UPB Forced to Close Science In Motion

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has closed down its popular Science In Motion program after funding for the program was cut from the Pennsylvania state budget, which some educators think will adversely affect their schools’ science programs.

Friday was the last day of operation for the mobile science lending library, which provided high-tech science equipment and expertise to 35 rural schools plus home-schooled children in an area the size of Connecticut.

“I am saddened that this program, which had so much potential to support science, technology, engineering and math education, has been cut from the state budget,” said James Baldwin, assistant dean of academic affairs and director of Science In Motion at Pitt-Bradford. “I hope that other existing programs are capable of filling the void that our termination will create.”

Funded by the state with the help of private donations, the Pitt-Bradford program was one of 11 such programs in Pennsylvania. All of the programs were cut in the 2009-10 budget.

In a region where the average high school science teacher is given $900 each year with which to buy or repair equipment and purchase supplies, the program was understandably popular.

Gary Elder, principal of Oswayo Valley Middle School/High School, which has about 300 students, said, “It’s the small rural school that’s getting hurt by this. This cut is at the top of my list for hurting kids’ learning. We believe that Science In Motion was a boon to all rural areas, and it’s not just our school that’s going to feel the pinch.”

Bruce Kemp, a biology teacher at Oswayo Valley, said he used Science In Motion resources to provide about 50 labs a year to his 150 science students. By getting the equipment from Science In Motion, the district not only didn’t have to buy expensive equipment, it also didn’t have to buy costly chemicals that need to be replaced regularly to maintain their effectiveness.

Kemp, who also teaches college-credit courses at Jamestown (N.Y.) Community College, was planning to use the equipment to start a program at Oswayo Valley that would let high school students there earn college credits for advanced biology courses. Without the lab support from Science In Motion, however, that’s now impossible, he said.

“Science In Motion was a state program where the commonwealth had hit a home run,” Kemp said. “Now they’ve called the batter out.”

It’s not just the students who will be suffering, said Kemp, who admitted the ability to do more advanced and sophisticated labs kept him excited as a teacher and inspired him to push his students. Without Science In Motion, he will be forced to go back to doing fewer labs.

Elder said, “That flies in the face of what we’re supposed to be doing in 21st century instruction.”

Since its inception at Pitt-Bradford in 2001, the Science In Motion program had made more than 182,000 student contacts. One student taking part in one lab is a student contact. The value of the labs provided to schools saved districts in the region more than $4 million.

Kerri Detsch, a biology and physics teacher at Kane Area High School and Science In Motion volunteer, said in 2008 that she believed Science In Motion helped prepare her students to study science at top colleges and kept her fresh as a teacher.

“Through Science In Motion, I’m always learning something new,” she said.

In addition to the loss to students, teachers and school districts, two full-time positions were eliminated by the closure, Baldwin said.

Pictured, Science In Motion camp held at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford this past summer. Top, Heidi Johnson making paper with Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor biology, who taught children at Science In Motion camp about different uses for plant fibers. The second photo shows a girl doing a culture of a doorknob in an academic building on the first day of camp. The students crew the cultures during the week, then examined what they grew.Science In Motion Camp was a one-week science camp held each summer at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford to give children who had finished grades 1 through 6 a taste of hands-on science.
(Photos courtesy of Pitt-Bradford)