University
USC Researchers Launch Collaboration on STEM Education
- USC professors Gisele Ragusa and John Brooks Slaughter at the USC STEM Education and Research Consortium
- Photo/Dietmar Quistorf
By Merrill Balassone on November 15, 2011 1:50 PM
It’s become an urgent mantra: The United States must produce more scientists and engineers to maintain its edge in an increasingly competitive global economy.
On Nov. 14, USC researchers and administrators from seemingly disparate disciplines strategized how to foster interest among the nation’s students in science, technology, engineering and math - the so-called STEM fields - and encourage the pursuit of careers that will keep the nation on the forefront of innovation.
The daylong summit was the debut of the USC STEM Education and Research Consortium, a new initiative conceived to bring the university’s interdisciplinary research to bear on concerns about the nation’s future STEM workforce.
“This is the start of something big,” said Gisele Ragusa, research associate professor at the USC Rossier School of Education and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, who spearheaded the consortium.
“We want to leverage research and educational programs of large impact and societal relevance,” said Ragusa, director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. "That’s our charge starting today.”
Academic deans participating in the discussion included Karen Symms Gallagher of USC Rossier, Howard Gillman of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Carmen A. Puliafito of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Yannis C. Yortsos of USC Viterbi.
The speeches were interspersed with small group brainstorming sessions focusing on future collaborations on STEM education and research across the university. Attendees included USC STEM active faculty members and officials from local public schools, community organizations, federal agencies and national foundations.
Professor John Brooks Slaughter, who partnered with Ragusa to develop the consortium, said the discussions were merely a starting point for USC’s future work toward advancing the nation’s capacity for innovation in science and technology.
He reiterated President Barack Obama’s call for the United States to train 10,000 more engineers a year and 100,000 new teachers in the STEM fields.
“We know that window will not remain open forever,” Slaughter said. “It will be those institutions that have the agility and who are prepared who will be the most successful.”
The event also served as a preview of collaborative research projects currently under way at USC in the STEM fields. Among them:
• a Web-based gardening game called “Virtual Sprouts” that combines teaching and technology to reduce rates of obesity among children in inner-city Los Angeles
• an interactive website, mobile app and game to teach children about water conservation. The “Water Equals” project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in collaboration with 20 other universities nationwide.
• the development of an educational toolkit that includes research and interventions to educate teachers, clinicians and parents about autism.
The USC STEM Education and Research Consortium was funded by the USC Office of the Provost through the USC Collaboration Research Fund. The fund was established to bring together faculty with shared interests to work on cross-disciplinary projects.
TAGS: education
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