The
U.S. is now the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking country in
the world, and as the Spanish-speaking population of the United
States grows, our need to encourage Hispanic engagement in
science and technology grows with it. This is particularly
important when we consider how underrepresented the Hispanic
population is in the world of science. In fact, only 3% of
Hispanics entering four-year colleges and universities enroll
in a science or engineering program, and only 11.4% of Hispanics
over 25 complete a college education. This stems from Hispanic
students’ poor fairings in middle and high school, on average
scoring 20 points lower than non-Hispanic students in science
and math subjects, so that a meager 4% of Hispanic 12th graders
are considered proficient in math topics and 7% in science
topics.
Through
SRF's national radio programming and media campaigns, SRF
is able to make impressions on the most diverse Hispanic communities,
and reinforce these impressions with direct community outreach:
The
Self Reliance Foundation (SRF) spearheads the Celebra
la Ciencia (Celebrate Science) initiative, a bilingual
informal science outreach campaign. The mission
is to encourage Hispanic children and families to become
involved in science and health programs and raise awareness
about educational and career opportunities related to
science, technology, and biomedical research.
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Celebra la Ciencia (CLC) facilitates interactive exhibitions and workshops at community festivals
and in schools, and utilizes media, in the form of radio,
newspaper, and internet, to engage Hispanics in science and
inform them about available resources .
To
enhance the project, SRF has established coalitions across
the United States , in which local museums, community
organizations, businesses, schools, colleges and universities,
and the media join together to create a support network for
local science events and opportunities, and to support SRF’s
national media efforts by linking Hispanics to science resources
on a community level. In 2007, Celebra la Ciencia Coalitions
are active in six cities: Washington D.C., Chicago, Albuquerque,
Los Angeles, Oakland, and southeastern Washington state (Yakima
and Pasco). SRF’s toll-free 1-800 helpline and project website
(www.celebralaciencia.org)
also help guide parents and families to enjoyable family science
resources.
Hispanic
Science News Service
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Funded
by the National Science Foundation's Informal Science
Education program, the Hispanic Science News Service
develops a science news delivery service aimed at Hispanic-serving
media sources. The purpose of this project is to increase
the science literacy of Hispanics by delivering quality
science news and topics on a regular basis. By using
multiple
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forms
of media that are easily accessible for media affiliates,
this project will allow science concepts to infiltrate
the daily environments of Hispanic audiences. Through
this delivery infrastructure, media affiliates throughout
the country will be able to download Spanish-language
news products to be produced in their media source (newspaper,
radio, or electronic format). The specific news products,
written by science journalists and disseminated weekly,
will cover a breadth of high-quality science topics
that the majority of Spanish-language news sources lack,
and will cater to a variety of age levels and backgrounds
within the Hispanic population. |
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