The Science And Technology Education Partnership (Step): Growth, Challenges And Opportunities In Stem Outreach

This paper explores a comprehensive and proactive approach that is currently being used by the Science and Technology Education Partnership (STEP) Program in Southern California to help ensure that the pipeline of scientists, mathematicians and engineers is supported at the early stages of the pipeline in order to increase the numbers of students qualified to obtain technical educations and degrees. The paper addresses the challenges of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) outreach activities in the early grade levels and the need for focusing resources at this early educational stage. The STEP Programs approach that includes interactions with the grade school through high school levels of the educational system as well as active partnerships with colleges and universities to proactively stimulate these systems to produce qualified candidates for hire will be shown. The basic STEP model will be presented as a template. The STEP Program will also be viewed through the eyes and interests of STEP partners who co-authored this paper including the Navy Metrology Engineering Center as a long term sponsor and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a recent technical exhibitor and teacher program participant. These STEP partner views of the program and its relationship to their own long term efforts and interests in STEM outreach to students, teachers and the educational systems will provide insight into the common partnership that was the foundation of STEP since its inception 10 years ago. The paper will discuss the expansion of the STEP Program to other areas of the country, presenting both challenges encountered and achievements to date.