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Training and Deploying STEM Professionals in Panem
Was just about to post a comment to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kawuli's great post on District 9, which is chock full of details about modern agriculture and her headcanon, when I realized that I had a long digression that I should probably put somewhere I can find again.
kawuli noted, "Which means that District 9 probably has a few scattered crop-production centers with something like 10 people responsible for growing hundreds of square miles/kilometers of row crops, probably with zones for various (rotations of) cereals/legume field crops and some seed-production and research areas (with visiting scientists/geneticists from 3)." I definitely agree with the idea that there are some scientists from Three who get to travel occasionally as a part of their work, and think this can actually have some funny wrinkles in culture among D3's scientist class.
In my hc, I figure that all higher education in Panem takes place at the University of Panem, because all other colleges and universities were subsumed into the state university or shut down when the Capitol came to power, in the aftermath of the Dark Days, if not before. The UofP has satellite campuses around the Capitol and in certain of the inner districts. All students in Three identified in testing the 'alpha' strata (generally, the top 2-3%) are tracked for training at the Three campus of the UofP (commonly referred to as the National Science Academy).
I figure that, like a lot of the industries we see in Panem, STEM research and manufacture are controlled by the Capitol. They pick which firms get contracts (probably with plenty of within-Capitol graft), what to manufacture, and what areas of research (pure and practical) should be funded. There's very little independent industry left in Three (the Capitol can't risk Three becoming an economic power in its own right).
Because of these limitations there's limited opportunity for even the best and brightest, so when you show up for your first day at the academy, your classmates are also your competition for the plum firms and assignments. I think, to the degree that a student wants to see what lies beyond Three's fenced-in city, the student should think carefully about what specialty s/he wants to try for. Some of this is out of the student's control; there are a certain number of geopetrolium engineers that are going to be needed, and it doesn't matter that you don't want to be sent to freeze your *#$% off in Five for a few weeks in the dead of winter. But working hard to be at the top of your class in, say, computer engineering, lessens the likelihood of that happening.
As with a lot of other things in Panem, I think the Capitol privileges control over efficiency in the matter of Threes working outside of their district, and so visits are probably much less frequent than they should be, which ends up with a lot of frustrated scientists and engineers not being allowed to know all of the context of a problem that they're working on, as well as frustrated factory workers, miners, etc. who have to make do with what arrives from Three, even if it's not optimally suited to their needs, or wasn't sufficiently empirically tested before it was deployed. There are also security issues with travel, so scientists whose rebellious leanings are exposed, or have family members who commit serious offenses are not going to be allowed to travel at all.
Not really related tokawuli's post but, while I'm yapping: I think all of the students the academy do significant cross-disciplinary training. Higher ed is usually about ever-greater specialization in certain narrow lines of research, but, if after the cataclysms, the wars, and the Dark Days, etc., there's a greatly depleted population, limited access to natural resources and a certain degree of lost research and technology, I suspect the Capitol (and perhaps even Three, before the Dark Days) thinks it's important for scientists to get used to working in interdisciplinary teams, where biologists, chemists, engineers, physicists, etc look at a problem from multiple perspectives. There are a limited number of individuals in Panem with the capacity to do scientific research and technological development (and probably, a limited number of positions the Capitol wants to fund, compared with the number of people they need to do the grunt work in factories--think number of Apple employees in Silicon Valley verses number of employees in parts manufacturing/assembly of Apple devices in China), and even fewer that one would regard as extraordinary/geniuses (the normal distribution of 'genius' as we're able to measure it--fourth standard deviation above the mean?--is something like .15%; I'm guessing that the academy will train all of the merely 'gifted' as well, which I think is around 2%). There also probably isn't a lot of time/money that is allowed to be devoted to pure research (and so those positions are coveted appointments that probably cap a lifetime of work). Working together and knowing more than one narrow area of science is probably critical.
So, in my hc, I have each student at the academy taking a range of 'foundational' courses, then being tracked into two general areas of study, based on interest, aptitude and the anticipated needs of the nation. For example, Beetee was tracked in computer engineering and electrical engineering, while Wiress was tracked in physics and mechanical engineering.1 There's a heavy emphasis on tracking students into at least one engineering discipline, because of the practicalities of applied research and development.
