Scientific literacy is now recognized to be crucial for our nation's progress in the 21st century.
The Carnegie Institution, a pre-eminent basic research organization, has fostered the development of scientific knowledge since the early 20th century. For many years, this meant the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the Institution's laboratories, located in Washington, DC and around the country.
In 1989, Maxine Singer, then president of Carnegie, founded First Light, a Saturday science school for children. This was the start of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE) whose goal is to encourage interest in science among school