KERN KEYNOTES SOUTHEAST GRADUATION FRIDAY

Southeast Missouri State University scientist Ernest L. Kern told summer graduates Friday that declining science literacy threatens the nation's economy, security and quality of life.

Kern said that although the United States "sets the world standard" at the university level within the science majors, science education at lower levels is "plagued with problems."

The Southeast earth science professor and winner of the 1990 Faculty Merit Award, keynoted the university's summer graduation ceremonies.

Kathryn S. Vickery of Sikeston and Connie Gay Hughes of Bell City led the 225 undergraduates. Vickery has a perfect 4.0 grade point average and received a bachelor's degree in nursing. Hughes has a 3.97 grade point average and earned a bachelor's degree in education.

Ninety graduate students also received degrees at the commencement in the Show Me Center. Also, 20 undergraduate and 35 graduate students were honored during the Honors Convocation held Friday afternoon in Academic Auditorium.

The undergraduate honorees earned at least a 3.5 grade point average, and the graduate students achieved at least a 3.8 average. Michael Devaney, associate professor of accounting and finance, spoke at the honors ceremony.

Kern told the graduates that Southeast Missouri State is leading the science education field with a number of innovative programs designed to improve science literacy.

"Students simply are not learning science and math a level competitive with other countries," he said. "In the 1960s, U.S. students performed as well or better in science and math as students anywhere in the world.

"Today, however, our students score dismally low compared to their counterparts in other industrialized nations."

Kern also said the National Science Foundation has predicted a shortage in the United States of more than 400,000 scientists and 275,000 engineers by the year 2006.

He said universities are failing to properly teach future educators, particularly at the elementary level, how to effectively teach science.

"These ill-prepared teachers then go out into the classroom and the downward spiral continues," Kern said.

But Kern said Southeast is meeting the challenge to ensure better science education. He said the university has an award-winning teacher training program, an innovative science education component for training elementary teachers and many other programs that are emulated by other institutions worldwide.

One program, developed by Southeast, is Kindergarten through Sixth Grade Science and Math (KSAM), which helps improve teaching skills of professional educators using a "hand-on, process approach."

That's an approach the university takes in its general education science courses, he said.

"Most general education science courses at most universities are little more than encyclopedia exercises in futility, consisting mostly of facts and definitions," Kern said. "No process; little relevancy.

"Not at Southeast. As part of the University Studies Program, these courses have, among other things, increased process, increased the demonstration of the relevancy of science, and demonstrated the interrelationships of science with other subjects."

Kern earned his bachelor's degree in education from Southeast in 1969, a master's degree from Western Michigan University and a doctorate from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He joined the faculty at Southeast in 1972.

Kern has received the Faculty Merit Award from the Department of Earth Science on four occasions and also has received the Outstanding Service to Missouri Education Award from the Science Teacher of Missouri. He also has been elected "Favorite Professor" 28 times by various student organizations at Southeast.