On November 23rd, President Obama announced his new STEM promoting science education initiative, Educate To Innovate. It is an ambitous effort to partner the private sector with schools to promote science, technology, engineering and math. National Lab Day is part of this initiative and will help build communities of support around teachers across the country, culminating in a day of civic participation.
Why This Is Important
The White House says we have many great schools, excellent teachers, and successful students in America. But there are also troubling signs that, overall, our students should be doing better in math and science. In the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) comparison, American students ranked 21st out of 30 in science literacy among students from developed countries, and 25th out of 30 in math literacy. On the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math tests, 4th graders showed no signs of progress for the first time in many years, and 8th graders tallied only modest evidence of progress. We are not advancing as we must.
Watch the video of the President's announcement below:
There is a role fror business to support projects like SuperScience for High School Physics and National Lab Day. Not only is it good public relations and great exposure but it helps to keep the future of America, as a leader in science and technology, a viable position in global affairs. The Business Higher Education Forum's Executive Director Brian K. Fitzgerald said of BHEF's support for National Lab Day:
“America’s advantage over its international counterparts in science, technology, and innovation is diminishing. We at BHEF, through our Securing America’s Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Initiative, work to ensure that America remains a global leader. In fact, our goal is to double the number of U.S. students who graduate in STEM fields by 2015. We are excited to be a part of such a crucial effort as National Lab Day.”
We want to thank our sponsors, who have active logos throughout this section. They have the forethought to not only see the good that projects like SuperScience for High School Physics do, but also realize that it's a good investment. Thousands of visitors to our pages, drawn by the promotion of these extraordinary activities with students accomplishing things that wouldn't be possible, many times, if it were not for the cutting edge research and unparalled vision of Marshall Barnes, will see our sponsors and be able to connect with them in informative and meaningful ways. The historic nature of many of the students' projects will make this site a reference in the future, meaning many repeat visits, thus promotional exposures for those sponsor's brands.
It's what's called a "win-win" - the students benefit from the involvement that the sponsorships make posssible and the sponsors get the kind of high quality exposure that would otherwise be nonexistent at the levels that they purchased. No costs have been passed on to the schools, students or parents, making this a free educational experience that would not be possible otherwise.
Marshall Barnes of SuperScience for High School Physics has joined the White House, Educate to Innovate, initiative on several fronts - the most significant being National Lab Day, where he is a leading scientist working with educational projects in a total of 6 states.
UPDATE! MARSHALL BARNES IS TOP SCIENTIST FOR NATIONAL LAB DAY
The graphics below will take you to the official National Lab Day site and we will be adding pages here to show some of the projects that Marshall has developed for students around the country.
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