In addition to individual tracking, students at the academy are assigned to one of seven teams, which include students across the range of specialties, and work on projects together throughout the year. The approach is intended to get students used to working on cross-disciplinary issues straight off the bat, working with people at different developmental levels, and working in teams, generally, rather than holing up and working only on your own interests/assignments (strangely, there are a lot of alpha strata Threes with terrible social skills, who need structure to help them cope with the demands of teamwork. Shocking, I know!). The teams also wind up serving as the academy's own version of Hogwarts houses, with students living in their team dorm and tending to develop closer social relations with their teammates. They know, intellectually, that the differences are manufactured and artificial, but the system still works somehow, which is convenient but a little frightening.2
1Lumina was biology and genetic engineering. Eibhlin was chemistry and chemical engineering.
2 Lumina was indigo, Beetee was yellow, Wiress was orange and Eibhlin was blue (Yes, it's ROYGBIV)
kawuli's great post on District 9, which is chock full of details about modern agriculture and her headcanon, when I realized that I had a long digression that I should probably put somewhere I can find again.kawuli noted, "Which means that District 9 probably has a few scattered crop-production centers with something like 10 people responsible for growing hundreds of square miles/kilometers of row crops, probably with zones for various (rotations of) cereals/legume field crops and some seed-production and research areas (with visiting scientists/geneticists from 3)." I definitely agree with the idea that there are some scientists from Three who get to travel occasionally as a part of their work, and think this can actually have some funny wrinkles in culture among D3's scientist class. In my hc, I figure that all higher education in Panem takes place at the University of Panem, because all other colleges and universities were subsumed into the state university or shut down when the Capitol came to power, in the aftermath of the Dark Days, if not before. The UofP has satellite campuses around the Capitol and in certain of the inner districts. All students in Three identified in testing the 'alpha' strata (generally, the top 2-3%) are tracked for training at the Three campus of the UofP (commonly referred to as the National Science Academy).
I figure that, like a lot of the industries we see in Panem, STEM research and manufacture are controlled by the Capitol. They pick which firms get contracts (probably with plenty of within-Capitol graft), what to manufacture, and what areas of research (pure and practical) should be funded. There's very little independent industry left in Three (the Capitol can't risk Three becoming an economic power in its own right).
Because of these limitations there's limited opportunity for even the best and brightest, so when you show up for your first day at the academy, your classmates are also your competition for the plum firms and assignments. I think, to the degree that a student wants to see what lies beyond Three's fenced-in city, the student should think carefully about what specialty s/he wants to try for. Some of this is out of the student's control; there are a certain number of geopetrolium engineers that are going to be needed, and it doesn't matter that you don't want to be sent to freeze your *#$% off in Five for a few weeks in the dead of winter. But working hard to be at the top of your class in, say, computer engineering, lessens the likelihood of that happening.
As with a lot of other things in Panem, I think the Capitol privileges control over efficiency in the matter of Threes working outside of their district, and so visits are probably much less frequent than they should be, which ends up with a lot of frustrated scientists and engineers not being allowed to know all of the context of a problem that they're working on, as well as frustrated factory workers, miners, etc. who have to make do with what arrives from Three, even if it's not optimally suited to their needs, or wasn't sufficiently empirically tested before it was deployed. There are also security issues with travel, so scientists whose rebellious leanings are exposed, or have family members who commit serious offenses are not going to be allowed to travel at all.
