STEM Ed Update 5/27/2016

Please enjoy this week's STEM Ed update.

Top Article:

U.S. Dept. of Education Releases Draft Regulations for New Federal Law

EdSource

The U.S. Department of Education today released its much-awaited draft regulations to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA as it is referred to by insiders, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in December.

As reported previously by EdSource, the law in its broad outlines is very consistent with the reforms being implemented in California. The new law grants much more authority to states and to local districts than the No Child Left Behind law, which it replaces.

Read more here.

Stay in the Know:

Latest STEM Education Policy News Across the U.S.

The Nation's Largest School Districts Are Rushing to Fill the Coding Gap

PBS Newshour

On a recent Friday afternoon at a Brooklyn public school, the children of Sabrina Knight's second-grade class listened intently as she used a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to talk about algorithms. Moments later, a student volunteer walked back and forth across the room to demonstrate looping, a technical term used in the field of computer programming. "Thumbs up if y

ou got it," Knight said, as a flurry of 7- and 8-year-old hands and thumbs shot up in the air. "Open up your computers and thumbs up when you see the blue screen."

Read more here.

Why 'Maker Faires' Are So Important For Our Kids

TIME

This weekend, I hopped on a train for my annual trek to Maker Faire, held this year at the San Mateo Events Center. Over 150,000 people attended this year's show, coming to check out new drones, 3D printers, robots and more. This particular event is the granddaddy of Maker Faires, started by Maker Media and its visionary founder Dale Dougherty. It bills itself as the greatest "Show and Tell on Earth."

Read more here.

The High-Paying, Low-Stress STEM Job You Probably Haven't Considered

Forbes

When it comes to engaging students in [STEM], competitions are leading the way. These are not your grandfather's science fairs, explained STEM experts Wednesday at the U.S. News STEM Solutions Conference in Baltimore. Today, students of all ages are competing in robotics building competitions, hackathons and coding contests, to name just a few. And they're becoming a more effective way of getting students excited about STEM fields than traditional classroom learning.

Read more here.

Around the Community

New book: How to keep STEM support from falling short

In 2012, the White House put out a call to increase the number of STEM graduates by one million.

Since then, hundreds of tho usands of science students

have started down the path toward a STEM career. Yet, nea rly half of all und ergraduate students studying in a these fields will abandon their major before graduation according to a study from the National Center for Education Statistics Institute of Education Sciences.

Read more here.

U. of I. College of Engineering to Offer New Innovation Degree

The University of Illinois' College of Engineering plans to launch a new degree program that will let students pursue ideas that could develop into companies. The Innovation, Leadership and Engineering Entrepreneurship program will be project-based and build on classes and programming already offered through the university's Technology Entrepreneur Center.

Read more here.

Join the Coalition!

We at the STEM Education Coalition hope you have enjoyed this week's edition of the STEM Ed Newsletter.

Any organization may join the Coalition, and there is no cost to become an Affiliate Member. Affiliate members are listed on our website, receive periodic communications on policy matters, and will be signed up for the weekly newsletter.

Your organization can also apply to join the Coalition's Policy Council, where they play an active role in setting the public policy agenda for the Coalition and are invited to participate in frequent interactions with policymakers.

If you would like to join the Coalition at any level, please read our message to prospective members or email us at [email protected].

We appreciate your continued support and involvement.

Our Coalition's Co-Chairs

-------------------------------------------------------------