涩里番下载 Lynch School of Education Professor Michael Barnett working with students on a robotics project | Photo by Gary Wayne Gilbert
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to a unique STEM career pathways program, led by faculty from 涩里番下载 and Massachusetts Bay Community College, that will serve students from middle school through community college.
The grant will serve approximately 1,300 low-income students and from Boston, Framingham and Waltham through a network of STEM education offerings in middle and high schools, 涩里番下载鈥檚 College Bound program and STEM career-focused courses at MassBay, said Lynch School of Education Professor of Science Education Michael Barnett, a leader of the project.
The new program has been designed to offer the kinds of hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics 鈥� or STEM 鈥� lessons in which students thrive and to support science educators who teach those classes, said Barnett, a national expert in science education and the preparation of science teachers.
鈥淢any students are interested in science and we鈥檝e been good at getting them interested in science,鈥� said Barnett. 鈥淏ut when they get to high school, or to college, they say 鈥楾his isn鈥檛 the science I signed up for.鈥� This results in many students leaving science.
鈥淗owever, if we can support students in recognizing the varied pathways to a STEM career, they are more likely to stay in science. We focus on science with a purpose. The reason you need to know science is because you are going to use it to do something that positively impacts your neighborhood, community, or city. We want to extend that model all the way from middle school through community college.鈥�
The program鈥檚 career pathways focus will help students assemble the skills they need to prepare for jobs in coding, robotics, electronics and technology, the so-called 鈥渕iddle skill鈥� fields that will require an estimated 225,000 new workers with post-secondary training to support the growth of this crucial economic sector in Massachusetts during the next decade.
But many students don鈥檛 stick with STEM study long enough to consider these jobs, said Barnett, who is working on the project with Lynch School colleagues Professor David Blustein, an expert in STEM career trends, and Director of Urban Outreach Initiatives Catherine Wong. MassBay Professor Shamsi Moussavi, a computer scientist, will lead the initiative.
