STEM Ed Update 9/11/2017

Please enjoy this week's STEM Ed update.

Coalition Invitation:

STEM in the States: Impacts of ESSA

This Wednesday, September 13, the STEM Education Coalition will be hosting a briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building entitled, "STEM in the States: Impacts of ESSA." Expert panelists will include Stephanie Rodriguez of Afterschool Alliance, Michael Feder of Battelle/STEMx, and Anand Vaishnav of Education First. The briefing will take place at 11:00 AM. You can RSVP and get more information about the briefing here. We hope to see you there!

Stay in the Know:

Latest STEM Education Policy News

Senate Panel Rejects Trump's Proposed Federal Education Cuts

Washington Post

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a spending bill that rejects President Trump's proposed cuts to education funding for fiscal year 2018 and, for now at

least, derails the administration's goal of directing federal dollars toward promoting and expanding school choice and private school vouchers. The 29 to2 vote on the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill further illustrates the president's difficulty in moving his education agenda through Congress despite Republican control of the House and Senate. Continue reading here.

After Decades of Pushing Bachelor's Degrees, U.S. Needs More Tradespeople

PBS

At a steel factory dwarfed by the adjacent Auto Club

Speedway, Fernando Esparza is working toward his next promotion. Esparza is a 46-year-old mechanic for Evolution Fresh, a subsidiary of Starbucks that makes juices and smoothies. He's taking a class in industrial computing taught by a community college at a local manufacturing plant in the hope it will bump up his wages. It's a pretty safe bet. The skills being taught here are in high demand. That's in part because so much effort has been put into encouraging high school graduates to go to college for academic degrees rather than for training in industrial and other trades that many fields like his face worker shortages. Continue reading here .

'American Space Ninja' Back on Earth After Record-Breaking Flight

NPR

Imagine more than 600 days in space; that's 21 months cruising the cosmos, or close to two years without flush toilets or pizza. On Saturday, Astronaut Peggy Whitson touched down in Kazakhstan at 9:21 p.m. EDT alongside a fellow American and a Russian in their

Soyuz capsule, wrappin g up a record-breaking mission. Whitson spent 288 days - more than nine months - on this latest mission aboard the International Space Station. But over the course of her career, she has been away from earth for three long-duration missions, an accumulation of 665 days - longer than any American ever and more time than any woman worldwide. Continue reading here .

Around the Community:

New York Times Learning Network Announces a New Monthly Feature: What's Going On in This Graph?

Rihanna or Justin Bieber? The Weeknd or Migos? If you

live in the U.S., what's the most popular musician or band in your area? Take a look at this set of 50 fan maps, based on YouTube's geocoded streaming data, and see what you discover. The maps come from The New York Times's Upshot , which emphasizes data and graphics in its analysis of politics, policy and everyday life. There you can find charts, graphs and interactives of all kinds on everything from cultural phenomena, like music preferences or "Game of Thrones" characters , to breaking news events, such as North Korea's missile launches , to the important issues of our day, like affirmative action and the opioid crisis .

Disabilities Don't Stop These Experts in Science and Tech

Science News for Students

As a combat engineer in the U.S. Marine Corps in

2011, Neil Altomare's job was to detect unexploded home-made bombs known as IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. Many were hidden throughout Afghanistan's Sangin Valley, where he was deployed. Once he found an IED, Altomare would destroy it - often by blowing it up. This work helped keep his fellow Marines safe. But neither his equipment nor visual scans could detect all hidden bombs. And one day, Altomare stepped on an IED. He survived. But the explosion destroyed his right leg below the knee. Shrapnel hit him almost everywhere else. Yet despite the pain and injuries, he was able to direct rescue troops to carry him along a safe path out of the field and to the helicopter that would airlift him to medical care. Continue reading here.

Don't Miss Early Bird Rates for the NCSSS 2017 Professional Conference!

The National Consortium of Secondary STEM School

s 2017 Professional Conference will be November 1-4 in Chicago. Early bird registration rates end this Friday, September 15. You can learn more about the conference and register online here.

Join the Coalition!

We at the STEM Education Coalition hope you have enjoyed this week's edition of the STEM Ed Newsletter.

Any organization may join the Coalition, and there is no cost to become an Affiliate Member. Affiliate members are listed on our website, receive periodic communications on policy matters, and will be signed up for the weekly newsletter.

Your organization can also apply to join the Coalition's Leadership Council, where they play an active role in setting the public policy agenda for the Coalition and are invited to participate in frequent interactions with policymakers.

If you would like to join the Coalition at any level, please read our message to prospective members or email us at [email protected].

We appreciate your continued support and involvement.

Our Coalition's Co-Chairs

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