Never Too Early to Learn Engineering

NSPE — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:12:00 GMT

On September 26, Sesame Street launched its 42nd season with a new focus: science, technology, engineering, and math. The show will teach preschoolers about STEM to help prepare them for school in areas where the U.S. is falling behind other countries.

Throughout the season, the show’s loveable characters will use scientific inquiry on challenging problems—from experiments on “what worms like to squirm on best” to engineering a boat for Zoe’s pet rock—to get kids thinking like engineers and scientists.

While once students were lucky if they got any exposure to engineering before they hit college, this push to show younger and younger kids the excitement of engineering and technology reflects a growing national trend.

PE magazine examines this overall effort as well as one specific program in the October cover story, “Learning Liftoff.” The article tells about an extraordinary after-school program at Cora Kelly STEM School in Alexandria, Virginia, which complements the elementary school’s daytime science, technology, engineering, and math curriculum with fun hands-on activities for students, such as building bottle rockets and solar boats.

There are also some great multimedia resources to complement the article: an extra photo slideshow, videos, and a podcast.

Watch an ABC News segment about Sesame Street's venture into science, technology, engineering, and math.

STEM & the State of the Union

NSPE — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:37:00 GMT

During President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address, engineers might have been encouraged by some of the important words coming from the president’s mouth.

“The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations’.”

“And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.”

“We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.”

Sound familiar? STEM has become an enormously popular issue, and STEM education is one of NSPE’s top-five government relations priorities (along with qualifications-based selection, a comprehensive energy policy, infrastructure improvement, and Good Samaritan protection for engineers volunteering in a declared emergency).

And the president’s comments are especially fitting in light of a recent report from the National Research Council. The report predicts difficulties in establishing useful and effective K-12 engineering education standards and suggests that engineering education be folded into the standards that have already been established for science, technology, and math. The report also says federal agencies desiring improvement in STEM education should team up with foundations and professional engineering societies to develop core ideas for engineering education, instructional guidelines, research, and measuring the impact of possible reforms.

Obama can’t do it alone. Any desire to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math education must be backed either by acts of Congress or action at the state level.

There is recent precedent for STEM support on Capitol Hill. NSPE backed a move by four members of the most recent Congress to bolster engineering and STEM education. Congress also reauthorized the America COMPETES Act in December. The program funds investments in science and engineering research and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education from kindergarten to the postdoctoral level.

And an early indication of the new Congress’s views on STEM could surface at the upcoming “Diversity and Inclusion Fuels Innovation in STEM Capitol Hill Day.” During this April 14 event, which NSPE is cosponsoring with the Society of Women Engineers, leaders from both groups will discuss the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math education with Congressional leaders.

Recognition of the importance of STEM from the White House is an encouraging advancement on an NSPE priority. Like all promises in the State of the Union, however, it’s what happens after the speech that matters most.

NSPE Blog : STEM

Never Too Early to Learn Engineering

STEM & the State of the Union