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A study by Huy Le, associate professor of management at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), has identified factors that could lead more young students to successful careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields.
"People seek out the environment that fits their personal characteristics," Le said. "If they work in an arena that suits them, they'll be happy and successful. With these predictors, we can identify students with potential for obtaining a STEM degree nearly a decade before they pursue it."
Le also found no difference between the abilities of girls and boys to succeed in STEM, based on these two predictors. Essentially, if a girl and a boy have the same amount of interest and ability to succeed, they are each entirely capable of doing so.
"There are many theories about the social pressure that keeps women out of STEM," he said. "We found that young men in general were more interested in the field, but considering that young women showed the same ability in our study, that seems to suggest that the dearth of women in the field is probably due to societal factors."
Le notes that many students, especially women, who excel cognitively also have excellent verbal ability and will often choose a career other than STEM because they have so many opportunities before them. Le says that educators and counselors can influence those decisions by simply introducing students to the benefits of a career in science or engineering.
"This is a critical issue in our economy right now," he said. "We have a crippling deficit of participants in the STEM field, and if we can encourage our students to pursue this path, we'll be on our way to eradicating [the issue]."
The full report, Building the STEM pipeline: Findings of a 9-year longitudinal research project (pdf), is available at Research Gate.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 15 2016, @09:39AM
Stem education is quite lengthy, and from what I have seen, remuneration comes nowhere near to justifying the commitment.
If one is going to be good at this kind of stuff, one had better love to do it. Its either a labor of love or a love of labor.... take your pick.
In a few years after graduation, tech moves on, and unless you are in the thick of it, you become like me and a lot of us here... way underemployed.
Sports people and movie stars are paid well in their prime, but we techies are expected to be a bargain hire, with compensation race to the bottom.
If I had my guess on what makes a good STEM student.... an Aspie. The commitment to become knowledgeable in something with so many dimensions simultaneously is a massive undertaking. In my mind, equaled only by a medical doctor or really good lawyer/tax accountant knowledgeable in myriad laws.
Many of here like to kid ourselves, but I find true, we are so busy with our techie stuff we fail to reproduce. And slowly eradicating the "scientific curiosity" gene from the American gene pool, replacing it with the genes for people who are more socially/leadership oriented.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Nerdfest on Monday August 15 2016, @10:34AM
socially/leadership oriented
It's also possible that you spelled "greedy" wrong.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 15 2016, @03:37PM
Stem education is quite lengthy
I'm not sure about US colleges but a degree is, or should be, quite standardized today (at least over here in Europe thanks to the standardizing via the Bologna Process) so I doubt it would be longer then any other degree. The standard seems to be three years for any subject from the hardest math to the softest gender studies degree. Three for a bachelor, 1-2 more for a masters, about 5 more for a phd. If you want multiple degrees in different subjects you add on a year or two. Some students remain and take longer then others or drag it out for other reasons but that is on them and not the system.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday August 16 2016, @08:23AM
True for a "degree", but how many people in this field have you met that had a "degree" but still lacked an "education"?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]