Designing STEM Curriculum for K12 Students

United States is facing tremendous shortage of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates. This shortage is poised to hurt the future workforce and hence economic growth of this country. One of the STEM discipline is logistics transportation which is a growing area that lacks adequate workforce. Our nation’s economic strength and competitiveness depends on a safe, efficient, sustainable and secure logistics transportation system. Each day the nation’s commercial carriers deliver 30 million tons of freight using one or more modes of transportation. Each mode is a network of infrastructure that is leveraged to provide the goods we expect to find in our everyday lives – whether it is clothing at our favorite retail store or home heating oil. In addition to serving the population and economy by moving goods and people, logistics transportation adds to the national economy by providing jobs for millions of people. This is one of the fastest growing professions in the US and lacks trained professionals in this field 1 . The need for this profession is even severe in the state of Mississippi. Mississippi Gulf Coast industries have been experiencing significant growth in logistics transportation. The ports of Gulfport and Pascagoula are expecting a threefold increase in operations and freight movement (from 230,000 in 2012 TEUs to 750,000 TEUs by 2025) due to the expansion of the Panama Canal and the strategic location of these ports 2 . This growth will require an improved logistics transportation network in the region and will significantly increase demand for workers trained in logistics technology. Without an increase supply of professionals in this discipline, the US companies will face labor shortages and future regional economic development will be hampered. Logistics Transportation is a multidisciplinary applied science and engineering program. High school students are not familiar about this promising filed. Without creating an awareness program in the K12 system, a consistent supply of students in logistics transportation program in universities will not be realized. Due to the tremendous need of this profession, we have designed a secondary curriculum in logistics transportation for high school students with the help of public and private funding. The curriculum design consists of six modules of lectures, hands on projects, and educating the K12 educators. The lecture modules and hands on projects are designed to provide fundamental understanding of basic concepts in logistics transportation and relating classroom theories with real time examples. Educating the K12 educators program was designed to educate them with career opportunities, future perspectives of logistics transportation professionals, and resource availability. This paper will discuss the need of STEM education in logistics transportation, sample curriculum design, implementation issues, and lessons learned regarding the project.