So which comes first: a diverse economy or a diverse workforce?

Efforts to diversify Nevada's hospitality-based economy have included luring high-tech companies with high-paying jobs to the valley from California and Arizona. But development officials' efforts are hampered by the perception that the workforce here is not sophisticated enough to fill the positions.

"It's a chicken-or-egg thing," says physics professor John Farley. "If there are employers in need of scientists and engineers, then the people will do whatever they need to do to become qualified for those jobs. But the businesses won't come here in the first place unless there's some prospect of recruiting highly qualified individuals."

One way to attack the issue, Farley says, is to begin with incubation of the egg. Long before they enter the workforce, students are losing interest in rigorous mathematics and science studies, he says. "Students in elementary school think science is cool, in middle school they seem to get turned off by it, and then by high school it's usually too late," he says.

And that's a nationwide problem. When applying math skills to real-life tasks, U.S. high schoolers ranked below their counterparts in 20 of 29 industrialized nations, according to test results released in December by the Program for International Student Assessment. Eugene Hickok, U.S. deputy education secretary, said factors contributing to the below-average performance include too few qualified math teachers and not enough effort to engage students in math at an early age.

In creating UNLV's new Center for Mathematics and Science Education, Farley has teamed up with education faculty and local secondary educators. Their goal is to better prepare the next generation of students for what many hope will be the next incarnation of the Las Vegas economy.

"Whether Nevada will be a leader or a lagger (in the application of science and technology) will depend, in part, on the quality of math and science education that our children receive," Farley says.

"In the past it was assumed that prospective teachers would learn (teaching methods) in education courses and their science content through their science courses," explains Farley. "But that never effectively prepared them to integrate that knowledge.

"Teachers teach the way they were taught in the subject area. If they learned from someone who just stood at the blackboard and lectured at them, then that's what they'll turn around and do."

Through the center, UNLV faculty hope to provide a series of intensive workshops for current teachers that combine science content with effective teaching methods. The center also is working with the statefunded Regional Professional Development Program to offer in-service courses to local middle school and high school teachers. UNLV's participation means that teachers can fulfill their professional development requirements while earning credits toward a master's degree in science education.

The center is one example of how UNLV is facilitating the collaboration needed to address community needs. "We're hoping that this collaboration between the (Education and Sciences) colleges will set a national model in preparing teachers with pedagogical content knowledge," says Loretta Asay, curriculum coordinator for K-12 science and health at the Clark County School District. "We've always hoped that the science and math faculty would learn more from the education faculty about what is effective (for teaching in the field). Additionally, the collaboration will help the education faculty ground their work in reality."

The center also is improving the way various researchers on campus can partner with the school district. Previously, research projects between the district and faculty in UNLV's various colleges have been scattershot, Asay says. "This center will allow all of us to go to one place for help. Efforts that are now duplicated and sometimes disjointed can be eliminated or streamlined. We also think that by increasing the level of collaborative research, we could implement our results on a national level and bring additional answers, help, and grant dollars to Southern Nevada."

Attracting those dollars requires UNLV to demonstrate that it has both the expertise and the institutional support to advance teaching methods, says Kent Crippen, professor of curriculum and instruction.

"This center is about UNLV raising its institutional profile by demonstrating that this center is built on campus and community collaboration and expertise, all with the goal of improving science education in our valley," says Crippen, who also serves as associate director of the center. "It's only natural for us to get all the math and science content experts together under one umbrella to address the bigger systemic issues in the field."

So, will the center help hatch the skilled workforce needed to diversify Southern Nevada's economy?

Center officials say they're not too worried about that prospect. "Society in general will always benefit from an increased awareness of math and science among its citizens," says Farley. "There's never any downside to that."