How do kids lose their natural curiosity about science? When do they stop asking how things work or why a bird can fly? The answer, unfortunately, has been the way science content is presented in our classrooms. Lots of reports and media coverage suggest there is a growing shortage of individuals pursuing careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) while other experts think the facts have been overstated.
A recent report by professors at Rutgers and Georgetown universities, Steady as She Goes? Three Generations of Students through the Science and Engineering Pipeline concludes the number of college graduates in these fields have remained relatively steady over the past decade, but now, those top graduates are finding careers in finance and consulting to be more attractive.
So back to the first question. How can K-12 education nurture a child’s curiosity into a passion for science that will not only lead to a college major in the field but a lifelong commitment? Part of the answer lies with how the district delivers science education; part rests with how aggressive district leaders are in creating collaborations with local businesses or university partners to enrich their programs; and part rests with the priority that STEM initiatives have within the board’s vision and how they convey that to parents and community members. From free NASA resources for teachers to workshops that showcase the SMarT Project, an NSBA-AAAS toolkit to help boards engage their communities in a dialogue around STEM, sessions at T+L will help school leadership teams tackle the many parts of this complex issue. More importantly, there will be firsthand examples presented by educators whose schools have seen great gains in both since and math achievement and are recent winners of Intel’s Schools of Distinction program.
