K-12 Outreach Program

The report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” prepared by a panel of experts convened by the National Academies, the nation’s leading science advisory group, provides many calls to action. Among these is the need to recruit, educate and retain excellent K–12 teachers who fundamentally understand biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and mathematics.

The “Trends in International Math and Science Study” (TIMSS, 1995) and others simultaneously report poor math and science scores for our children, particularly at the high school level. The Business and Higher Education Forum (2005) reports that the number of students graduating with degrees in science and engineering is falling at a time when job growth is taking place in these areas.

Such calls to action have served to increase Vanderbilt School of Engineering’s K–12 school outreach efforts, and Dean Kenneth F. Galloway recently appointed me associate dean for outreach to oversee them. Here I’d like to share several examples of the work we’re doing.

Would you like to get involved with these initiatives? Please do! If you live in the Nashville area, we would love to include you in outreach efforts to area schools. No matter where you live, your company could sponsor local teachers to attend a VIBES workshop. Please contact me if you are interested by e-mailing stacy.klein@vanderbilt.edu.

—Stacy S. Klein