STEM Ed Update 2/5/2018

Please enjoy this week's STEM Ed update.

Top Story:

Trump Calls for Vocational Ed Expansion in State of the Union

Education Dive

President Donald Trump called for more vocational education during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. " Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential," he said. It was the lone explicit reference to education in the speech, tied to the need for greater investment in workforce development and job training. The call comes amid Senate committee hearings on Higher Education Act reauthorization, and it's an area of focus for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in both K-12 and higher ed. Continue reading here.

Stay in the Know:

Latest STEM Education News

STEAM not STEM: Why Scientists Need Arts Training

The Conversation

In 1959, the British physicist and novelist C.P. Snow delivered a famously controversial lecture at Cambridge University. He described a post-war schism between two groups - scientists and the literary world. Snow identified this as a newly emergent divide, across which each party was more than happy to sneer at the other: Scientists proudly unable to quote a phrase of Shakespeare, and literary types untroubled by the second law of thermodynamics. Read more here.

Why Don't STEM Majors Vote As Much As Others?

CNBC

There's no shortage of talk about the need to get more students to go into STEM majors. But a growing body of research, including our own at the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University, indicates there might also be a need to get more STEM majors to go to the polls. Continue reading here.

Why Colleges Must Change How They Teach Calculus

The Conversation

Math departments fail too many calculus students and do not adequately prepare those they pass. That is the message heard from engineering colleges across the country.

Calculus has often been viewed as a tool for screening who should be allowed into engineering programs. But it appears to be failing in that regard, too. That is, it is preventing students who should be proceeding from going on, and it is letting students through who do not have the mathematical preparation that they need. Continue reading here.

STEM in the States:

Rebuilding Puerto Rico May Help Improve Science Education
Learning English

Many people in Puerto Rico, a United States territory, are still suffering the effects of two powerful hurricanes that hit the island last year. Hurricane Irma struck in early September, followed shortly thereafter by Hurricane Maria. The back-to-back storms left at least 64 people dead and caused widespread destruction. Officials in Puerto Rico estimate the storms caused up to $95 billion in damage. Electricity was knocked out across the island. About 45 percent of power customers remain in the dark. Water and sewer systems were also badly damaged, causing shortages of drinking water and increasing risks of disease. Continue reading here.

Around the Community:

USNA Best Practices for DoD STEM Outreach Workshop

United States Naval Academy

The United States Naval Academy STEM Center for Education and Outreach, in collaboration with the Department of Defense DoDSTEM Program, presents "Best Practices for STEM Outreach", a workshop for DoD scientists and engineers. The workshop will be held on March 12-13, 2018 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Read more and register here.

Leading US Community Colleges Adding App Development with Swift Curriculum

Apple

Apple today announced the App Development with Swift curriculum will now be offered in more than 30 community colleges across the country in the 2017-2018 school year, providing opportunities to millions of students to build apps that will prepare them for careers in software development and information technology. The Austin Community College District (ACC), one of the nation's largest higher learning institutions, will begin offering the course to its 74,000 students this fall. Continue reading 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 info@stemedcoalition.org.

We appreciate your continued support and involvement.

Our Coalition's Co-Chairs

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