Please join us for the Spring
Social Hour
at the University of
St. Thomas
Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 4:00 - 6:30pm
Come and meet others who are passionate about STEM. Learn about what’s going on in the STEM community. Get engaged with the MN STEM Network. Find out how the University of St. Thomas is supporting STEM and training our future work force.
The University of St. Thomas offers many graduate and undergraduate college degrees. This event is being hosted by:
St. Thomas is recognized and respected for its STEM programs, including Science Technology & Engineering Preview Summer Camp for Girls (STEPS), their annual “Engineering Minnesota’s Future” event that stimulates broad support among business, parents, government and media for STEM education, and their Center for Pre-Collegiate Engineering Education (CPCEE), which offers an engineering minor for PK-12 educators through the Schools of Engineering and Education.
Location: 1st floor Owens Hall, St. Paul Campus
(Just outside the 3M Auditorium-room OWS 150)
Parking: Anderson Ramp, on the SW corner of Cretin and Grand Avenues.
Cost is $1 per hour after 4pm.
RSVP by April 22 to Colleen Sauter at saut4428@stthomas.edu.
Gear Up for 2013 STEM Day at the State Fair
SciMathMN is excited to host the fourth annual STEM Day at the State Fair on Opening Day, Thursday, August 22nd. Companies and institutions interested in presenting at STEM Day should download the application and send to stemday2013@scimathmn.org. Applications are due by Friday, May 24.
Northeast Minnesota STEM Network Meeting Attracts Overflow Audience
Over 100 stakeholders of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development attended the first meeting of the Northeast Minnesota STEM Network in Proctor on November 8, 2012. This event brought together business, education, civic, and community leaders who have a stake in improving STEM education and workforce development in Northeast Minnesota.
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Left to Right: Nathan Meyer, Aaron Fischer, Tom Jamar, Inez Wildwood,
and Steve Kelley
The meeting began with a panel presentation about Northeast Minnesota STEM education and workforce development. Steve Kelley, a board member of SciMathMN and Senior Fellow at the Humphrey School, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, presented on the value of STEM Networks and in particular, a regional STEM Network in Northeast Minnesota. Inez Wildwood of Allete, Inc. gave remarks on the value of STEM to Northeast Minnesota's future workforce. Tom Jamar of Jasper Engineering followed with remarks about the Hibbing Engineering Committee, Aaron Fischer, superintendent of Esko Schools, talked about working with the business community to prepare students for post-secondary education. Nathan Meyer of University of Minnesota Extension described how educational opportunities outside the classroom contribute toward students' interest in STEM.
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Attendees then met in small groups to discuss goals, short-term initiatives, and next steps for the network. The groups shared their conclusions with the whole audience at the conclusion of the meeting.
A leadership team has formed following the meeting to help guide the collective work of the Northeast Minnesota STEM Network. The team meets monthly and will determine when to hold the next regional meeting.
Thanks again to the sponsors who made it possible to offer the November 8th meeting without a registration fee.
Gold Level
Silver Level
Bronze Level
Questions may be directed to Anne Hornickel at ahornick@umn.edu.
Second Edition of Vital Signs Released
Change the Equation, a non-partisan, CEO-led initiative that is mobilizing the business community to improve the quality of STEM education in the United States, has produced a second edition of Vital Signs for each state. The Vital Signs are data-rich summaries of STEM investment and achievement, such as:
- Workforce demands in STEM and non-STEM
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores in math and science
- Level of expectations set by state standards and assessments
- Achievement gaps among cultural backgrounds and income levels
- Teachers’ content knowledge in math and science
- Access to challenging math and science courses, and disparities among cultures
A local, separate initiative of the Wilder Foundation, Minnesota Compass cites four key measures in its education category: 3rd grade reading levels, 9th grade attendance, 11th grade math scores, and high school graduation. The data can be broken down by regions, regional districts, and counties. The key measures for economy and workforce are economic output (GDP); jobs; median income and educational attainment.
