White House Science Fair: Obama To Announce Plan To Help Math, Science Teacher Prep

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called on Tuesday for millions of dollars in new funding to improve math and science education, an effort he said would be crucial to the nation's long-term success.

Obama said his upcoming budget proposal, set to be released next week, would include a request for $80 million from Congress for a new Education Department competition to support math and science teacher preparation programs. Obama made a similar request to Congress last year but the measure didn't pass.

Separately, he announced $22 million in investments from the private sector to support math and science efforts. Among the organizations committing fresh funding are Google and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Obama said a renewed focus on math and science education should be an American imperative.

"The belief that we belong on the cutting edge of innovation, that's an idea as old as America itself," Obama said. "We're a nation of thinkers, dreamers, believers in a better tomorrow."

Obama has set a goal of preparing more than 100,000 math and science teachers and training a million additional math, technology, engineering and science graduates over the next decade.

Seeking to highlight the benefits of math and science education, Obama hosted a White House science fair earlier Tuesday, featuring projects designed by over 100 students from across the country. The projects included a robot that helps senior citizens connect with their families via Skype and a portable disaster relief shelter that could be used to house people who have been displaced from their homes.

"It's not every day you have robots running all over your house," Obama said of the science fair. "I'm trying to figure out how you got through the metal detectors."

The president said the students participating in the science fair were an inspiration, and made him confident that the nation's best days were yet to come.

"You're getting America in shape to win the future," Obama said.

Comments

[tazmodious]

10:44 PM on 02/07/2012

Given that teachers are being cut left and right, I'm not sure how 100,000 additional teachers are going to find jobs.

Plus, I know the best way to improve science education, get rid of NCLB and RTTT. We don't need anymore federal mandates, we need less. Science is being made less important because it is tested much less than Math and Language Arts. All of this can be said for history, geography, art and anything else not tested by NCLB.

Lastly, can we teachers have control over our profession please? I'm tired of those who know nothing about my job telling me how I should be doing my job.

[changing]

12:01 AM on 02/08/2012

Great post. Billy Gates must have run out of cheap foreign labor to import so Obama is helping him out.

[WilmaJune]

08:28 PM on 02/07/2012

The method of teaching math is continually changing. If it were taught in a logical manor, students would grasp it more easily.

[XV8 Crisis Suit]

06:19 AM on 02/08/2012

Yes, but where would we find a house that is logical?

[XV8 Crisis Suit]

06:23 AM on 02/08/2012

But on a serious note, math is taught pretty logically. We start off with the various axioms and postulates, deduce new theorems, and take time practicing how general rules apply to specific equations. It's very logical.

[WilmaJune]

10:50 AM on 02/08/2012

While you are tossing around fancy words, I was talking about basic elementary MATH. Math is presented as some great mystery where you just push numbers around for fun. No rhyme or reason. My parents, each one of my children and I were all taught differently how to solve word problems, fractions, decimals, percentages and ratios. My 8th grade math teacher told me not to take the final test because she knew I would fail. Final grade: 89. As long as my checks don't bounce, I am happy.

[YoungWarthog]

09:27 AM on 02/24/2012

Students will naturally learn math if they receive decent instruction. My 5th grader gets almost no instruction in school. When the teacher does do some instruction the special needs kids in the class flip out. These kids still can't do 2nd grade math, I don't know why they are in 5th. Hence the teacher doesn't teach, just puts the kids on the computer to figure it out themselves. After school, I sit with my daughter and provide instruction. She readily grasps it and moves right on through the assignments. I wonder what happens to the kids whose parents don't or can't provide the instuction.

[DrKatePhD]

04:57 PM on 02/07/2012

Training More math and science teachers is a good goal, however they are not the panacea in cultivating more innovative and creative thinkers. That comes with changing the focus of our system on tests and test-taking. We need to teach and train teachers to be creative and innovative inspiring kids to solve problems and think critically.

[WilmaJune]

05:42 PM on 02/08/2012

Your definition of critical thinking and mine are probably light years apart. Its tiresome to hear college kids talk about critical thinking but no one seems to know what it is.

[lhugle]

11:24 AM on 02/07/2012

I can support more investment in STEM training (though wouldn't discount the need for stronger citizenship preparation either). But I'm concerned whether we're just going to do more of it or pay more for math and science teachers or whether we're truly going to tackle some of the problems in teacher preparation programs, starting with the lack of selectivity for these programs. Some ideas for improvement: http://nogginstrain.blogspot.com/2011/07/teacher-training.html