History-Making Young Women in Aviation, Inspiring Muslim Girls and Women, and Dairy Farming
The World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report 2023”, just published this week, lists the top 5 most important skills for workers as follows:
Analytical Thinking
Creative Thinking
Resilience, Flexibility and Agility
Motivation and Self-Awareness
Curiosity and Lifelong Learning
Clearly, the ranking of analytical skills at number 1 emphasizes the value of a STEM education and/or background, but what strikes me is that the other 4 are skills primarily associated with right brain functions, more closely associated with the arts. This top 5 ranking of skills indicates that focusing on STEM is not enough. We can increase inclusivity plus better meet future workforce requirements by expanding the emphasis to STEAM.
It is unusual to read an article that is STEAM-specific rather than STEM, but Anne-Marie Imafidon does a great job of explaining why STEAM, and precisely the “A” for arts, is important and how we can go about engaging more girls in STEAM.
Let’s Celebrate!
An Embry Riddle team of Aviation Maintenance Science students made history this week by being the first all-women team to take first place in the Education Category of the global Aerospace Maintenance Competition.
Inspiring Muslim Girls and Women in STEM
Rashida Honda writes a thought-provoking piece about inspiring Muslim girls and young women in Australia to aspire to STEM careers. It is beautifully written and touches on the importance of increasing the footprint of all women in STEM.
Entrepreneurial Role Model
For the last several years I have been giving my tween-age niece a subscription to KiwiCo. Each month she receives a crate with an age-appropriate STEAM project. She loves the crates and looks forward to their arrival each month. I was inspired to learn that the founder and CEO of KiwiCo, Sandra Oh Lin, was a woman who left corporate to follow her passion.
STEAM Careers
Women tend to be a larger percentage of the workforce in the STEAM health and medical fields. This article presents the perspectives of several women leaders who have excelled as leaders in life sciences.
STEM/STEAM careers are very diverse. It is quite simple to find a STEAM career that fits a person’s passions and interests. Here is an article about some unusual STEAM careers and some of the universities that have programs that support them.
Speaking of unusual STEM/STEAM careers, how about being a dairy farmer? North Dakota’s Gateway to Science features a display that showcases dairy and the technology that is being used in this industry.
Filling the Pipeline
In order to fill all of the open roles in STEAM careers now and into the future, we need to keep the pipeline full of kids and young adults who are interested and who remain engaged as they move through school and into the workforce. This article has some great ideas for how employers can help create and maintain that pipeline in their own communities.
Closing the Gender and Pay Gap in STEAM
This Columbus Metropolitan Club podcast episode is an interesting panel discussion regarding closing the gender and pay gap in STEAM.
Corporations Supporting STEM/STEAM
Last week, as part of their Future Storytellers program, Disney donated $100K to the Orlando Science Center.
Resources
The Million Girls Moonshot continues their initiative to engage one million more girls in STEM/STEAM learning over the next 5 years.
The STEM Next Opportunity Fund focuses on investments that enable STEM learning inside and outside the classroom.
Happenings
Wellington Waterloo Flight Centers are hosting a Girls Can Fly event for 275 girls on May 13.
iFly offers STEM field trips that teach the science and technology behind flight that culminate in the kids flying in a wind tunnel.
Do you know an inspiring woman in the field of drones or other emerging aviation technology? The Women in Emerging Aviation Technologies Awards is now accepting nominations.
LEGO Stories of the Week
My Mission
The value and benefits of a career in a STEM field are well-known and well understood. Adding the “A” to STEM to create STEAM opens new doors for inclusivity, creativity and innovation in fields that are not conventionally considered to be STEM careers.
What if we stopped asking kids “Are you good at math?” and instead asked “What are your interests and what are the problems that you would love to solve?”…