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Million Women Mentors
Nepris and MWM invite you to join us for a webinar on Engaging Girls in STEM! - Jan 17 at 12:30 am ET
sm.jpg) Recently STEMConnector launched the Million Women Mentors initiative to encourage mentorship to get more girls into STEMcareers. Nepris, an online platform to connect industry professionals to the classroom, is proud to partner with MWM to support this mission. 74% of STEM workers are male and only 26 percent female. Of 100 female bachelor students, 12 graduate with STEM major but only three continue to work in STEM fields 10 years after graduation according to research by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Ladies, We can do this ! by Julie Kantor summarizes the 6 ways to mentor her, sponsor her and elevate her career. MWM and Nepris invite you join us for a webinar on Jan 17th at 11:30 am central to hear from a panel of leading ladies on Engaging girls in STEM: the problem, the solution and the future! 
Industry
Cognizant Awards 33 Grants to Afterschool and Summer Programs Under its 'Making the Future' Initiative to Inspire Interest in STEM Fields (Cognizant)
Cognizant announced that it will award 33 grants in 2014 to child-serving non-profit organizations as part of its 'Making the Future' initiative to fund afterschool, in-school, and summer programs aimed at sparking interest in [STEM] fields. he grants will enable children across 22 states to receive over 300,000 hours of high-quality STEM education across a diverse range of STEM topics, including electronics, robotics, computer programming, digital fabrication, 3D printing, and wearable technology.
Women in STEM
Gender Barriers, Not Families, to Blame for Shortage of Women in STEM Careers (Yotta Fire)
Researchers at the University of Texas-Austin and Cornell University have published a new study examining the factors behind the shortage of women in STEM fields. They find no evidence that women are opting out of the STEM workforce to start families, in contrast to the widespread perception that family factors account for the lack of women in STEM-related careers. Co-author Sharon Sassler, professor in the department of policy analysis and management at Cornell, says: “We don’t find support for the idea that women are opting out of the labor force to remain home with children, as relatively few departed from the work force completely."
All-Girls STEM Charter Could Open In 2015 (St. Louis Public Radio)
6 years ago Mary Stillman attended a lecture by Ann Tisch at Washington University. That was my ah-ha moment,” Stillman recalls. Tisch is the founder of the Young Women’s Leadership Network, which operates a network of all-girls public schools and boasts a 93 percent graduation rate at its flagship institution in East Harlem. 4 years later, Stillman, who is the daughter of former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, began laying the groundwork for an all-girls charter school focused on STEM education. And if all goes according to plan, the Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls will open its doors in August 2015 for sixth and seventh graders. It hopes eventually to expand to serve 500 girls through 12th grade by 2020.
LaGuardia professor granted funds to garner female interest in STEM (Queens Chronicle)
An assistant professor of biology at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City was recently awarded a grant for the first CUNY program designed to encourage women to pursue careers in [STEM]. Preethi Radhakrishnan was given $30,000 from the Elsevier Foundation, which supports programs to help early to mid-career women scientists balance family responsibilities with demanding careers in science, health and technology.
Government
Army recruits MCC students with STEM technology (Statesville Record & Landmark)
U.S. Army recruiters have been testing the interests of Mitchell Community College students this week. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Army’s STEM Asset Experience truck was parked behind the college’s main building, inviting students to learn about the technology used by the military. Around 150 people went through the truck during its time on campus. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kyle Dorsch and four other recruiters told those interested in learning more to come by the U.S. Army Recruiting offices on either Cinema Drive or South Center Street.
Obama urges expanding access to higher education (AP)
President Barack Obama tested his persuasive powers Thursday, summoning university presidents to the White House to win their commitments to expanding access to higher education and to demonstrate a new determination to use his own presidential authority in the face of legislative roadblocks. President Barack Obama tested his persuasive powers Thursday, summoning university presidents to the White House to win their commitments to expanding access to higher education and to demonstrate a new determination to use his own presidential authority in the face of legislative roadblocks.
Non-Profits
2013-2014 NSTA New Science Teacher Academy Fellows Announced (Business Wire)
The NSTA New Science Teacher Academy, a year-long program focused on encouraging and supporting early-career science educators, announced 200 middle and secondary science teachers from across the country who will take part as Fellows in the 2013-2014 Academy. Selected from more than a thousand applications nationwide, the Fellows will participate in a host of science-related activities and professional learning opportunities.
Computer Science
How computer science teachers can better reach their students (OpenSource)
Imagine being a high school freshman walking down the halls of your new school on the very first day. You somehow make it to first period without becoming epically lost in the unfamiliar halls. Finally, the bell rings, signaling that you've officially made it through your first high school class. Taking a look at your schedule, you see your next class is Exploring Computer Science. You think: "Wow, computers! This should be fun!" For me, this idea and feeling of fun didn't end of that first day. It continued throughout the year as a student of Mr. Allen's Exploring Computer Science class.
Higher Education
STEM Caf� tackles mysterious Higgs boson (NIU)
Northern Illinois University physics professor Dhiman Chakraborty is preparing to reprise his popular talk on the mysterious Higgs boson for the DeKalb community. For decades, the Higgs boson was the holy grail of particle physics. Its detection confirms the existence of the Higgs field, which permeates the universe and gives particles mass. Without the Higgs boson and field, nothing would exist – no animals, oceans, planets or stars.
