Reports

Survey: Students on STEM

The report, titled "Students on STEM: More Hands-on, Real-World Experiences" shows that students want additional opportunities that will inspire them to explore careers in scientific fields, and teachers are uniquely positioned to stimulate students' interest in STEM. The survey found that large majorities of teenagers like science and understand its value, but common teaching methods, such as teaching straight from the textbook, do not bring the subject matter to life in the same way hands-on, real-life experiences do.

The Case for Improving U.S. Computer Science Education

To maintain the field’s current momentum, the perception of computer science needs to shift from its being considered a fringe, elective offering or a skills-based course designed to teach basic computer literacy or coding alone. Instead, it is time for computer science to be seen as a core science on par with more traditional high school offerings such as biology, chemistry and physics, which have been the focus since the 1890s.

Importance of High-Performance Computing to U.S. Competitiveness

As of November 2015, China’s Tianhe-2 , shown in Figure 2, rates as the world’s fastest high- performance computer, with a peak theoretical perf ormance speed of 54.9 petaflops, double the speed of the world’s second -fastest computer, America’s Titan , which operates at a maximum speed of 27.1 petaflops at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States

Analysts at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have used detailed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data for 128 cities nationwide, along with improved data analysis methods and simulation tools, to update its estimate of total U.S. technical potential for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis reveals a technical potential of 1,118 gigawatts (GW) of capacity and 1,432 terawatt-hours (TWh) of annual energy generation, equivalent to 39 percent of the nation's electricity sales.

Red Alert: The Growing Threat to U.S. Aircraft Carriers

While the U.S. Navy has long enjoyed freedom of action throughout the world’s oceans, the days of its unchallenged primacy may be coming to a close. In recent years, a number of countries, including China, Russia, and Iran, have accelerated investments in anti-access/area denial (A2/AD)capabilities such as advanced air defense systems, anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, submarines, and aircraft carriers. These capabilities are likely to proliferate in the coming years, placing greater constraints on U.S. carrier operations than ever before.

The Equipment Industry Technician Shortage

While there are certainly differences between the heavy equipment and manufacturing industries, there are similarities between the natures of the skills gap affecting their workforces. These connections between the experiences provide a broader context for the challenges facing businesses due to the shortage of technical workers.

The Demographics of Innovation in the United States

This study provides a detailed portrait of individuals who are driving technological innovation in the United States - including their gender, ethnicity, countries of origin, education, and age—as well as the settings and circumstances in which they are creating their innovations, such as the institution (or institutions) behind the advances, the commercial status of the innovations, and their funding sources.

Using Indicator Data to Drive K–12 STEM Improvements in States and Districts

Indicators and measures have long served a critical role in the U.S. education system. For district and state education leaders, monitoring data describe current initiatives and support informed decision-making. In Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education, the National Research Council (NRC) argues for new and enhanced indicators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education

Measuring the Quantity and Quality of the K-12 STEM Teacher Pipeline

STEM teachers are essential to any effort to improve U.S. STEM education, both for students who eventually will work in STEM-related fields and for the general public. Efforts to enhance the quality of STEM teachers have focused on attracting more academically capable people to the field, improving the quality of teacher education programs, supporting teachers’ continued learning once they have joined the profession, or rewarding and retaining the most effective teachers.

Ranking Countries Impact on Global Innovation

The report finds that on a per-capita basis, the nations doing the most for global innovation (a combination of more effort on policies that support innovation and less on policies that harm it) are Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In contrast, India, Indonesia, and Argentina score the lowest overall. Singapore, Korea, and Finland rank highest on how much their policies contribute to global innovation. In contrast, India, China, and Thailand have put in place policies that have done the most to harm global innovation.

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