PLN: "New STEM Schools Target Underrepresented Groups"

This article is about the growth of schools running on an S-T-E-M, or science, technology, engineering, and math, curriculum. Many of these schools are now focusing on attracting a wider range of students than those typically found in STEM fields. They are focusing on recruiting girls, minority students, and students from lower-income families, because the majority of students in those fields now don;t come from such a diverse demographic. This has become a focus for those schools because, according to the President's Council of advisers on Science and Technology, “The underrepresentation of minority groups and women in STEM denies science and engineering the rich diversity of perspectives and inspiration that drive those fields.” In other words, science and engineering move forward because of innovative thinking, and more diverse and plentiful minds to supply new and viable ideas leads to more problems being solved faster. And STEM schools focus a lot on problem solving. Much of their curriculum is project-based, and they focus on real-world problems such as finding people clean water and making solar panels more cost-effective. Wouldn't it be great if the next science or engineering breakthrough came from a high school classroom? A group of young people, young scientists, working together without a money-hungry bureaucracy breathing down their necks could find a way to ensure people all over the world have access to a plentiful amount of water or increase people's access to timely and accurate information about their health, or secure the Internet while keeping it open to free-expression. These are part of the "Grand Challenges" of engineering, and the part that strikes me the most about them, is that they're not all about robotics or AI, but they're actually about people. These are real problems that affect real people throughout the day, and these are the problems STEM schools are working on solving, and I think that's something that everyone should get in on.

(Vocaroo coming soon)
Robelen, Erik w. (2011). New STEM schools target underrepresented groups. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/14/03stem_ep.h31.html on September 18, 2011.
National Academy of Engineering. (2010). Grand Challenges for Engineering. Retrieved from: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/ on September 18, 2011.