STEM Day at the State Fair—A Big Success
By all estimates, attendance at the third annual STEM Day at the State Fair doubled--serving nearly 4,000 visitors--compared to last year. Carousel Park was humming with activity all day long as families enjoyed hands-on STEM activities. Youth assembled planes on computers using 3D design software at the STARBASE booth, designed model wind turbines to generate the most electricity at the St. Cloud State booth, and saw a projection of the night sky in the ExploraDome of the Bell Museum of Natural History.
 Everyone enjoyed testing structures against a model tsunami in a wave tank at the MTS Corp. booth and operating the robots built by FIRST Robotics teams. Physics Force, the Chemistry Show, the Bakken Museum performers and the Raptor Center drew audiences on the hour.
In between shows, the Minnesota High Tech Association and the Minnesota Department of Education announced the expansion and regional development of getSTEM, a service linking 'asks' and 'offers' between business and education. Dale Klapmeier, co-founder and CEO of Cirrus Aircraft and chair of AirSpace Minnesota, announced the first annual Minnesota Aerospace and Aviation Week held from September 16 - 22, 2012.
We are grateful for the financial support of our sponsors: An individual gift from Mike and Becky Thyken and corporate support from 3M, ATK, Boston Scientific, H.B. Fuller and MTS Systems. In-kind support was provided by the University of Minnesota and Seagate.
Strategic Planning Update
CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) completed its research and recommendations on strategic planning for the Minnesota STEM Network. Ben Aase of CLA presented an overview of research outcomes informing their recommendations for directions for the network.
CLA project consultants
-reviewed background documents on SciMathMN and early network materials;
-implemented a survey to 635 individual stakeholders which collected responses from 238 individuals -representing 185 organizations;
-studied five other state STEM networks—Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin;
-interviewed 111 STEM stakeholders through individual interviews and focus groups in Brainerd, Rochester, Minneapolis, and St. Cloud.
The research led to these key recommendations that would deliver the greatest value for a state STEM network:
Engage Network members in building excitement for STEM disciplines and public awareness of the importance of a strong STEM workforce to Minnesota’s future.
Foster and support the development of Regional Hubs to encourage cross-sector collaborations, implement regional STEM education goals and promote STEM learning opportunities.
Support the dissemination of high quality STEM education practices across sectors and regional hubs.
Collect and disseminate research on STEM learning and statewide progress in metrics to stakeholders, including regional hubs, and state legislators.
Organize a coalition of funders that support STEM education and provide them with a perspective on high quality STEM programming and develop standards for funding.
Increase awareness of professional development opportunities in the community of formal and informal educators, and foster collaboration to make these opportunities more widely available.
At the afternoon plenary session of the annual meeting the attendees discussed revisions to the Network's existing goals in light of these recommendations.
Strategic planning for the Minnesota STEM Network has been generously funded by Boston Scientific.
 
Recent Articles and Reports of Interest
Download these recent STEM Education articles and reports on regional, state, and national issues and assessments on STEM education.
Report to the President: Engage to Excel: Producing one million additional college graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Executive Office of the President. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. February 2012
Examining an Early Childhood to Early Career Educational Partnership in the Twin Cities. A Report of the Strive Working Group, October 2011.
Government Accounting Office (GAO) Studies Overlapping programs in STEM across Multiple Agencies – January 2012
Iowa STEM Education Roadmap: A Strategic Plan for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education 2011.
One Minneapolis Community Indicators Report, prepared by the Minneapolis Foundation and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, October 2011.
P-20 STEM Achievement Gap Strategic Plan. A STEM Achievement Gap Strategic Planning Workgroup Final Report, December 2011.
Carnevale, A., Smith, N., and Melton, M. STEM – Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, October 2011.
STEM-Up Initiative -- a community-building, content rich, culturally responsive intervention in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles to effectively create sustained student success in STEM. STEM-Up™ is designed to transform the attitudes, values, perceptions and behaviors of students, parents, teachers, and administrators in the way they view math and science as potential careers. STEM-Up is an initiative of Great Minds in STEM, funded through the U.S. Department of Defense.
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