The pressing need now present for the US to compete with countries such as India and China who excel in science and math, on more global scale has spurred on national current education issues about increasing the STEM education system for every school around the country.
President Obama along with his administration has invested significantly in the promotion of STEM education that amounts to federal funding of around $3.1 billion. In efforts to prove the governments serious commitments to STEM, the President even held a science event located at the White House in order to promote the STEM superstars. Obama stated that STEM is worth getting excited about. He went on to state
We’ve got to make sure that we’re training great calculus and biology teachers, and encouraging students to keep up with their physics and chemistry classes. . . .
He further goes on to state that it means that educators need to use the correct research methods as well as encourage students to challenge on knowledge. He also believes that maintaining and expanding investments in the biomedical research fields and assisting innovators is critical.
Benefits for Students
In current education issues, students in North Carolina at Wake NC State University STEM Early College High School outperformed average scores on their standardized tests along with over 95% of these students who have passed their state is exams. In Tacoma, Washington at Lincoln High School, technology professionals and teachers are in the process of boosting their students interests in the STEM system by the implementation of an after-school club for STEM.
Students from this STEM club have recently won one of the competitions from creating an app that allows users to doodle on photographs. These students all received a 6 week mentor program that allows them to visit the tech company known as Concur and to shadow the software developers this coming summer.
This type of vital exposure is important and can have an extremely positive impact on career choices students make when they progress onto college. One student who had participated in the after school program known as the STEM club from Lincoln High School stated that the experience he received assisted him in making the choice to pursue an engineering degree when he moved onto Washington State University.
In a number of current education issues a traveling circus known as the STEAM Carnival
marries science with spectacle and aims to provide excitement to a subject that was once misjudged and viewed as a type of ‘boring field’.
The founders, Eric Gradman and Brent Bushnell built an event that combines games, robots and lasers in an effort to bring fun and life to the “face of STEM.”
It has been believed that this specific transformative power relating to innovation, invention and creation is what has made STEM so attractive and alluring to a number of students and educators alike. STEM makes for one the more exciting segments available in education today.
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