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STEM Jobs
Weekly Address: Equipping Workers with Skills Employers Need Now and for the Future (White House)
In this week�s address, the President discussed the importance of ensuring that the economic progress we�ve made is shared by all hardworking Americans. Through his opportunity agenda, the President is focused on creating more jobs, educating more kids, and working to make sure hard work pays off with higher wages and better benefits. This week, the President will visit a community college in Los Angeles to highlight the need to equip our workers with the skills employers are looking for now and for the good jobs of the future, and he will continue looking for the best way to grow the economy and expand opportunity for more hardworking Americans.
Monday Economic Report � July 21, 2014 (NAM Shopfloor)
With more and more data starting to trickle in for June, we are seeing some definite trends taking shape. One positive is that the manufacturing sector continues to expand, suggesting that the rebound from winter-related softness earlier in the year has mostly continued. Manufacturers also tend to be mostly upbeat about the second half of this year�a sign of optimism that is encouraging. Yet, there were also indicators suggesting that the pace of activity slowed somewhat in June, most notably in the industrial production, housing starts and retail sales numbers that were released last week.
Blue Collar Dreams: Will the Decline of Manufacturing Jobs Damage Social Mobility? (Brookings Institute)
The United States is falling short on two fronts: the generation of upward social mobility and the generation of quality manufacturing jobs. Are they connected? Certainly many of the progressives gathered at Netroots Nation�a progressive political action conference�in Detroit, think so. The state of the middle-class worker was the focus of numerous panels. In the past, the weakening of labor unions would have been the main topic. This year, wage stagnation, income inequality, jobs gaps, investment, and worker respect and dignity had the spotlight. Detroit was an ideal backdrop for such a discussion. Netroots panelists lined up to lament the loss of that world. 
Diversity in STEM
James LaPlaine (Senior Vice President, AOL): The key to more women in technology? Men. (Washington Post)
I�ve read much, and listened to many debate the reasons why we don�t see more women in the technology field. The solution is likely multivariate, yet I feel there is one key theme that isn�t getting the attention it should. Namely, men need to take responsibility to create a culture of inclusion for women in the tech space. Whenever the topic comes up, we tend to ask the women in the group to respond to how we can �fix� things, leaving the men out of the dialog. Or maybe I should say, letting the men off the hook. I didn�t intend to pick up the crusade of getting more women in critical roles in technology, it occurred out of common sense and necessity.
Ang�lica P�rez-Litwin, PhD (Founder/CEO, ELLA Institute & Latinas Think Big): Rewriting the Innovation Code for Latinas in Technology (HuffPost ImpactX)
In preparation for the upcoming Latinas Think Big Innovation Summit this October, at Google's campus in Silicon Valley, I have been on a quest to identify Latinas around the country who are innovating in technology and across STEM fields. I admit I stepped into this search with some trepidation - informed by reports and articles that continuously characterize Latinas as avid consumers and early adapters of technology, but significantly less engaged in the creation of new technology tools, in tech entrepreneurship or innovation. But, as I delved deep into my social media networks, inquiring for names of Latinas who were innovating in technology, I began to see the new faces of innovation.
Online School for Girls puts focus on connection, collaboration (LA Times)
Much to English teacher Ed Raines' surprise, his students had never heard Puccini's soaring melodies that inspired David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," nor the way Louis Armstrong could make a trumpet talk in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." In the middle of a faculty meeting at Westridge School in Pasadena, he passed his colleague, a music teacher, a note. "What if we could build an entire curriculum based on pairing music and English together?" recalled Leo Kitajima, the music instructor who had visited Raines' classroom to discuss musical references in literature. Last year, the teachers found a way to make their dream course a reality when Westridge became part of Online School for Girls, a nonprofit consortium of independent schools dedicated to educating girls.
Julie Rohl: Why I Encourage Failure in STEM: One Teacher's Experience in Finding Female Leaders in STEM (HuffPost ImpactX)
Ah! The wonderful sound of clanging medals, young voices cheering, and the slapping of high fives -- it's the sound of students being rewarded for collaborating and utilizing their STEM skills. This sound does not come without a price -- it is the sound that can come after as many successes as failures. As a female STEM teacher and robotics coach at a Middle School in Illinois, my job is to facilitate success by maintaining enthusiasm as my students hurdle from one failure to another. In the classroom, I see such amazing potential in my female STEM students. I watch them try, fail, learn from the failure, and repeat the process until they reap the rewards of success.
Higher Education
Rebecca Schutzengel: My education at Olin College (Physics Today)
I first heard about Olin College of Engineering when I read the 2007 New York Times article �Re-engineering Engineering.� At the time, I was a junior in high school and just beginning to think about where I wanted to go to college and what I wanted to study. I didn�t really know what engineering was, but I loved physics, so it seemed like a reasonable choice. The New York Times article instantly piqued my interest and put Olin at the top of my list of desirable schools. Although I wasn�t sure I wanted to be an engineer, and Olin only offers engineering degrees, I was drawn to Olin�s mission and school culture and, after more research and exploration, I knew it was the place I wanted to be.
