STEM

"The nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.”
- President Barack Obama

"The future of Ohio depends on its ability to boost student performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Young people in Ohio will increasingly face stiff competition for jobs from people across the world, and to succeed in the global economy, students will need a much stronger foundation in STEM subject areas." .....Change The Equation STEM Vital Signs

According to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report, there is a wide demographic gap in STEM achievement. See graph below:

	4th Grade Math	8th Grade Math	4th Grade Science	8th Grade Science
Blacks	14%	11%	10%	6%
Hispanics	25%	16%	26%	18%
Whites	54%	41%	50%	43%

The Lorain County Urban League has joined forces with the NASA Glen Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, in an effort to increase the interest of underrepresented and underserved students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Our goal is to leverage the excitement of NASA content to stimulate interest in STEM, in particular, and the love of learning, in general, among the students we serve. Most of the students that LCUL serves are minorities and first generation low-income students - groups that NASA identified as significantly and traditionally underrepresented in STEM careers. LCUL is integrating NASA STEM content into its Project Ready Early College Readiness Program; Project Ready is an evidence-based flagship program of the National Urban League.

Through this partnership, NASA will help LCUL and Project Ready to provide:

• An intensive and interactive middle school education experience that accelerates underrepresented, underserved and underperforming students learning and improves student STEM skills and knowledge
• Strategic infusion of NASA content and educational resource materials into evidence-based programs
• A community of STEM education stakeholders able to sustain engagement and accelerate achievement of students
• Instructional content aligned with district and/or state standards so that the impacts can be assessed
• Professional development and training opportunities for educators leading students in STEM learning
• Assessments of effectiveness of project intervention and the effectiveness of STEM learning communities developed through this project. This will include assessing student improvement in STEM knowledge and skills, changes in teachers' instructional practice (and resulting impact on student achievement), and attitude about STEM college study and careers
• Ongoing STEM engagement and follow-on activities

In addition to stimulating interest in STEM, this partnership will assist the Lorain County Urban League to continue to counter what some educators call the "summer slide" (loss of academic skills over the summer) and other issues facing students from educationally and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Specifically, Project Ready middle school participants will be included in NASA summer project activities.

What Has Been Accomplished

The Lorain County Urban League kicked off the Project Ready STEM component with a very successful Open House, which gave NASA the opportunity to engage a cafeteria full of very enthusiastic students in several hands-on projects, including how to design a robotic arm similar to the one on the Hobble Space Station.

Hands-on Projects were the highlight of the evening

A key goal of Project Ready and the partnership with NASA is to provide year-round sustained exposure to STEM education and learning for our target population.

Science - The DIME Experiment

Student experiments were tested and evaluated by NASA Engineers and Scientists.

Technology - A Day at the FAB Lab

A FAB Lab is a small scale workshop that uses various machines and computers to create product/project prototypes. Project Ready students used laser technology to design and print name tags on metal plates.

Engineering - Airplane Camp

The Summer Component of Project Ready capped off many months of excitement. Please enjoy the video below to learn more!

Math - A Sweet Sprinkling of Math on Everything

The STEM project reinforced the saying that "It does not feel like work when a person is doing something he/she loves." The students were having so much fun they did not stop to think that they were applying Math in each and every project.

How the Community Can Help

We invite businesses, educational institutions and individuals to partner with us by making a financial commitment. We need:

• Access to cutting edge technology, such as computers, smart boards and video editing equipment that can be used to give students hands-on technology experiences.
• Computers that can be networked together; our computers range in age from 1 year to 10 years old. The newest ones can not connect to the old server.

We need volunteers from High Tech companies who can serve as subject matter experts and teach our students some exciting stuff. We also need certified teachers who are interested in the professional development opportunity that NASA is offering through this initiative; these teachers will in turn, help to provide students sustained exposure to STEM. In short, we need a community of STEM education stakeholders to help us develop a sustainable STEM project in Lorain County.