|
Cybersecurity
Bernie Skoch (CyberPatriot Commissioner, Air Force Association): Student Competitors Learn To Foil Cyber Attacks (Huffington Post)
A program created by my parent organization, the non-profit Air Force Association, has proven in its brief four-year life to be doing exactly what is needed to draw students to STEM. The National Youth Cyber Education Program -- CyberPatriot -- is drawing students to the STEM education paths and the STEM careers we need them in. CyberPatriot uses an online cyber defense competition to draw students to STEM. They learn what a network is, what an operating system is, and how to harden systems against cyber attack. After four online rounds of competition, the top 28 teams of students travel to Washington, DC for a national finals competition at which they compete for recognition, medals, trophies, and scholarships.
SU programs lead the way in cybersecurity education (The Daily Orange)
Every day Syracuse University�s data is under attack. Sometimes it�s �door rattling,� or hackers poking at SU�s network trying to find vulnerabilities in the system. Other times it�s phishing, when fake emails appear to be from SU but aren�t. Though the information is constantly attacked, it is protected. Information security officer Chris Croad and his four-person team of students are at the front lines, protecting the university�s information. SU isn�t just trying to protect itself from cyberattacks; it�s also training students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science in cybersecurity so they can protect others beyond the university in the future. 
Higher Education
Mindtree chairman and spouse give $1 million to University of Florida College of Engineering (UF)
The University of Florida College of Engineering�s future Innovation Nexus Building will add to its list of distinguished underwriters Subroto and Susmita Bagchi, who have announced a $1 million gift to UF. Their gift will be used to support the Engineering Innovation Nexus Building, a new facility to be located at the heart of UF, directly across from a newly remodeled Reitz Student Union. Subroto is the co-founder and chairman of Mindtree, a global technology services company that accelerates growth for Global 1000 companies by solving complex business challenges with expertise-led innovations.
SIUE gets $846,000 grant to boost STEM interest (St. Louis Business Journal)
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has been awarded a three-year, $846,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help support middle school students looking to enter the STEM fields. The money will go toward developing �Digital East St. Louis,� which SIUE officials are using as a hook to attract young peoples� interest in computing and IT. The three-year program will teach underserved middle-school students about careers in computer science and give them a skill set in a variety of digital fields, including file management, HTML and web development, database management, video editing and writing for the web.
Science to the people: UW-Madison�s outreach efforts aim to reinforce the value of research (LaCrosse Tribune)
Tom Solberg is not a scientist. But that doesn�t stop him and about two dozen others from spending a late August Friday night at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus interacting with the science behind IceCube, a $271 million telescope constructed deep in Antarctic ice to detect elusive cosmic particles called neutrinos. Ranging in age from 20s to 60s, Solberg and the other attendees at the �DIY Science� session � billed as �Science.. all grown up� � test the ice-drilling properties of ordinary water and step into a �cave� that simulates.
Diversity in STEM
Boosting Hispanic Share of STEM Workforce Crucial for Economic Growth (National Journal)
The demand for jobs in [STEM] is growing and those areas are projected to add as many as 1 million jobs by 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Connecting young Hispanics, one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in America, to those jobs is critical to the success of America's role as a leading innovator�and also to the success of the economy. "It's not actually about altruism, it's completely about our economic future," said Cecilia Mu�oz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, at an Atlantic Media/National Journal event on Hispanic millennials in STEM fields on Thursday.
Amy Francetic (CEO, Clean Energy Trust): We Need More Women in Energy and STEM (HuffPost ImpactX)
Despite the enormous gains women have made in many professional fields, there is still a noticeable gender gap when it comes to science and energy. The lack of women in these science and math-based positions is detrimental to society at large. Gender and ethnic diversity is fundamental to American competitiveness -- and without it, the U.S. may never see the full-scale clean energy revolution we so desperately need. There are a handful of examined reasons why the gender gap continues to persist. One is the pronounced lack of encouragement from an early age to explore natural sciences, engineering, programming etc.
Viewpoints
Dr. Andrew Dessler (Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M): Taking Science Education Seriously (Huffington Post)
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas is dedicated to inspiring "scientific leaders of tomorrow." But as a climate scientist who teaches at Texas A&M, I was disappointed to read that the museum chose not to include any exhibits on climate change. Climate change may be the defining scientific problem of the 21st century, and we do young learners a disservice by remaining silent on it. The science connecting fossil fuel pollution and climate change is unequivocal. Climate scientists agree that human activity and burning of fossil fuels will cause increasing temperatures and more frequent extreme heat events, changes in the distribution of rainfall, rising seas, and the oceans becoming more acidic.
