“This country spends a lot of time celebrating athletes. We have the high school all-Americans, we have all these entertainment celebrities, but we don’t spend enough time celebrating these kids. These are the best and brightest kids.”
The “kids” that Eric Spiegel – President & CEO of Siemens Corporation and Vice Chair of Business Roundtable’s Education and Workforce Committee – was referring to in this quote reported by USA Today are high school students pursing groundbreaking research projects in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Four of those teenage STEM researchers were just awarded grand prizes in the 2013 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Nearly 1,600 research projects were submitted for this year’s competition, which has drawn more than 20,000 student submissions since its inception in 1998.
Their research sounds like the stuff of Nobel Prize winners. Expediting the discovery of powerful influenza inhibitors. Identifying a previously overlooked gene that could help protect major crops against environmental damage. These are just a few of the STEM research projects being explored by high school students across the country.
In his remarks, Spiegel went on to note that America is falling behind in critical STEM fields – which are only projected to grow in demand in the future U.S. workforce.
Newly released international PISA assessment data validate his concern. Among the 34 OECD countries, U.S. teenagers are now ranked 26th in math, 21st in science and 17th in reading.
“We’re falling behind and we’re not producing enough students in these areas to generate the kind of growth and innovation we need in the future. I think [the Siemens competition] will inspire thousands of other kids in their high schools.”
Mr. Spiegel, we hope so too. We applaud Siemens and the other companies out there that are working to encourage increased study and pursuit of careers in STEM fields. It’s an effort to be celebrated.
Read more:
Siemens Rewards High School Students for STEM Research, U.S. News & World Report, 12/10/13