ASU among schools in new $140M manufacturing consortium (Phoenix Business Journal)
President Barack Obama was in Raleigh, N.C. today to announce a $140 million manufacturing consortium among 18 companies, five universities— including Arizona State University— and a lab. The Next Generation Power Electronics Institute will be headquartered at N.C. State University, but ASU will play a big role.
Reports
Can children’s TV characters boost STEM learning? (Yotta Fire)
Can relationships formed with media characters like Dora the Explorer or Elmo help young children learn [STEM] skills? A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, Northwestern University and Georgetown University hopes to answer that question in a five-year project funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. UCR’s share of the grant is $885,745. “Many people are involved in designing educational games, and there is a lot of interest in creating high-quality and interactive media,” explained Rebekah Richert, associate professor of psychology at UC Riverside and principal investigator on the research project.
Texas
Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism (Slate)
When public-school students enrolled in Texas’ largest charter program open their biology workbooks, they will read that the fossil record is “sketchy.” That evolution is “dogma” and an “unproved theory” with no experimental basis. They will be told that leading scientists dispute the mechanisms of evolution and the age of the Earth. These are all lies. The more than 17,000 students in the Responsive Education Solutions charter system will learn in their history classes that some residents of the Philippines were “pagans in various levels of civilization.” They’ll read in a history textbook that feminism forced women to turn to the government as a “surrogate husband.”
Connecticut
Windham STEM students take advantage of ECSU partnership (Norwich Bulletin)
It was a seemingly simple question from a high school freshman to a college professor, but it highlighted the reason there is a new partnership between Windham High School’s STEM academy and Eastern Connecticut State University. During the first class of Computer Game Design and Visualization, Zach Norris asked if he could program his games using Python, a high-level programming language. Joel Rosiene, an associate professor of computer science, lit up and encouraged Norris.
STEM Food & Ag
A Little Girls Potato Experiment Will Change The Way You Think About Food! (Eat Local Grown)
 As part of a simple school project a young student by the name of Elise was tasked with discovering how long it would take for a fully grown sweet potato to grow vines. The project itself is quite simple, and is a regular part of many elementary school curriculum’s since all that it involves is the sticking of toothpicks into the sweet potato and the suspension of it into a glass of water. If left near a window that receives sunlight the sweet potato should grow vines, which is the exact process that Elise was looking to monitor. Elise’s discovery however went a lot further than this when her initially purchased sweet potato failed to grow vines after three weeks of following the given instructions. |
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The World In 2050: Talent Mobility and the Future of Jobs
 Reaching more than 88 million social media impressions, “The World In 2050: Talent Mobility and the Future of Jobs” transcended traditional conversations on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. Thought leaders from Fortune 500 companies, the media, global think tanks, the policy community, and academia gathered at the National Press Club to discuss the future of jobs, STEM education, and talent mobility. In addition, through an innovative technology partnership with social media hub +Social Good, we engaged thousands of Twitter users around the world watched the live feed, prompting thousands of live tweets. All our summit hashtags: #WEF, #2030Now, and new hashtag #2050Jobs, trended by early afternoon.
YouTube Re-Play of STEM Competitions: A Closer Look Town Hall!
 Thanks to everyone who joined our Town Hall yesterday taking a closer look at STEM Competitions on Google+! We'd especially like to thank all of the representatives, teachers, and students who joined us from the Siemens Competition, Skild, Verizon Innovative App Challenge, PTC Real World Design Challenge, DuPont Science Essay Challenge, Intel Science Fair, and CyberPatriot. In case you missed it, want to watch it again, or would like to share with colleagues, the video is now up on our YouTube Page!
Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune Partner to Present X-STEM Symposium at USA Science & Engineering Festival
 The scope and impetus of STEM outreach would be difficult without collaboration with industry and other partners. Be there as this collaborative spirit comes alive in exciting ways next April when Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune present the X-STEM - Extreme STEM Symposium. These two high tech leaders have joined forces to hold this unique and “extreme” all-day experience in STEM which will bring elementary through high school students up close and personal with some the nation's leading visionaries in STEM. These include: human genome pioneer J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.; AnoushehAnsari, the first female private space tourist; NIH Director Francis Collins, Ph.D.; famed oceanographer Sylvia Earle, Ph.D., and Bernard Harris, M.D., the first African American to walk in space. Tickets are going fast for this must-see event, so register today!
The Gooru Corner: Symbiosis [Featured Collection]
 Just like with human relationships, relationships between different species can get complicated. This week's collection takes a look at the full range of symbiotic relationships, from the heartwarming (who doesn't love clownfish) to the sinister (blood-sucking parasites, anyone?).
Sally Ride Science Announces 2014 Initiatives to Complement Million Women Mentors Program
As part of an ongoing mission to connect students to careers in STEM, Sally Ride Science will be taking part in the Million Women Mentors (MWM) initiative, which is designed to unite more than 1 million girls and young women with STEM professionals and leaders. “Being part of the MWM initiative fits right in with our mission to give students greater access to STEM careers,” says Sally Ride Science CEO Sheryle Bolton. “Women constitute more than 50% of the workforce, but hold less than 25% of the STEM jobs. STEM fields offer some of the best economic and career opportunities in our economy, and we want young girls to understand that they can be part of that.”
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