Race to the Top Funds; Seeking Information for OSTP

Feb 17

Greetings STEM Education Coalition members.

Two very important items today:

1. Please find a message from the U.S. Department of Education about the launch of approximately $9 billion in new grants to states and school districts, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

2. We are seeking information from the community about specific STEM related programs, please read the message below.

Thanks, James and Jodi

As you will recall, President Obama pledged in late April during his speech at the National Academies of Science to make improving America’s performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics a national priority.

Last week the White House OSTP held a meeting with key business leaders, educators, foundations, and others from the STEM community to discuss the President’s initiative and next steps. During that meeting business leaders were challenged to engage their colleagues and commit to expanding their activities and partnerships with educators.

During the STEM Education Coalition meeting on Monday, July 20, a representative from the OSTP spoke about the initiative, and asked for Coalition input specifically about models/programs where skilled volunteers from business, science, engineering firms, nonprofit groups, or higher education work with educators to support opportunities for inquiry based instruction both inside and outside the classroom. Listed below are some volunteer programs/models, and key elements of successful programs currently in place.

We have been asked by OSTP to help facilitate information on compelling examples of what skilled volunteers from stakeholder groups could do both inside and outside the classroom. If your organization is involved in an initiative similar to any of the ones listed below and would like to share this information, please send a short (one-to two page) overview of your program to Jodi Peterson (jpeterson@nsta.org) by COB July 28. Please remember to include contact information.

If you have questions please email us, our contact information is below. Thanks.

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Successful programs that incorporate business, industry, science, and other stakeholder groups (including parents) into the K-12 STEM classroom should ensure that the experience is relevant and helps students to understand the importance of science in the real world. These initiatives should be standards based and whenever possible developed with key input from classroom teachers.

Types of initiatives where skilled representatives from stakeholder groups are or could be involved in the K-12 STEM, include (but are not limited to):

Teacher Mentors (serve as content resource)

Upgrade science and engineering labs

Donate/purchase classroom and/or lab supplies

Serve as mentors for students/tutoring students

Guest speaker in the classroom (all levels)

Facilitate lab experiments and field work in conjunction with classroom teacher

Adopt a classroom/school program

STEM Career Days/Career Pathways

Family Science Nights

Work with High school counselors on STEM careers

STEM fairs/STEM Clubs (judges and mentors)

Robotic Competitions