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Reports
Majority of Engineers Believe They Will Become Millionaires, Study Says (re/code)
Engineers are pretty stoked, says a recent survey commissioned by an engineer-services company. In a survey of 1,000 software developers this March, the Seattle-based code-automation company Chef found some interesting results: 69% of engineers say their role is �recession-proof"; 91% say they feel they are the �most valued� employees at their company; and 56% believe they will become millionaires at some point. Chef CEO Barry Crist said he was happily surprised with the results. �I was working as a pool cleaner in the �80s, and when I quit to work for Apple, I had people at the shop who were genuinely concerned about me � and these are pool cleaners,� he said. �Today, being a software developer, it�s not apologetic. They�re becoming the power class.� 
EEWeek
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell's Message on EE Week (National Environmental Education Week)
Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewell, reminds us all during National EE Week of the importance of the outdoors as an ideal environmental education classroom--one without walls. Take time to hear one of our nation's great land stewards remind us of the importance to connect young people to the outdoors, during EE Week and all year long. Click the link to check out the Secretary's #EEWeek Video Message.
Higher Education
Tillerson Family Commits $5 Million to Cockrell School of Engineering, Bolsters Engineering Education and Research Center (UT-Austin)
Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, and his wife, Renda, have made a personal pledge of $5 million to support the Engineering Education and Research Center (EERC), a 430,000-square-foot facility that will transform the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. When completed in 2017, the EERC will house advanced teaching, research and student project spaces that will foster multidisciplinary collaboration among students and researchers in the Cockrell School�s seven departments and among thought leaders across the UT Austin campus.
STEM standards training for informal educators, tutors, community members (Oak Ridge Today)
Oak Ridge Schools is partnering with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the Children's Museum, and American Museum of Science and Energy to do a STEM standards training for informal educators, tutors, and community members from 6-8 p.m. Monday, April 21, at the Children's Museum. �This training will be beneficial to those who are interested in learning more about helping students advance their skills in [STEM] and have been wondering what the Common Core and Science Standards are as well as how they can be applied to informal and after-school education programs."
Microsoft to announce partnership with UTSA (San Antonio Business Journal)
Microsoft Corp. is set to announce a new partnership with the University of Texas at San Antonio involving sustainable technology research. Details of the new partnership will be announced Wednesday, April 16, at 9 a.m. during a press conference at the UTSA main campus. Brian Janous, director of energy strategy for Microsoft, will be on hand for the announcement as well as UTSA President Ricardo Romo and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.
STEM Competitions
CNM students move on to national competition (Albuquerque Business First)
Nineteen Central New Mexico Community College students will be advancing to the National SkillsUSA Championships after winning gold medals in their competitions during the state SkillsUSA competition. In SkillsUSA, students work against the clock and each other, in contests aimed at showing proficiency in occupations such as electronics, computer-aided drafting, precision machining, medical assisting and culinary arts. The gold medal winners will travel to Kansas City, Mo., for the 50th annual SkillsUSA National Skills and Leadership Conference June 23-27.
Summer of STEM
Houston area students come together in STEM camps (UH Daily Cougar)
A partnership between the Colleges of Education and Natural Science and Mathematics will host three science, technology, engineering and mathematics camps for middle-school students at UH this summer. TeachHOUSTON will host the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp, the Bonnie J. Dunbar STEM Academy and the Cougar STEM Camp, which are responses to a growing need for middle-school STEM programs. The ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp is held annually for 54 students from grades six to eight.
Delaware
STEM education gets a boost (AP)
State officials are joining with the Dow chemical company and Junior Achievement to strengthen [STEM] instruction in Delaware's middle schools. Gov. Markell planned to join members of Delaware's STEM Council on Tuesday to announce a partnership with businesses to give middle school students more exposure to learning in the four STEM fields. The STEM Council was established as part of Delaware's Race to the Top education reform effort.
West Virginia
WVU, 2 other schools among STEM grant recipients (AP)
West Virginia University and two other institutions of higher learning in the state will share in a $2.5 million grant to attract, retain and graduate underrepresented students in so-called STEM studies. The five-year grant is from the National Science Foundation. It establishes a nine-university alliance to achieve the goal of attracting more minority students into STEM studies. Among the alliance schools in the state are West Virginia State University and Marshall University.
Maryland
Maryland colleges aren't making the grade in developing cyber talent (Baltimore Business Journal)
There are about 20 colleges in Maryland that offer degrees in computer science and information technology. Yet, those programs are failing to produce a viable workforce, says Homer Minnick, director of the Center for Cybersecurity at UMBC Training Centers. �Universities aren�t producing enough [talent], and the competition [for talent] is fierce,� Minnick said Monday during a roundtable discussion at Lockheed Martin�s Center for Cyber Excellence in Hanover. The event was hosted by the Ft. Meade Alliance.
