The SME Education Foundation programs are supporting the the silent “E” in Science, technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education..

Manufacturing faces stereotyping itself. In today’s global economy, in-demand jobs are increasingly high-tech and requiring specific STEM skill sets if you want to be hired. As sudden socio-economic conditions continually transform and challenge our quality of life and standard of living, increasing numbers of engineers are needed and in short-supply. Their creativity and innovation are evident in our ability to enjoy ultra-thin LCD screens, cost-saving solar energy, lasers for medical procedures and security systems, and dynamic instrumentation seen in today’s cars — some of which drive and park themselves.

Everything is dependent on our making engineering visible and relevant in the eyes of K-12 students and their teachers, counselors and parents. It is vitally important that we succeed. Six years ago, we concurred with the findings of the engineering community at large, which said that while certain basics of engineering will not change in the future, the explosion of knowledge, the global community, and the way engineers work certainly will. With too few students studying technology and engineering at the college level, we realized the urgency for preparing a new generation of STEM-literate students and re-directed our investment in K-12 education.

Surprisingly, that silent “E,” is not part of our grade school curriculum. When contemplating the short-sightedness of it all, the SME Education Foundation believes there is a need to better support the academic community and work toward building a structured STEM-based education system in our schools. Data showed us that we needed to catch students as they entered middle school. If they do not take rigorous math and science coursework, they will not be prepared to succeed in high school and beyond. This is especially true for young girls who face stereotyping over “girls don’t do math.”

According to a study conducted by the National Association of Engineering, (NAE), “Educating the Engineer of 2020,” the goal of engineering education should be the full participation of women, people of color, low-income students, and first-generation, college-bound young adults. Our nation needs today’s youngsters to be more than just users of tomorrow’s technologies; we need them to be the developers of responsible technologies and products.”

In spite of young women dominating the top percentage of U.S. high school graduates, they have shown very little interest in engineering as a career. Boys invent things, and girls use things boys invent.” (Margolis and Fisher, 2002) To address that very problem, the SME Education Foundation began funding summer technology camps for girls in 1997. The return on investment — dollars, volunteers and a lot of soul-searching debate, is now paying off and the stream of skilled workers is moving into the workforce.

One of our many celebrated examples is Brianne Maier, who began her educational climb to professional excellence at the SME Education Foundation’s summer engineering camp for girls at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where she participated for several years as a camp participant and counselor. In 2006, Brianne received the Lucile B. Kauffman Women’s Scholarship and Caterpillar Scholars Award. After receiving her degree at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, she became a packaging engineer at General Mills. Today, she is an Engineer II at General Mills, specializing in optimizing packaging and machinery interaction for increased performance. This year, Brianne was named an honoree, one of 14 highly-accomplished engineers — “New Faces of Engineering 2011,” by National Engineers Week. She is a shining example of the STEM-based programs we advocate and fund. It is our hope young people will be influenced by her engineering career and be inspired to follow her lead. 

In collaboration with our industry partner, Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a nationally-recognized education non-profit, a STEM-based curriculum is core to our youth programs. Beginning with the Gateway Academy, a summer day camp for sixth- to eighth-graders, boys and girls, are introduced to drafting and graphic design and use real lab equipment in a team environment to build robotic vehicles and gliders and a host of other projects, and having fun doing it. Its success resulted in our providing $815,000 to PLTW in 2010 for its expansion. Today, more than 4,200 boys and girls have attended the Gateway Academy in 34 states.

Building on the summer camp technology experience, students are introduced to the Gateway to Technology program in the classroom. In high school, the Pathway to Engineering program introduces Engineering Design, Principles of Engineering and Digital Electronics and Specialization courses which includes Aerospace Engineering, Biotechnical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Architecture, and Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM).

In 2010 we began directing a major portion of our funding to Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) programs at 400 PLTW high schools across the country. The course is designed to expose young learners to the fundamentals of computerized manufacturing technology and is built around several key concepts:

• Computer Modeling — using a three-dimensional, solid modeling software package with mass property analysis
• CNC Equipment — understanding the machine tools and its operating and programming analysis
• CAM Software – converting computer generated geometry into a program to drive CNC machine tools
• Robotics — using a robot for materials handling and assembly operations
• Flexible Manufacturing Systems — working in teams to design manufacturing work cells and table top factory simulations.

The CIM students are taught by master teachers and engaged in rigorous, hands-on, project-based lessons and allowed to create more advanced and innovative solutions to their classroom projects.

In 2011-2012, an upgraded curriculum will be offered with an enhanced VEX Robotics Design System which will give students access to real-world robotics in the classroom — alongside their math and science classes. In addition, every PLTW classroom offering the CIM curriculum will have access to participate in the VEX Robotics Competition. We are letting young learners in on one of life’s big secrets: that learning can be more fun than they ever dreamed, and are giving them a future they thought was beyond their reach.

In the past 30 years, engineering colleges have changed very little. Strategies for student retention in underrepresented groups are weak or non-existent and technical literacy not being promoted. Today, nearly 30 percent of workers with science and engineering degrees are age 50 and older. As a result, our future technical workforce is at risk and U.S. manufacturing as we know it is being lost to foreign markets. With too few students entering STEM fields, it is critical that support be given to those pursuing degrees in these areas. Young people, unaware of how engineers apply the principles of science and mathematics to develop economical solutions to technical problems, need to be introduced to the importance of STEM education to assure them of sustainable careers.

With an increasing minority population in this country, we also need to prepare a workforce that looks like America. When looking at how high school students are being prepared, we know that only slightly more than half of Hispanic and African American students even graduate, and less than one-quarter of them are prepared to succeed in college. In our knowledge-based economy, they will not be able to have a decent standard of living without a high-school degree — especially if it doesn’t offer a STEM-based curriculum. We want to give opportunity to all students.

The SME Education Foundation was created by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) in 1979. We built our endowment by forging relationships with industry leaders who shared our vision and provided funding for scholarships. Later, working with industry, government and academia, our plan for manufacturing education resulted in technology-based summer youth programs, funding for colleges and universities programs addressing competency gaps in graduating engineers, followed by the development of a concept for lifelong learning. Since 1998, more than $4.2 million dollars in financial aid has been granted through our various scholarship programs. 

As increasing numbers of young people become computer literate at an earlier age, and some having what one applications engineer described as “having the eye-hand coordination of jet-fighter pilots as a result of texting and playing video games.” We had to ask ourselves, “How do you capture that short attention span?”

We decided it was about meeting young people on their own terms and in their own language. Our award-winning Manufacturing is Cool Web site, www.manufacturingiscool.com has the entertainment value of pop culture, and the integrity of highly-respected resources, designed to introduce curious young people to the exciting world of modern manufacturing and the engineering — again that silent “E” and the high-paying jobs it offers. As they move into high school and college, students can access information about advanced manufacturing careers by visiting www.CareerMe.org which accommodates the sharing of science projects, access to colleges and universities, and to companies offering internships and mentoring.

We are doing what has to be done based on our master plan to transform manufacturing education — identifying competency gaps, developing and funding enhanced curriculum and providing funding in the form of awards, scholarships, in-kind gifts and grant funding. This has been made possible by the generosity of our industry partners who are as committed as we are to the future of the silent “E” and influencing young people at an early age with STEM education.