Contest: Shell Eco-marathon
Posted on September 12th, 2013 by Jaimie Schock
Shell Eco-marathon is a global challenge that motivates students to drive farther than their peers on one gallon of fuel. Student teams participate in one or both of the Prototype and UrbanConcept classes. The Prototype class invites student teams to enter futuristic streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, such as drag reduction.
Filed under: Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs | Comments Off on Contest: Shell Eco-marathon
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The 2013 ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarships are available to graduating high school seniors in urban districts represented by the Council of the Great City Schools. Four $5,000 scholarships will be awarded to two African American and two Hispanic students on behalf of the former NASA astronaut, physician and businessman, Dr. Bernard Harris.
Thirty days, 30 “awesome projects,” six field trips. Welcome to Maker Camp, a virtual DIY camp for teens 13 years of age and up sponsored by Make magazine. Free and open to all on Google+, the camp runs from July 16 until August 24 and there is no registration–just go on any day you wish.
Scholarships that target students interested in engineering provide an excellent way to help pay for the rising costs of higher education. Since engineering scholarships are plentiful and come from a variety of sources, such as corporations, non-profits, foundations, institutions, and governmental bodies, future engineers have a host of opportunities available to them.
The James Dyson Foundation offers several educational resources online and through loans to teachers. Among them, the Engineering Box, available to Chicago-area schools, is designed to teach reverse engineering, can be borrowed for four weeks at a time for free. The Box’s items, which include a Dyson DC26 vacuum cleaner, are used in combination with the Foundation’s Teacher’s Pack and Product Analysis resources.
In a Sept. 12 Capitol Hill bid for increased federal funding, a panel of representatives from industry and non-profits mapped out their goals for the future of afterschool, informal education in the U.S. Among them, an enthusiastic Fernando Laguarda of Time Warner Cable explained the company’s programs and efforts, while also outlining the daunting tasks that lie ahead in a time of increasing budget constraints.
Teachers struggling to get girls jazzed about STEM take heart. Of 10,000 students who competed in Google’s inaugural global science fair, three young women soared to the top, including Texas high school student Shree Bose, who won the grand prize for her work on drug resistance in treating ovarian cancer.
The foundation launched by Microsoft founder Bill Gates is spending millions of dollars to enlist educators and experts in promoting sweeping changes to public education. Teachers hired by Gates-funded advocacy group Teach Plus helped persuade Indiana lawmakers this spring to eliminate seniority-based layoff policies. 
After years of discussing the need to improve STEM education, states are starting to seize their Sputnik moment. Some are forging novel connections between colleges and local school systems. Others are considering laws so school districts can form regional STEM schools.
