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U.S. News STEM Solutions
2015 STEM Index Shows Gender, Racial Gaps Widen (U.S. News & World Report)
 While the number of jobs, types of degrees granted and level of student interest in [STEM] fields continues to increase since 2000, the second-annual U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index shows that mutli-million dollar efforts by both the public and the private sectors have failed to close gender and racial gaps in STEM. The 2015 STEM Index, created with support from Raytheon, shows a slight uptick in STEM-related education and employment activity in the United States compared to last year. But the raw data show gaps between the men and women and between whites and minorities remain deeply entrenched -- and, in some cases, have even widened.
Lawmakers: Manufacturing Universities Will Help Boost U.S. Competitiveness (U.S. News & World Report)
Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) says when he visited Dogfish Brewery's bottling plant in his state last year, he was struck by the quiet and clean environment where eight members of a 24-person team worked a shift that required the ability to program computers, troubleshoot issues and monitor quality control. This is not the setting some of today's parents might envision, however, when they think of a manufacturer. They may recall the Shotz Brewery bottling factory from "Laverne & Shirley," the television show that debuted more than 30 years ago, and which Coons describes as noisy with hundreds of people performing menial and manual tasks, happiest when they could clock out for the day.
Mark E. Russell (VP of Engineering, Technology & Mission Assurance, Raytheon): It?s Time to Build a STEM Workforce as Diverse as America (U.S. News & World Report)
Erick Aponte was planning a career in business when his high school math teacher suggested a mentoring program that steers students toward [STEM]. Aponte agreed to the change and soon, he was hooked. He joined the robotics team at his high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Started doing homework with his new mentor, an engineer. Began researching top college engineering programs. And four years after entering college, with a degree in electrical engineering under his belt from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Aponte accepted ? you guessed it ? an engineering job at Raytheon, where he is now a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. 
Diversity in STEM
Facebook disappoints with new diversity numbers (Mashable)
Facebook has released new diversity data and the results are pretty disappointing. Despite hiring another 2,897 employees over the last 12 months, the company's overall ratio of male to female employees budged just 1%: 68% vs. 32% this May compared with 69% male vs. 31% female the same time last year, according to the diversity report released on Thursday. The report comes one year after the social network first attempted to be transparent about its gender inequality. Facebook, however made more progress, when it came to women in non-tech-related roles. In that area, the social network reported the percentage of women climbed from 47% to 52% ? a significant uptick, although Facebook does not break down how many employees are in each demographic category.
6 tech companies whose gay marriage policies were way ahead of the Supreme Court (Mashable)
Few technology companies needed to wait for the Supreme Court to approve gay marriage to put policies in place that are friendly to gay employees. In California, one of the most progressive states, gay partnerships are so long-standing that major tech companies even created affectionate nicknames for their gay employee affinity groups, like "Squeers" at Square and "Gayglers" at Google. For all the criticisms one might direct at Silicon Valley ? startups skirting regulations, pushing the limits of user privacy and showing lackluster results on employee diversity ? many of these businesses have been early and decisive in providing fair benefits to LGBT workers, setting a precedent for other corporations.
Maker Movement
IFTTT Adds a Channel for Makers (MAKE)
The most online popular service for connecting online services together and automating tasks using them, IFTTT, or ?If This Then That,? just got hooks into maker-hacked hardware. IFTTT started off as a way to connect online tools and services, triggering one from the other. For instance, you can have a ?recipe,? as IFTTT tasks are called, that automatically takes every new photo you post to Instagram and saves it to your Dropbox. If this: you post a photo. Then that: save it to Dropbox. It?s actually pretty powerful, and you can get a long way by using what, on the face of it, is a relatively simple rules engine. In the last year or so, however, the service has become even more powerful, because the site has moved to support not just pure online services, but also things.
Higher Education
Engineering academy to launch at Houston Community College (Houston Business Journal)
Texas A&M University will launch an engineering academy at Houston Community College?s Spring campus. California-based Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), which has a significant presence in Houston, donated $5 million to fund the co-enrollment engineering academy in Spring, as well as three others at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Alamo Colleges in San Antonio and El Centro College in Dallas. The program, known as the Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy, will allow students to complete their first two years of engineering coursework at the Houston campus. Unlike other transfer programs, the students will be enrolled in Texas A&M?s Dwight Look College of Engineering while attending the two-year college.
Coding
Livecoding.tv Is Twitch.tv For Coding (TechCrunch)
Livecoding.tv, a startup in Y Combinator?s current class, is launching today to help coders learn from their peers in real time. The way Livecoding works is pretty simple. Developers stream live video of themselves coding, and users watching can ask questions or give feedback. Since launching a beta in February, Livecoding has seen 40,000 people sign up across 162 countries. Users have streamed in a variety of spoken languages, including Portuguese, Russian, and German, and coding languages, including C#, Python, and PHP. Anyone who wants to stream about coding can do so, from expert coders to 11-year-old kids building their first Java game.