New York
New York turns to teachers to create Common Core curriculum modules (Albany Business Review)
The New York state education department wants teachers to revamp the state's online curriculum resources for the Common Core learning standards. The state education department released a request for information on a proposal to create regional Common Core Institutes, where educators from school districts, BOCES or charter schools would work full-time to develop new online instructional materials for the 2015-16 academic year. Educators would serve as Common Core Institute Fellows during the 2014-15 academic year.
STEM Food & Ag
Are America's future farmers in the inner city? (BBC)
.jpg) Buena Park, California, is a sea of concrete. The closest thing to a farm here is Knott's Berry Farm, a popular amusement park where a farm once stood many decades ago. But venture to the back of Buena Park High School's campus and you'll find pigs, chickens and steers, as well as students like sophomore Nathan Talavera driving a tractor. He had no experience with farming when a friend told him about the agriculture programme at Buena Park High. It's part of an outreach effort by the FFA, formerly known as Future Farmers of America, to encourage minority and immigrant students to consider careers in farming.
STEM Innovation
James Dyson Is Designing A Giant Vacuum-On-A-Boat To Clean Ocean Trash (Fast Co.Exist)
 If you've seen pictures of the "great garbage patches" in the world's oceans, you already know that plastic pollution is a huge problem, and that doing something about it is hard. James Dyson's tentative solution wouldn't fix the whole problem, but it might help with one source--rivers. The famed designer's recycling barge, which uses the same cyclone technology as found in Dyson's vacuum cleaners, has large nets that trap plastic floating on the river's surface. A suction system then pulls in the waste, where it's separated and then sent for processing. "By skimming a highly concentrated flow of larger sized plastics in polluted rivers, the M.V. Recyclone would effectively mine a major source of the pollution before it reached the sea," the British engineer explained in an email. "Large skim nets unfurl from the rollers at its stern and are anchored on each side of the river. Hydraulic winches wind them in and out. The nets face upstream and skim the surface of the river for floating debris." |
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Pearson Launches Free Virtual Nerd Mobile Math App, Putting High Quality Tutorials at Students� Fingertips
 At the 2014 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Conference, Pearson unveiled Virtual Nerd Mobile Math, a free math app that provides on-the-go access to a video library of more than 1,500 high quality math tutorials. Now available on the App Store, Virtual Nerd Mobile Math�s interactive tutorials, aligned to the Common Core and other rigorous standards, review fundamental math concepts for middle and high school students. �Personalized learning is essential to ensuring that all students are on the path to meeting and exceeding today�s more rigorous learning goals,� said Pearson�s Senior Vice President Mike Evans. �Providing free, mobile access to Virtual Nerd�s outstanding math tutorials provides students, teachers and parents with a powerful tool for refreshing critical math concepts, on-demand and anytime, anywhere.�
STEM Leaders Attending USA Science and Engineering Festival
 On April 24-25, top STEM leaders from around the world will gather in the Washington, D.C. Convention center for the first annual STEM-Leaders awards as part of the STEM Leadership Summit. Emphasis of the awards goes to individuals and groups who have demonstrated exceptional leadership at the school, district and state levels. Both K-12 and higher education leaders will be recognized. The International Association for STEM Leaders (IASL) is a grass roots organization focused on leaders whose work is making a significant difference in the lives of students every day through STEM. he IASL Leadership Summit will be held in collaboration with the USA Science and Engineering Festival.
Physicist Michio Kaku is Among the Noted Authors Headlining the Must-See Book Fair at the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo
 Michio Kaku, the famous physicist and science visionary whose current bestseller, The Future of the Mind, is causing a serious buzz in the biotech world, will be among the noted authors headlining the Festival Expo's must-see Book Fair in April. Hosted by Anderson's Bookshops, the Book Fair (a free event) will take you up close with some of the nation's top authors in science who are inspiring readers, young and old alike, in the wonders of STEM. In addition to Kaku, these writers will include: basketball great and STEM motivator Kareem Abdul Jabbar, whose recent book, What Color is My World? chronicles the lives of noted African American inventtors; Andrea Beaty, who will discuss her recent work, Rosie Revere, Engineer - a book being highly praised as an inspiration to young girls in STEM; Jon Scieszka, who will unveil his exciting new Science Invention Series; Megan McDonald, author of Stink Solar System Superhero; and David Macaulay, the award-winning author of, The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body.
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