Education and Business Working Together to Support STEM Curricula

STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curricula, was the focus of a panel discussion late last week at Carl Sandburg Junior High School in Rolling Meadows, which included Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth.

Education and business leaders from in and around Palatine made up the panel. It included District 15 Superintendent Scott Thompson, Theresa Busch-D211 assistant superintendent of instruction and Bruce Heggeland, the manufacturing liaison at Harper College.

Representatives from Motorola Solutions Foundation and Northrop Grumman also attended; both companies donate millions each year to promote STEM education, which could land students now in future jobs with those and other companies.

Partnerships that exist from elementary schools all the way through universities appear to be stealth already.

“We direct STEM relationship resources from the university to kindergarten through 12th grade,” Kemi Jona, director of STEM education partnerships at Northwestern University. “There are in-school and after school programs with partners such as Motorola and Northrop Grumman who help to fund these initiatives.”

Harper College also is doing its part by providing continuing education for its students relating to STEM education, in addition to keeping a pulse on manufacturing company skill-sets needed by future workers.

“We have created a curriculum around STEM skills. We track kids coming through to transition from high school to the community college, and are working directly with manufacturing companies within a 15-mile radius of Harper,” Heggeland said.

He added that in that area, there are 7,000 manufacturing companies, and an enormous demand for skilled workers to fill open positions.

District 15 instituted a strong move toward encouraging STEM skills in 2012, which has included instruction and hands-on opportunities to learn about automation and robotics.

“The lego league team creates robots and participate in competitions – the children get energized and very excited about the future of STEM education,” Thompson said.

Thompson said sizable grants from both the Motorola Solutions Foundation and Northrop Grumman made the curriculum offering possible.

“The common theme is partnerships; we are working toward having every high school graduate either college or career ready, not only in District 211 but also in District 214 and 200,” Busch said. “We are now offering college credit courses that include engineering fundamentals-we find students are more apt to finish degrees when they go into college with credits.”

There does appear to be a gap between girls and boys and how they engage with STEM curricula, though the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana has taken a lead role in an effort to change that.

“Studies tell us children like STEM, but girls are steered away from these careers - our goal is to spark their interest,” said Vicky King, vice president of partnerships, alliances and girl initiatives with the Girl Scouts.

She added that the organization exposes girls to STEM through mentoring events, and helps them learn about paths to get into related careers.

“We give them tools to help them decide, and we focus on girls age nine to 13 – they are very interested in building robots and demonstrating their knowledge. This sparks them to engage in other projects,” King said.  

Duckworth commended the strong partnerships already in place to support STEM education for children, in light of the fact there are currently 350,000 unfilled STEM jobs in Illinois alone.

“We need to be competitive, and have an economy built to last, where innovation will flourish,” Duckworth said. “Manufacturing companies are looking to grow and expand, and need legislative help to support them through tax policy, import and export, and creating a pipeline of workers that have the skills to join these companies.”