April 2005, Issue #39
News You Can Use
A Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering
24-hour engagement of organizations and individuals around the globe
Starting at noon, U.S. Eastern Standard Time on March 24, 2005, and concluding at noon on March 25, 2005, at any and all times during this 24-hour period there was a "conversation" taking place. The Global Marathon was a combination of live Internet chats and teleconferences. The National Engineers Week Foundation served as the central "booking agent" and keeper of the day's calendar.
The goal was to heighten awareness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) issues among pre-college, college, and young career women, and to address issues of concern such as retaining women in college engineering programs and the workplace.
The day consisted of 48 half-hour segments which originated from points around the globe. The event kicked off from San Francisco, California, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Throughout the marathon, engineers from the United States, Middle East, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and China hosted sessions.
Participants had the chance to talk with the first woman in space, American engineers working in Qatar and in Scotland, and a reporter from TIME Magazine who had written recently about women in science and technology. Each segment was "sponsored" by an organization or partnership of organizations, with no sponsorship fee and no fee for participants.
Topics ranged from mentoring female college students to strategies for success in engineering studies to running a large engineering firm.
Click here to view the archived "Connecting the World" forum topics and comments.
A Math and Science Quiz — The Answer: The U.S. is Behind!
Reproduced with permission by The Triangle Coalition — www.trianglecoalition.org
- Did you know that, according to the National Academy of Engineers, China awards more than four times the number of engineering degrees that the U.S. awards? (Roughly 300,000 in China compared to 71,000 in the United States.)
- Did you know that U.S. students' proficiency rates in math and science decline over the course of the students' academic career? (There are more proficient 4th graders than 12th graders.)
- Did you know that over the last 25 years, most of the job growth has been in science and engineering positions? (Those positions have grown at five times the rate of the civilian workforce as a whole.)
- Did you know that while the number of undergraduate degrees awarded in the U.S. has increased 14% over the last 10 years, the number has declined in fields such as engineering and mathematics? (Mathematics degrees declined by 16 percent over the last 10 years.)
These questions were posed this week by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) who has introduced legislation, with Reps. Boehlert (R-NY) and Ehlers (R-MI), to address that the United States is lagging behind other countries in the areas of math, science, and engineering. The bill would help attract and retain math, science, and engineering students at the undergraduate level and, in turn, help create a larger pool of U.S. applicants to pursue graduate level programs in these fields. The legislation would pay the interest (up to $10,000) on the federal undergraduate student loans (both subsidized and unsubsidized) for math, science, or engineering majors who agree to work in those fields in the U.S. for five years.
"We heartily support this legislation. The United States' continued leadership in science, engineering, and innovation are critical to our success in the global economy." says Vance Ablott, Triangle Coalition Executive Director. "We encourage our members to read the proposed legislation and to let their congressional representatives know how they see its importance to what they are trying locally to accomplish." he adds. For more information about the legislation, visit www.house.gov/wolf.
What Is ESTEME Week?
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are partnered with other U.S. Government agencies and scientific societies to sponsor activities for 2005's "Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (ESTEME) Week." ESTEME week activities were held last week (April 11-16) and provide an opportunity for the nation's schools to focus on improving math and science education.
This year, ESTEME Week added engineering as a basic topic area for its activities. Engineering offers a tremendous variety of career options. It's a profession that can take you from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of space, from within the microscopic structures of the human cell to the top of the tallest skyscrapers. Whether it's cell phones, digital cameras, DVDs, or facial recognition devices, engineers are behind almost all of today's exciting technology. Engineers are problem solvers who search for quicker, better, and less-expensive ways to use the forces and materials of nature to meet today's challenges.
Engineering students have their pick of many fields. From electrical to civil to aeronautical to biomedical, every discipline within engineering will lead to an exciting and rewarding career.
The exploration begins with activities for students, parents and teachers presented by participating organizations on the ESTEME Week Website: www.ESTEME.org.
Summer Teacher Workshops and Opportunities
The Teachers' Workshop is offered in the summer to high school science teachers from the greater Boston area, and is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Biology at MIT. The workshop is designed to provide both new and experienced teachers a dynamic setting in which they can gain new insight into modern biology, and the opportunity to develop and integrate new curriculum material into their science classes.
The program consists of a one-week workshop in July and two follow-up meetings during the school year. The summer workshop combines lectures and related hands-on laboratory courses and culminates in a session on science curriculum development for grades 8-12.
The topics for the 2005 summer workshop will be posted in March of 2005. To get more information and application materials please contact Dr. Sassanfar at mandana@mit.edu. Click here to learn more.
Looking for a summer camp?
Visit the Engineering Education Service Center to view a listing of camps. http://www.engineeringedu.com/summercamps.html
The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education — CIESE
Bridges, bones, and beach preservation…what's the connection? Think Engineering! CIESE's science and mathematics curriculum materials have been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, the White House Office of Science and Technology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and others. Now, CIESE expands its curriculum focus to include engineering design and problem-solving for middle and secondary school students.
CIESE sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. Ciese focuses on projects that utilize real time data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world. Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports. Click here to learn more.
