Building a STEM Nation with "MissionSTEM"

While we all know that STEM fields need to be the focus of education reform these days, the statistics never get easier to take in. In 2009, more than 1.5 million U.S.citizens earned bachelor's degrees, but only a mere 4.4 percent were in engineering and just a small 1.1 percent were in the physical sciences.  Further, only 2.4 percent of the undergraduate degrees earned were in computer science and mathematics represented just 1.0 percent of degrees.

Not surprisingly, the National Science Foundation 's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics reported that a very small 0.8 percent of all bachelor's degrees earned in 2009 were by women in engineering and 0.2 percent of those earned were by African Americans.

For a country that wants to maintain status as a world leader in STEM, these numbers aren't just startling, they're unacceptable. Just recently, NASA took these statistics to heart and set out to change them. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that NASA wants "the nation's STEM degree programs to be more welcoming, supportive and accessible to all students."

With that in mind, NASA launched MissionSTEM.nasa.gov, a Web site created by NASA'a Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, to assist colleges and universities in strengthening their STEM programs.  The site connects NASA with its grantees, professional STEM organizations and other interested stakeholders in order to creatively address issues like recruitment and retention of diverse students.

Way to go, NASA! Emerging programs like this one and Change the Equation's iONFuture are steps in the right direction for the nation's STEM future. Combined with NGSS efforts and political legislation, the United States should be starting to move up the competitive STEM ladder.

So, where will we find the future of STEM? As Bolden says, "We will find it in every community, in every university and college and in students of every socio-economic background. The talent is out there. It always has been."

Creating programs like MissionSTEM is just the start. The rest of the battle involves making the commitment to encourage and support American students to pursue their STEM dreams. 

Swift Spotlight: M3600 Series

Say hello to the flagship model of the Swift educational line. The M3600 series continues Swift's tradition for innovation, quality and student-proof features while updating the well-known M3500 classic model series with a brand new design at the same time. If you're a high school teacher or advanced grade professor, this is the scope you want your students working with. 

The M3600 series includes cored and cordless versions, a built-in carrying handle and variable LED illumination. The M3602 models even have a built-in mechanical stage. The "student-proof" design of the scopes mean energy-efficient LED illumination, "one-touch" spring loaded stage clips and proper handling for you. If you haven't already considered adding a Swift microscope to your classroom, start with one from the M3600 series.

Get more information here.

Prof. Shares $2.6M Grant to Gauge Success

A public policy professor was awarded a $2.6 million grant this week to help lead a research team testing the success and effectiveness of Advanced Placement high school science courses.

Director of GW's public policy program Dylan Conger will impose a four year study thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation to figure out how effective courses designed to prepare college-ready scientists are.

This is the first study of inquiry-based science learning and College Board, who administers the AP exams, couldn't be more excited. Just recently, College Board revised both its chemistry and biology offerings to test deeper knowledge of topics. Conger will work alongside researchers from the University of Washington and the nonprofit SRI International throughout the study.

Including over 4,000 students in 40 high schools, the study will track students' progress in the AP class and evaluate if the class affects the students' college and career performance in the long run. Conger, like many other advocates of advancing STEM education, believes that tracking the success of AP science courses is critical to understanding U.S. students' progress in technical learning.

Looks like this could be a good first step in helping the country compete globally in STEM fields. Learn more.

Community Colleges Crucial for New Scientists

It's been regurgitated more times than you can count the past few years: the United States needs to grow and diversify it's STEM workforce if it wants to remain competitive with other countries and the new global economy. Something I bet you haven't heard, however, is that community colleges are starting to become more and more important in this process. 

The stats say that more than 50 percent of lower-income and racial-minority students, along with 40 percent of all students, start off at community college. Of all these students, a mere 10 percent even consider a pathway in STEM. And usually, the students that do picture themselves in a STEM field initially change their minds as their studies progress.

The numbers get worse when you look at women. Of the 500,000 associate's degrees earned each year by women at community college's, a depressing five percent are in STEM fields.

Since finances are so important to a number of today's students, community colleges have the flexibility the budget-savvy student needs. The problem: while enrollment at community colleges is up, it's in large part due to one-year technical training programs. Not enough students are transferring to universities to obtain four-year degrees (what you need to get a job in the high-demand STEM fields).

So, how do we get get students to transfer to four-year universities after finishing up at a community college? That's were it gets tough...right now alignment between community colleges and four-year universities is the exception rather than the rule. Frequently, promising future scientists leave their major because certain credits don't transfer or because they don't feel invited into the science community at the university they're looking at. Alignment efforts couple with proper advising can change this!

Read some of Becky Wai-Ling Packard's commentary on the subject.