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Diversity in STEM
Geek Girls: Amazing Women in STEM, Lorena Fimbres (SkilledUp)
This is our final installment of the series, Geek Girls: Amazing Women in STEM. Today�s profile features Lorena Fimbres. Lorena Fimbres is the vice president and chief business development officer for STEMConnector, a consortium of organizations related to STEM fields and designed to link �all things STEM.� "It is all about building partnerships,� said Fimbres. �We need to work together and bring to the table the academic, corporate and government sectors so that we can make things happen.� As part of her role, Fimbres connects private companies, nonprofits, professional societies, research and policy organizations, government and academic institutions.
Biased Teachers Dissuade Girls From STEM Courses, Study Says (Education Week)
A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, released in February, has shown that teacher bias early in a girl's education can have significant effects on her later success in STEM subjects, including whether or not she chooses to take classes in those subjects in high school. The study followed roughly 3,000 Tel Aviv students from 5th grade through their graduation from high school. Researchers compared students' results on national blind-graded exams in 5th grade to their results a year later on similar internal exams that were not blind-graded. 
Industry
Chevron's Fuel Your School generates $500,000 for STEM programs (The Times-Picayune)
Chevron USA Inc. recently announced that its 2014 Fuel Your School program generated $500,000 in 10 parishes in southern Louisiana, helping to fund 440 local public school classroom projects, 130 of which support [STEM] curriculum, and impacting 39,063 students. Through Chevron's Fuel Your School program, teachers at 221 public schools in the 10 parishes received valuable classroom resources. Students from the Martin Behrman Charter Elementary School received Samsung Galaxy Tabs. The technology will help increase reading levels and math skills. Chevron supports STEM initiatives to help students develop skills they will need to succeed in jobs of the future.
Uber engineers have new offices in Seattle (USA Today)
Uber joins a growing list of top San Francisco-based tech companies establishing engineering footholds in Seattle. The ride-hailing giant, now valued at $40 billion, is looking to quickly hire up to 50 engineers, according to Uber's Tim Prouty, whose blog post Tuesday on the University of Washington's site notes that the offices should be up and running by April. "At Uber one of my primary goals will be to grow the team very rapidly from zero to 50-plus people this year, so we'll be working hard to make a splash in the Seattle technology community over the next few months," Prouty writes.
EdTech
Udacity Kicks Off Enrollment For Its Swift-Focused iOS Developer �Nanodegree� (TechCrunch)
If you�re looking for a way to gain the skills necessary to get a gig developing for iPhone and iPad, but unwilling to commit to a full-time college or university schedule, Udacity might have the answer. The online education platform debuted something called a �nanodegree� last year, and enrollment for the iOS developer edition of the same just opened to applicants today. Enrollment is open to anyone willing to spend $200 per month to participate (with a one-week free trial included) and closes at the end of March 10. The program requires at least 10 hours per week of student time, and can stretch between six and nine months depending on your schedule.
Higher Education
Keck Grant Focuses on STEM Education (Cal State-Long Beach)
Cal State Long Beach will lead a two-year project to ease the transition of future teachers into the classroom thanks to a $200,000 grant awarded to the California State University (CSU) system by the W.M. Keck Foundation. The project, �Developing Engaging and Effective Practice: Advancing STEM Education via University-Community Collaborations� will strengthen STEM teaching and learning by fostering partnerships between local after-school programs and informal science education institutions. �There is still a need for good, passionate science teachers, but we need to give them more authentic and more positive experiences before they walk into a classroom for the first time,� said CSULB science education associate professor James Kisiel, who serves as the lead for the grant.
STEM Competitions
DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals Will Have 25 Teams, and a Surprise Task (IEEE Spectrum)
The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) just got bigger, more awesome, and more international. DARPA has just announced that 14 new teams from seven different countries have qualified to participate in the DRC Finals. These 14 teams join the 11 teams previously qualified during the DRC Trials. This means a total of 25 teams will compete in what is possibly the most anticipated robotics event ever. Twenty five robots are a lot of robots. They will converge to the simulated disaster zone that DARPA will set up in Pomona, Calif., where the DRC Finals will take place in June.
