Subject: FW: Follow-up From
"Educate to Innovate" STEM Briefing
From: Nelson, Gregory S.
[mailto:Gregory_S._Nelson@who.eop.gov]
Subject: Follow-up From "Educate to Innovate" STEM Briefing
Dear
all,
Thank
you for attending our STEM briefing yesterday. As was exhibited by the passion
and diversity of experiences in the room, we have a huge opportunity before us.
We don’t take the notion of “all hands on deck” lightly or the ambitious goal
that the President has set, and we look forward to working with all of you.
For
next steps (thank you Jennifer for asking), I would like to focus on
four. The top two are the immediate priority:
(1)
Building Momentum: There were a number of
public-private partnerships already part of Educate to Innovate campaign
discussed at the meeting (Change the Equation, National Lab Day, etc). We are
happy to connect you with them so each of them and discuss opportunities to
further enhance their impact.
-
Change the Equation: if you would
like to explore your company getting involved, please reach out directly to
David Washington (dwash@changetheequation.org,
cc: dawn@changetheequation.org
)
-
National Lab Day: see the website at www.nationallabday.org.
You can also email Jack Hidary at jack@jhidary.com . We’ve
included at the bottom of this email a rundown on some of the Administration
officials who are participating in NLD this week, and you can see a blog post
from today on the White House website (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/12/national-lab-day-liftoff).
(2)
New Commitments: The partnerships that are part
of Educate to Innovate started from conversations similar to the one we
had yesterday. We would love to know your ideas for “dream” partnerships that
bring together core competencies and relationship of an industry (small, medium
or large), leverage or grow strategies that are showing strong results, and
make big bets focused on really moving the needle. As examples, I wanted to
share fact sheets from our prior two events that outline some example
commitments that we highlighted and we would love to assist/facilitate (by
linking folks, etc).
We’re moving quickly on this, and will
likely have the opportunity to highlight more of these partnerships this
summer.
(3)
Summer Opportunities for Students: A lot of focus
for engagement with students, teachers, schools is focused on the school year.
We have a number of efforts underway to continue learning (Summer of
Innovation) and we would love your thoughts on how we can elevate the great
work ongoing.
(4)
First White House Science Fair: We have a
little bit of planning time on this, but we wanted to seed this idea with you
now. As mentioned, the President will host the first-ever White House Science
Fair where winners of STEM competitions have an opportunity to come and we have
an opportunity to celebrate them, their work, and raise the profile of the
issue. We would love your thoughts for making best use of this great
opportunity to enhance all of your work.
Finally,
as we said at the top of the meeting, the President is highlighting STEM as
part of every issue – so always feel free to let us know of opportunities you think
we should know about (schools worth visiting on a trip, etc).
Best,
Kumar
and Greg
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press
Secretary
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May
11, 2010
Cabinet and Senior
Administration Officials Scheduled to Join in National Lab Day Events to
Promote “Educate to Innovate” Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math (STEM) Education
National Lab Day
Launched in Response to President Obama’s Call to Raise American Students to
the Top of the Pack in Science and Math Achievement over the Next Decade
WASHINGTON,
DC -- This week, members of the Cabinet and senior White House officials are
scheduled to participate alongside teachers and volunteers in the first
National Lab Day, a historic grassroots effort to bring hands-on learning
activities to thousands of students and improve science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM) education. National Lab Day is a grassroots
partnership between science and engineering societies and educators and was launched in response to President Obama’s call at the National Academy of
Sciences last spring for all Americans to join the cause of elevating STEM
education as a national priority. The first annual National Lab Day is
Wednesday, May 12th, though National Lab Day projects are taking
place in schools throughout the year. Cabinet Secretaries and senior
administration officials scheduled to participate this week include:
WEDNESDAY
·
Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, who will be
working with a third grade class building solar cars.
Date: Wednesday May 12
Time: 9:00am
Location: Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary
School, SE DC
·
John Holdren, Director, Office of Science and
Technology Policy,
who will work with high school students as they investigate how projectiles
cause craters.
Date: Wednesday May 12
Time: 8:45am
Location: Benjamin Banneker High School, NW
DC
·
Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer, David Kappos,
Director, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, James Kyson-Lee, Actor, “Heroes”,
Rachael Leigh Cook, Actress, “Nancy Drew;” and Erin Cummings, Actress,
“Spartacus”,
who will talk to with advanced high school students about future opportunities
in technology and will work with them as they integrate technology into math
and science projects.
Date: Wednesday May 12
Time: 1:00pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson High School,
Alexandria, VA
·
Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary of Education for
Civil Rights, James Kyson-Lee, Actor, “Heroes”, Rachael Leigh Cook, Actress,
“Nancy Drew;” and Erin Cummings, Actress, “Spartacus”, who will be
working with an all-girls robotics club, doing hands-on activities run by the
Spelbots Robotics Team from Spelman College.
Date: Wednesday May 12
Time: 3:00pm
Location: Howard University Middle School
for Math and Science, NW DC
THURSDAY
·
Melody Barnes, Director, Domestic Policy Council, who will work
with high school students as they investigate effects of exercise on
cardiovascular function.
Date: Thursday May 13
Time: 12:15pm
Location: Bell Multicultural High School,
NW DC
ADMINISTRATION EVENTS ALREADY
COMPLETED THIS WEEK:
·
Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, who spoke to
fifth graders studying the solar system about working in space and worked with
them on a hands-on rocketry experiment.
Date: Tuesday May 11
Time: 9:00am
Location:
Langdon Education Campus, NE DC
·
Kristina Johnson, Under Secretary for Energy, who served as a
judge in an elementary school science fair.
Date: Monday May 10
Time: 9:30am
Location: Watkins Elementary School, SE DC
All the events are OPEN to press.
Media wishing to attend any of these events should contact the agencies
directly or email Rick Weiss at rweiss@ostp.eop.gov.
Background
on National Lab Day
National Lab Day, a grassroots partnership between science
and engineering societies and educators, was launched in response to President Obama’s call at the National Academy of
Sciences last spring for all Americans to join the cause of elevating STEM
education as a national priority. National Lab Day has strong financial
support from the Hidary Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Gates Foundation and
partners such as HP and Motorola, and seeks to bring
hands-on learning to students by upgrading science labs, supporting project-based
learning and building communities of support for STEM teachers. In less than six
months, National Lab Day has created over 1700 projects, matched 11,000
teachers and volunteers and made over 69,000 connections between volunteers and
supporting organizations and resources to help bring discovery-based science
experiences to students in grades K-12.
As
part of these events, the MacArthur Foundation, a National Lab Day partner,
will announce the winners of its “21st Century Learning Lab
Designers” competition, part of the $2 million DML Prize, a first-ever
competition challenging entrepreneurs to design new hands-on STEM
learning.
National Lab Day has projects in every state, as well as
Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, and last week received a broad and
bipartisan resolution of support (378-2) from the U.S. House of
Representatives. To learn more about National Lab Day, visit www.nationallabday.org.
##