White House Highlights Educate To Innovate STEM Initiative
President Announces Educate to Innovate Initiative at White House.
President Obama launches the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, a nationwide effort to help reach the administration’s goal of moving American students from the middle of the pack to the front in science and math achievement over the next decade.
The President will announce a series of partnerships involving leading companies, universities, foundations, non-profits, and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers and teachers that will motivate and inspire young people across the country to excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The White House reports that the “Educate to Innovate” campaign is to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The event kicked off at 11:30 a.m. with a speech from the President. OSTP Director John P. Holdren and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will also be hosting a Facebook cha to discuss the new initiative.
More information is available at the newly created “Educate to Innovate” White House Web site.
Improving STEM education for the nation’s youth is one of this Administration’s highest priorities. The President will be announcing a series of partnerships that involve leading companies, foundations, teachers, and scientists and engineers to help motivate and inspire American students to excel in science and math.
This is the first step in a series of events and announcements that will embody the President’s promise last April, when he spoke to the National Academy of Sciences and pledged to participate in a public awareness and outreach campaign to encourage students to consider careers in science, mathematics, and engineering–because our future depends on it.
At today’s kick-off event, President Obama announced the launch of five major public-private partnerships that have committed to helping unleash the power of media, interactive games, hands-on learning, and community volunteers to reach millions of students over the next four years, inspiring them to become the next generation of engineers and scientists, inventors and innovators.
The new campaign builds on the President’s Inaugural Address, which included a vow to put science “in its rightful place.” One of those rightful places, of course, is the classroom. Yet too often our schools lack support for teachers or the other resources needed to convey the practical utility and remarkable beauty of science and engineering. As a result, students become overwhelmed in their classes and ultimately disengaged. They lose, and our nation loses too.
The partnerships launched today aim to change that. They respond to a challenge made by the President in April, when he spoke at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences and asked the nation’s philanthropists, professional and educational societies, corporations, and individuals to collaborate and innovate with the goal of reinvigorating America’s STEM educational enterprise. The partnerships announced today — dramatic commitments in the hundreds of millions of dollars, generated through novel collaborations and creative outreach activities — are just the first wave of commitments anticipated in response to his call.
Think about how you or your organization can build on this momentum. And let’s pull together to open our children’s eyes to the countless ways in which science, engineering, and math can help America and the world find solutions to the many challenges we face.
* Watch it through WhiteHouse.gov/live
* Watch, discuss and engage through Facebook
John P. Holdren is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and the Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Topics: American students, Educate to Innovate, education, engineering, innovation, math, mathematics, President Obama, science, scientists, STEM, technology, White House
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