Not really related to
kawuli's post but, while I'm yapping: I think all of the students the academy do significant cross-disciplinary training. Higher ed is usually about ever-greater specialization in certain narrow lines of research, but, if after the cataclysms, the wars, and the Dark Days, etc., there's a greatly depleted population, limited access to natural resources and a certain degree of lost research and technology, I suspect the Capitol (and perhaps even Three, before the Dark Days) thinks it's important for scientists to get used to working in interdisciplinary teams, where biologists, chemists, engineers, physicists, etc look at a problem from multiple perspectives. There are a limited number of individuals in Panem with the capacity to do scientific research and technological development (and probably, a limited number of positions the Capitol wants to fund, compared with the number of people they need to do the grunt work in factories--think number of Apple employees in Silicon Valley verses number of employees in parts manufacturing/assembly of Apple devices in China), and even fewer that one would regard as extraordinary/geniuses (the normal distribution of 'genius' as we're able to measure it--fourth standard deviation above the mean?--is something like .15%; I'm guessing that the academy will train all of the merely 'gifted' as well, which I think is around 2%). There also probably isn't a lot of time/money that is allowed to be devoted to pure research (and so those positions are coveted appointments that probably cap a lifetime of work). Working together and knowing more than one narrow area of science is probably critical.So, in my hc, I have each student at the academy taking a range of 'foundational' courses, then being tracked into two general areas of study, based on interest, aptitude and the anticipated needs of the nation. For example, Beetee was tracked in computer engineering and electrical engineering, while Wiress was tracked in physics and mechanical engineering.1 There's a heavy emphasis on tracking students into at least one engineering discipline, because of the practicalities of applied research and development.
In addition to individual tracking, students at the academy are assigned to one of seven teams, which include students across the range of specialties, and work on projects together throughout the year. The approach is intended to get students used to working on cross-disciplinary issues straight off the bat, working with people at different developmental levels, and working in teams, generally, rather than holing up and working only on your own interests/assignments (strangely, there are a lot of alpha strata Threes with terrible social skills, who need structure to help them cope with the demands of teamwork. Shocking, I know!). The teams also wind up serving as the academy's own version of Hogwarts houses, with students living in their team dorm and tending to develop closer social relations with their teammates. They know, intellectually, that the differences are manufactured and artificial, but the system still works somehow, which is convenient but a little frightening.2
1Lumina was biology and genetic engineering. Eibhlin was chemistry and chemical engineering.
2 Lumina was indigo, Beetee was yellow, Wiress was orange and Eibhlin was blue (Yes, it's ROYGBIV)
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Admissions to the academy are rolling; the youngest admission age is 12, but students are taken up through 18. Academy curriculum covers six years, though the last year is heavily weighted toward real-world projects that are more like internships than classes.
My hc about school in Three is that it's competency-based rather than age-based. Kids start mandatory school at four, and proceed based on their competency (as demonstrated in test results and teacher evals) subject by subject. For example, a ten-year-old could test at level four math, level six science and level five writing; instead of attending a fourth grade class based on her age, she'd go to the separate math, science, and writing classes that match her current ability (where there would be kids of a variety of ages, though most clustering around a 'typical' age for the class).
I also think that there's a heavy emphasis on math and science in the curriculum (lots of options for advanced math and a range of science courses at the 9-12 levels) , and a relative paucity of history, literature and other humanities (which, given the history is probably propaganda and the type of prose/poetry that can be read is tightly restricted, is probably just as well). The exception is music; kids routinely get exposed to music education (because of the scientific evidence of the usefulness of music in brain development). Fun fact: Beetee took keyboard lessons from a young age, and continued the classes through the academy (though those last few years it was mostly because a particularly intriguing woman on his team also took them ;) ).
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As with a lot of other things in Panem, I think the Capitol privileges control over efficiency
This is the #1 thing I try to keep in mind when I'm going "I wonder how [thing] works in Panem" and I completely agree on the disconnect between designers of stuff in Three and users of stuff in other districts.
OMG YOUR NATIONAL SCIENCE ACADEMY excuse me I need to flail for a second because:
I went to Caltech and it sounds like Panem's NSA is actually quite similar. Specifically:
-- all students take about a year and a half of core classes. At Caltech this includes biology, chemistry, math, physics (every single student has to take @(&%#$ing quantum mechanics, which is way less cool than it sounds), a science intro-elective, and some token humanities and social science classes so we can pretend to be well-rounded adults. Plus whatever classes for your major.
-- collaboration! This was encouraged, less explicitly that in your thing but mostly by the fact that a) every freshman and sophomore is taking a lot of the same classes (because core) and b) the problem sets are REALLY FREAKING HARD so for those of us who are not actual geniuses collaboration is the only way to get everything done and also occasionally sleep. This is facilitated by the House System.
