Igniting and Sustaining STEM Education
As the workplace changes and becomes increasingly global, today's students must be educated with a 21st-century mindset. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills are no longer just "good skills" to have; they are increasingly vital to a 21st-century education—and students should begin cultivating these skills as early as possible.
Attracting students to the STEM disciplines is the first hurdle, and retaining student interest in these areas is the second. But once student interest in STEM-related fields is established, they will discover they are on a successful path not just for higher education, but for the workforce as well.
With the generous support of Learning.com, we’ve compiled this collection of stories from our archives, along with other relevant resources from around the web, to help you and your staff best answer this challenge in your own schools.
--The Editors
eSchool News articles
-
Momentum building on STEM education
As part of the Obama administration's emphasis on bringing education into the 21st century, it comes as no surprise that policy makers have trained their focus on STEM education as a way to give more students, especially girls and minorities, stronger global skills. And with this increased focus, some education experts say momentum is building for more recognition of the "T" and "E" in STEM--technology and engineering, two subjects often overlooked. [ Read More ] -
Students help program science computer game
Middle and high school students spent a little more than four weeks this summer at McKinley Technical High School in Washington, D.C., developing the programming and modeling for a prototype of an educational computer game called Immune Attack 3.0. [ Read More ] -
Let retiring 'Boomers' transform schools
An innovative and potentially groundbreaking approach to 21st-century education is placing baby boomer retirees from STEM fields into "learning teams" with educators in an attempt to give students knowledge from real-life science and math experts. [ Read More ] -
Carnegie Corporation: 'Do school differently'
Urging the nation to "do school differently," a new report recommends a set of concrete actions for federal, state, and local education leaders to take to transform math and science instruction and bring the United States back to the forefront of global competition. [ Read More ] -
Open-source tool to boost STEM graduates
State and local education officials have a new tool to help them predict which investments will pay dividends as they try to boost the number of college graduates who major in STEM fields. [ Read More ] -
Science education in the spotlight
As schools prepare for science testing under No Child Left Behind, educators and science advocates are calling for renewed awareness of what many say is a national crisis in science education. [ Read More ] -
Wanted: More Hispanics in STEM fields
In what is becoming a national trend, leading businesses and education groups are launching new initiatives aimed at increasing the number of minorities—and Hispanics in particular—in STEM fields. [ Read More ] -
U.S. educators seek new ideas abroad
With increasing anxiety, advocates of American education have been looking at other countries around the world and asking: What do they know that we don't know? [ Read More ] -
Summit: Save STEM or watch America fail
Two years after a report called "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" warned that the United States is falling behind in math and science education, endangering America's competitiveness in the global economy, education leaders, lawmakers, and cabinet members met for a national summit in Washington, D.C., to discuss what progress—if any—has been made in closing the gap. Their verdict: The U.S. needs to make a greater investment in critical math, science, and research programs for these efforts to succeed. [ Read More ] -
Robots tackle core of STEM education
As pressure mounts to educate today's students in the STEM disciplines to ensure that America remains a global leader in innovation, educators from coast to coast have been busy retooling programs to make mastering such complicated subjects less daunting. [ Read More ] -
NASA to focus on educational partnerships
Looking to attract more students to careers in technical disciplines, a group of educators, policy makers, students, and officials from NASA and other government agencies convened outside Washington, D.C., for a first-of-its-kind summit aimed at fostering sustainable educational partnerships. [ Read More ] -
Congress schooled on STEM teaching crisis
The lack of a systemic approach to recruiting, preparing, and retaining teachers in STEM-related disciplines has contributed to a shortage of highly qualified instructors in these fields—and this shortage, in turn, threatens the nation's ability to compete in a global economy: So said speakers at a recent briefing on Capitol Hill. [ Read More ]
Additional resources
Center for Excellence in STEM Education (The College of New Jersey)
http://www.center4stem.org
Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research
http://ojs.jstem.org/index.php?journal=JSTEM
National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices: STEM Education
http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.1f41d49be2d3d33eacdcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=b1da18bd4bae0110VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD
National Science Digital Library: STEM Education Resources
http://nsdl.org/collection/stem-education
Ohio STEM Learning Network
http://www.osln.org
STEM Education Coalition
http://www.stemedcoalition.org/default.aspx
STEM Equity Pipeline
http://www.stemequitypipeline.org/