Why STEM Education?

Now you may ask, “why should I worry about teaching Science to my students?”  OK, let’s talk about Why STEM Education. First of all, what is STEM education? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In 1899 the commissioner of the United States Patent Office is reported to have said “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” in a recommendation that the patent office be closed. Thank goodness he was wrong! It would have been much harder for everyone to be here if cars were still unaffordable and planes didn’t exist! Both airplanes and cheaper cars were invented by some engineer who was just better at problem solving than the guy before him. And PERSONALLY, this would have been a bad thing, as my husband, is a Patent lawyer, protecting inventors as they create and design new items.

Encouraging you to put more time and resources into your children’s education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is important to me. We need more engineers and other kinds of scientists! Having a STEM degree is extremely advantageous to your students.  Having a STEM education allows your children to grow into successful adults who can think and perform in the real world.

To start with, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, writes in April of this year:  The U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) that is expected to intensify as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows. Forbes Magazine wrote in December of 2011,  “As any technological executive in Silicon Valley could tell you, hiring engineers is one of their toughest tasks these days…. People with engineering degrees are more sought after for jobs.  But even in non-technical fields, people with engineering degrees are more sought after than liberal arts majors with the same years of work experience.”  Why is that?  Just knowing the finer nuances of working with Excel spreadsheets makes a clerical worker a better candidate in today’s technological workforce.  And if the U.S.  can’t provide the engineers? Well, companies go elsewhere!  Also, Forbes asks, “Which tech companies most rely on foreign-educated engineers? Some of the biggest names in technology. Microsoft, Google, IBM, Accenture and Cisco, have the most foreign educated engineers, according to data compiled on employment and education.  Even companies like Facebook, which are relatively young, have a sizable number of engineers educated abroad.” What’s behind the high demand for engineers? There’s an increasing demand both from tech companies and non-tech companies for highly-skilled engineers to create, build and maintain high quality systems at various levels from manufacturing to product design. But the growth in United States engineering grads has not kept pace. Many tech companies hire engineers who have been educated overseas. The U.S. H1-B Visa program was designed to bring talented “speciality occupations” such as engineers into the U.S.  On Monday, March 3, 2014 CNBC reported that, “Applications for H-1B visas allowing foreign nationals to work in the U.S. are expected to keep rising in 2014, according to one analyst. At least 160,000 applications are expected for the 85,000 available visas when the filing season opens on April 1, said Marc Klein, an immigration attorney with Thompson & Knight.” "It just shows the U.S. still lags behind other countries when it comes to an emphasis on educating American-born students in computer science, math and other areas," said Klein, who handles visa requests. "So many get advanced degrees at American universities that natural-born citizens don't receive, and (which) are needed for the hard-to-fill jobs," he said. "They go home, and yet so many of them make up the number of applications to work here."  So, basically, STEM majors are higher paid and have higher employment.  In comparing 3 different reports on the success of STEM majors, Think Advisor, which advises the investment community, notes that 29 of the 30 most employable majors are Science, Technology, Engineering and Math majors, while Forbes lists 14 of the top 15 majors as STEM majors.  Forbes notes, “ “According to PayScale's massive compensation database and job growth projections through 2020 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, these 15 college majors are the most valuable in terms of salary and career prospects. They are ranked by median starting pay, median mid-career pay (at least 10 years experience), percentage growth in pay and projected growth of job opportunities.”  The last comparison list I saw was from USA Today, where they ranked the top 10 college majors, with 9 of them being STEM majors.  So you ask huh?  14 out of 15?  29 out of 30? 9 out of 10?  What is that other great major?  It is called “Construction Management”.  Not typically a STEM major, but I can imagine that when you are working with structural engineers and architects, some background will be needed!