ma stem connect

MA STEM Connect

By Alyssa, October 15, 2015

The first annual HUBweek 2015 kicked off at the start of this month starting a series of weeklong events and experiences through Greater Boston designed to merge Boston’s art, science and technology communities. We initially heard about HUBweek from the organizers of MA STEM Connect, an inaugural one day event included in the overall schedule. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to develop this event’s initial branding — creating their logo and helping with their website. The event was designed to promote the importance of K-12 STEM education and to help connect area non-profits with corporations that believe in finding solutions for the STEM job crisis.

On Monday, October 5 I ventured from our Hingham offices into the city and to the MA STEM Connect event venue; the Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Mass General Hospital. The museum was such an amazing space, full of old fashioned medical devices and exhibits displaying how far the health care industry has come over the last 200 years. The event was held on the second level of the museum and kicked off with an introduction from the event organizers, Eileen McEntire and Connie Chow.

The event consisted of a panel discussion and keynote session discussing why STEM education matters. First a panel consisting of Chris Barr of Biogen, Alison Lands of Deloitte, Aimee Sprung of Microsoft New England and Marcy L. Reed of National Grid, moderated by Travis McCready of The Boston Foundation, discussed the many reasons of why STEM education matters to businesses. The common thread was the job skills gap – simply put, there are not enough people with the right skills to fill open positions and to fill the jobs of the future. They went on to speak about possible ways to break down barriers and to give K-12 students everywhere access to STEM education programs. When asked about how to reduce the job skills gap, they mainly focused on mentorship. When children have mentors and role models in science, technology, engineering and math, they see first hand the many different options that are out there for themselves. An interesting point that was made was that by 7th grade, if a child isn’t interested in STEM, that ship has sailed. Consequently, they stressed the importance of starting early and noted that in today’s world, children are operating smart phones and using iPads starting as young as two years old. However, these kids are not making the correlation between that technology and how it’s created, and if that connection is made, it may spark an interest in STEM. Next up was Congresswoman Katherine Clark who spoke about why STEM education matters to the Commonwealth. Massachusetts is well known for it’s academic institutions and achievements and her focus was on taking the ideas out of academia and bringing them into the market place.

MA STEM Connect was a great success and we sincerely hope that it becomes an annual event as part of HUBWeek. To see more highlights from the event, search #MASTEMConnect on Twitter.