Filling the STEM Pipeline

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Filling the STEM Pipeline

• Betty ShanahanExecutive Director CEOSociety
  of Women Engineers

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The Society of Women Engineers

• Founded in 1950, the Society of Women Engineers
  (SWE) is the driving force that establishes
  engineering as a highly desirable career
  aspiration for women.
• SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in
  those aspirations and receive the recognition and
  credit for their life-changing contributions and
  achievements as engineers and leaders.
• 20,000 members in 400 professional and
  collegiate sections

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A Nation at Risk, April 1983National Commission
on Excellence in Education

• History is not kind to idlers. The time is long
  past when American's destiny was assured simply
  by an abundance of natural resources and
  inexhaustible human enthusiasm, and by our
  relative isolation from the malignant problems of
  older civilizations. The world is indeed one
  global village. We live among determined,
  well-educated, and strongly motivated
  competitors. We compete with them for
  international standing and markets, not only with
  products but also with the ideas of our
  laboratories and neighborhood workshops If only
  to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge
  we still retain in world markets, we must
  dedicate ourselves to the reform of our
  educational system for the benefit of all--old
  and young alike, affluent and poor, majority and
  minority. Learning is the indispensable
  investment required for success in the
  "information age" we are entering.

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Technology

• "What makes us different from other expansionary
  species is our ability to adapt to new habitats
  through technology We invent tools and devices
  that enable us to spread into areas for which we
  are not biologically adapted. As this
  technological capacity developed, it allowed our
  distant ancestors to spread over Earth and now
  enables us to contemplate leaving our natal
  planet."
• Ben R. Finney and Eric M. Jones, Interstellar
  Migration and the Human Experience, 1983

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Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th
Century

• Electrification
• Automobile
• Airplane
• Water Supply and Distribution
• Electronics
• Radio and Television
• Agricultural Mechanization
• Computers
• Telephone
• Air Conditioning and Refrigeration

• Highways
• Spacecraft
• Internet
• Imaging
• Household Appliances
• Health Technologies
• Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
• Laser and Fiber Optics
• Nuclear Technologies
• High-performance Materials

National Academy of Engineering 2001
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Innovation and the Economy

• In the last 50 years, more than half of Americas
  sustained economic growth was created by the 5
  of the workforce who create, manage, and maintain
  the processes and products of innovation
  engineers, scientists, and advanced-degree
  technologists.
• As the number of jobs requiring engineering and
  scientific training grows, the number of students
  preparing for those careers remains level.
• This imbalance threatens our future economic
  competitiveness, our quality of life, and our
  national security.

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Top Challenges of the 21st Century

• Make solar energy affordable
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics

• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools for scientific discovery

National Academy of Engineering 2008
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Technical Literacy

• Can a citizen be a literate adult and discuss
  policy without an understanding of technology?
• Energy policy
• Health care policy
• Transportation
• Economic policy
• Environmental policy
• Urban growth

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The Importance of Diversity to Engineering
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The Value of Diversity to Innovation

• Servicing an increasingly diverse, global
  marketplace
• Recruiting and retaining the best talent
• Expanding creativity and better decision making
  due to
• Varied perspectives
• A wider array of ideas and solutions
• Challenge to long-accepted views
• Divergent thinking
• Differing communication skills

As a consequence of a lack of diversity, we pay
an opportunity cost, a cost in designs not
thought of, in solutions not produced. -
William A. Wulf, Past President, National Academy
of Engineering
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United States Changing DemographicsWorking
Population (25 64)
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Additional Dimensions of Diversity

• Physical abilities
• Sexual orientation
• Socio-economic background
• Upbringing and life experiences

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The Engineering Talent Pipeline
Industry and Government Careers
Middle/High School
Undergraduate Program
Graduate Study
Academic Careers
Curious, intelligent children
Establishedpracticingengineers
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Advanced Placement Tests

• In 2005 girls were
• 56 of Overall AP test-takers
• 59 of Biology AP test-takers
• 48 of Calculus AP test-takers
• 15 of Computer Science AP test-takers
• 31 of Physics AP test-takers

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Engineering Bachelors Degrees to U.S. Citizens
and Permanent Residents
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2006 BS in Engineering Technology
Source Engineering Workforce Commission
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Perceptions of Engineering
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Publics Perception of Engineering
AAES/Harris Polls, 2003
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From the Educators Perspective

• Teachers are overwhelmingly positive about
  engineering in the abstract, extolling the
  virtues of an engineering education and career.
• However, when it comes down to their students,
  they believe that manyand especially females and
  minoritiescannot succeed in the engineering
  world.
• Teachers were asked is majoring in engineering is
  more difficult than majoring in
• English 32.5 strongly agreed and 30.9 agreed
• Finance 26.0 strongly agreed and 29.8 agreed
• Sociology 35.5 strongly agreed and 31.4 agreed
• Biology 13.0 strongly agreed and 25.7 agreed

Engineering in the K-12 Classroom
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Who Is an Engineer?

• The curiousYou can teach everything else.

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NAEs Engineer of 2020

• Positions engineering in a broad global and
  societal context
• Attributes include
• Strong analytical skills
• Practical ingenuity skill in planning,
  combining, and adapting
• Creativity invention, innovation, thinking
  outside the box, art
• Good communications interdisciplinary teams,
  globally diverse team members, public officials,
  and a global customer base
• Business and management skills
• Leadership skills
• High ethical standards and a strong sense of
  professionalism
• Dynamism, agility, resilience, and flexibility.
• Lifelong learners

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Creating an Inclusive Environment
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Selecting Classroom Materials

• Culturally sensitive, societally relevant
• Diversity obvious in images of engineers
• Teamwork featured
• Develop technical confidence through technical
  competence
• Dont assume background knowledge that makes
  understanding concepts or exercises hard

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Selecting the Hands-On Activity

• Does the activity have a positive impact?
• Robots that battle each other
• Robots that perform a service for a person
• Is teamwork and partnership valued
• Does the activity have multidisciplinary
  components?
• Tradeoffs required for designs to emulate
  real-world constraints
• Customer requirements and marketing of a product
  to be designed

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History Is Not Kind to Idlers

• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
  committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
  it is the only thing that ever has.
• - Margaret Mead