Washington Spotlight January 2010

SWE Convenes Roundtable to Discuss Attracting and Retaining Women in STEM Fields

On January 12, SWE convened a roundtable for the engineering community to discuss practical approaches to attracting and retaining women in STEM fields.  SWE President Nora Lin served as the roundtable’s moderator, and 58 representatives from associations of science and engineering professionals, Congressional offices, federal agencies, industry and academia were in attendance.

Topics of discussion included the current statistics of women in STEM in higher education; examples of what universities and professional societies are doing to address the underrepresentation of women and underrepresented groups in academia and the STEM workforce, including the NSF ADVANCE program; and an overview of the recent NASA Title IX reviews of STEM departments.  In addition, SWE Corporate Partnership Council member, DuPont, provided attendees with the industry’s perspective on the need for diversity in the STEM workforce.

While the roundtable presentations did highlight some of the many innovative efforts underway in academia and industry to attract and retain women in the STEM fields, they also emphasized the lack of real growth in the number of women who have earned engineering bachelor's degrees nationwide since the mid-1980s, and the lack of retention of women with bachelor’s degrees in engineering in academia, and the engineering workforce in the long-term.

From this roundtable, SWE plans to work more closely with roundtable participants to develop collective action items centered around the topic of attracting and retaining women in STEM fields.

For more information about the roundtable, including the agenda and speaker presentations, please visit the Public Policy Community in MySWE Communities.

President Honors Teachers and Mentors As Part of "Educate to Innovate" Campaign

On January 6, President Obama honored more than 80 educators from across the country for excellence in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.  The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is awarded annually to the best pre-college-level science and mathematics teachers from across the country. The winners are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians and educators following an initial selection process done at the state level. Each year the award alternates, going either to science and math teachers in grades K-6 (as it is this year) or to those teaching in grades 7-12.  Winners of the Presidential Teaching Award receive $10,000 in awards from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion. Click here to see a list of this year’s recipients.

In addition, more than 20 mentors from across the country attended the event to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Awarded each year to individuals or organizations, this honor recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science or engineering, and who belong to minorities that are underrepresented in those fields.  Candidates for the Presidential Mentoring Award are nominated by colleagues, administrators and students from their home institutions.  The mentoring can involve students at any grade level from elementary through graduate school. In addition to being honored at the White House, recipients receive awards of $10,000 to advance their mentoring efforts. For a listing of this year’s recipients of the award, please click here.

In his remarks, President Obama said, "All of us have a role to play in building an education system that is worthy of our children and ready to help us seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of the 21st century.  Whether it's improving our health or harnessing clean energy, protecting our security or succeeding in the global economy, our future depends on reaffirming America's role as the world's engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation.  And that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today, especially in math, science, technology and engineering."

Additional information on the January 6 event can be found here.

This event was the second in a series of "Educate to Innovate" Campaign activities, a project announced by the President in late November 2009 to help reach the Administration’s goal of moving American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade.  Click here for the initial press release describing the "Educate to Innovate" Campaign.

Science Committee Chair to Retire at the End of the 111th Congress

Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, recently announced that he will retire at the conclusion of the 111th Congress after more than a quarter-century of public service.

Chairman Gordon offered the following statement:  "I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together in the Science and Technology Committee.  On a bipartisan basis, we passed landmark legislation with the America COMPETES Act and the Energy Independence and Security Act. We’re bolstering math and science education; we’ve put our R&D accounts on doubling paths, and ARPA-E is off the ground. With the challenges our country faces, we have laid the foundation to rebuild our economy based on innovation, investments in research, and a sustained commitment to math and science education. For these reasons, I am committed to reauthorizing both the America COMPETES Act and NASA in the coming year."

Additional information about Chairman Gordon’s announcement can be found here.

Representative Jerry Costello (D-IL), currently the second ranking Democrat on the Science and Technology Committee, issued the following statement following the chairman’s announcement that he would retire:  "As the second ranking Democrat on the Science and Technology Committee, I am interested in and will pursue the chairmanship of the full committee and look forward to discussing it with our Democratic leadership and my colleagues in our caucus." Representative Costello’s entire statement is available for review at http://costello.house.gov/press/2009/dec14.shtml

NAE Releases New Report on Engineering Curricula

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has released a new workshop summary, "Engineering Curricula: Understanding the Design Space and Exploiting the Opportunities."  The April 2009 workshop focused on exploring how engineering curricula could be enhanced to better prepare future engineers.

Workshop participants who included individuals from industry, university faculty and administrators, and representatives from government agencies and professional societies, discussed the following topics:

• The rationale for the scope and sequence of current engineering curricula
• The potential to enhance engineering curricula through creative uses of instructional technologies
• The importance of inquiry-based activities as well as authentic learning experiences grounded in real world context
• The opportunities provided by looking more deeply at what personal and professional outcomes result from studying engineering

General themes arising from the workshop attendees' discussions included desires to restructure engineering curricula to focus on inductive teaching and learning; apply integrated, just-in-time learning of relevant topics across STEM fields; and, make more extensive use and implementation of learning technologies. Among the suggestions offered to create curricular innovation were expanding faculty and administrator communication networks; increasing faculty incentives; and enhancing interactions among stakeholders of engineering education.

For more information about this report, please visit http://nationalacademies.org/newsroom/nalerts/20091231.html Selected portions of the report are also available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12824