STLE and Sesame Street find common ground
Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report March 2012
This tribology column sponsored by the letter ‘T.’
A familiar cast of characters is promoting education in science, technology, engineering and math. STLE is following suit.
PERHAPS YOU’VE HEARD that the many lovable creatures who inhabit TV’s Sesame Street have put their furry heads together and are raising their squeaky voices this year in support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. The curriculum for this 42nd year of the program is focused on encouraging preschool-age children to study science, engineering and math.
The Sesame Street gang’s push is part of a broader initiative aimed at expanding the future supply of scientists and engineers by encouraging more college students to pursue technical degrees. As things now stand, the percent of students in science and engineering degree programs in the U.S. continues to decrease, according to several studies.
While Elmo, Kermit and the Cookie Monster cover the preschool-age demographic, STLE is joining in a similar effort and putting its resources into a collaborative STEM venture championed by ASM International, a major technical association serving the material sciences field.
Over the last 10 years, ASM and its affiliated ASM Foundation have conducted more than 150 week-long camps for high school science teachers. The teachers are provided with professional guidance on techniques and tools they can use to make technical subjects more appealing to their students. To date, more than 3,000 teachers have participated in the nationwide program.
The premise is simple. A highly qualified, motivated and capable STEM teacher is much more likely to get students interested in science and engineering as a potential career choice.
TLT readers with good memories will recall that President Mike Dugger (Sandia National Laboratories) broke the news about this partnership in the December 2011 issue. It is one of several collaborative projects between STLE and ASM that are now under consideration following an initial meeting between the two organizations arranged in late 2010 by then-STLE President Peter Drechsler (The Timken Co.).
STLE’s role in the STEM alliance now is entering the implementation phase as we move into the spring of 2012. In October of last year the STLE Board of Directors voted to provide financial, volunteer and staff resources to support the ASM teachers camp program and to eventually develop a tribology and lubricants related part of the curriculum. A volunteer committee, headed by STLE Treasurer Maureen Hunter (King Industries), is gathering ideas for a Tribo Toolkit featuring simple and engaging classroom experiments that will help students better understand the principles of friction and wear.
Last month I met with ASM Foundation director Charles Hayes to begin planning for STLE’s first involvement in a Teacher Camp. STLE representatives, including volunteers from the Detroit Section, will participate in the camp, July 16-20 on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Plans are also in the works to organize a minicamp for teachers and students during the STLE 2013 Annual Meeting, also being held in Detroit.
If you’d like to read more details about how the ASM Foundation camps program works, go to their Web site
here.
As the Web site explains, this is an ambitious program designed to deal with a serious problem. STLE is at this point making a small but well-appreciated contribution in terms of volunteer and financial support. STLE members and their organizations are encouraged to contact the STLE headquarters office if you’d like to discuss ways you can be part of our STEM team. Just e-mail me using the address below.
With some determined effort, we might just see the day when science and technology are a career choice for more students and when tribology and lubrication engineering are the discussion topic every time Sesame Street is sponsored by the letter “T!”
You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.