New National Focus on STEM Education & MacArthur Foundation Grants for Digital Media

The President has announced a new "Educate to Innovate" Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (Stem) Education. As part of the campaign, the President will host a national science fair and STEM education has been made a priority of Race to the Top.

Also, several foundations are announcing supporting initiatives.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced that it will be accepting proposals starting Dec. 14 for a $2 million open competition for ideas to transform learning using digital media. The competition seeks designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others to build digital media experiences – the learning labs of the 21st Century – that help young people interact, share, build, tinker, and explore in new and innovative ways. The competition will seek proposals to advance the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills of youth using video games, social media and mobile networks. Here is the news release, and here is an article about it in youth today (you may have to be a subscriber to access this article).

Another initiative is Time Warner Cable’s “Connect a Million Minds” Campaign, in partnership with FIRST Robotics and the Coalition for Science After School, is launching a campaign to connect over one million students to highly-engaging after-school STEM activities that already exist in their area. On the Web site, If you run an afterschool progam with STEM activities, you might want to find out more about how your program can be included in their "Connectory" (the site functions as a sort of combination social networking site and program inventory).