Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

Raise the Bar: STEM Excellence for All Students is the most recent Department of Education initiative “designed to strengthen and increase science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education nationwide.” It’s a great initiative that summoned to mind that nearly 20 years ago, the National Academies formed a committee of experts from the scientific and technical community “to identify specific steps that the federal government should take to ensure the preeminence of America’s science and technology enterprise,” and, where appropriate, make recommendations. The committee was asked to identify “urgent challenges and determine specific steps to ensure that the United States maintains its leadership in science and engineering to compete successfully, prosper, and be secure in the 21st century.”

As a result, after a comprehensive assessment, the National Academies published its “RISING ABOVE THEGATHERING STORM: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future” report.  The report’s two key challenges are closely coupled with STEM education. They are 1) creating high-quality jobs for Americans, and 2) responding to the nation’s need for clean, affordable and reliable energy. To address the above challenges, thecommittee’s four recommendations focused on “actions in K-12 education (10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds), research (Sowing the Seeds), higher education (Best and Brightest), and economic policy (Incentives for Innovation).” To achieve the goals, 20 implementation steps were listed. Since then, many published reports have discussed the levels of achievement of the report’s goals.

Accordingly, here at S&T, we have taken the spirit of the thoughtful and enduring National Academies’ report to heart and are contributing to its  “10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds” mantle. Through the generous Kummer gift, we established the Kummer Center for STEM Education at S&T that has enhanced K-12 educators and students’ views of STEM education. The STEM Center has become a destination of choice for our rural school educators to seek support, equipment and experimental setups for their classes. STEM teachers reach out about future careers for their students or if they need to better understand a new concept. We can encourage them to come to campus and experience our STEM Days, our summer camps or to take advantage of research opportunities and other programs. Collaboratively, our many K-12 partners hold joint symposia and conferences to advance the Rising Above the Gathering Storm goals. This year alone, our newest partner, Missouri Afterschool Network, hosted four conferences on campus for students and teachers to cross-pollinate effective pedagogical ideas. There were students and educators on campus who would have potentially never visited campus otherwise. The Kummer Center for STEM Education has worked to narrow the STEM education gaps that exist in many rural schools and for students across Missouri.

Our STEM Center’s summer camps, along with campus visits and the STEM Mobile, allow students and teachers to experience STEM in tangible ways. Our impact extends to professional development for teachers through curriculum development cohorts for middle school science teachers along with biology, chemistry and physical science teachers. Additionally, recently we established a new cohort for English and language arts teachers to integrate STEM education awareness into their classrooms.

In addition to our Project Lead The Way that offers various training and support services for K-12 teachers, S&T is home to the South Central Regional Professional Development Center, with the mission to “transform educators through professional learning, support and development to maximize student success.” Building on our success in STEM teacher development, we are striving to become a national STEM Learning Ecosystem.

As an institute of technology, for over 150 years Missouri S&T has trained and educated generations of STEM-educated scientists and engineers that have contributed to a technological world that has terrifically enhanced life around the world. To appreciate the impact of STEM education, an attempt to imaginatively reconstruct history without STEM would reveal a world without sanitation, safe drinking water, electric power, electronic communication, medical equipment and procedures, fast transportation, protective shelter or hundreds of other life-enhancing scientific and engineering ideas.

Having said this, I feel compelled to highlight that I frequently receive inquiries from parents who are concerned that their daughter or son has not taken calculus and therefore “will not be able to pursue a STEM education.” They invariably ask what other fields of study they should consider, now that they have missed the calculus boat in high school. To which I say, “It’s never too late.”  After all, only 50% of high schools offer calculus or physics or chemistry. And, frankly speaking, and realizing that I am a minority voice in the matter, I have always wished that high schools would focus, in depth, on precalculus topics and leave calculus teaching to colleges.

To all parents and students who feel they missed the STEM wagon, I say, you belong in STEM, and, with your determination, we will help you exceed your potential, and together we will raise the bar.

Warmly,

-Mo.

Share your thoughts!

Check out the latest news from S&T:

• Camp highlights: Campus is a busy place during summer break
• Missouri S&T professor’s micro research project receives major Air Force grant
• Grubbs named interim vice provost of graduate education

Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu