- Science Summit 2010 -
- Indianapolis 3 February 2010 -
The first Indiana Science Summit took place at the Eli Lilly and Company Corporate Center in Indianapolis on the 3rd February 2010. The one-day gathering drew almost 300 educators and buisness people from across Indiana and beyond to listen to invited speakers Sally Goetz Shuler, PhD, Executive Director, National Science Resources Center (NSRC), Mike Klentschy, PhD, Former Superintendent, El Centro School District, and Dr. Tony Bennett, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction. Other speakers represented the organizations arranging the conference: Rob Smith, Senior Director-Corporate Branding and Public Relations, of the Eli Lilly company, Jenny Hicks, Science Coordinator at the Indiana Department of Education, and Bill Walker, Director of I-STEM, the Indiana Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Resource Network.

The slides used in the talks at the meeting and other associated information can be found at the new website http://indianascience.org/.
The website includes news about the most recent developments in Science Education around Indiana; in particular, the February dates, times, and places for the nine follow-up Regional meetings are posted there. The meeting for our region 7 "Owning the Solution - Science Strategy Session Region 7" is on Thursday, February 18, 9:00 a.m. - noon EST at the School City of Mishawaka Central office.
We will be reporting on further progress in our next newsletter - several NISMEC representatives will be attending the meeting.

We quote from Evan Shields in the Evansville Courier & Press (Feb 13, 2010)
Predicting that 2010 will be the year of science education reform, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett met Wednesday with national and state educators to raise awareness of the importance of science in the classroom.
     The Indiana Science Summit was designed to highlight the importance of making improvements to science curriculum in Indiana if the state's students are to fill jobs in blossoming industries that depend on a work force with a mastery of science skills.
     "We have brought some of the most impressive talent from across the country in to address education reform in those areas," Bennett said.
     Jenny Hicks, a science specialist with the Indiana Department of Education, presented statistics showing that in 2009, 71 percent of fourth-graders passed the ISTEP science category, while only 54 percent of seventh-graders passed upon taking the test again.
     With 40,000 science-related jobs projected to open in the state over the next four years, Bennett said, the test scores would need to improve.
     "I'm not a middle-of-the-pack kind of guy," Bennett said. "For me, the fact that our results are flat and we have not achieved what we need to achieve, every day that motivates me to get better."
     One solution to improving the low science scores, he said, is inquiry-based education, where students take a thoughtful, hands-on approach to science rather than reading information straight from a book.
     The summit was sponsored by the Indiana Department of Education in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Co., BioCrossroads and the Indiana Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (I-STEM) Resource Network.