In June 2004, officials from the scientific communities in California and Mexico, including UC President Robert Dynes and Jaime Parada Ávila, the director of CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología), met in Riverside to pursue innovative solutions to some of the challenges shared by Mexico and California, using CCST's report, Opportunities for Collaboration in High-Tech Research and Teacher Professional Development, to help plan for the future.
"This proactive program is a productive collaboration of science and technology research and education related institutions in both regions."
-France Córdova
Chancellor, UCR
Commission Member |
The California-Mexico Commission on Education, Science and Technology is a binational high-level commission dedicated to exploring mutual challenges related to science and technology policy areas. In May 2003, the Commission requested that CCST help identify common science and technology research areas and suggest collaborative programs of mutual interest where a joint effort between California and Mexico could make a difference to the economies and education systems of both.
CCST was asked to pursue two lines of inquiry:
- How to foster small but important clusters of innovation in Mexico's high-tech areas and address the concern that Mexico loses top research talent to the United States, and
- How to address the lack of qualified science and math teachers in the K-12 systems by providing better, particularly on-line, in-service support.
"It is urgent for Mexico to develop human capital and knowledge to solve the problems in a country in which half the population lives in severe poverty."
-Jaime Parada Ávila
Director General
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Technología |
The first section of CCST's report, Developing a Framework for High-Tech Research Collaboration, is designed to help foster clusters of innovation in Mexico's high-tech areas and address concern that Mexico loses research talent to the U.S. It offers a provisional matrix of top science and technology university programs in Mexico and California using data provided by the National Research Council and CONACYT, as well as interviews with officials in CONACYT and research institutions.
The second section, Professional Development of In-Service Teachers in California and Mexico, provides an overview of technology-based professional development capabilities in both California and Mexico. This project outlines strategies for implementing effective computer based science and math professional development tools for use by both. Dozens of programs are considered, and viable candidates for the Commission's consideration are identified in both California and Mexico. The report was well received and the Commission requested that CCST initiate a comparable project examining the roles and success of university extension centers in California and Mexico. This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005.
