August 2008
STEM Equity Pipeline News
ARTICLES
Students Get Chance to Discover Career Potential
(Kristi Funderburk, The Daily Journal)
Weeks before they face the first day of high school, local students considered the
options of their not-so-distant future: college and a career. Instead of the more
typical how-to seminars, these students dissected animal specimens, engineered towers
with spaghetti noodles and gumdrops, and created moving carnival rides with K'NEX,
an interlocking toy construction set. The College Bound STEM Careers Pathways Project
at Cumberland County College helps students realize their potential in careers like
science, technology, engineering and math.
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Keys to Hiring Women in Science
Two sociologists who want to push the discussion beyond anecdotes and individual
preferences think they have found evidence of steps that do make a difference in
the recruitment of women for science faculty jobs. Specifically, they urge a focus
on efforts to increase the pool of female applicants, and the importance of having
a woman serve on the search committee.
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Girls Find Out Science Is Fun
(Abby Haight, The Oregonian)
Francis Rojina wants to be a surgeon, but for now her 14-year-old mind is delighted
by anything scientific-including piecing together the puzzle of a solar hot-water
system. Rojina's passion for the hows and whys of the natural world defies the stereotype
that teenage girls are reluctant to study or pursue careers in fields that involve
math, science and technology. For 18 years, the Oregon Institute of Technology has
been nurturing such passions and trying to increase them with its Teen Women in
Science and Technology camp.
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Girl Power! Summer Camp Grooms Tomorrow's Techies
(Julia King, Computer World)
It's 10 o'clock on a sunny April morning in Balboa Park. In a spacious Girl Scout
cabin tucked away amid lush green palm trees, 20 girls ranging in age from 11 to
14, most wearing jeans and pigtails, are gearing up for today's camp activities.
But there are no sit-upons or s'mores, potholders or paper crafts, just 21 laptops,
two color printers, 10 digital cameras, two scanners and a palpable abundance of
preadolescent energy and creative enthusiasm.
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Cleveland High School Opens Pre-Engineering Center
The success of a Cleveland Catholic school's pre-engineering program has led donors
to fund a $3.4 million, 13,000-square-foot engineering technology center complete
with a robotics lab. About a third of students at the all-boys school follow the
pre-engineering curriculum, and 90% of those that do continue studying engineering
in college.
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Algebra: It's Everywhere
(Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer)
Algebra is a language, a very precise language written in symbols, and it's everywhere:
in nearly all electronic devices, every statistic and each Internet search engine
- and, indeed, in every train leaving Boston. "You can store information using it.
You can communicate information using it," Devlin said. "Google has made billions
capitalizing on algebra." Yet our schools don't always do a very good job teaching
it.
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Study: Science More Understandable When First Explained in Plain Language
Students taught scientific concepts in plain English before learning technical terms
performed better on exams, according to a study by Stanford University's Bryan A.
Brown and Kihyun Ryoo that is published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching
and written about in Education Week's Curriculum Matters blog.
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Skilled Engineers in High Demand in Michigan
(Nathan Bomey, Business Review)
As the automotive industry seeks to shift quickly toward a focus on hybrid and plug-in
vehicles, executives are desperate to find engineers to develop these new technologies.
The industry, faced with rapid changes in market demand as consumers switch to more
fuel-efficient vehicles, is pressed to acquire enough talented engineers in a host
of different areas, several company and university officials said. The shortage
of engineers is a pressing problem for Michigan.
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Wanted: Next Generation of Defense, Space Engineers
(Richard Burnett, Sentinel Staff Writer)
The nation's defense and space industry is facing a potential engineering crisis
as retiring baby boomers leave the work force. Lured by the buzz of a Google or
an Apple, many young engineers would rather go into commercial high-tech jobs than
tap out computer code for the next rocket system, experts say.
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