STEM Careers Coalition Aims to Reach 10 Million Students
Discovery Education has announced the creation of the STEM Careers Coalition to help educators develop a pipeline of students who are interested in pursuing careers in STEM fields. The initiative will provide no-cost resources to students and educators, including virtual field trips, digital instructional assets and career exploration videos.
The resources will help students "build foundational STEM knowledge and develop the critical thinking 21st Century skills for college and career success." The initiative has received with initial seed funding and support from Chevron, The Manufacturing Institute, the American Petroleum Institute, Boeing, Microsoft and Best Buy.
The coalition will implement a phased approach with a pilot year to measure program impact and develop ways to scale strategically. The initiative will scale up over a five year period and expect to reach 10 million students by 2025 with support from corporate supporters and industry partners.
There are five components of the STEM Careers Coalition's work:
- Direct investment in schools by providing K-12 STEM career resources, STEM Connect access and professional development for under-resourced schools.
- Employee engagement through mobilizing the current STEM workforce at scale to inspire and connect with tomorrow's employees through engaging classroom experiences.
- Thought leadership with multi sector leaders working to together to implement the initiative.
- Careers portal to provide schools, parents, press and the public with stories of the people and future needs of critical industries and the companies leading the way.
- Research and impact to optimize and measure STEM engagement and career awareness through an evaluation by McREL International.
More information about the STEM Careers Coalition is available on Discovery's website.
About the Author
Sara Friedman is a reporter/producer for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe covering education policy and a wide range of other public-sector IT topics.
Friedman is a graduate of Ithaca College, where she studied journalism, politics and international communications.
Friedman can be contacted at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @SaraEFriedman.
Click here for previous articles by Friedman.