NASA
NASA awards space contracts to Boeing and SpaceX (Washington Post)
NASA on Tuesday awarded a pair of much-anticipated contracts, worth up to $6.8 billion combined, to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station to Boeing and SpaceX in a deal that would allow the U.S. to launch astronauts into space from U.S. soil for the first time in years. Speaking from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the contracts set "the stage for what promises to be the most ambitious and exciting chapter in the history of NASA and human spaceflight.� Relying so heavily on contractors to take astronauts to space would allow the agency �to focus on an even more ambitious mission--that of sending humans to Mars,� he said.
NASA's MAVEN Approaches Mars After 10 Months and 442 Miles (Mashable)
NASA�s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter (MAVEN) is approaching its destination over Mars. It's the first spacecraft sent specifically to research the red planet�s upper atmosphere. MAVEN left Earth on Nov. 18, 2013, on a mission to hunt for signs of oxygen and carbon dioxide, aiming to measure how the planet�s atmosphere interacts with the solar wind. �These are important questions for understanding the history of Mars, its climate, and its potential to support at least microbial life,� said MAVEN�s principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky, according to a statement.
Philadelphia
City launches online platform to match STEM professionals with youth (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Philadelphia wants more STEM especially girls, low-income and minority students. This week, the city launched a new online STEM resource center, which will showcase STEM education programs on its � asset map,� as well as host a volunteer matching platform for mentors and students. The website isn�t completely finished yet, said Kendrick Davis, director of STEM initiatives for the mayor's office of education. It�s still a work in progress. Starting this fall, a city press release said, parents and teachers can enroll their students in out-of-school STEM mentoring opportunities facilitated through the resource center. The city�s online STEM resource center is an overhaul of US2020� a national organization that announced an award for Philadelphia and six other cities in May.
STEM Food & Ag
These Short Films Sum Up The Huge, Ridiculous Problem Of Food Waste (Fast Co.Exist)
.jpg) The world currently wastes 30% of all food that it produces, and there are two main reasons why that is such a tragedy. The first is obvious. The calories could go to feeding people who are hungry. But the other is less so: Food waste has a pretty big environmental footprint. These two short animated videos were produced by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, and they do a good job of summing up the wider consequences of food waste. For instance, we learn that 28% of the world's agricultural land grows lost food (the total land area of China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia). And that the water used to grow wasted food equals the volume of the Volga or Zambezi rivers (or all household water use combined). And, that wasted food generates 3.3 gigatons of greenhouse gases a year--the output of the third heaviest emitting country.
Can We Grow Crops On Mars? (Modern Farmer)
If and when the day comes that we, the human race, must take to the heavens and settle on some other planet, the first question will be "can we survive there" -- but the second question will be "can plants survive there?" A new study from a group of German scientists attempted to grow common crops in the same type of soil that�s found on Mars and our own moon, and discovered some pretty intriguing things. The first difficulty in testing whether we can grow, say, mustard greens on Mars is actually getting some Martian soil. Luckily, there are sediments here on Earth that are compositionally very similar to extraterrestrial soil, usually dust from around volcanoes. For Mars, a bunch of soil was taken from the area between the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes in Hawaii, which is often used for this sort of testing. |
 |
Stay Connected
      
 STEMconnector�
Million Women Mentors Update: September 18, 2014
sm.jpg) Doesn't miss out on updates from Million Women Mentors on the campaign! We've now reached 170,000 pledges to mentor women and girls in STEM! We also welcome Black Girls Code as our newest member. We have tons of Women in STEM news and guest blog posts from The Manufacturing Institute!
WALKING THE WALK: 5 Simple Actions to Recruit More Women into Manufacturing and Close the Gender Gap
 The manufacturing industry is currently experiencing a shortage of women in the workforce, representing only 24 percent of the manufacturing labor force. Women are the missing element in closing the skills gap and increasing the industry�s competitiveness. In order to attract more women into this industry there are several best practices that can be implemented. TALK One of the most significant changes manufacturers can make is to break the negative connotations associated with the industry. Sending executive and leading women to recruit next-generation workers can help break down these false perceptions. Targeting women graduates with strong STEM skills and supporting STEM education initiatives will increase the likelihood in recruiting women into the industry. Recruiters should stress to women the advantages of becoming role models as career-oriented women.
Honeywell And NASA Celebrate 10th Anniversary, 1,000th School Performance With FMA Live! Educational Series
 Honeywell (NYSE: HON) 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. |
