February 17th Begins National Engineers Week!

The third full week of February is National Engineers Week! Started in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, this week is observed by more than 79 engineering, educational, and cultural societies along with more than 50 corporations and government agencies. The week is scheduled to coincide with the birthday of President George Washington, whom many consider the nation's first engineer (likely due to his extensive survey work).

Within the week falls the award for Federal Engineer of the Year, recognizing technical excellence, publications, leadership, and community service. The speaker at this year's awards ceremony will be Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General. Many of the finalists for this year are in the armed forces, and we salute them all as winners for their service to our country and dedication to the field of engineering.

Thursday is a special spotlight of the week, National Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. Engineering for Kids founder Dori Roberts was recently interviewed by MarieClaire.com on the future of women in engineering. To read that article, click HERE. We encourage you to introduce a girl to engineering as well! Check out our website to get more information on classes near you at enginerringforkids.net.

Engineering for Kids iPad Sweepstakes

Engineering for Kids recently finished their FREE iPad Sweepstakes which gave away a new iPad Mini to one lucky fan. To enter the contest, one simply had to "Like" EFK's Facebook page and enter their contact information. Then, a winner was drawn at random. The contest ran for several months during the start-up growth of the Engineering for Kids social media presence to match their booming success in the franchise industry!

The Engineering for Kids iPad Sweepstakes winner was Samantha Lautenschlager from Fredericksburg, VA. As many contest winners are, Samantha was hesitant at first to believe she had actually won, but was thrilled when the EFK team assured her this was no joke! Pictured here are Samantha's two boys and Engineering for Kids founder Dori Roberts with the prize. We can bet a lot of learning is going to be done on their new technology! Perhaps we have some future engineers on our hands. 

Check out the Engineering for Kids Facebook page HERE to stay up to date on future contests and giveaways! 

High School Students Giving Up on STEM

The U.S. NEWS published an article yesterday that reports high school students are giving up on STEM careers. Though interest has been increasing in the past decade (1 in 4 students report an interest in a STEM major or career) and they begin high school with the interest in engineering and other sciences, it is argued that not enough is being done to maintain an interest in STEM.

A suggestion to remedy the situation is to improve student achievement by implementing new k-12 education standards in science in math and to fill them with an interest in STEM before high school. Some states have begun specialized STEM high schools, but it is also suggested that schools must partner with other educators and businesses in the STEM fields. Otherwise, the increasing jobs in the field will continue to go unfilled.

And that's exactly what Engineering for Kids is trying to do: create an interest early and maintain it through the future.

Being reading the U.S. NEWS article below or click HERE.

Many High Schoolers Giving Up on STEM

By MICHAEL MORELLA

High school students aren't sticking with STEM. Even though the number of jobs in science and engineering is expected to surge in the years to come, close to 60 percent of the nation's students who begin high school interested in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, change their minds by graduation, according to a report released Wednesday from STEMconnector and college planning service My College Options.

Overall student interest has been gradually climbing for about a decade, with about 1 in 4 of all high schoolers excited about pursuing a STEM major or career. But keeping many of those students attracted to such subjects is proving a challenge. "Tying education to the workforce needs is critical to the future of the nation," said STEMconnector CEO Edie Fraser at a town hall event Wednesday announcing the release of the report. Science and engineering careers are expected to grow more than 20 percent by 2018, twice the rate of the overall U.S. labor force.