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Hrabowski: An educator focused on math and science

November 13, 2011 4:00 PM

Under Freeman Hrabowski's leadership, the University of Maryland Baltimore County has become a powerhouse in math, science, and engineering. Byron Pitts reports.

Hrabowski: An educator focused on math and science
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by fredbg_anita July 28, 2012 8:45 AM EDT
What a phenomenal asset to education! Thank you Dr. Hrabowski for all that you have done to inspire our youth, continue to do, and I pray that you will continue to keep doing the same things as well as keep sharing your success techniques.
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by newseer June 18, 2012 1:32 AM EDT
WE REALLY HAVE TO PRAISE MR. HRABOWSKI FOR THE OUTSTANDING WORK BEING DONE TO EDUCATE OUR YOUTH IN THE AREAS OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE. AT PRESENT, WE HAVE A HUGE DEFFICIT OF PERSONS IN THESE AREAS, WHICH IS CAUSING FOR MANY FOREIGNERS TO COME HERE WITHOUT IMMIGRANT VISAS OR OVERSTAYING THEIR TOURIST VISAS, AND HAVING OUR AUTHORITIES ALLOWING THEM TO STAY AND TAKE JOBS THAT SHOULD BE FILLED BY OUR CITIZENS. ON THE OTHER HAND, MR. HRABOWSKI IS A SURVIVOR OF ONE OF THE DARKEST CHAPTERS IN OUR HISTORY WHEN BLACKS WERE TREATED WORSE THAN ANIMALS, AND MANAGED TO REACH THE POSITION HE HOLDS NOW BECAUSE OF HIS EFFORTS, PERSISTENCE AND INTELLIGENCE. THIS IS THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE GROUPS THAT ARE PRAISED OFFICIALLY BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR HIS ACHIEVEMENTS IN ADVANCING THE QUALITY OF OUR SOCIETY.
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by YoungConcernedScientist June 17, 2012 8:39 PM EDT
Shame on you 60 minutes. I saw the 60 minutes expose recently and I have to say as a young scientist I had to express my displeasure with the broadcast.

The truth which 60 minutes SHOULD be investigating is the LACK of opportunity for scientists and people with science degrees in general to actually do science. Both my wife and I have PhDs, myself in sub-atomic physics and her in more practical immunology.
Both of us are facing the reality, not the illusion, but the reality that there is an over-production of PhDs in the U.S. and Canada. Those people who struggle for years to fulfill the call are left after a decade of education with a terrible job market (70+ applicants for 1 job opening is not uncommon).
Both of us graduated our PhDs with A+ and have worked on major hot topic projects such as cancer, dark matter. We are in post-doctoral positions and like many of our peers there is frankly, no hope in sight.

The "pro-science education" caters instead to the education industry itself. Shame on you 60 minutes as part of investigative journalism you are catering to an industry rather than critically analyzing what it actually does.
You should investigate the actual data: the surge of low paying "post-doctoral" positions that fuel the modern university's research program and the drop in permanent positions. A modality of life that the most highly educated are often crippled with debt and reduced to a lifestyle which is that of a migrant worker.
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by aryamagv December 27, 2011 8:55 PM EST
Inspiring educators and teachers inspire students - congratulations Harshavardhan Tangirala, one of the scholarship winners!
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by umbcgrad November 28, 2011 11:45 AM EST
As a graduate of UMBC, I can attest to the remarkable personality of President Hrabowski. It was after hearing one of his speeches in high school that I decided to attend UMBC. Although the Meyerhoff program is his pet program, he has never neglected the liberal arts and there are other scholarship programs available to inspire students in other areas. You won't find a more caring and involved college president. I want to thank President Hrabowski for making UMBC an exceptional university that challenges and encourages all students to excel.
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by SSRWTeacher November 26, 2011 9:02 AM EST
This is wonderful, I would like to see the same intensity with teacher training. Teacher training in our country is quite lacking. A good place to start would be the Core Knowledge Curriculum training, young teachers should be trained in good programs such as Sing, Spell, Read & Write, Saxon Math, Singapore Math, Calvert Math and Science such as FOSS Science training, American History and World History and training in grammar structure and writing such as Excellence In Writing or Teaching Basic Writing Skills. Classroom management is also a needed but neglected course of study. Of course new teachers ought to be properly mentored on the job so the training would reach into the job force as well. I would love to see something like this. We need to train our teachers well and then support them properly.
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by minooCalifornia November 19, 2011 10:10 PM EST
I enjoyed this interview and UMBC a lot. Thank you CBS for SHOWING IMPORTANT programs to us. It was a Quality piece of work and I am glad seeing minorities getting better education and good jobs. We ALL need to get better education and get jobs.

I wished quality of all educational institutions raise to way higher level with more hands on experience/ projects as part of the requirements for graduation.

A lot of Junior colleges are not project based. They just want to attract many students by advertisements but studens don't gain a lot of knowledge from attending them.

I hope all colleges and universities and all majors be projects based and have residency programs like Medicine has. As a result of this interview I am interested to visit UMBC campus and talk to the college of sciences and engineering there.Thank you
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by The_Resistance November 18, 2011 9:04 AM EST
Personally I feel this is a great step towards embowering the youth, however, it is clear as long as Science continues to obscure the esoteric knowledge of activation within the subtle vehicles of the body called Chakras then all of this is a waste or distraction from the big question of the destination of our Souls once we depart this plane.

Further it has been made to appear that such topics should be placed in a fringe category and given very little support and attention when in actuality it is the next age we are entering. Telling people in the Stone Age about the Space Age would indeed place you as an outcast for a moment but that did not stop the Space Age from being upon us.

I encourage all to look further into the age of Aether and cease to become the "Masses" and wake up to the veiled potential of this reality. We must train ourselves to recognize the mold that we are being placed in by the new educators who are in fact finished products of totalitarian factions and their interwoven network of manipulators that work night and day to suppress the true power of the human being. This goes beyond conspiracy. Resistance2010
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by ojossogood November 16, 2011 10:41 PM EST
He is uplifting! When I was in high school 51 years ago, I had to take some math classes as well as science classes. I was not an academic in my youth and felt very much caged by fear when all the others in class understood a concept or problem and I did not. I was frightened to admit that I did not because of the comments and rejection I would have received because I was just dumb!

Here, he has the students focus on learning and helping each other as a mentor/teacher. In addition, I believe this is truly the most important concept he teaches is that they learn to work together on projects/research because it is already known they understand the basics in science and math. This is so uplifting to me who was always afraid to venture into those areas.

As an aside, when attending a graduation at public/private colleges/universities, look at the size of the liberal arts graduating class versus the engineering/science/math classes. It is difficult to get more people interested in math, science, engineering because it does require hard work. Also, gender plays a huge part in where students are expected to enroll. Some of my most intelligent students were women in engineering, math and life sciences.
Those stereotypes must be SMASHED so all can enter fields of their interest.
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by odspark November 16, 2011 8:23 PM EST
I saw this segment on Sunday night and I think Dr Harbowski and UMBC university or doing and outstanding job in training scientist and making people aware of the need for science. I am impress with all that is going on at UMBC and all that has been accomplisheaccomplished.

I was disappointed when I saw a group of students doing lab work wearing face mask, working with pipettes and liquids, and not wearing safety glasses. This sends a bad message. All people in all laboratories should ware safety glasses at all times. The CBS producer of this segment should be ashamed. Some person could lose their eye sight because they think it is OK to work in a lab without eye protection. I think 60 minutes should run a segment on lab safety and emphasize eye protection and point out the problem with this segment.
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