President Obama may have spent much of his time in office as the nation’s chief advocate for getting more students and educators STEM-smart for this century. He’s talked about it, held White House STEM events on it and persuaded Congress to allocate nearly $3 billion in each of the last two federal fiscal years for STEM and STEM education.
No miracles yet.
With dozens of razzle-dazzle distractions getting young people’s attention compared to their more focused generations before, today’s educators in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, aka STEM studies, are finding there is no stampede to their classrooms, despite the president’s appeals and widespread talk of the importance of STEM studies to the future of the nation.
Diversity outreach
The challenge is spurring new thinking about how to lure today’s early college and college-bound students to give STEM more than a passing gaze. STEM is getting a top-to-bottom overhaul with diversity in mind and aimed at students who have lots of choices of what to do with their adult lives.
“In our society, people have been brainwashed that science is difficult and boring,” says Dr. Sandra White, a professor and director of the Center for Science, Math and Technology Education at North Carolina Central University (NCCU).
“There is a paucity of teachers who have been put in classrooms to teach science who are not certified to teach science,” says White, echoing college-level science education peers who note the lack of interest starts years before college.
