Blog Layout

STEMx grant award winners will identify solutions to persistent STEM education challenges

Jun 13, 2017

This spring, we launched the STEMx Challenge Grant Program to provides STEMx states with up to $15,000 to develop solutions to pressing STEM education issues.

The Challenge Grants will not fund big new departments or long-running research studies. Instead, each of these modest awards will help the STEM education leaders implement and assess strategies for tackling a specific issue.

Today, we’re announcing the three states awarded these grants. Each will host a meeting (or meeting series) on a specific, critical topic. Then, at our next STEMxchange meeting in 2018, these groups will share what worked and what didn’t.

In turn, this will help our network tackle two critical goals. First, the awards will generate breakthroughs in a series of key challenges. Second, these ideas will add even more resources we can share across the STEMx network to advance our goal of providing a quality STEM education for every child.

The STEMx members awarded Challenge Grants in 2017 are South Carolina, New York, and West Virginia.

The South Carolina Coalition for Mathematics and Science will convene STEM education stakeholders from across the state and relevant experts from across the country to identify grand challenges in STEM education that South Carolina and other states can collectively address. The convening will result in a framework to address the identified grand challenges and follow-up actions. The convening will model a process for identifying shared areas of concern and a model for developing state-wide momentum for improving STEM education.

The Empire STEM Network (New York) will hold three regional meetings on middle-skills jobs with a focus on rural communities. These will culminate in a state-wide meeting on the same topic. From these conversations, the network will create a state-wide action plan. The convening and statewide plan will serve as models that other STEMx members can adopt or adapt to create career pathways that address the “Middle Skills Gap” in rural areas.

West Virginia University Center for Excellence in STEM Education will hold a convening that explores how to provide equitable access to computer science, with a particular focus on rural STEM education. The convening will bring together a wide range of stakeholders from educators, to state policy makers, to professional development providers, to education researchers. It will result in a summative report that lays out how the various stakeholders can work together to provide computer science for all students across West Virginia. The lessons learned from the convening and follow-up actions will provide other states with strategies for expanding computer science.

By Rob Evans 01 Nov, 2023
by Heather Sherman, Director of STEMx The 2023 STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce was a success! Through our collaboration with STEMconnector and Million Women Mentors, we convened 160 leaders from industry, government, non-profit organizations, and education institutions from all over the United States to discuss strategies and best practices to support the STEM workforce. We were honored to host a variety of dynamic speakers including: Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado Brynt Parmeter, Chief Talent Management Officer, U.S. Department of Defense Dr. Athina Kanioura, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, PepsiCo and Dr. Lisa Hinkelman, Founder and CEO of Ruling Our eXperiences (RoX). We extend our gratitude to our panelists, Learning Session speakers, and participants who joined us in Denver. Broadening participation We set out share information on trends in STEM education and workforce development, with an emphasis on broadening participation in STEM careers. Resources from sessions highlighting strategies for broadening participation are linked below: DoD STEM: Developing a STEM Workforce to Support the National Security Mission Priming the Pump for High Demand STEM Careers STEM Workforce Readiness for Teen Girls: “If She Can See It, She Can Be It” Driving change Another goal of the forum was to feature high impact strategies, programs and solutions that are driving change, and STEMx members from LASTEM , the PAST Foundation and MBRT showed how they are engaging youth and building career awareness through their workforce programs. Emerging technologies We looked towards the future to better understand how emerging technologies will change the world and the ways we must prepare STEM talent for jobs in logistics, artificial intelligence, research safety , bioenergy , and renewable technologies. Chevron‘s sponsored panel, “Cultivating the Talent to Drive the Innovation and Technologies for Ever-Cleaner Energy” was a rich discussion featuring experts from Chevron, Project Lead the Way and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Jamie Vernon, Executive Director, and CEO, Sigma Xi Society was a fantastic moderator for this discussion. Next steps We have linked event resources including videos, slide decks and collateral on the event landing page . The event photo gallery is located there as well. If you attended, please complete our 30 second event survey . Five lucky winners will be selected at random to receive a Forum water bottle! More importantly, your feedback matters to us. If you did not attend, mark your calendar for next fall - we’re looking to make next year even bigger! If you are interested in hosting in your state, or have thoughts about compelling content that we should include, please reach out to Heather Sherman .
By Rob Evans 03 Oct, 2023
Join us for The STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce
Share by: