Posts Tagged: STEM

DC Shuttle: Could STEM Visa Bill Sprout During Lame Duck Session?

STEM visa bill fails On Thursday, a proposal to increase the number of visas offered to immigrants with advanced degrees in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) from American schools failed to pass the House. The bill (H.R. 6429) needed a two-thirds vote of members in order to be passed on the House suspension calendar. It fell shy of the two-thirds mark, rejected by a ...

DC Shuttle: Ten States Including Mass. Get No Child Left Behind Waivers; Grad Record Exams Soar, Especially in India, China

On Thursday, the White House granted the waiver requests of 10 states, including Massachusetts, to opt out from the requirements of the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) law. As passed, NCLB requires school districts to demonstrate through testing proficiency in reading and math skills for all grades by 2014. Many have called the NCLB law too unrealistic to implement, and a number of states have indic...

Letting Off STEAM at Montserrat College of Art

For over a decade, educators, government representatives, entrepreneurs, social scientists, economists and journalists have espoused a constant drumbeat on the critically important skills and habits of mind that students will need to possess not just to survive, but also thrive in a rapidly changing and highly competitive world. Each commentator, in his or her own way has underscored the need to p...

Up for a New Challenge? Check out the Spring STEM PBL Newsletter Today

The second edition of the STEM PBL newsletter is available now! The newest issue details the latest in STEM PBL "Challenge" development and field-testing, green-chemistry reports, student learning, dissemination and more! The current goal of STEM PBL is to increase the number of job-ready STEM workers by engaging high school and college students with challenging learning materials and innovative ...

STEM PBL Enters Arizona

Members of NEBHE's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) PBL (Problem Based Learning) project recently visited Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., to film solar-energy production sites. The film will become part of a multimedia case study for use in high school and college classrooms. The STEM PBL project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education project of the Nation...

Weird Science: Further Thoughts on the STEM Educational Challenge

He was bored and restless by age 42. He had vertically integrated a major media business, insofar as he owned his own publishing company, newspaper and book series, and even aspects of the postal system. He was an acclaimed author and civic leader. He decided to retire early to pursue his true passion and curiosity: his interest in science. His inquisitiveness in how things worked wasn’t the...

A Very Fragile STEM: Why We Are Stifled in the Sciences

This is my first experience writing about something I understood far better in high school than throughout college and career. Not only do I suspect I am not alone, but I believe this is symptomatic of the very point I plan to make. Unlike so many other fields, the sciences tend to sort us early in our lives between insiders and everyone else. Those excluded early—or who eventually drift awa...