Mielke Family Foundation gives $2.5M to Lawrence (Appleton Post Crescent)
To celebrate 50 years of philanthropy in the Fox Cities, the Mielke Family Foundation has given $2.5 million to Lawrence University so students can earn elementary education certification, officials announced Monday. Dr. John and Sally Mielke said the foundation has focused in recent years on birth-to-five and early childhood education. The gift to Lawrence expands on that vision, while honoring the foundation's work since its establishment in 1963. Students who study education at Lawrence could earn certification to teach computer science, English, math, social studies and theater arts for grades 5-12. The $2.5 million donation will allow students to earn certification in grades K-4..
Colorado
Colorado BioScience Association Recognizes Amgen Foundation�s $25,000 Investment in STEM Education in Colorado�s Classrooms (Business Wire)
The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) is honored to recognize the Amgen Foundation�s grant of $25,000 to the Colorado BioScience Institute (CBSI) in support of the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program, in addition to funds provided by others including The Anschutz Foundation. The announcement is made by CBSA/CBSI President & CEO April Giles, who says, �We are honored to receive these grants for our RET program and know it will make a positive impact in Colorado�s science classrooms. The RET program is an intensive, four-week, hands-on program for 7th-12th grade teachers.
Virginia
Va. program targets computer science education (Washington Post)
Using computers and knowing computers are not the same thing, even for the digital native generation, computer science education advocate Rebecca Dovi says. To encourage early participation in Virginia schools to compete with world markets, CodeVA will be training Richmond-area teachers how to incorporate computer science and boost Advanced Placement exam participation through Code.org. The organization successfully helped lobby the General Assembly this year to count computer science classes as science credits toward graduation instead of just math or elective credits. This gives school systems more incentive to offer the classes, Dovi said.
Washington
STEM is buzzword for student opportunity, from Tacoma to Washington, D.C. (News Tribune)
STEM education is particularly important in Washington state�s technology-fueled economy, advocates say. �For us, it�s about setting kids up with the best possible options and opportunities for success,� said Caroline King, chief policy officer for the nonprofit Washington STEM, established in 2011. �Given the great jobs that are being created in our state, we want Washingtonians to have the best jobs,� she said. �We want our kids creating the jobs of the future that we can�t even envision now.� A 2013 report written for the business group Washington Roundtable makes the case for more STEM education. The report estimated that 25,000 jobs statewide were going unfilled due to what it termed a skills gap, mostly in STEM fields.
STEM Food & Ag
Dept. of Animal Science focusing on adoption of technology, further education (Farm & Ranch Guide)
.jpg) Since its inception in the early 1900s, the NDSU Animal Sciences Department�s mission has been to conduct research, education and extension to improve the efficiency and profitability of livestock agriculture and to improve management and conservation of range land resources. The department is currently committed to the effective and timely transfer of research-generated knowledge and technology to the agricultural industry and the larger scientific and public sectors to benefit the state, the nation and the world. According to Greg Lardy, the head of the Animal Science Department at NDSU, the department has gone by a number of different titles since its early beginnings. |
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SHEC Member Profile: Dr. Raynard S. Kington of Grinnell College
 The STEM Higher Education Council (SHEC) is proud to announce that Dr. Raynard S. Kington of Grinnell College will be a member of the Council. Dr. Raynard S. Kington was appointed president of Grinnell College in August 2010. Before coming to Grinnell, he served in a range of positions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including NIH principal deputy director and NIH acting director, NIH associate director for behavioral and social sciences research, and acting director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Prior to NIH, he was a division director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he led the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, one of the nation�s largest studies assessing the health of the American people.
U.S. team captures Silver in 2014 International Rocketry Challenge
 Five students from Creekview High School of Canton, Ga., took home silver medals in the seventh annual International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough International Air Show. The U.S. team, sponsored by Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), won second place, while the French team captured first and the U.K. team took third. Competing teams designed, built and launched rockets with a goal of reaching an altitude of exactly 825 feet during a 48- to 50-second flight window. The payload, two raw hen eggs, had to return to the ground undamaged using two identical parachutes. Scores are determined by how close teams come to the required height and time; cracked eggs disqualify the flight. The International Rocketry Challenge is the culmination of three separate competitions held annually around the globe: the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA); the United Kingdom Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge (UKAYRoC) sponsored by ADS, the UK Aerospace, Defense, Security and Space association; and the French Rocketry Challenge sponsored by Groupement des Industries Francaises Aeronautiques et Spatiales, the French aerospace industries association. Each contest brings together teams of middle and high school students to design, build and launch model rockets with the goal of inspiring young minds to become engaged in science, technology, engineering and math.
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