This week in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), a company helps students learn both STEAM (STEM +Art) skills and global citizenship, states' industries continue to play a vital role in encouraging interest in STEM and young learners from across the country participate in the same science experiment through the nation's largest youth-led science experiment.

When STEAM Skills Meet Global Citizenship

Courses available through Level-Up Village (LUV) not only teach students vital STEM plus Art skills, they also teach students the importance of global citizenship by connecting them with partner students in developing countries.

Most recently, All Saints Academy in Winter Haven, F.L. became one of 65 participating U.S. schools using LUV courses. The Academy's students are partnered this semester with students in Kenya via Kenya Connect, where many of its students are using technology and computers for the first time.

Students in both schools learn vital STEAM skills through following the same curriculum of video game design and pre-coding. After each class, students in the Florida school are connected to their partner students in Kenya through one-to-one video message exchanges to discuss and share the learning experience.

Read more here.

Industries Give Back, Help Create Future STEM Workers

Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Conn. is partnering with high schools across the states to launch its 2015 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Challenge.

The fifth annual competition is a lengthy one, beginning Oct. 9 and running until May 21 will prompt "students from eight high schools in Fairfield and New Haven counties will be challenged to design a hoist apparatus to recover a downed Corsair aircraft in a scenario in which the aircraft is at risk of drifting out to sea or sinking," the company said in a statement.

Sikorsky employees have no doubt that the competition will help breed future engineers to build the state's future workforce.

One senior at the University of Connecticut School of Engineering, Gazment Sosoli, can attest to this:

I was thinking of going into pre-pharmacy. But after going through my high school's engineering class, I kind of started to like engineering a lot and my teacher said there was a great opportunity to solve a real world engineering problem through the Sikorksy STEM Challenge...After going through the whole experience with the challenge of solving a problem, working with a team of people to get things done and going to Sikorksy and seeing what they had to offer, it gave me a different perspective and changed my focus. I decided to study engineering.

Sikorsky's partnership with surrounding high school represents the crucial involvement of industry in helping increase interest in STEM across the country.

Read more here. 

The Largest Youth-Led Science Experiment Unites STEM Learners Across States

Hundreds of thousands of students were united for 4-H National Youth Science Day, where students across 50 states participated in the same experiment to show that science has no boundaries.

"This year's experiment is called 'Motion Commotion.' It shows how physics works in a distracted driving simulation," according to Weau.com. 

Many schools opted to try the experiment together.

According to YouthToday.org, "[a]bout 400 elementary school students from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington filled a ballroom Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Building to participate in what organizers called the nation’s largest youth-led science experiment."

"In Washington, site of the day’s flagship event, groups of students passed through the ballroom in waves to conduct experiments on motion and reaction time at small tables, with guidance from teachers and 4-H volunteers," the article said.

Read more here. 

Analysis of State's STEM Industry Reveals Troubling Findings

In Florida, where it has been found there are more STEM jobs than in states with booming tech industries like Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, a recent analysis found that STEM jobs in the state are actually on the decline and are not keeping pace with the growth of non-STEM jobs.

"There were 324,000 Floridians employed in STEM jobs in 2014, ranking Florida fourth nationally behind California, Texas and New York, the Cherrystone/InternetCoast report said. But while STEM employment grew nationally from 7 million people in 2010 to 7.84 million in 2014, STEM employment in Florida was stagnant during the same period, according to the report," said BizJournals.com.

On the decline in the state is employment density in STEM jobs compared to total employment despite a national trend that indicates STEM employment density is on the rise.

STEM employment density in Florida fell from "4.6 percent in 2010 to 4.2 percent in 2014, the report said."

Read more here.

Compiled by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

10/13/2015