-- Hogwarts-esque houses! When I first went in 2001 I did not know about Harry Potter and thus struggled to explain Caltech's House System. It is like Hogwarts, but since there's no Sorting Hat we had a weeklong "rotation" period. This let freshmen meet each house and each house meet the freshmen, after which there is a complicated and supersecret process that mostly works to get people assigned to houses that they like. Because strangely, there are a lot of
alpha strata Threes18-year-old nerds with terrible social skills, who need structure to help them cope with the demands of teamwork. (and also the demands of incredibly challenging coursework and etc.)OK that was a lot of only tangentially related information but in case you didn't know, there is totally a basis for what you are describing in modern-day USA. I think it's a great way to train scientists and engineers! (lol I have Feelings about academia and its occasional successes and myriad failures...don't get me started)
In more Panem-relevant comments: I think it's possible that a few exceptional students from other districts would get sent to Three to study and settle there--it'd be a shame to lose a potential genius just because she happens to live in D11--of course there's the control/efficiency thing there too but if they get pulled from their home district early and stay in Three afterwards I think it'd make sense.
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Ah, I had no idea! That's really awesome! I went to a very traditional liberal arts school for undergrad, so I have been shooting in the dark on this. I started with the question 'why does Beetee seem to know everything?' (other than the plot needs him to), and kind of went from there.
I did see you post about the house thing at Caltech, I think in the comments to one of
a) every freshman and sophomore is taking a lot of the same classes (because core) and b) the problem sets are REALLY FREAKING HARD so for those of us who are not actual geniuses collaboration is the only way to get everything done and also occasionally sleep.
Some of my choices about this were a little bit influenced by my experience in law school. The first year of law school is core. Most schools divide first year students up randomly into 'section'; each section takes the same 5-6 core classes together, so inevitably you get to know those students better. Typically, students break up in to smaller study groups within the section, to do similar collaborative work to tackle the material. But it's nothing like that level of collaboration. I didn't know that existed in the real world. ;)
Oh, BTW, I think I've only talked about this in chat with
but there's also a long tradition of pranking at the academy, usually teams trying to show off their superior skills. This is tolerated so long as the pranks don't permanently harm anything, cost money, or could be perceived to be statements of rebellion (eg, a team might reprogram the big quad message board to roll "Red Team Rules" all day or, as happened one year during Eib's time, dye all the mashed potatoes blue). (I lifted this directly from MIT; their students' pranks occasionally make the news on the east coast. Maybe Caltech has something similar?)
I think it's possible that a few exceptional students from other districts would get sent to Three to study and settle there--it'd be a shame to lose a potential genius just because she happens to live in D11--of course there's the control/efficiency thing there too but if they get pulled from their home district early and stay in Three afterwards I think it'd make sense.
I hadn't considered this as a possibility. This would definitely be a better use of human capital (though :O for the kids being ripped from their families never to return). I think I had assumed that the Capitol would be prejudiced (what's the chance of finding a genius in the coal mine?) or would think the risk involved in moving people was too great. OTOH, I think they do have to tolerate at least some movement (e.g., train crews from Six, Peacekeepers) or a lot of Capitol citizens are going to be assigned very unpleasant duties. For example, I also think that many members of the beta strata of Three are trained to for a 'medical corp' that does rotations in One, Two, Four and possibly Five, Six or Seven (else there has to be some kind of medical training school in the inner districts, and I'm not sure the Capital would find that a good use of resources for those districts... or maybe it is worth not allowing Threes to travel so much. IDK).
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AHAHAHAHAHA YES. See: The Great Rose Bowl Hoax, also changing the Hollywood sign to read "Caltech." There are occasional prank wars between MIT and Caltech (Caltech is better). Dabney (my house) got disowned by the Dabney family in the 70s after hanging a sign reading "Impeach Nixon" off the 9-story library before a Presidential visit.
The rule was basically as long as you leave a note saying it's a prank (and nobody gets hurt) it's fine.
I feel really strongly about the collaboration aspect--because no scientist works alone, despite pop culture depictions of lone geniuses. So it's better to collaborate! Similarly, Caltech tests are all take-home, and you're expected to abide by time limits and materials (many tests are open book. the worst tests are "open-everything unlimited time"). It actually works, in large part because between the collaboration, the houses, and long tradition, there's a culture where it's okay to fail but it's not okay to cheat. THIS IS HOW SCIENCE SHOULD WORK.