Reports
First Ever Free Consumer Reports-Style Review of Instructional Materials Released (EdReports)
EdReports.org, a new nonprofit that reviews instructional materials to determine alignment to Common Core standards, today announced the results of its first round of reviews. Their findings revealed that most of the K-8 mathematics instructional materials reviewed do not meet their criteria for alignment to the standards of the Common Core. "Both K-12 and higher education leaders have coalesced around the importance of higher standards, but these standards will only help students if teachers have classroom materials that are aligned and usable," said Eric Hirsch, EdReports.org's executive director.
Pennsylvania
Gov. Wolf visits Downingtown STEM Academy following his 2015-16 budget address (West Chester Daily Local)
Gov. Tom Wolf visited the STEM Academy Wednesday following his 2015-16 budget address that supported increased school funding while cutting property taxes. Wolf talked with students, teachers and administrators of the Downingtown Area School District during a tour of the school. Wolf said the STEM Academy shows that it is more than needed funding; it is about innovation, creativity and imagination in schools. �What we saw today was really the future of Pennsylvania,� Wolf said after his tour of the school ranked number one in the state in 2013 and 2014 by the Pennsylvania School Performance Profile.
Michigan
Gov. Rick Snyder presents Connect Award to Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance STEM Impact Initiative (MLive)
Gov. Rick Snyder has recognized the efforts of business and education leaders in Saginaw, Bay, Midland, Isabella and Gratiot counties by presenting the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance STEM Impact Initiative with the Connect Award. Snyder presented the award Tuesday, March 3, the final day of the Governor's Economic Development and Education Summit in Detroit. It was one of three awards given by the governor during the summit. It was his first-ever combined summit on education and the economy.
STEM Food & Ag
UDC a leader in urban gardening research (ElevationDC)
.jpg) On a January morning, Mchezaji �Che� Axum stepped around iced-over puddles to reach a row of heated hoop houses where Asian mustard greens still leafed knee-high. Here at the Muirkirk Research Farm run by the University of the District of Columbia, these tightly spaced greens are grown for optimal space, taste � these were as spicy as horseradish � and nutrition. �One of the things I�m really concentrated on is nutrient density of crops,� says Axum, who runs the farm in Beltsville, Md., as director of the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education in the College of Agriculture Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) at UDC.
Men-Only Rule on 114-Year-Old Farm Coming to End (Bloomberg)
The Longleys have been in the farming business for four generations in Aledo, Illinois. During that time -- 114 years in all -- they�ve never had a woman running their corn and soybean operation. Until now. John Longley is preparing to turn the reins over to his 26-year-old daughter, Kate Danner. �Almost anyone can run the tractor,� said Danner, who graduated from Iowa State in 2012 with degrees in agronomy, farm management and environmental studies. At a time when a third of U.S. farmers are 65 or older and fewer young people are joining them, more women are stepping in to help fill the void, lured by surging agricultural profit and technological advances that have reduced the industry�s reliance on manual labor. |
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Today's 100 Diverse Leader in STEM: Sanjay Verma- Divisional Vice President for Global Services of PTC
 "Corporations need to provide employee, financial and program support to create more STEM careers. PTC has created its �Engineer of the Future� program to address this for itself, for our 28,000 customers and for the community. We have encouraged our 6,000 employees to get involved and invest $1.0 Million per year in FIRST. In our Engineer of the Future case, we have created a STEM Certificate program. This provides software, curriculum, technical support and hands on modules to help teachers adopt STEM in the classroom. The good news is that benchmarks have indicated the content is world class. And the best part of it is the program is free to students, teachers and schools. We feel we will get paid at the back-end when these students go work for our customers."
Join the Advancing a Jobs-Driven Economy Book Town Hall on 3/10!
 Please join us on a Google+ Hangout On-Air as we feature contributors to Advancing a Jobs-Driven Economy: Higher Education and Business Partnerships Lead the Way. This book focuses on the employer-driven partnerships demanded by 21st century STEM education and workforce development. On this virtual town hall, education and non-profit thought leaders will share proven models that support the necessary STEM education and workforce development revolution and a call to action to spearhead this revolution.?
At X-STEM Meet the 15-Year-Old Innovator Who is Making STEM Come Alive for Students!
 Although just 15 years old, Vanessa Thompson is already making her mark through her grassroots effort to make math and science more engaging for young students. At the X-STEM Extreme Symposium this April experience how her StorybookMath.org website, honored for excellence by the U.S. Congress, is helping math concepts come alive through exciting, original video stories and storybook characters! Register NOW for X-STEM as tickets are going fast for this all-day event, which brings you up close with some of the most exciting visionaries in STEM! |
