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Maker Movement
LittleBits Announces BitLab, An App Store For Hardware (TechCrunch)
Have you ever wanted to build a banana piano? Or make a robotic cockroach brain out of LEGO? With LittleBits now you (potentially) can. The company has just announced something called the BitLab, a contest merged with a crowd sourced technology system that allows inventors to create new LittleBits blocks, upload them, and have them made and sold by the company. The system also includes a hardware development kit that allows anyone access to LittleBits� custom magnetic snap-together leads. The entire system is aimed at allowing creators to build useful little modules for the LittleBits world.
5 Educational Programs For Learning By Making (PopSci)
Frustrated with the decline of hands-on learning, Stanford University students created SparkTruck as a roving maker lab. They outfitted a Utilimaster van with tools like a laser cutter and hundreds of dollars worth of Popsicle sticks and miniature motors, then drove it across the country�twice�stopping at schools. It�s reached about 5,000 kids, plus inspired enough like-minded adults that the Stanford team created a �How to Make a SparkTruck� guide. MakerState got its start bringing hands-on projects to at-risk students around New Orleans and the Hudson Valley of New York. Now, it embeds instructors called �maker fellows� in summer camps and schools across the country.. 
Diversity in STEM
Janine Ingram (Vice President of Philanthropic Partnerships, MIND Research Institute): IX Reasons STEM Needs Title IX: Lessons From Center Court (HuffPost ImpactX)
On the 40th anniversary of Title IX's passing, a White House press release stated that the number of female college athletes has increased from 30,000 to 190,000, and, not coincidentally, the proportion of female professors in science and mathematics has more than doubled. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Statistics found that women's increased participation in sports leads to increased participation in the workforce and, particularly, in high-skill, high-wage fields.. In the same way Title IX completely changed the landscape for girls in sports -- it's time for a full-court press on Girls in STEM.
Technovation Launches Student Showcase! (Geek Mom)
Technovation, the longest running girls-in-tech program, launched a complete gallery of 362 mobile apps today. This gallery is a comprehensive look at the work developed by the participants in 26 countries around the world. The gallery showcases the diversity of issues girls face around the world and the technological solutions they come up with. Founded in 2009, Technovation focuses on addressing the gender diversity issues in computer programming, engineering, and entrepreneurship by mentoring girls ages 10-23 through the development of mobile apps. In 2014, Technovation was selected by UNESCO as their sole global partner for their Youth Mobile initiative.
Tara Chklovski (Founder and CEO, Iridescent): Lots of Talk About Girls in Tech: Where Are the Results? (HuffPost ImpactX)
2014 is shaping up to be the Year of Code -- everyone is talking about the importance of computer science education. We've recently seen lots of coverage about the lack of women in tech, from Google's Made with Code initiative that spurred industry giants to share their diversity data, to the recent spate of nonprofits addressing this lack of diversity. The problem is definitely very big and pressing and everyone is talking about it. But no one is really talking about what is working.
Industry
Google�s 1,400 Washington employees donate to local schools through crowdfunding campaigns (GeekWire)
Google�s 1,400 employees in Washington state surprised teachers by fully funding classroom requests from every teacher in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties that were posted to the crowd funding site DonorsChoose.org. Google donated $338,000 for 388 projects resulting in 295 teachers receiving materials for over 36,000 students, according to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who made the announcement yesterday at Highland Park Elementary School in Seattle. The donation was made by 1,400 Google employees, who work in Seattle�s Fremont neighborhood and the city of Kirkland. That headcount number was provided by a Google representative speaking at yesterday�s surprise event, according to the West Seattle Blog.
Following IBM's Lead, SAP Just Opened A Six-Year High School In New York City (Fast Co.Exist)
What happens when a corporation helps create a high school? We've already seen hints of what it looks like with P-tech, IBM's six-year vocational high school in Brooklyn, where students learn extensive science, math, and engineering skills and after six years, get a high school diploma, associate degree, and a priority path to a job at IBM. Now the business software company SAP is trying its hand with a similar model. At Business Technology Early College High School (BTECH) in Queens, students have just started school, like their peers across the country. They are taking classes like physics, history, and physical education. But in the afternoon, they get a heavy dose of business or technology programming..
STEM Jobs
Here�s what you can earn at the 20 top tech companies (VentureBeat)
While there�s debate over whether there�s a shortage of qualified tech workers, there�s one thing no one argues about: Tech companies pay their employees well. We�ve heard of senior engineers getting a base salary of $160,000, with stock options and other benefits on top. Some interns are earning $7,000 a month, which amounts to $84,000 a year. So we sifted through job-hunting site Glassdoor to find the best-paying jobs listed on that site, at the best tech companies, according to Glassdoor�s ranking of the best places to work. We listed the highest-paying job on Glassdoor, plus salaries for two common tech jobs: a senior technical role and a software engineer, at each company, to give you a sense of what those jobs pay as well.
