Last week was an exciting and educational week for Vince as he traveled to South Korea at the request of the U.S. Department of State. Vince visited with diverse Korean audiences in Seoul, Daejeon, and Busan, discussing the importance of STEM education, international education and workforce development, and the work PLTW is accomplishing in the United States. The audiences Vince spoke with included a group of teachers at Chungnam Science High School and Chungnam National University in Daejeaon, the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity in Seoul, and the Federation of Busan Science and Technology in Busan, among many others.
Next week, Vince travels to Washington, D.C., for “STEM Week in Washington”, where he will be attending the U.S. News STEM Solutions National Leadership Conference and the USA Science and Engineering Festival. The U.S. News STEM Solutions National Conference runs Wednesday through Friday and brings together leaders from across the country to discuss and strategize opportunities to advance the STEM workforce. On Thursday, April 24, Vince will participate on a panel titled, “The Holy Grail: Scalability.” The panel is organized by Change the Equation and the Business Roundtable, two organizations that recently researched and announced the most nationally scalable, high-quality STEM programs. PLTW was one of the organizations recognized by Change the Equation. Vince and his co-panelists will discuss what makes these scalable STEM programs different, how they have grown, the importance of scalability, and the value of investing in scalable programs.
Also at the STEM Solutions Conference, PLTW is partnering with the Fab Lab Foundation to co-brand an exhibit space with Chevron. The Fab Lab Foundation is an educational outreach component of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). PLTW and the Fab Lab Foundation have a unique intersection at a PLTW school in Lorain, Ohio, that uses a Fab Lab at their community college. For the U.S. News STEM Solutions exhibit, a teacher and six students from the school will demonstrate a method they use to create trusses with Fab Lab equipment that connects to material testing concepts in Principles of Engineering. In addition, the exhibit will run 30-minute workshops that focus on hydrogen fuel cell technology, which connects to alternative energy concepts in the PLTW Gateway and PLTW Engineering programs. Students will use reversible fuel cells to learn about the creation of hydrogen and then race hydrogen-powered vehicles.
During the USA Science and Engineering Festival, which kicks off on Friday and runs through Sunday, PLTW will host an exhibit space with two of our National Partners, Chevron and Lockheed Martin. The PLTW exhibit will allow festival attendees to create gliders featured in PLTW Launch, as well as witness collaborative activities from PLTW Gateway, Engineering, and Biomedical Science, demonstrated by three D.C.-area PLTW schools! The festival expects more than 750 STEM organizations and thousands of students and families to attend.
To learn more about these events and follow the activity associated with them, follow Vince and PLTW on Twitter at @vincebertram and @PLTWorg.
