The first-ever White House Science Fair was held last week on Monday, October 18. The science fair honored and featured the middle school and high school champions of several education competitions held around the country.
President Barack Obama made the comparison that the champions of sports teams are recognized and honored at the White House, but the champions of science fairs aren't given the attention they deserve. He went on to say that "In many ways, our future depends on what happened in those contests - what happens when a young person is engaged in conducting an experiment, or writing a piece of software, or solving a hard math problem, or designing a new gadget."
The president pointed out the importance of educating American students in STEM subjects and has made a goal to move our students to the top in science and math test scores over the next decade. He recognized the famous inventors and engineers of our past, such as Edison, Franklin, and Einstein, and then made mention of the students present at the science fair who are the inventors and engineers of our future.
For a list of the winners from each competition at the science fair, click here
The competitions represented include:
Christopher Columbus AwardseCYBERMISSIONFIRST® LEGO® League FIRST® Robotics CompetitionFIRST® Tech ChallengeIntel Science and Engineering FairIntel Science Talent SearchInternational BioGENEius ChallengeJunior Solar SprintLemelson-MIT InvenTeamsNational Engineers Week Future CityPBS Design SquadReal World Design ChallengeTeam America Rocketry ChallengeToshiba/NSTA Exploravision Awards
LEGO® Education, which has a joint venture relationship with Pitsco Education, sponsors the FIRST® competitions. The Pitsco Ray Catcher is the official solar panel of the Junior Solar Sprint competition. We also offer a wide variety of rocketry supplies that can be used in the Team America Rocketry Challenge.
We congratulate all the winners of their respective competitions. We commend you for your participation and contributions to science, technology, engineering, and math. And we wish you much success in your future; we know that you will continue to make us all proud.
Sometimes it's hard to know where to look for ideas and resources for your classroom. For some, it's probably even hard to find time to look!
This year, let us do it for you! We've compiled a list of some great eNewsletters that will come to you. No looking required.
Free lesson plans and hands-on activities to teach K-12 students about engineering! Subscribe online or e-mail them at egfi-teachers@asee.org with "subscribe" in the subject line.
ACTE sends out an eNewsletter called Career Tech Update that is a great source of information for career and technical education programs. Click here to read more and to subscribe.
ITEEA has a great eNewsletter called STEM Connections. It focuses on making sure technology and engineering are included in the education of today's youth. To request more information and to subscribe, go online.