On Tuesday February 7th, President Obama hosted the second-ever White House Science Fair. The science fair featured research and inventions from over 100 students from across the Unites States. Inventions included a variety of projects such as robots, rockets, and even a marshmallow cannon.
After viewing some of the displays and testing the inventions, President Obama addressed the audience about several new initiatives to boost STEM education in the United States. These initiatives will increase the number of students studying STEM subjects, and prepare the 100,000 math and science teachers needed to teach our future engineers, inventors, and innovators.
Some of the steps to meet these initiatives include:
- A new $80 million investment for STEM teacher preparation programs requested by the Department of Education.
- A new $22 million investment from the philanthropic and private sector to support STEM education and teacher preparation programs.
- National Math and Science Initiative will prepare 4,000 new STEM teachers from 31 UTeach sites by 2015.
- Teach for America will recruit 11,000 STEM Corps members by 2015.
President Obama is expected to put forward his full budget request for this initiative on Monday, February 13 for the 2013 fiscal year. For more information on President Obama’s STEM initiatives visit www.whitehouse.gov.