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More than 300 K-12 superintendents, principals, teachers, and leaders in higher education, government, and business gathered October 25th for the first Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Summit in Newton, Mass. The goal of the summit was to raise awareness and shape policy on the crisis in K-12 schools, which are graduating far too few students interested in or prepared to study for careers in science and engineering. This was the first of what will be an annual conference, and is the first follow-up in any state to the U.S. Department of Education's national Summit on Science held last March. "There have been 13 years of increases in SAT scores," said David Driscoll, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education. "MCAS is up, everything's up." Despite this, fewer and fewer students each year are choosing to pursue STEM careers, and Driscoll believes the next educational frontier is science, technology, and engineering. The first goal, then, is to ensure that educators both introduce and motivate their students to explore such careers. More than half of the summit participants were educators from across the commonwealth, eager to learn more about making STEM education a priority. "What they're describing here today is an endemic problem across the nation," said Dennis Richards, associate superintendent at Reading public schools. "The good news is we have a lot of people here today who are interested in STEM. I'll bring the word back to my schools about the need for this type of education." Government leaders and policymakers at the summit see STEM education as being vital to the economic health of Massachusetts. "If we don't take opportunity by the horns in this changing economy, we won't get the jobs," said Senator Jack Hart of Boston. "We need to get our kids ready." Judith Gill, chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, agreed. "STEM education is critical, and it's critical having the policymakers attending this summit and thinking about what we need. The summit is really drawing higher education and K-12 together in a way that hasn't happened before." A number of businesses were also well represented at the conference, including Analog Devices, The Millipore Foundation, PTC Software, Bose, and FST Incorporated, and could speak to their needs as employers. Mark Russell, vice president of Raytheon Co. headquartered in Waltham, explained that "we need the number of new engineers to grow, or we won't grow as a company." The summit's theme, "Fueling the pipeline for the Massachusetts innovation economy," hit home for those with direct connections to the pipeline. "I'm here because I'm interested as a teacher," said Martha Cohn, a middle school science teacher in Lowell. "I'm hoping to find ways to stimulate kids to go into these careers." To fuel the interest of Cohn and other educators, half of the summit was spent on breakout sessions that offered workshops in summer and after-school activities, industry resources, research experiences for teachers, teacher professional development, and teacher recruitment and resources. The keynote speaker for the event was William Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering; the luncheon address was given by David McLaughlin, director of the UMass Amherst NSF Engineering Research Center CASA. The STEM Summit was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Engineering in Massachusetts Collaborative, the UMass Amherst NSF Engineering Research Center CASA, and several industries including Raytheon, Analog Devices, and Millipore. For more information on the STEM Summit and other STEM events, please contact Kathleen Rubin, assistant dean at the College of Engineering, UMass Amherst, 413-545-4757, email: rubin@ecs.umass.edu; or contact Krishna Vedula, founder and executive chair for the Engineering in Mass. Collaborative and professor at UMass Lowell, 978-934-2737, email: Krishna_Vedula@uml.edu.
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