Governor’s STEM Advisory Council | Iowa Science Interface

Posts Tagged ‘Governor’s STEM Advisory Council’

Abby Finkenauer, Des Moines Register, Fred Hubbell, GMOs, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, IASTEM, Jake Porter, Kim Reynolds, March for Science, March for Science Iowa, Mike Fitzgerald, Mike Naig, Rod Blum, Tim Gannon

Forget the big boar. Pin down some candidates on science at the Iowa State Fair

In Government, STEM on August 8, 2018 at 2:25 pm

Jeb! Bush speaks at The Des Moines Register’s political soapbox at the 2016 Iowa State Fair. Credit: Zach Boyden-Holmes, The Des Moines Register

When it comes to science, Iowa politicians are largely blank slates. Most have only made vague statements about supporting science, protecting natural resources or balancing agriculture and the environment. Few have laid out actual policies on science and issues in which knowledge and evidence play major roles.

The March for Science Iowa group, with which I volunteer, is changing that. We’ve emailed questionnaires to candidates for Congress, governor and secretaries of agriculture and state.

Yes, there are still nearly three months left before the election, but the response has been … nonexistent. A few have acknowledged receiving the email, but no one has provided answers. I’m hoping that within a few weeks we’ll get replies.

In the meantime, we each have opportunities to get answers on our own – while also enjoying a corndog or other food-on-a-stick.

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Andy McGuire, Cathy Glasson, Cindy Axne, climate change, Dan Zumbach, David Young, Deidre DeJear, Eddie Mauro, environment, evolution, FIRST LEGO League, Fred Hubbell, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, Jim Mowrer, John Norris, Jules Ofenbakh, Kim Reynolds, March for Science, March for Science Iowa, Mike Naig, Nate Boulton, Next Generation Science Standards, Paul Knupp, Paul Pate, Pete D'Alessandro, Ross Wilburn, Terry Branstad, Tim Gannon

Science marches on – with some conspicuous absences

In Government, STEM on April 9, 2018 at 7:42 am

Woman holds a sign saying "Empirical Data Trumps Imperial Alt-Facts" at the 2017 March for Science Iowa.

A pointed sign from the 2017 March for Science Iowa.

Plans are shaping up for the 2018 version of the March for Science Iowa, a more overtly political version of last year’s event, when more than 3,000 Iowans flooded the Capitol grounds.

With elections coming up, organizers (including your humble correspondent) have invited candidates to appear on Saturday (the event starts with the march at around 1:00, followed by candidate forums and speeches at 2:00) to detail their views on publicly supported research, science education and evidence-based policy.

The march is nonpartisan: We want to hear from politicians and candidates from both parties. But it is not nonpolitical: We demand that our elected officials and contenders uphold science.

We invited candidates for governor, the Third Congressional District, agriculture secretary and secretary of state. Most will attend.

But only from one party. Guess which.

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climate change, Donald Trump, Environmental Protection Agency, evolution, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, Iowa Legislature, Kim Reynolds, March for Science, March for Science Iowa, Next Generation Science Standards, NOAA, Scott Pruitt, STEM, Terry Branstad, vaccinations

Stepping up in Iowa to support science, facts and evidence

In Government, STEM on March 15, 2017 at 7:13 am

A postcard to President Trump from Deborah Bunka, via the March for Science Iowa Facebook page.

I authored this post, which first appeared on the Iowa Starting Line blog. – TRO

Even before he was elected, commentators and experts noted a strong anti-science streak in Donald Trump’s rhetoric. Now that he’s been inaugurated, they’re calling him the most anti-science president ever. Trump is enacting an agenda that, at best, selectively supports scientific evidence and research.

With the appointment of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s clear that climate change will be downplayed or dismissed in the Trump administration. Pruitt took a moderate stance in his nomination hearings, but now is proudly revealing his anti-science views. Earlier this month he said he disagrees with the overwhelming evidence that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global climate change.

Trump and Pruitt are putting their words into actions. The administration has offered a plan to cut the budget for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development by 40 percent. The EPA as a whole would get a 24 percent cut. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a major climate research agency, also would get a severe reduction. Other proposals under consideration would roll back Department of Energy financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy and for research on reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Trump’s disdain for sound science goes beyond climate, however, and spans political parties. He’s given credence to the disproven notion that vaccinations cause autism and met with noted anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (of the famed Democratic family).

It’s easy to pick on Trump, but in truth his election and views are just the culmination of years of attacks on science, evidence and research – attacks that aren’t solely from conservatives. Now, scientists and those who value research and evidence as a foundation for sound public policy are fighting back.

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Cedar Falls, FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, Kenton Swartley, Swartdogs, Team ASAP, University of Northern Iowa, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

Big bots storm castles in Iowa competition

In STEM on April 4, 2016 at 7:35 am

FRC robots mix it up on the playing field at Cedar Falls' McLeod Center.