STEM Engagement With a Shipbuilding Focus (U.S. News & World Report)
..But an overlooked area with the full gamut of opportunities for engineers � from system design to construction support and research and development � also exists within the shipbuilding industry. "That is the beauty and the allure of the shipbuilding business," says Jennifer Boykin, vice president of engineering and design for Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. "Whether you're in research and development, or you're in design, or you're part of the test engineering program, you're really part of designing and building the most complex products on the earth: nuclear powered ships."
Computer Science
Inside CoderDojo: A free, volunteer-led programming club educating our future coders (GeekWire)
Inside the DigiPen cafeteria on a recent Saturday morning, it�s not easy interviewing Paul Griffaton. As the 8-year-old sits in front of his brand new Chromebook, most of my questions are met with one word answers, or simply silence. But Paul isn�t really being rude. Rather, the second grader is completely engrossed in a Scratch coding development lesson that is likely much more interesting than a reporter�s distracting inquiries. Paul is just one of many youngsters being exposed � and becoming attached to � computer science thanks to CoderDojo, a worldwide programming club for kids aged 8-to-17 that is free, volunteer led, and teaches the basics of coding.
Arizona
Arizona Science Center will receive grant to establish STEM education programs in project (Downtown Devil)
The Arizona Science Center was chosen by the APS Foundation in July to receive a $246,080 grant in order to help further STEM education programs within their Rural Expansion Project. �The Science Center�s program appealed to us because not only was it really focused on teacher development but it also focused on the expansion into the rural communities,� said Laura McBride, Senior Corporate Giving Specialist at the APS Foundation. The Rural Expansion Project strives to bring valuable teacher, leader, community professional development and student programming to school districts in rural communities, according to a press release from the Arizona Science Center.
Utah
Workforce Services grants award to develop CTE and STEM programs (Moab Sun News)
A mobile DJ cart, digital cameras, and long-boards are some of the items Moab middle school students will learn to design and build thanks to a Utah Department of Workforce Services grant aimed at increasing interest in science and math. The BEACON Afterschool Program, Grand County School District and Utah State University-Moab were each awarded a Workforce Services grant to develop educational programming geared toward employment pathways in career and technical education, and science, technology, engineering and math disciplines. The three entities collaborated while preparing their individual grant proposals to ensure multi-year student involvement in CTE and STEM activities and programs. |
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 STEMconnector�
Honeywell And NASA Celebrate 10th Anniversary, 1,000th School Performance With FMA Live! Educational Series
 Honeywell and NASA are celebrating 10 years of collaboration with FMA Live! Forces in Motion, an award-winning, hip-hop physics education program that inspires middle school students to learn and enjoy math and science in a compelling, fun and memorable way. The popular show, which will visit its 1,000th school during this special tour, is in high demand, having been performed before 400,000 students in all 48 contiguous U.S. states, as well as in Mexico and Canada. The spring tour launches in Seattle, Washington this week. "The continued success of our great collaboration with Honeywell on FMA Live! is a testament to the fact that STEM and cool are one," said Donald James, associate administrator for education at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "By combining compelling, NASA-unique content and dynamic stage performances to teach physics, we are inspiring students to study hard and become America's future scientists, engineers and explorers."
11-Year-Old�s Model Invention to be 3D Printed on Space Station by Creators of Free 3D Printing Curriculum
 James Banks, a 11-year-old boy from Appleton, Wisconsin, will be among the first civilians to have something he designed manufactured in space. An invention he designed with 3D modeling software during a City X Project workshop in his third grade classroom last year will be 3D printed aboard the International Space Station in early 2015. The story of �Space Kid� is made possible by a partnership between IDEAco, the Chicago-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that developed the City X Project, and Made In Space, the first company to bring additive manufacturing capabilities to space, based in Mountain View, CA. The City X Project, now an open education resource available as a free download for teachers that has been downloaded over 700 times in over 50 countries, is a story-based curriculum in which students must solve challenges faced by the citizens of City X, the first human settlement on another planet. Each student is given a citizen card, which includes a cartoon citizen that presents a social issue to the student. James was paired with citizen Miguel, a boy representing issues of health care and accessibility to medical treatment in City X.
STEMconnector� CSO and Telecom Executive to Keynote Third Annual STEM Education Awards
 The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed) today announced keynote speakers for the Third Annual STEM Education Awards which will be held on September 26th at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center in Savannah, GA. Ted Wells, Chief Strategy Officer for STEMconnector�, and veteran technology/telecom executive, Carrie A. Wheeler are both set to address this year�s event. In his role at STEMconnector�, Wells manages a portfolio of projects relating to STEM K-12 education and workforce development. |
