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" Science report cards are in, and the grades aren&amp;#039;t promising: According to a study released by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), urban elementary and middle school students are falling below the national average. The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) tested public school districts in 10 American cities, then compared those scores to the nation as a whole. Fourth graders in nine of the ten districts had lower average scores than public school students nationally; eighth grade students in all ten districts tested below the national average. The report confirms what we already knew about the state of science education in urban areas and in the United States as a whole, says Dr. Shawn Carlson, a member of the Popular Mechanics Editorial Board of Advisors and executive director of the Society of Amateur Scientists (SAS). &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a reflection of the difficulties schools face in educating such a diverse population,&amp;quot; says Carlson, who is also a MacArthur Fellow. &amp;quot;The one-size-fits-all approach that works in other countries doesn&amp;#039;t apply here.&amp;quot; Interest in science and other technical fields among students in the United States appears to be falling, Carlson observes, with 40 percent of technical careers\u2014including science, math and engineering\u2014now outsourced from foreign countries.  There are long-term consequences, especially for national security, according to Carlson. &amp;quot;Non U.S. citizens are not allowed to work on classified research,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;If we ever reach a point where there&amp;#039;s a problem and there&amp;#039;s not a U.S. citizen to deal with it\u2026 there will be a critical gap there.&amp;quot; The answer, he believes, lies in exposing students to hands-on science in an exciting and empowering way\u2014and pairing up scientifically-inclined children with mentors. That&amp;#039;s the idea behind SAS&amp;#039;s LabRats\u2014a program drawing inspiration from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, with scientists acting as mentors\u2014which Carlson hopes will be up and running nationwise within the next year. New York City&amp;#039;s United Way runs a similar program that hopes to inspire and empower kids through science. &amp;quot;The most important question is, &amp;#039;Are we generating enough math, science and technical students to solve the problems we&amp;#039;ll face in the future?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; says Carlson. &amp;quot;The future depends on what we do starting now.&amp;quot; \u2013Erin McCarthy "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a1022/4202336/>