The president hosted the fourth White House Science Fair on May 27, inviting students from around the country to exhibit their projects, designs and experiments. Students were chosen from winners of an array of STEM-related competitions to attend, and a number of them had backgrounds in CTE. For example, Celine Patrick and Ashlee Tarro from Sumner High School FFA chapter in Sumner, Washington, winners of their division of the 2013 National FFA Agriscience Fair, conducted a project focused on solving a plant infestation problem in their high school greenhouse. You can read more about this project on the FFA blog. Other featured projects included topics such as engineering, biotechnology, rocketry, electric vehicle design, solar energy, robotics, computer app design, and more.
At the event, President Obama also announced several new STEM initiatives that might be of interest to CTE stakeholders. From the White House fact sheet, these include:
- a new $35 million Department of Education competition, in support of the President's goal to train 100,000 excellent STEM teachers
- a major expansion of STEM AmeriCorps to provide STEM learning opportunities for 18,000 low-income students this summer
- a national STEM mentoring effort kicking off in seven cities, as well as new steps by leading technology and media companies, non-profits and others to connect more students to STEM
ACTE will be watching these initiatives and looking for opportunities for CTE connections. More details will be published on the blog as they become available!
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