FRC robots mix it up on the playing field at UNI’s McLeod Center.

It was mechanical mayhem in a medieval milieu.

In Cedar Falls March 24-26, 52 teams of high school students (mostly from the Midwest but also three from China and one from Brazil) pitted their mechanized marvels (OK, I’m laying off that bottle of Old Alliteration) in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Iowa Regional tournament. Eleven Iowa teams competed.

At the McLeod Center, where the University of Northern Iowa Panthers usually chuck balls at baskets, robots instead fired “boulders” at mock parapets. It was just one of several missions the machines, each built from scratch, carried out on a theme of attacking and overcoming a castle’s defenses.

This was Iowa’s first FRC regional competition. Teams that did well in Cedar Falls will go on to the championships in St. Louis at the end of April.

My son, Thomas, is on Team ASAP (4646), a collection of Des Moines-area students, and I attended the three-day robot bash. It was a raucous, nerdy – but cool – celebration of technology and engineering. I knew before I got to Cedar Falls what the robots had to do. How they did it, much less that they did it at all, was extraordinary and inspiring. Read the rest of this entry »

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Governor's STEM Advisory Council, iowa department of education, Next Generation Science Standards, STEM, Terry Branstad

Take this important survey to support fact-based science in Iowa schools

In STEM on September 25, 2013 at 2:27 am

If want to help ensure Iowa kids aren’t fed creationism alongside evolution and aren’t told to forget the idea that humans are changing the world’s climate, I have a job for you.

I’ve written before about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which 26 states, including Iowa, formulated. They’re designed to mesh with the Common Core State Standards, educational guidelines established through a similar process.

The science standards were published in April and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad immediately shunted them off to a task force to consider whether to adopt them.

The task force has been busy. This is where your job comes in.

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Common Core State Standards, FIRST LEGO League, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, Kim Reynolds, Next Generation Science Standards, STEM, Terry Branstad

Could Branstad’s task force be a smokescreen to kill new science education standards?

In STEM, Uncategorized on August 20, 2013 at 4:06 am

Kids looking into microscopes and doing science

Photo credit: Atli Harðarson via photopin cc

Terry Branstad and his lieutenant, Kim Reynolds, have been pushing Iowa educators to do more to engage kids in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The idea is to have a well-trained workforce for all those high-tech jobs they want to bring to the state.

So far, they’ve accompanied the drive with action, starting the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, handing out grants to scale-up activities, like FIRST LEGO League, that are designed to engage and attract students to technical fields, and holding annual summits of educators, administrators and business people.

Now, however, Branstad may face the biggest test of his resolve to make Iowans STEM leaders. His administration will have to decide if and how to adopt new science education standards – guidelines and goals that have prompted controversy elsewhere and could upset the conservative base of Branstad’s Republican Party.

For Iowans who support the standards, there have been reasons for despair – and perhaps for hope.

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FIRST Tech Challenge, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, IASTEM, Iowastem, STEM, Team Beta

Riding a robot to a world title

In Uncategorized on May 26, 2013 at 9:30 pm

Team Beta, from left: Tanvi Yenna, Sidd Somayajula, Jordan Burklund, Chase Schweitzer, Saketh Undurty, Daniel Miller, Annie Howard

In the tradition of Gabrielle Douglas and Shawn Johnson, West Des Moines has produced another world champion.

This team, however, isn’t receiving nearly the attention or accolades, although the competition was equally demanding and the culmination of years of work. It’s unlikely you’ll see these competitors on a Wheaties box, on “Dancing With The Stars” or making product endorsements.

But you may soon see them designing computers, teaching English or running a corporation. They crossed oceans – remotely – to reach the pinnacle.

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Ben Allen, Beth Kulow, Corridor STEM Initiative, FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge, Governor's STEM Advisory Council, IASTEM, Iowastem, Math Counts, Project Lead the Way, Richard Longworth, STEM

STEM goes for the state title

In Uncategorized on March 10, 2013 at 2:59 pm

Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council

There was a lot going on in downtown Des Moines on March 5. At the Wells Fargo Arena, the state boys basketball tournament was attracting droves of fans, screaming at the top of their lungs.

Next door, at the Veterans Memorial Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center (whew!), a couple hundred educators, industry representatives and state officials gathered for the second Iowa STEM Summit, organized by the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.

There wasn’t screaming, but just as much cheering.

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Thomas R. O'Donnell

Iowa Science Interface

Posts Tagged ‘Governor’s STEM Advisory Council’

Forget the big boar. Pin down some candidates on science at the Iowa State Fair

Science marches on – with some conspicuous absences

Stepping up in Iowa to support science, facts and evidence

Big bots storm castles in Iowa competition

Take this important survey to support fact-based science in Iowa schools

Could Branstad’s task force be a smokescreen to kill new science education standards?

Riding a robot to a world title

STEM goes for the state title

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