mine in Beckley, West Virginia. And I said, "Why do you all want to go to the exhibition coal mine?" and they said, 'Cause we want to see where our parents work and where most likely we're going to work. So, somewhere between the Fourth grade and the Fifth Grade, the desire for learning was lost. So we start all over again; Third Grade group, Fourth Grade group, and a couple weeks ago someone sent me the pictures of the Fourth Grade Students at Marshall, taking a field trip but in that little class there's now a student who's in the Eighth Grade, and he and I exchange e-mails. This is a Student whose father is incarcerated but this one little Student found the spark for science because when we would ask science questions in class he was perpetually beating me and I was giving him a dollar. So all of you have Students like this one young man because East Tennessee isn't much different than Southern West Virginia. First-generation, low-income, hard working people. Your work in the classroom provides that inspiration of the spark for science. Your work in the classroom... put away all the tests, put away ACT, put away everything, put away TCAP, and focus on the individual because that one individual will then create that spark and push and push, and that's what we do here. That's what we do at ETSU. That's what Dr. Rhoton and his staff are leading through the announcement of the STEM Center in Kingsport. We are building partnerships between K-12 and Higher Education across departments that are advancing the fields. We are building partnerships through our Center of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education and a twelve million dollar grant that we have received that will transform science education not only in Kingsport but in East Tennessee. What we're doing at Brookside Elementary School is no different than what was done at Ranger Elementary School but it is significantly different because it's led by a team of scientists, it has a curriculum, it has a pedagogy, and it has a plan. And that plan we talked a little bit this morning about plan. That plan involves the alignment of data, the assessment of Student information, the identification of gaps, and ensuring that we bring data to the table to help inform, and a few student learning outcomes in the classroom. All across this institution there are examples of individuals who invest their time and energies and lead the transformational role of STEM education in the region. One of them is Ms Crystal Duggar. Crystal was recently named the Outstanding Science Teacher for 2012 by the Tennessee Academy of Science. She is a physical science, chemistry, and advanced placement chemistry teacher at Greeneville High School. Let's go Devils! Crystal Duggar inspires... my wife is an Alum... Crystal Duggar inspires, she innovates, she teaches students to dismantle misconceptions, and solve problems as teams. She teaches her students to ask the right questions, and she engages those students to answer them. When we asked her about the STEM fields, and asked her about individuals whom she had taught, and where they went after leaving Greenville High School, here's some examples, Gavin Rustin, a pre-med major, Carol Wolseley, who is entering the Quillen College of Medicine this Fall, Brandy Fannin who recently graduated from ETSU's Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, and Amber Brooks who's in pre-med at ETSU, who's with us today. That's one individual touching the lives of countless others at Greenville High School and across the region, who are taking forward that spark of knowledge in the STEM fields to transform the future. Why is it important? It's important because the fastest growing jobs in this country require a foundation of knowledge in math. The ability of our country to sustain our economy requires a foundation of knowledge in the areas in which you all have expertise. According to a December 2000 report by the National Governors Association, building a science, technology, engineering, and math agenda at all levels of education, STEM job holders are at 11% more than folks like me who are in non-STEM fields. The top 10 bachelor's degree majors with the highest median earnings are all in the STEM fields. Over the course of the past 10 years, STEM jobs grew three times faster than non-STEM jobs. In 2010, the unemployment rate for STEM workers was 5.3% when for all other occupations it was 10%. But there's more to it than just earnings. and that's where we in higher education I think have failed, and I'm as guilty as anyone I've gone to the high schools and looked at Students and Parents and said, "Go to college because if you go to college you'll earn a million dollars more over the course of your lifetime." But what we've not said to Students and Parents is that investments in post secondary education be they two-year, four-year, public, or private, our investments that teach you how to think, they're investments that broaden your horizons, they're investments that expose you to a diversity of ideas, they're investments that expose you to individuals, and to cultures, and beliefs that you may not have had view from mountain city or Ranger, West Virginia. So that transformative power of higher education, that ability to look at a difficult issue, to frame a research question, to form a hypothesis, to develop and all, to assess to put your confidence intervals around them, and to make an educated decision, that's all part of the process of inquiry, that you all are instilling in your Students on a daily basis. That journey of learning, that journey of testing, that journey of exploration cuts across disciplines, be you a Political Science Major, or be you an Engineer. But that focus in math teaches us how to think critically, teaches us how to look at problems in a unique way and unravel, and our ability to sustain our economy, and our quality of life, is predicated on it, One of the great opportunities that I had in my former position was a chance to work with a Governor who understood the importance of higher education in economic development. And just as the Superintendent noted last night, time after time he sits in rooms with major employers who are looking to locate themselves in tennessee and they asked two questions. How good are the schools and what's the quality of the work force? Same questions I was asked. How good are your schools and what's the quality of your work force? 'How good are the schools' is controlled by everybody that's in this room. We've got to work on the quality of our work force but 'how good are our schools' are controlled by the quality of individuals in this room. You all are passionate, if not, there's a lot of other places you would be, you'd be like the folks at all the other tables who have is taken the great desert, and if you didn't have the red velvet cake, go get some, and got on the road. But because you're here, you're committed, and you care, and I applaud you for what you do. I hope that as you explore opportunities in the future you direct your Students to ETSU because there are opportunities here that I don't think many folks are aware of. The level of undergraduate research that occurs at this institution, you're not going to find at many institutions in the country. Be it on the main Campus or on the Quillen Campus, be it in psychology, be it in medicine, or be it in political science, on a daily basis, I've had the chance to see undergraduate Students working side by side with First-Year Students in the College of Medicine. I've have had the opportunity to see undergraduate Students in labs, looking at learning outcomes in early development youth, children aged eighteen months to twenty four months, but the chance for your Students to come here, roll up their sleeves, and work side by side with Grad Students and our Faculty, is something that doesn't happen at many places. So, if you have a young Student who is interested in science, send them to ETSU, because what our Faculty do, many of whom are in the room today, is to help take that light bulb that you inspired in middle school and high school and turn the wattage up a little bit. I thank you all for your time! I thank you all for your investments, but most importantly I thank you for the passion for learning that you instill upon your Students on a daily basis. I could stand here all day and read page after page of accolade of our faculty, and mind you, I did have a script. But you all know them. How many in the room are ETSU Alums? Thank you! You all know our strengths. You all know our stories. You are our stories! I thank you for what you do for this institution and I thank you for what you do for the region, and I look forward to watching the amazing things that you accomplish and the amazing Students that you send to our institution in years to come. Everybody have a great day and safe travels home!