Nebraska: Home to Great Startups On the Silicon Prairie

Nebraska is finally making waves as one of the top STEM and technology hubs in the United States. Last month, WalletHub conducted a survey ranking geographical shifts in U.S. employment, according to digital reporter Seth Augenstein. Many of the usual suspects were still ranked high as the best metro areas for STEM jobs: Silicon Valley […]

Fredi Lajvardi, the Inspiration for “Spare Parts,” Visits Nebraska to Speak About STEM

If you haven’t heard of the film Spare Parts, make sure it’s on your “to-watch” list for the upcoming month. It’s the real-life, true story of a robotics teacher and four high school students in Phoenix, Arizona, three of whom were undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Ten years ago, Wired contributing editor Joshua Davis received a […]

What Is Ag Literacy and Why Do We Need It?

Just this week, Farm Credit Services of America donated $100,000 to help Nebraska students of all ages gain a better understanding of science and agriculture. FCSAmerica, which is based in Omaha, serves farmers and ranchers in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They supply the nation’s agricultural industry with almost one-third of its credit needs, […]

STEM Trends: Innovation Transcends Good Grades

An inherent part of secondary education is grades. From A-F, the majority of school systems place some value on what grades a student receives, using them as an indication of intelligence and potential future success. However, recent studies have shown that innovation is not only not linked to good grades, but in fact, there might […]

This Year, STEM Toys For Girls May Be Under The Tree

This year, two conflicting trends seem to be pulling retailers in either direction. Fortune reports that retailers are discarding “boys” and “girls” labels on toys, instead leaning towards gender neutrality—toys that can fit for either gender. For example, on Halloween costumes, lunch boxes, backpacks, and other children’s accessories, Disney Stores labeled them as “kids” rather […]

Building Real-World STEM Skills with Legos

Many kids-turned-adults have fond memories of hours spent on the floor, assembling ships and cities from tiny plastic Lego building blocks. As it turns out, research of early childhood development shows that this time spent with Legos wasn’t just “fun time” for preschoolers and elementary school students, but actually can help develop spatial reasoning and […]

Nebraskans Gather to Witness the Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse

Even if you’re not a STEM aficionado, haven’t taken astronomy, or care more about what’s happening on our little earth than in the sky above, the blood moon total lunar eclipse this weekend was pretty awesome. And if you do love science, or technology or photography or history or engineering or astronomy or math, this […]

STEM Teachers: The Other Skills Gap

We discuss the skills gap on the blog fairly often, and that’s because the shortage of skilled workers to fill manufacturing positions across the country is a tremendously important inhibitor to manufacturing growth. However, there’s another skills gap that isn’t discussed as frequently, and that is the teacher skills gap. As programs to develop the […]

The ‘T’ In STEM: How Technology Can Change the World

There are plenty of people working in the technology industry because they love it, or because they like the paycheck that comes along with it, or because they felt that they were a match for a specific tech company. All of these are certainly valid reasons to embark upon a thriving career in the tech […]