Elementary schools: $25K gift to make science cool

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July 5, 2007

Neil Fater

The Deshpande family of Andover wants youth to see that engineering can be as cool as playing for the Red Sox. The family has donated $25,000 to help that happen.

The gift will allow all Andover elementary schools to teach a lauded, hands-on science curriculum developed by the Museum of Science in Boston. The lessons | part of the museum's Engineering is Elementary program | are meant to make children into problem-solvers excited about science and technology.

"They've made it very practical and very easy to understand," said Desh Deshpande, who, with his wife Jaishree, donated the money. "Kids always say, 'Why do we have to learn all this stuff? It doesn't relate to anything in real life.' The program has done a good job of showing (why) ... it solves real problems."

As they progress in the program, students learn to build things such as windmills and alarms. The way the Museum of Science educators see it, all kids are engineers anyway, since they love to take things apart and put them back together.

"The best thing you can do is get kids to be excited when they are little," said Deshpande, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks Inc.

He hopes the program turns students on to the value of engineering. If America is to maintain its standard of living, it needs to stay at the forefront of technology and development, he said.

"You see a lot of TV shows on CSI | it's fashionable. And sports | every kid thinks they will play for the Red Sox. We lose sight that the economy needs superstars in science and technology. And we have them," said Deshpande. "We just need to somehow make it fashionable."

The Deshpandes saw the science program as one way to help that happen | as did the private Andover Coalition for Education.

During the last school year, ACE worked with parent-teacher organizations at each of the elementary schools to try to raise the $25,000 needed to add the new program. Looking to finish the fundraising, ACE board member Madhu Sridhar called on her friend Jaishree Deshpande.

The Deshpandes' two sons attended Andover's South Elementary School before going on to Pike School, Phillips Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jaishree Deshpande, who is traveling and was unavailable for comment early this week, is on the board of directors of the Museum of Science. Sridhar figured the program was right up Jaishree Deshpande's alley, and sent her an e-mail asking for support.

"Literally within 30 seconds I got the e-mail that she would fund it," said Sridhar. In fact, Jaishree Deshpande said the family would fund all of it. "They are very, very generous people," said Sridhar.

Tina Girdwood, ACE president, said the PTOs can use the money they had raised for other important programs.

"The children are the ultimate beneficiaries of all this," said Sridhar. "They need that skill set. They need it badly. They need it right at the beginning."

Unlike many PTO programs, which might target just one school, or last for one year, the Deshpandes' gift will establish a program that affects all elementary schools and will last for years.

"It's not that the money that's invested now is for one year. It's for the future," said Sridhar. "It's not based on what part of the town you live in and whether you have the money."

The elementary program will feed into the middle schools, which have been adding engineering labs.

"Innovation is relevant at all levels," said Desh Deshpande. "There are always problems and you need to come up with innovative solutions."

While the $25,000 donation is being described as a wonderful boon to Andover, it is a small piece of the educational philanthropy offered by the Deshpandes. Sridhar said they started a midday meal program for hungry schoolchildren in India.

They also donated $20 million to establish the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The center encourages research and collaboration among entrepreneurs, fledgling companies and MIT students, alumni and faculty.

Deshpande said each of his family's charitable efforts is geared toward supporting new solutions.

"It's all innovation. How can you innovate and do things differently so you can make it a better world?" he said.