What more can be done to motivate students to consider careers in science and engineering?
The U.S. still has some absolutely excellent high schools and students. In the future, however, we probably will have only a fraction of the engineering students that other countries, especially India and China, will have. We have to accept that we’re no longer going to lead or be productive based on sheer numbers. Instead, we need to focus on quality and to educate our students to become leaders. We would obviously like to recruit more young people into engineering. STEM education is key to this. To try to ensure that we have pathways for undergraduate and graduate students to become engineers, as well as future faculty members, we are making a focused effort to support researchers who take their expertise into K-12 classrooms. ENG is adding to this effort through NSF’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program. RET allows K-12 teachers to work in a university lab and take part in the research of a faculty member. The teachers get a better understanding of research and transmit t
