The Global Water Experiment

IEEE and UNESCO sign partnership to promote engineering education in Africa

UNESCO and the world’s largest technical professional association, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), today signed an agreement to implement projects to support the engineering community in Africa.

The agreement, signed at UNESCO’s Headquarters, outlines initiatives that support the common goal of mobilizing engineering education outreach for both students and educators in Africa, a region both organizations regard as a priority.  The combination of IEEE’s core strengths as a professional association (with the technical expertise of its global membership); paired with UNESCO’s overall objective to mobilize science knowledge and policy for sustainable development, should contribute to the partnership’s effectiveness.

IEEE President and CEO Gordon Day, who signed the agreement for IEEE said, “Everywhere in the world, quality of life and prosperity depend on the application of technology. “That means that every country needs to have and sustain a strong high-tech workforce. Through this partnership, IEEE and UNESCO will be better able to help countries in Africa and elsewhere do just that.”

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, added. “If engineering’s role is more visible and better understood, more people would be attracted to it as a career. Now and in the years to come, we need to ensure that motivated young women and men concerned about problems in the developing world continue to enter the field in sufficient numbers. It is estimated that some 2.5 million new engineers and technicians will be needed in sub-Saharan Africa alone.”

The United States’ and United Kingdom’s Ambassadors and Permanent Delegates to UNESCO, David Killian and Matthew Sudders, attended the signing.

 UNESCO and IEEE agreed to collaborate on several projects and initiatives including accreditation programmes, faculty training and initiatives encouraging the participation of women in engineering.

The UNESCO-HP Brain Gain Initiative

The migration of highly-skilled people is having a significant impact on higher education and research in developing nations, as universities and research centers have to retain highly-skilled and increasingly mobile professionals in increasingly competitive labour markets.

UNESCO and HP joined forces in 2003 to develop several projects, using innovative technology to create a “brain gain” for regions that are particularly impacted by the exodus of academics and scientists.

In 2009 UNESCO and HP agreed to scale up the initiative to help create a sustainable university e-infrastructure for science, bringing together higher education institutions and research centres in Africa and the Arab States region and allowing them to pursue innovative education projects.

By the end of 2011, this infrastructure could span some 100 higher education institutions in 20 countries provided like-minded corporations and organizations join UNESCO and HP in this initiative.

Click here to learn more!

A Comment on Science and Technology Education

The Summary Report of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009 states:

From an international perspective, the gulf between rich and poor countries is wide – not only in terms of getting children through school but also in terms of what they are actually learning. A comparison of enrolment levels between Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and sub-Saharan Africa is particularly telling. By age 7, almost all children in OECD countries are in primary school, compared with 40% for sub-Saharan Africa. At age 20, in OECD countries 30% are in post-secondary education, and 2% in sub-Saharan Africa. Many children in countries such as Mali and Mozambique have less chance of completing primary school than their counterparts in France or the United Kingdom have of reaching tertiary education.

Global inequalities in education between high- and low-income countries often mask major disparities within countries. National inequalities based on income, gender, ethnicity, location and other factors can block a child’s educational attainment. Children from the poorest 20% of households in South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa are less than half as likely to reach grade 9 as those from the richest 20% (Figure 1). National governments and international development agencies must strengthen the focus on equity to achieve the core EFA goals.

Consider the children who get only a few years of schooling. (Unfortunately, most of them not only get very little schooling but the schooling that they do receive is of very low quality.) Thus the few years of schooling that they receive should provide them some basic science and technology, such as:

• Some understanding of basic hygiene and of the communicable diseases prevalent in their environments;
• Some understanding of human nutrition, and the dangers of addiction;
  
• For future farmers, some understanding of plant growth and the role of water and soil nutrients in crop production;
• Some understanding of statics and mechanics, such as the theories of levers and pulleys, that would be useful in manual laboer,
• Some understanding of electricity and electrical devices that they might operate in the future;
• Some understanding of motors that they might operate in the future;
• Some understanding of animal sexual reproduction and genetics, especially for future farmers and herders.
• Some basic understanding of economics, such as of markets and the choices of where and when to buy and to selll and of microfinance and collateral.