Sorry, that is not really Panem-relevant, but I tend to get on my high horse about it because the Caltech administration is messing up this unique culture and it makes me really sad so I yell at every opportunity.
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I figured it was more an apprenticeship type deal than like modern-day medical schools? So a couple promising kids a year from whatever district apprentice with the doctors in their district and are eventually let loose to practice on their own. Idk, I feel like the Capitol would not want to transport people semi-permanently or permanently to other districts? Like, train crews are probably at the station and the loading dock while supervised by Peacekeepers and that's it, and they're not in any one district for much time in a row, and Peacekeepers are fed more propaganda than anyone and probably selected for their loyalty, but I don't think you'd actually want to move people per se. Like, imagine telling a Two kid hey you're better than those outlying traitors, don't worry about their living conditions and then trying to tell that same kid hey actually we imported this outlying traitor to live in your district. Having medical staff from Three -- a district known for its rebellious tendencies -- see how the wealthier people in the nicer districts live is probably not such a safe idea, unless you plan to kill them after their rotation instead of return them to Three. Plus, it goes against the Capitol's whole divide and conquer mentality -- keep the districts separated and warring with each other. And, honestly, pretty much everyone in the districts is replaceable, so who cares if their medical care is not as good as it is in the Capitol.
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And I definitely think the train crews aren't allowed to interact much with district citizens, leaving presumably very loyal Peacekeepers as the only non-Capitol people to actually spend much time in other districts and return home afterwards.
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I think Two probably gets really excellent medical care, if only because the Capitol wants loyal Twos to feel valued and above the other district citizens (and with the number of retired Peacekeepers floating around, they are definitely aware of what other districts get). So, better equipment/drugs and better staff. In addition, a certain number of Peacekeepers probably train as medics so that their colleagues don't need to return to Two for anything but major injuries (getting treatment from the locals would be too likely to compromise their loyalty); that training would also require a better medical infrastructure. I don't think they have the topnotch cosmetic stuff like the Capitol, but I wouldn't think that general medical care is at all lacking.
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Yup! It's depressingly like medical care in underdeveloped countries: If you can pay/if you're in government, you get good treatment in-country, if you're really lucky you get medevaced to Paris or wherever for major stuff. Everyone else is lucky if they've got an understaffed health center somewhere in a 50-km radius. And that's without anyone actively trying to make things divisive!
And yeah, you would definitely want good PK medics, you're not sending Peacekeepers to Katniss's mom for any number of different reasons, from security to loyalty. And Two needs to feel special and well-cared for, so letting people die of things the Capitol could easily treat isn't going to fly.
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I hadn't thought of this; you make a really excellent point. There needs to be a medical infrastructure in Two to support essentially battlefield medical training. There have to be a lot of PKs, and the Capitol definitely thinks it's worth investing in them. Perhaps it is work running an independent medical college in Two, for training PK medics and at least a basic-level medical corps (probably not with all the bells and whistles of the Capitol, but miles better than Ms. Everdeen and her herbs) to serve the population.
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I definitely take your point. So much of how the Capitol forces Panem to function requires restricting information. The only problem I keep coming up against is that I think there's a higher level of medical services available in One, Two, and Four (at the very least, if not also the middle districts) than what we see in Twelve, because I think there have to be some rewards that come with loyalty (plus a need to not see all their slaves wiped out in one bad bout of flu), but I struggle with where the districts would get the resources to do proper medical training (I'm planning a longer post on population speculation).
Maybe, instead of personnel from Three, there are doctors in the Capitol rotating out to the districts? There doesn't seem to be any limit to how much the Capitol will show the districts about how opulent their life is, and there does have to be some level of work engaged in by most Capitol citizens. Perhaps taking a rotation in One or Two is the sort of thing that doctors in the Capitol have to go through, like the way the US medical system sends young doctors through interships?
I do think internships for the smartest kids in the career districts with the existing medical personnel in the districts are part of how this could work, I just... keep thinking that there needs to be more, or else the careers would be suffering a lot more than the Captiol might find profitable. Plus, medical training is just so crazy resource-intensive.
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