Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Where have all the math and science students gone?

According to a recent CNN documentary, American students rank 17th in science and 25th in math. The documentary, that airs May 21st, follows three high school students involved in a national robotics competition. Schools use robotics and other hands on learning to get students more involved in the math and science industries. Educators and industry leaders are worried about the future of careers in these areas as well as engineering and technology in general. Qualified applicants for these jobs are getting harder and harder to find.

The "Don't Fail Me: Education in America" documentary follows the students' preparation and competition at the FIRST Robotics Competition that was held in St. Louis, Missouri on April 27-30, 2011. A similar competition will be held in Kansas City June 19 - June 24 in Kansas City, MO. The SkillsUSA conference will be the 47th annual National Leadership and Skills Conference (NLSC). It is expected that more than 15,000 students, teachers and business partners will participate.

This particular conference doesn’t only focus on math and science. Students can showcase their knowledge in 96 different trades that vary from electronics and computer-aided drafting to culinary arts and broadcast news production.

Contests are run with the help of industry and trade associations such as Depco LLC. The competitions are coordinated by these same industrial organizations. Many technological vendors will attend and be on display.

The week-long event will be open to the public and free of charge.

You can read more on CNN's documentary, "Don't Fail Me: Education in America," at the following link.

http://bit.ly/iOK6t4 #cnn

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