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STEM Competitions
FIRST Robotics Championship at America?s Center Apr. 25-26 [VIDEO] (KTVI)
Thousands of school children have descended upon St. Louis this week for a high-stakes robotics competition. The kids are part of a program aimed at getting youth engaged in science and technology. Nearly 40,000 young, future innovators are gathering Thursday morning at the America?s Center for the 2015 FIRST Robotics Championship. Organizers are calling the event the ?Ultimate Sport for the Mind? competition. These bright minds have traveled from more than 30 countries to participate. All grade levels from kindergarten to high school seniors are involved. The students have been working for the last six weeks to design, build and program robots to compete against other teams.
Disney Challenges Kids To Use Their Best STEAM Skills To Imagine The Future (Huffington Post)
All aboard! In anticipation of their upcoming movie "Tomorrowland," the Magic Kingdom has teamed up with Xprize to launch Disney?s Create Tomorrowland - Xprize Challenge. The competition asks kids ages 8-17 to harness their best STEAM skills (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) to create an idea for a new invention that may exist in the future. Contestants are then challenged to present this imagined idea and explain the impact their innovation would have.
Student Teams from Puerto Rico, Russia Take Top Spots at the 2015 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge (NASA)
University Gardens High School of San Juan, Puerto Rico, won first place in the high school division of the 2015 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge, while an International Space Education Institute team of Moscow, Russia, won the college division of the event, held April 17-18, in Huntsville, Alabama. At the end of the two-day challenge, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, both teams posted the fastest vehicle assembly and race times in their divisions, with the fewest on-course penalties. In addition to taking home the winning trophies, both first-place teams also received a cash prize of $3,000, courtesy of corporate sponsor, The Boeing Company.
MoonBots 2015 Challenge Begins with Call for Explorers, Adventurers and Dreamers (GeekDad)
Today marks the launch of the 2015 MOONBOTS Challenge, an international competition sponsored by XPRIZE and Google that invites kids to design, create and program their own lunar rover. Often referred to as the ?Google Lunar XPRIZE for Kids,? this year?s MOONBOTS Challenge is offering an extraordinary Grand Prize: a trip to Japan to meet the actual Google Lunar XPRIZE teams competing for a $30 million prize purse to land a privately funded robot on the moon. 
Diversity in STEM
Congress Probes Possible Bias against Women in U.S. Science Funding (Scientific American)
At the request of three Congresswomen the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched an investigation into whether gender bias is influencing the awarding of research grants, which would be illegal under US law. There is evidence of gender disparity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) research at US universities and 4 year colleges?women hold only 35% of all tenured and tenure-track positions and 17% of full professor positions in Stem fields. This discrepancy has motivated numerous studies to discover factors that could be holding women back.
Five Ways Obama?s TechHire Initiative Will Drive Diversity in the Industry (re/code)
President Obama has been vocal about the role that technology will play in creating greater opportunities for all Americans. Private companies like LaunchCode have already been helping people achieve the American Dream by offering upward mobility through technology. The president?s latest initiative on this front, TechHire, dedicates $100 million to train people without technical skills for in-demand, well-paying technical jobs, and match them with employers that have ?urgent? needs in fields like cyber security, software development and coding. Perhaps its biggest contribution will come in the form of some much-needed diversity in the industry.
No Boys Allowed: Tackling the Coding Gender Gap (U.S. News & World Report)
Saint Jean Baptiste High School senior Laura Willson, 17, is putting together a petition in support of adding a computer science class to the course offerings at the New York City school. After attending a 2013 summer immersion program run by the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code at the Manhattan headquarters of IAC, a media and Internet company, Willson co-founded a Girls Who Code club at her school. Established in 2012 by Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code aims to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering fields by teaching girls computing skills and encouraging them to pursue opportunities in computer science.
Reports
From College to Jobs: Making Sense of Labor Market Returns to Higher Education (Aspen Institute)
This report summarizes key findings from recent research on links between higher education and the workforce. Featuring eight brief papers from leading education and workforce experts from around the country, the report offers practical advice for institutional leaders, policymakers, students and their advisers about how to use the increasingly available information on the economic value of higher education. Specifically, the authors? papers and the opening summary explore what various audiences can learn from emerging evidence about: variations in labor market outcomes by program and institution; the value of degrees to jobs both in and out of fields studied..
