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| Giving STEM Education a LIFT through Corporate Cooperation March 2010
The national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program will ultimately help support our local and national economy. This theme was evident at a recent corporate partnership event co-sponsored by MITRE, along with the Mass High Technology Council, Defense Technology Initiative, and the Mass Technology Leadership Council. A morning of panel discussions—held on Jan. 22, 2010, at our Bedford, Mass., campus—was designed to encourage area businesses to get involved with Leadership Initiatives for Teaching and Technology (LIFT2), an innovative professional learning program for middle and high school teachers that provides company-sponsored externships. "There is tremendous recognition that this [LIFT2 ] is something to be part of and is important to the administration," said Gregory Bialecki, Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, who participated as one of the Massachusetts STEM Priorities Leadership panelists along with Karen E. Spilka, state senator and chair, Senate Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Committee. "Companies come [here] for the workforce," he added. "Some have left, but they come back because they can't get the people they need elsewhere." Speakers emphasized that the same situation holds true on a national level and that STEM professions are vital to competing in the world economy. Jim Stanton, director for LIFT2 Metro South/West Regional Employment Board, facilitated the event and was introduced by MITRE Senior Vice President Bob Nesbit, who provided welcoming remarks to the approximately 60 members of the audience from the education, defense aerospace, and high-tech sectors. Solving a Paradox "This is the 'Mass STEM Paradox,'" said Stanton. "Our fourth and eighth graders are the best in nation in math and science and rate near the top in the world, yet Massachusetts high schoolers choose STEM majors well below the national average. We believe externships are the single most valuable way to ground teachers in real-world experience to take back to the classroom." Externships—designed for those teaching STEM subjects to gain industry experience that they can use to inspire and motivate students to pursue a degree and a career in a STEM area—are a key part of the national LIFT2 program. For example, Ashley McGrath, a math teacher at Westwood High School, interned at MITRE last summer under Steve Boczenowski, a section lead for Information Security Engineering. "I can now answer the question from students, 'When are we ever going to need this?'" said McGrath. "Now I can show them and build examples into the syllabus." She and Boczenowski both sat on the externship panel with Doug Chabinsky, an engineering director from BAE Systems, and Michael Aw, a sixth-grade math teacher at Memorial Elementary School in Hopedale, Mass. In addition to the externships, three graduate classes are offered to teachers at Framingham State College. (Plans to bring the courses to Rhode Island, the only other state currently involved in the program, are under way.) These classes complement the externship and give teachers additional tools to help them instill "21st century skills"—such as problem solving, collaboration, the ability to convey ideas, and initiative—in young people. Once teachers have "graduated" from LIFT2, the hope is their peers will be curious and get involved as well, thus, becoming part of a network that builds momentum. Said Aw, who interned at BAE Systems last summer, "My perspective and how I approach the curriculum have changed because of the classes. I ask my students if they are going to take an active role in society or just be consumers. No one will care who won the Super Bowl next year, but there are lots of problems to be solved like terrorism and pollution." He adds with a smile, "I also tell my kids that more math and science equals more money. They like that." —by Dawn Stapleton Page last updated: May 21, 2010 | Top of page |
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