It does not seem that UNESCO's science and technology education program is focusing on these needs. Certainly spending time on space science and technology seems unwise even if the children are interested in the topics. There is no intrinsic reason why the science and technology that will help a poorly educated farmer, mother, or laborer to work smarter is not intrinsically uninteresting.

It is important that science and technology education awaken an interest in lifelong learning. Not only is new scientific and technological knowledge being created all the time, people's needs for such knowledge are continually evolving. For the children who will obtain very little schooling, it would seem especially important to motivate them to learn about science and technology out of school.

Similarly, students should learn where to get accurate science and technology information and services. They should learn of the importance of consulting health educators, health service providers, agricultural extension workers, industrial extension workers and others who provide valid information rather than the sources of traditional knowledge in their communities, whose information may often be suspect.

Thus the difficult task of those in primary schools serving children who will be expected to get very little schooling is to help them to become scientifically and technologically literate in the areas most relevant to their lives, and to give them the attitudes and linkages that will help them to learn more about science and technology when they have left school.

John A. Daly
(The opinions expressed above are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.)

UNESCO takes Mini-laboratories and Microscience to the Middle East

For a decade now, UNESCO has been introducing the methodology for microscience into the education systems of both developed and developing countries. One of UNESCO’s key partners in this endeavour is the RADMASTE Centre, Witwatersrand University, South Africa. Training workshops in microscience have been organized in some 84 countries and recently, UNESCO has turned its attention to the Middle East.

In collaboration with the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture (ISESCO), UNESCO has introduced the microscience project into Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Syria. As project coordinator at UNESCO, Maria Liouliou took part in the first training workshops in Beirut and Ramallah, in November 2006 and February 2007.

The microscience methodology gives primary and secondary school pupils and university students alike an opportunity to conduct practical scientific experiments in physics, chemistry and biology using kits that come with a textbook. These kits are veritable mini-laboratories. They are perfectly safe, insofar as pupils never need to use more than a couple of drops of chemicals for each experiment. The kits are also affordable and far cheaper than conventional laboratory material. Each kit is compact, can be reused and is unbreakable because made of plastic. In addition, the small quantities of chemicals used make it environment-friendly.

Read more!

UNESCO and HP Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement

UNESCO and Hewlett-Packard (HP) signed a strategic partnership agreement on 19 December to strengthen their collaboration around existing education projects. The signing ceremony, held at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, was attended by Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General and Gabriele Zedlmayer, vice president, Global Citizenship HP Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Through the partnership, UNESCO and HP will work together on several projects in the area of education, especially to support UNESCO’s priority of “Education for All". This includes an evaluation on the extension of the existing brain drain project to additional regions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. UNESCO and HP started to collaborate five years ago in South East Europe to help key universities connect to global research networks. In 2006 the project was extended to Africa. The project fights brain drain by providing universities with an advanced technology called grid computing, which allows top quality researchers to play a key role in international research and contribute to economic development in their home countries.

Another project is the World Heritage Map, which enables the general public to visualize the spread of World Heritage sites around the globe, and raises the awareness of the World Heritage Convention. The map is above all an educational tool, allowing UNESCO to communicate its work in this field on a large scale.

In addition HP has provided a financial contribution to UNESCO for the “Printing and distribution of the Man and the Biosphere Map”. The Man and the Biosphere Map will be fully prepared and edited by the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO, which will provide the full lay-out to HP for printing and distribution.

The Computer recycling training guide is also the fruit of UNESCO and HP cooperation: it aims to support local stakeholders, in developing countries in particular, to manage electronic waste. The goal is to support local actors, especially those with a background in managing used computer equipment, and to create environmentally clean and healthy business opportunities. HP is the only technology partner in the project, which also includes the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie - ADEME), EMMAUS, the international movement of solidarity, and TIC ETHIC, Information and Communication Technologies in the service of ethics and sustainable development.

