Chemistry down the tubes

June 16, 2009

Louise Brown

EDUCATION REPORTER

You would think the top 10 high school chemistry brains in the country would want to be chemists.

Bustling past each other in lab coats, safety goggles and funky purple latex gloves, they raced the clock at the University of Toronto to compete recently for the four prized spots on Canada's team at the world chemistry Olympics.

If ever there were a dream team of future chemists, surely they're it.

But no.

Only one of the 10 finalists plans to go into chemistry. Five hope to be doctors, three engineers and one is considering computer science.

It seems chemistry can't generate enough chemistry with young people, who are bypassing what they see as a theoretical field for careers where they feel they can help others – outside the lab.

"I'm going to miss chemistry, but what I really want to be is a pediatrician," says Connie Zhao, a Grade 11 student at University of Toronto Schools. She is one of the four heading to Cambridge, England, next month.

It's the same with physics.

While more Canadians are going to university, a shrinking proportion are choosing the seemingly research-based "natural sciences" – chemistry, math, physics, computer science – in favour of the prestige and practical cachet of medicine and jobs on the "bio" frontier of coding genes and probing cells.

Ottawa and Queen's Park fear the trend could short-change the economy by grooming fewer researchers in these key fields, so government and universities are reaching out to teens to jazz up the research scientist's image and make natural sciences more appealing.

A recent report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development warned only 40 per cent of top high school science students around the world plan to work in science – "bad news" for countries that need science smarts to drive their economies.

Toronto lab assistant Jin Lee, a finalist last year, chose engineering science over chemistry because he'd be "able to help people more." The U of T student works at Sunnybrook hospital's ultrasound lab, where he says research into harnessing ultrasound energy to burn tumours appeals to his "goal of helping the world be a better place."

As Zhao's classmate, Jason Kwok, checked the clock and jotted down numbers, he admitted "chemistry is fun, and it's a big part of how everything in the world works."

But he's going into neuroscience.

"It's a concern, because we live in a technical world where many of the issues we need to tackle will call on physics and chemistry to solve," said Isabelle Blain, vice-president of research for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, which hands out $1 billion in research grants a year. She believes Canada must generate more brain power in these fields to tackle everything from climate change to energy to the environment.

Blain said part of the problem is how we teach science – a shortage of science teachers means schools often press non-science types into service – and the outdated image of scientists as the geeky loners.

"Why don't smart kids go into science? It doesn't sound sexy," said Roland Andersson, executive director of the Chemical Institute of Canada. "But the jobs are there, the salaries are there – chemists make huge money in industry – and who do you think is working on the battery technology for new cars?"

Professor Scott Mabury is chair of chemistry at the U of T, which he says has room for 1,000 more students a year, if only he could attract them. With new $10 million labs that foster hands-on group work, his department is trying to turn dabblers into chemistry converts.

The U of T's physics department, which had the smallest first-year class this year in nearly a decade, now calls labs "practicals," to promote the link to the real world.