How the States Stack Up on Measures of Their Research Strength (The Chronicle)
The ?America?s Knowledge Economy: A State-by-State Review? report by Council of State Governments and Elsevier.. compares each state?s research strength, using measures such as research output and knowledge transfer. It seeks to determine which states have advantages in research, and how they can capitalize on those advantages to spur economic growth. (The vision of colleges as engines of economic transformation has been an attractive one, even if the reality is much more complicated.) The report says that states with strong research activity are able to attract, expand, and retain innovative companies and high-wage jobs. Its goal is to inform discussions about money for research and how states? policy goals line up with the strengths of their research institutions.
Higher Education
Fenves officially named next UT-Austin president (Houston Chronicle)
University of Texas at Austin Provost Greg Fenves will become the flagship's next president on June 3, bringing to an end the tenure of Bill Powers after nine groundbreaking, yet often tumultuous, years. Fenves, 58, said years of infighting between some regents, system officials and flagship staff did not scare him away from the position because of the university's good reputation, its dedicated faculty and an alumni network he called "unique" in United States' higher education. An engineer and long-time academic, Fenves said he was committed to working with every regent, including those who did not support his naming as president.
Utah
Science ed meeting turns to chaos (Spectrum)
Depopulationism, abortion, political agendas, evolution, climate change and short notice of planned meetings were just a few of the things derailing a public input session in a packed Washington County School District board room Thursday. The meeting ? organized by the Utah State Office of Education ? was meant as a forum to discuss a Science and Engineering Education Standards proposal and for submitting input for changes. Richard Scott, science education specialist for the Utah State Office of Education, tried desperately to get the meeting back on track, defending his position as best he could from area parents angered by what they claimed were nothing more than Common Core standards being forced on them.
Virginia
People & Places: Virginia STEM scholarships go (mostly) to Fairfax County students (Fairfax Times)
Three students from Fairfax County are among five winners of Virginia?s 4th annual STEM Essay Contest for high school junior and senior girls. The Virginia Council on Women presented scholarship awards to the winners, who wrote about their vision for a future STEM career. First lady Dorothy McAuliffe and Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) hosted a reception for the awardees April 15 at the Executive Mansion in Richmond. ?Advancing STEM education across the commonwealth is a top priority of our administration?s efforts to build a new Virginia economy,? Dorothy McAuliffe said. |
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ASSET STEM Education(TM) Opens Third Round of STEM Scholarship Program Schools and Organizations Can Apply Now
 ASSET STEM Education (Achieving Student Success through Excellence in Teaching) today announced a third round of its STEM Scholarship Program. The program, launched in August 2014 in honor of ASSET?s 20th anniversary, provides hands-on STEM classroom materials and educator professional development to underfunded schools and educational organizations to advance student success and workforce readiness. The STEM Scholarship Program is supported by a $50,000 matching grant from The Hillman Foundation. ASSET hopes to raise $200,000 to award additional scholarships. Sponsors to date include Bayer Corporation, Dollar Bank Foundation, Donnelly-Boland and Associates, Mine Safety Appliances Company Charitable Foundation, PPG Industries Foundation, Range Resources, UPMC Health Plan and Westinghouse Electric Company.
Students From China, New Zealand, Singapore, And The United States Crowned Champions Of Vex Worlds 2015
 Over the weekend, more than 850 teams from 29 nations gathered at the Kentucky Exposition Center to compete with custom-built robots during three days of intense back-to-back matches. Teams sought to be crowned champions of VEX Worlds 2015, the culminating event of the season, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation. Teams from China, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States prevailed, taking home the highly coveted Championship Trophies for the VEX IQ Elementary & Middle School World Championships, the VEX Robotics Competition Middle & High School World Championships, and the VEX U World Championship.
Cisco Supports United Nations' Girls in ICT Day with Girls Power Tech Initiative to Inspire Youth to Create the Digital Jobs of Tomorrow
 Cisco today announced the launch of ?Girls Power Tech', a global mentoring initiative to support and complement the United Nations' ?Girls in ICT Day'. ?Girls Power Tech' is focused on encouraging girls and young women in more than 50 countries, and 80 Cisco offices, to discover opportunities opened by careers in information and communication technology (ICT). Girls ages 13-18 are invited to participate in Girls Power Tech mentoring opportunities with Cisco employees, allowing girls to make informed career choices about working in STEM. They will also experience Cisco technologies and meet with other Girls in ICT Day participants via Cisco TelePresence. Girls in ICT Day on April 23 is an annual day of activities organized by the International Telecommunications Union aimed at improving the understanding of careers in ICT amoung girls. Cisco has supported Girls in ICT since its inception in 2011. |