School Science and Technology education

Just published

UNESCO Resources on School Science and Technology education on CD-Rom

UNESCO has just released a new CD-ROM with a collection of UNESCO documents on science and technology education at the secondary school level. These ocuments include:

• “Guidelines for Policy-making in Secondary School Science and Technology Education”
• “Girls and Science : A training module on motivating girls to embark on science and technology careers”
• “Technology-based training of marginalized girls”
• “Partnerships for relevant science and technology education” and
• “Technology education guide”.

Contact: j.heiss@unesco.org

Finalists nominated for 2007 Engineering Award

The finalists for the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2007 have been decided. An international jury yesterday nominated 30 teams to proceed to the final of the worldwide engineering contest by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO. At the beginning of December 2007, the nominated teams will be attending the Mondialogo Symposium in Mumbai/India, where the best of them will in turn be honoured with the Engineering Award. The ten winning teams can look forward to cash prizes each worth €20,000. Another twenty teams will receive an honorary award, each carrying €5,000 in prize money.

A total of 3,200 students of engineering sciences from 89 countries had registered for the second edition of the Engineering Award:.

Among the 30 are many teams that include a U.S. Partner:

Project Title: Development of a sustainable fluoride filter for use in the Bongo District of Ghana, Africa

Area of Engineering: Water supply and sanitation

• Partner Institutions: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
• The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York,USA

Project Title: Inexpensive multi-functional medical equipment design

Area of Engineering: Medicine and health care
Partner Institutions:

• HuaZhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
• Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
• University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Project Title: Sustainable Irrigation for Community Agriculture in rural South Africa

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• John-Hopkins University (Engineers Without Borders), Baltimore, Maryland, USA
• Zakhe Agricultural College (Agriculturalists Without Borders), KwaZulu-Nata, South Africa

Project Title: The Adu Achi Water Development

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Engineers without borders), Illinois, USA

Project Title: Improvement of Health Conditions in Rural India using Renewable Energy Sources

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Fachhochschule Bingen, Bingen, Germany
• Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
• Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

Project Title: Exploitation and Valorization of Certain Forest Products in Cameroon

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
• National Advanced School of Polytechnics, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Project Title: Exploitation and Valorization of Certain Forest Products in Cameroon

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
• National Advanced School of Polytechnics, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Project Title: Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Produced From Olive Oil Mills

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
• Birzeit University, Deir Qaddis, Palestinian Territories

Project Title: Casa Ecologica Andina

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA
• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru

Project Title: Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Tuberculosis and Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Peru Using Medical Imaging Techniques

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• University of Rochester, New York, USA
• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru

Project Title: Design and Manufacture of Dynamic Response Foot Prostheses for Landmine Victims in Impoverished Areas

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Project Title: Global Basic Needs in an Integrated Sustainable Approach

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
• University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Project Title: Sustainable Treatment of Wastewaters from Garages and Workshops Using Coconut Husk and Shell Wastes as Filter Materials

Area of Engineering: Multiple
Partner Institutions:

• PNG University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea
• Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, USA

Congratulations to the finalists and good luck in the next round of the contest!

Girls and science: a training module on motivating girls to embark on science and technology careers

Girls and science: a training module on motivating girls to embark on science and technology careers
UNESCO, 2006. (PDF, 936702 bytes)

The overall aim of this educational module is to help reduce gender disparities in the field of science and technology in Africa as well as to provide women with the possibility of embarking upon science careers in the quest of self-dependence and poverty reduction. Published by UNESCO, 2006, specific objectives of Girls and science: a training module on motivating girls to embark on science and technology careers include:

1. Promoting a positive image of women in scientific and technological careers;

2. Sensitizing parents, teachers, educators, school administrative staff, curriculum developers and trainers to counter gender stereotypes with regard to science careers;

3. Improving access of girls to scientific and technological education by providing clear ideas of career opportunities;

4. Providing teachers with the necessary career guidance tools to meet the needs of female learners seeking careers in science and technology.

Conference on Science and Technology Education: Systemic Approaches to Reform

In 2004, UNESCO and the American Association for the Advancement of Science sponsored this symposium in Paris.

Click here to read the reports from the seminar.

Affiliate Your Technology Education club to UNESCO

UNESCO is establishing a network of Science and Technology Education Clubs in secondary schools. Schools are invited to submit their applications to UNESCO.

