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Reminder: Proposals due for managing national science competition, plus student quotes

Aug 01, 2018

The deadline approaches for applications from experienced organizations to lead one of the nation’s premier STEM research competitions. Through the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, thousands of high school students across the nation present their research projects and compete for scholarship prizes. The regional winners are then invited to a national symposium, to compete for even more scholarships and meet leading researchers from labs across the nation.

Battelle and the Tri-Service partnership of Army, Navy and Air Force seek a managing organization for the program. Read the details on the Army Educational Outreach Program’s site. Proposals are due August 3, 2018 at 5 p.m. EST. Submit here.

To provide a little inspiration to all of the organizations applying tomorrow, here are three quotes from students Battelle interviewed earlier this year:

North Carolina – Sydney McKeel

I’m in 11th grade, and my favorite subject is probably science…Our project was about how caffeine affected the plant growth of soybean plants. We found out that soybean plants can die and be harmed by caffeine…I like the way caffeine makes people jittery, and i wanted to see if it would help the plants grow and to see if that would happen. but, unfortunately, it didn’t. It made them die, or stop growing.

It was very fun, we got to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, which was a great experience because I’ve never been there… I’m excited to learn what everybody else is doing. Like, learning from them exactly what I need on my poster, or maybe some questions I could ask the judges during my presentation.

Montana – Aurora Andersch  

I’m very excited about it. Well, for starters I’ve been working on my own studies on bacteriophages to find, potentially find a cure for tuberculosis, which I’m excited about.  Because  there’s only one other page that might be used to cure tuberculosis, but it’s definitely a big thing because TB doesn’t have a cure for it. It’s something that people have been studying, and the only way that a patient can survive TB is if their body can fight it. But if we can actually find a phage that can infect the bacterium and kill it, then we would be able to find a cure for tuberculosis, which would be a great breakthrough. And I’m just super excited to be a part of that. So, this summer, I’ll be doing the summer program and do more research, potentially find more samples, and just get a new learning experience that will help me later on.   

Ohio – Keshaun Preston

Celebrating the 2023 STEM Innovation Forum

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 .

STEM Innovation Forum: Agenda and New Sponsors

By Rob Evans • 03 Oct, 2023
Join us for The STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce
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