While not entirely relevant to high school learning, there was recently a House panel on STEM education at the college level. The participants were informative and offered suggestions on improving the declining fields.
Fixing US STEM education is possible, but will take money
In particular, I was pleased that there someone else noticed the lack of teaching preparation for graduate students. It always boggled my mind that there are stringent requirements for teacher specific education when it comes to primary and secondary schooling, but none at the collegiate level. Part of the reason I decided to participate in the TF outreach program was to become a better instructor and communicator, but I could have just as easily completed my degree with no experience in teaching whatsoever.
While it was not the focus of the panel, it is unfortunate that the article didn't place a little more emphasis on improving STEM outreach in K-12. I agree that there is a great import to retaining students at higher levels, but the Boeing representative is correct in singling out the perception of engineers by youth. I do not believe that the instruction quality in college could change appreciably in the last 40 years and yet the number of STEM degrees relative to total degrees has been falling. Something to think about.
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