This article originally appeared in Great Lakes Bay Business magazine, and the InspirED Michigan team loved it so much, we just had to bring it to you here.

For several years, the term “STEM”—an acronym for “science, technology, engineering and math”—has echoed through business and education alike. There’s a pressing need to fill STEM-related jobs and, as a result, the need for STEM education to train workers has become crucially important. The Great Lakes Bay Region is positioning itself to compete in this arena, with business and education partnering to build the workforce for these jobs of the future.
 
The regional STEM study: Building the road map
In early 2014, the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance Education Council’s STEM Task Force entered a three-month collaboration with two firms, Accenture and Innovate+Educate, to conduct a STEM study for the region. The study included over 150 interviews with key regional stakeholders as well as focus groups, surveys, and economic and workforce data analysis.
 
In the end, the study uncovered four key facts about STEM education in our region:
1) Our region’s economic vitality depends on the industries and jobs that require STEM skills;
2) Businesses must speak a common language about the specific STEM skills they require;
3) Education and training systems must produce the STEM talent required to meet and sustain economic growth; and
4) Our region needs an effective STEM pipeline to retain jobs and attract new businesses.
 
According to Carolyn Wierda, interim associate dean and executive in residence for the College of Education at Saginaw Valley State University, these results have strong implications for regional educators.

“It puts pressure on us to really be sure graduates in our region are prepared to walk into those available STEM jobs, or to go on to further training to be able to achieve in a STEM economy,” she said.
 
The study gives the region a STEM “road map” to help prioritize those opportunities strategically. For several years, however, some STEM-specific efforts in regional education have already been underway.
 
STEM in the Classroom: The Bike Generator
In the summers of 2013 and 2014, Freeland Public Schools teacher Scott Harrison attended two week-long intensive programs on energy and biodiversity at the Smithsonian Science Education Academies for Teachers, with his trips sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company. Upon returning, Harrison created a “bike generator” for his classroom to help him teach an energy unit in his science class. His students helped him build the generator, which is powered by the energy generated by a rider on a stationary bicycle. The generator in turn lights three different light bulbs, visually demonstrating how work is converted to energy and how different light bulbs require different amounts of power to produce light.
 
The project was a tremendous success.

“My students absolutely loved the bike generator,” Harrison said. “The experience they have riding it for just 30 seconds is worth more than a day’s worth of lecture.”

Harrison notes that the generator instantly teaches the concepts of energy transfer and energy conservation.

“It’s a nice feeling,” he said, “to see my students’ huge smiles when the light bulb literally goes on for them!”
 
Bringing STEM to a district
Science teacher David Brown is the K-12 STEM coordinator for Bullock Creek Schools just south of Midland. He has taught various classes since 2009 that focus on project-based learning, with students collaborating in groups to solve engineering-type problems. Starting last fall, Bullock Creek has instituted project-based learning as a district-wide model.
 
Under this model, students work in groups to carry out all project steps, from brainstorming ideas to building a finished product.

“We have projects like building solar-powered cars, building wind turbines, testing those out, and again going through modifications,” Brown said. “There are various tools the students are able to use to measure the output of these things, and to go back and see if they can make it more efficient, make it work better.”
 
Brown says the goal of this model is to connect students’ classroom learning to real-world applications.

“We’re trying to model this as much as we can after real-life processes that would happen in a job,” he said.
 
Although the district has worked with area businesses to institute the project-based learning model, Brown would like to increase the collaboration even more. “We’re looking at bringing professionals in to talk to the students and bring some activities for them,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to take the students to various manufacturing businesses so they can actually see firsthand what happens in a facility like that.”

Supporting Tomorrow’s Workforce: Our Regional Employers
These efforts to increase the depth and breadth of STEM education in the classroom are supported by regional employers. Rob Vallentine is The Dow Chemical Company’s global director, corporate citizenship, as well as the president of The Dow Chemical Company Foundation. In the past, he says, STEM education was seen mainly as a philanthropic gesture.

“Now, companies are starting to align to build the workforce of tomorrow. We have to work with the schools to make sure the talent is prepared for the jobs,” said Vallentine. 

As a result, the corporate focus on STEM education has increased heavily in recent years.
 
Dow’s newest effort to help support classroom learning comes in response to local educator requests for classroom involvement. The Dow STEM Ambassador Program will allow interested employees to volunteer to contribute their expertise in educational settings and at education-related events throughout the region.
 
“A lot of Dow employees are already out there volunteering at events with a STEM focus,” said Jeff Martin, community relations leader. “We want to build a coordinated volunteer effort with employees who have a real passion in the STEM area.”

Dow will work closely with local universities to engage STEM ambassadors in the community.

“The key word is coordination,” Martin said. “When we’re not filling a need and we become aware of it, we can drive our ambassadors toward that need.”
 
The STEM Ambassadors Program will work in addition to the regional education partnerships Dow currently supports, from the Fast Start program at Delta College to train displaced workers for currently available technology jobs, to its partnership with local schools on the FIRST Robotics and You Be The Chemist programs, both of which engage students in hands-on, STEM-focused learning. Dow also helps to sponsor the New Tech Program at Meridian High School in Midland County, a project-based learning environment where students partner with local businesses to work on solving real-world problems those companies face. The company is also working closely with local universities on “much more significant partnerships now than we ever have,” according to Martin.
 
Future of STEM in the region 
The number and importance of STEM jobs only continues to increase.

As Vallentine notes, “We have 12 million unemployed people in the U.S., but we have 4 million open jobs. That’s the opportunity: Do we have people with the right skills prepared for the workforce?”
 
From the educators’ side, according to Harrison, the biggest challenge is the education of teachers about STEM.

“To effectively incorporate STEM into your classroom, it’s as if you need four majors just to teach science,” he said. “Teachers see the value in STEM, but it’s crucial that teachers who need that STEM training can have access to it.”

Harrison hopes for more STEM training programs, such as the Smithsonian programs he attended, “to travel to us so that more teachers can have the same experiences I did.”
 
Vallentine summarizes the goal for STEM partnerships in an equation: “Uninterested kids + unprepared kids = unrealized opportunity,” he said. “If we take away the ‘un,’ we end up with kids that are interested, kids that are prepared, and that’s when the opportunity is realized. We have to have kids who are interested in and prepared for these jobs.”

"Growing STEM: Business and education works together to create tomorrow’s workforce” was first published in Great Lakes BayBusiness magazine, February 2015, by Great Lakes Bay Publishing, www.greatlakesbaymag.com. Editorial Team: Ryan Richards, writer; Doug Julian, photographer; Mimi Bell, editor in chief; Jackie Zingg; associate editor; and Chad Hussle, art director.