STEM is all around us, from the complex to the simple. Take your smartphone, for example. This device wouldn’t be possible without the brainpower of engineers. Additionally, improved treatments and cures for diseases are possible because of scientists and medical professionals who have a deep understanding of the human body, but you can find STEM in something as simple as a water fountain.
To continue to fuel innovation and build a strong STEM economy, it’s vital to reach students at an early age and help them realize what a potential STEM career could look like. The first step in creating STEM-capable students is fostering STEM-capable teachers, as they are the bridge that connects young minds to these career paths, writes Deb Holmes, STEMpact project manager and facilitator, in an opinion piece published November 22, 2018, by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
To help prepare educators, STEMpact — an organization facilitated by the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in collaboration with St. Louis’ leading employers — offers professional development programs focused on “stemitizing” instruction by integrating STEM topics into all subjects.
Read more of Holmes comments in her St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed: “Creating a STEM-strong St. Louis.”