Coding for Liberty: On the Ground at Rand Paul?s Presidential Hackathon (re/code)
#HackForRand, the first-ever hackathon of Rand Paul?s presidential campaign, is running late. It is noon on Saturday, and everyone ? coders, press and staffers ? is getting restless. Restless enough that MSNBC?s Ronan Farrow spots an acoustic guitar leaning against a wall, and begins playing an impromptu sing-along a couple of feet away from a life-size Rand Paul cardboard cutout. The set list includes Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne. Campaign staff and press folks gather around to watch, but most of the hackathon participants stay put. They eased into the zone. It should be said up front that Rand Paul hates net neutrality.
STEM Jobs
Where Computer Science, Engineering And Math Majors Want To Work (TechCrunch)
If 17-year-old Google is at all worried that it?s losing its mojo, it should find some new data highly reassuring. According to a survey of 19,000 students across 340 universities around the world, Google is still their top choice when asked where they?d want to work. Their other top picks, in descending order: Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon. The survey was conducted by Piazza, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based class discussion platform used by students and teachers around the world. Started in 2009 by software developer Pooja Sankar while she was earning an MBA at Stanford, Piazza says its question-and-answer service is now used heavily by 30,000 educators and 1 million computer science, engineer, and math students across 1,000 universities in 60 countries.
Alaska
STEM program for rural students returns (News Miner)
Students learn in different ways. Sometimes a method that piques the interest of one student might bore someone else. Sometimes, all it takes to get a student interested in math is teaching the subject to them in the right context. That?s a big part of the idea behind the newest program offered by SERRC ? the Southeast Regional Resource Center. The program, called ANSWER 2.0, aims to get rural Alaska students interested in science and math by connecting it to the subsistence lifestyle and traditional Alaska Native culture. The name ANSWER, which stands for Alaska Native Student Enrichment Retreat, is a holdover of the program?s past.
New Jersey
Bill to Bolster Computer Science Education in NJ Goes to Governor's Desk (Bergen Dispatch)
Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Tim Eustace to bolster computer science education in New Jersey?s middle schools and high schools was approved 73-2 last week by the Assembly, giving it final legislative approval. The bill (A-3440) requires the State Board of Education to develop rigorous curriculum guidelines in computer science at the middle and high school levels that will be incorporated into the existing Technology and Science Core Curriculum Content Standards, where appropriate. The goal of the curriculum guidelines would be to prepare students to understand the nature of computer science and its place in the modern world.. |
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 STEMconnector?
New Science Techbook From Discovery Education Built To Next Generation Science Standards Now Available For K-12 Classrooms
 Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms nationwide, today announced its new Discovery Education Science Techbook aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is now available for classroom use. Designed specifically to help teachers transition to the NGSS framework, Discovery Education?s latest Techbook joins the company?s award-winning line of digital textbooks. The Science Techbook includes rich, standards-aligned content such as video, audio, text, interactives with hands-on activities, and virtual labs that help educators differentiate instruction and provide a rich and engaging learning experience for students. Embedded formative assessment opportunities help educators monitor student progress, and like all Discovery Education digital textbooks, the Science Techbook works on any device and can be implemented in a variety of instructional settings. Discovery Education?s new NGSS-aligned Science Techbook fully supports the instructional shifts required by the new standards, embraces the philosophy of three-dimensional learning, and is designed to help educators adapt their classroom practice to meet the standards. In addition to content chosen to directly support the standards, the NGSS Model Lessons within the new Techbook reflect the interconnectedness of the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) and Cross-Cutting Concepts (CCC) and illustrate what these mean in practice for educators.
WIT Connect Awards $30K in Three ?Branded? Scholarships
 For the very first time, three branded scholarships were awarded at the recent 21st annual WIT Connect 2015 (06/11/15) to three deserving young women from Women in Technology?s (WIT?s) Girls Get IT and WIT on Campus programs. The companies providing the funds included CareerBuilder(R), Edge Solutions and NCR Corporation. WIT Connect Presented by Dell brings technology leaders together with up-and-coming professionals for an entertaining evening of networking and competitive bidding. Companies bid on ?time? with executives from top Georgia corporations. This year, over 100 senior executives from 50-plus companies participated and raised over $300K in support of WIT programs and initiatives.
Upcoming #STEMHealth Forum: Moving at the Speed of Healthcare: Intersection of Healthcare and the Healthcare Workforce
 On July 23, 2015, the University of Phoenix - College of Health Professions, Sodexo and STEMconnector will host its inaugural Moving at the Speed of Healthcare: Intersection of Healthcare and the Healthcare Workforce Forum at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Join industry executives, higher education leaders and workforce development leaders for a national forum on the future of healthcare delivery and the emerging healthcare workforce. This interactive event will feature panel discussions with leading healthcare experts and cross-industry discussions with healthcare associations. Also participating are executive leaders from industry and technology, legal and research communities to offer practical insight for building a pipeline of qualified healthcare talent to enhance emerging trends and build a strong healthcare workforce. |