Should you be interested to be affiliated to UNESCO’s network of Science and Technology Education Clubs, you can contact Orlando Hall Rose in UNESCO's section for Science and Technology Education: o.hall-rose@unesco.org

Click here to read more about UNESCO's network of
science clubs in secondary schools.

Albert V. Baez -- In Memoriam

Albert V. Baez, the first director of science education at UNESCO, died last Tuesday, of what his family described as "natural causes," in San Mateo County, California. He was 94.

Dr. Baez was the director of the science education program of UNESCO from 1961-67. During that period he organized and led a program to improve science education in secondary schools worldwide. The program included projects to improve physics education in Latin America, chemistry education in Asia, biology education in Africa, and mathematics education in the Arab states. The trail breaking program introduced simple, inexpensive kits to allow science experiments in secondary schools, produced films, and utilized programmed education techniques (which were very innovative at the time) for the teachers of science. The work depended significantly on Dr. Baez' earlier participation in the Physics Science Studies Committee which helped to improve physics education in U.S. secondary schools.

Previously, in 1951, he had served UNESCO in Baghdad, where he taught at Baghdad University. In the 1980s, he served as chairman of the Commission on Education for the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Dr. Baez was a distinguished physicist, known professionally as the co-inventor (in 1948) of the X-ray reflection microscope. He served on the faculties of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley and other universities. As a physics professor and a pacifist, he refused to use his considerable expertise to advance the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.

In retirement, he served as president of Vivamos Mejor (Let Us Live Better), an organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life through science-based education and community development projects in Latin America. He was active in the work of Bread and Roses, an organization founded by his daughter Mimi Farina to bring free live music to people confined in institutions - jails, hospitals, juvenile facilities and rest homes. He endowed the Hispanic Engineer Albert Baez Award, which is given for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Humanity.

In 1956 (with W.C. Nixon) he published Lectures on the X-ray Microscope, and in 1967 he wrote The New College Physics: A Spiral Approach. He co-authored The Environment and Science and Technology Education, published in 1987, and with his daughter, Joan Baez, the memoir A Year in Baghdad in 1988.

To those in the international community interested in science education, he is known as a founding father of the discipline. To the general public he is perhaps better known as the father who introduced his daughters, Joan Baez and Mimi Farina to music, to the love of peace, and to social responsibility.

Dr. Baez was born on November 15, 1912, in Puebla, Mexico, and came to the United States with his family at two years of age. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Drew University, a master's degree in physics from Syracuse University, a master's degree in mathematics and a doctorate in physics from Stanford University.

Dr. Baez is survived by his wife Joan Bridge Baez of Woodside, Calif.; and daughters Joan Baez and Pauline Bryan of Carmel Valley, Calif.

A Quaker memorial celebration was planned for May.

Read Dr. Baez' obituaries in:

• The San Francisco Chronicle
• The Los Angeles Times
  

Books For International Development

The International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development is running a program to ship books from the United States to to developing countries around the world. Recent wars, natural disasters and continued poverty have created a need for new university libraries and holdings. Donated books will be shipped to the recipient country by large shipping container (20,000 lbs. per shipment). Although science books are most requested, we will accept donations of any university-level books in other disciplines, which can be textbooks or others. Journals are also needed, but should cover some period of time no less than one year. Material donated should typically be no more than 15 years old and in very good condition. The project is co-sponsored by UNESCO and the State of Pennsylvania, with cooperation and donations in kind from the World Bank, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Millersville University.

Click here for more information!

Class on UNESCO and a Discussion of S&T Literacy

A group of people associated with Americans for UNESCO is piloting a course this semester titled "UNESCO: Agenda for the 21st Century". The course is being offered as a graduate seminar at George Washington University, and the students come from the programs in International Relations and International Education. Contact me if you are interested in more information. We would be delighted if other universities would pick up the course design and adapt it to their own needs.

Yesterday evening, Dr. Robert Maybury presented a class on science and technology education, and the history of such programs at UNESCO. That class has stimulated an online discussion which may be of interest to the readers of this blog.

Click here to go to the online discussion.