Top 3 Strategies Institutions Can Use To Close The Talent Gap In STEM


Scientific fields continually push the boundaries of innovation and progress, yet American high school students lack preparation, interest, and engagement in such subjects. Statistics show that in 2013, only 44% of high school graduates were ready for college level math and 36% for college level science . In addition, according to a study done by the National Science Foundation (NSF), there were 26 industrialized nations whose high school students performed better than U.S. students in math and 19 industrialized nations whose high school students performed better than U.S. students in science. This is significant because STEM is at the core of innovation and economic growth; a lack of robust talent hurts the U.S.’ competitiveness on a global scale.

Only 11% of high school graduates indicated interest in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM). A global study done by NSF revealed that only 4 % of U.S. bachelor’s degrees were awarded in engineering, compared to 31% in China, which is a nation that is rapidly growing and has the highest number of start-ups valued over 1 Billion dollars. This poses a problem because the STEM fields are projected to drive the U.S. economy and are projected to grow by 18 % by 2018, in comparison to other fields, projected to grow by only 9%.

So how will America fill this gap for talent in these economic sectors? And how can we teach science in a way that engages youth? The data presented above clearly indicates that something needs to change if we are to stay competitive as a nation. Based on my own experience and research, I believe that there are several ways educational institutions can engage with students and bring in more youth into the fields of STEM.

1. Real people, real opportunity

Stephen Hawking once said “Exploration by real people inspires us.” It takes one person to inspire us and to change the course of our lives, because we are inspired by the greatness of others to pursue greatness ourselves. Thus, students must be exposed to people who can inspire them to see the beauty of STEM and to understand what it is all about. Many people chose a career path because they are familiar with it, and thus, schools must try to expose students to these STEM fields. By implementing programs and bringing in speakers, younger students can understand what the STEM fields are about, and what opportunities – both financial and intellectual – lie in those fields for them.

2. Emphasize curiosity and creativity

As scientists, we think of science as inherently creative – formulas and whatnot may seem like intimidating notations, but they are the building blocks of reality that can be manipulated to create amazing things in our world. As a scientist, I do not think of science as rigid. Rather, I think of it as a language through which we can experiment and create. Just like any language, science has an alphabet, an underlying structure, and rules. In science those rules are expressed in an abstract notation.  They are not just formulas because in them the rules of the physical world are expressed. Science is creation, think about the different advances in our society –smart phones, apps on our phone, solar powered energy — all those innovations were derived from human imagination. Thus, in a learning environment, students should be taught to understand the inner creativity of science, and how the formulas they learn directly relate to and describe the world that they live in. They are not just formulas because in them the rules of the physical world are expressed When students can see science in a different light and relate it to the reality that is around them, they can learn to appreciate and be inspired by it, instead of intimated by it.

3. Interdisciplinary approach

In our world, nothing exists in a vacuum. Today, research is driven by the interconnectedness of math, physics, computer programing, chemistry and biology — all fused together to innovate. Companies and research institutions work in tandem interdisciplinary teams to make advances in each area of society. Thus, when schools are teaching students chemistry, they should illustrate real world connection between chemistry and math, physics, biology, and computer science. For example, many pharmaceutical companies are not studying drugs in a laboratory, which is what we typically imagine, but they are doing so by using software that both visualizes and simulates the drug - interactions in the body on the molecular level. In this way, the process of drug discovery is not just chemistry - it is multiple the scientific disciplines combined. Students need to be aware of that to conceptualize the relationships and connections between scientific disciplines.

