• U.S. launches national corps of STEM teachers

    On Tuesday President Barack Obama announced his plan to create a new, national STEM Master Teacher Corps that fosters peer-to-peer professional development; the corps would start with fifty of the nation’s top STEM teachers established in fifty sites and, over four years, expand that core group to 10,000 teachers

  • U.S. students' achievements middling

    A new study of international and U.S. state trends in student achievement growth shows that the United States is squarely in the middle of a group of forty-nine nations in fourth- and eighth-grade test-score gains in math, reading, and science over the period 1995-2009; that rates of improvement varied among states; Maryland had the steepest achievement growth trend, followed by Florida, Delaware, and Massachusetts

  • French students win 2012 International Rocketry Challenge

    Lycee Louis Bleriot of France beat out stiff international competition to win the International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough International Air Show the other; teams of students 11-18 years old hand-designed, built, and launched rockets to reach exactly 800 feet during a 43- to 47-second flight. The payload, two raw eggs, had to return to the ground by parachute undamaged

  • The best way to get teens interested in math and science: Targeting their parents

    Increasing the number of students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math — otherwise known as the STEM disciplines — is considered to be vital to national competitiveness in the global economy and to the development of a strong twenty-first century workforce; the pipeline leading toward STEM careers begins leaking in high school, however, when students choose not to take advanced courses in science and math

  • Training the nuclear forensics experts of the future

    Ten percent of the U.S. experts in nuclear and radiochemistry are at or nearing retirement age, according to a recent report from the National Academies of Science; meanwhile, not enough students are being trained to take their places; undergraduate summer programs in nuclear forensics and nuclear chemistry aim to replenish the ranks

  • STEMx launched to advance STEM education

    Yesterday (Wednesday), Battelle and thirteen state STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education networks officially launched STEMx at the U.S. News STEM Solutions Summit in Dallas, Texas; STEMx aims to accelerate the growth of policies, practices, and partnerships which are needed to expand the number of STEM teachers and increase student achievement in STEM education

  • Knowledge of fractions and long division predicts long-term math success

    From factory workers to Wall Street bankers, a reasonable proficiency in math is a crucial requirement for most well-paying jobs in a modern economy; yet, over the past thirty years, mathematics achievement of U.S. high school students has remained stagnant — and significantly behind many other countries, including China, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, and Canada; a new study has identified a major source of the gap — U. S. students’ inadequate knowledge of fractions and division

  • Key to U.S. future prosperity: world-class research universities

    American research universities are essential for U.S. prosperity and security, but the institutions are in danger of serious decline unless the federal government, states, and industry take action to ensure adequate, stable funding in the next decade, says a new report by the National Research Council; “The talent, innovative ideas, and new technologies produced by U.S. research universities have led to some of our finest national achievements, from the modern agricultural revolution to the accessibility of the World Wide Web,” says the chairman of the committee that wrote the report

  • New program to educate next generation of U.S. cybersecurity specialists

    University of Maryland and Northrop Grumman create a cybersecurity honors program for undergraduates; the program, Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students (ACES), will immerse undergraduate students in all aspects of the field to meet growing manpower needs in the nation and the State of Maryland

  • Substantial growth in graduate enrollment in science, engineering in U.S. in the past decade

    Graduate enrollment in science and engineering in the United States grew substantially in the past decade; approximately 632,700 graduate students were enrolled in science, engineering, and health programs in the United States as of fall 2010; this was a 30 percent increase from 493,000 students in 2000

  • Veterinary profession trends short-change biosecurity, food security, public health

    More than half of veterinary students in the United States seek training in companion animal or pet medicine – with fewer and fewer graduate veterinary students pursuing Ph.D. training which would prepare them for academic careers, key jobs in the public sector, and some positions in industry; the result is a dwindling supply of veterinarians to fill jobs overseeing and enforcing food safety and animal health standards, conduct research in human drug development and advances in pet health, and participate in wildlife and ecosystem management, infectious disease control, biosecurity, and agro-terrorism prevention

  • NSA launches cyber operations academic program

    The NSA has launched National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations Program; the program is intended to be a deeply technical, inter-disciplinary, higher education program grounded in the computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), or electrical engineering (EE) disciplines, with extensive opportunities for hands-on applications via labs and exercises

  • Movie-like emergency training system for law enforcement

    Raytheon’s VIRTSIM law-enforcement training system employs licensed motion-capture technology similar to that used in movies such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Avatar,” and, most recently, “The Avengers”; the system is being offered to the law enforcement community as an affordable, twenty-first century alternative to outdated training practices that do little to replicate real-life situations

  • An 8th grader from Indiana, Massachusetts school team, win 2012 math competition

    An 8th grader from Sycamore School Carmel, Indiana won the 2012 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition; he competed against more than 200 other middle school students in the prestigious academic event; the best and brightest middle school mathematics students engaged in a multi-day competition which included a written exam and culminated in the lightning speed Countdown Round; in the team competition, Massachusetts captured the title of National Team Champion

  • An 8th grader from Indiana, Massachusetts school team, win 2012 math competition

    An 8th grader from Sycamore School Carmel, Indiana won the 2012 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition; he competed against more than 200 other middle school students in the prestigious academic event; the best and brightest middle school mathematics students engaged in a multi-day competition which included a written exam and culminated in the lightning speed Countdown Round; in the team competition, Massachusetts captured the title of National Team Champion