NASA, National Science Foundation Announce Support for White House STEM Engagement Plan

Information from NASA News Emails
Post Reply
User avatar
Commander
Space Captain
Space Captain
Posts: 780
Joined: Wed, 30 Mar 16, 01:49 am
Location: On the Starport

#1 NASA, National Science Foundation Announce Support for White House STEM Engagement Plan

Post by Commander »

December 04, 2018
RELEASE 18-112
NASA, National Science Foundation Announce Support for White House STEM Engagement Plan
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, co-chair for the Committee on STEM Education, speaks about NASA's commitments to the White House-led strategic plan that focuses on strengthening education in STEM.<br />Credits: NASA
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, co-chair for the Committee on STEM Education, speaks about NASA's commitments to the White House-led strategic plan that focuses on strengthening education in STEM.
Credits: NASA
18-112.jpg (78.36 KiB) Viewed 1897 times
NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with other federal agencies, have committed to a White House-led effort to strengthen education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Charting a Course for Success: A Federal Strategy for STEM Education lays out the federal government’s role in furthering STEM education by working with state and local stakeholders, the education community and American employers. Its goals include building a STEM-proficient citizenry, creating a STEM-ready workforce and removing barriers to STEM careers, especially for women and underrepresented groups.

Federal agencies selected specific directives to align with the goals of the strategic plan, which was released today by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Science and Technology Council Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM).

In recognition of the importance of STEM education to the NASA community, the NASA Advisory Council Ad Hoc Task Force on STEM Education will be elevated to the status of a permanent standing committee. While the ad hoc task force has supported NASA’s STEM education efforts for many years, this move ensures the STEM education community has a voice on the NASA Advisory Council for years to come.

“STEM education is vital to everything we do at NASA,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, co-chair for the Committee on STEM Education. “In recognition of this, I am proud to announce a new permanent STEM committee that will provide guidance to the NASA Advisory Council on how NASA can promote STEM-learning initiatives. We are committed to, and dependent upon, inspiring future generations of STEM leaders who will bring diversity of thought and perspective to NASA. Current and future students will take us to the Moon, Mars, and beyond as we continue to explore our universe.”

Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES), an NSF initiative launched in 2016, seeks to enhance U.S. STEM leadership through nationwide networks focused on solutions to broadening participation in the sciences. The initiative addresses the White House report’s goals of maintaining the country’s innovation capacity by increasing diversity and inclusion through broader access to STEM.

“There are populations in the United States who are missing from the STEM ecosystem,” said NSF Director France Córdova, also a co-chair for the Committee on STEM Education. “The nation will be stronger when these people are given access to STEM education and encouraged to become innovators. Our STEM enterprise will never reach its full potential until that happens. I’m proud to be part of this effort. We will find new ways to inspire all our nation’s young people, support them and encourage more of them to pursue amazing careers in STEM.”

Over the coming months, NASA will work with the NSF INCLUDES community to better understand how NASA’s unique assets can support the community as they seek to broaden participation in STEM careers.

NSF also announced a $10 million commitment to its newly launched Data Science Corps, which will provide basic training in data science to existing workforces at the local, state and national levels, teaching new skills and offering new experiences. NSF expects also to fund 200 internships of up to $55,000 for graduate students in fiscal years 2019 and 2020.

To learn more about NASA’s STEM Engagement, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/education/overview/index.html

-end-
Commander
Starport Sagitta
NAR No.97971
User avatar
luke strawwalker
Space Admiral
Space Admiral
Posts: 1543
Joined: Thu, 07 Apr 16, 04:45 am

#2 Re: NASA, National Science Foundation Announce Support for White House STEM Engagement Plan

Post by luke strawwalker »

Interesting... of course all the STEM education in the world is meaningless unless they actually DO something with it... it'd be nice if NASA actually led the way on that.

I was watching a YouTube video today, kind of feeding my "conspiracy theory" curiosity (I find it interesting, although of course I keep an open mind BOTH ways-- taking extraordinary claims with a grain of salt, but firmly believing the human axiom "where there's smoke, there's fire"). At any rate, I was watching a former NASA employee from back in the Apollo days, who had "picture evidence" of stuff on the Moon (buildings and such) that he had from his days working in the image lab cataloging it all as it came back from the NASA lunar missions, before it was "retouched" to eliminate things they didn't want to be seen out of the pictures... (perhaps? who knows).

At any rate, the man did have a fascinating story about how he joined NASA and how he jumped from contractor to contractor to stay on at NASA as one job after another was finished and the contract terminated... he managed to stay on until 1980, but he realized that basically he wasn't any one place long enough to build any retirement, so he finally left the NASA contractor treadmill and went into private industry for Boeing. His take on the post-Apollo "brain drain" was quite interesting... He mentioned how his company (Grumman was one-- he worked on the lunar module, and then worked for some other companies) had laid off 30,000 people nationwide once the ax fell on Apollo... and for awhile there were PhD's selling newspapers on street corners in Houston, trying to make a buck until they could get a new job elsewhere...

That CERTAINLY makes a STEM job look appealing, doesn't it?? Working for NASA and being at the whim of whatever Congressvermin decide to do next?? Getting the ax without so much as a "fair thee well" and turned out to pasture?? If the gubmint wasn't SO short sighted, they could have kept those people employed and moved them on to the next "goal"; imagine where we'd be by now??

Instead, NASA cut most of the team loose, and NASA became an entrenched bureaucracy, more interested in the political ramifications and maneuvering to secure its "ten healthy centers" and keep its remaining lobbying aerospace industry contractors happy, regardless of WHAT, if anything, gets done in space, and 'what it costs' and "how long it will take" isn't even on the radar anymore... now it's all about checking political boxes off, to keep the gubmint and aerospace companies fat and happy.

That's why NASA was in over its head on Ares I and V, and remains so on Orion and SLS even now... MOST of the remaining propulsion and launch vehicle development people went to "industry" decades ago; the ones remaining at NASA were only either focused solely on operating NASA's ONLY launch vehicle (shuttle) or were theoreticians dealing with pure abstractions, "studying" various other launch vehicle concepts and spacecraft ideas, never actually building or "hands on" anything... So, they found their skills sets woefully short when the time came for NASA to develop another "in-house" space launch vehicle and spacecraft.

Very few in industry were willing to "jump ship" over to NASA either, either remembering or having heard from the "gray beards" what happened to them when the "contract ended" and NASA no longer needed their services... many took a BATH when they had to relocate, with entire neighborhoods clearing out around JSC and KSC on the "Space Coast" and depressed property values as a result, and them having to sell out at a loss and move elsewhere to find employment for the big aerospace contractors, or in other industries... Nobody was particularly fond of going through THAT again...

SO, while it's quite laudable that NASA and the gubmint wants to support STEM education and promote and foster "the next generation of innovators", they FIRST need to create some STABILITY in the programs and organizations that they intend to sustain them... otherwise, most, particularly the best and brightest, will simply go into industry with a more secure future, and pass by NASA and its capricious gubmint masters and fickle political whims controlling its destiny...

Later! OL J R :)
My MUNIFICENCE is BOUNDLESS, Mr. Bond...
Post Reply