STEM volunteers

Abstract

In response to Toni Feder’s item “The US is in dire need of STEM teachers” (March 2022, page 25), I would like to make note of the work being done by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s STEM Volunteer Program (stemvolunteers.org), which I coordinate. We recruit STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professionals to assist K–12 teachers in their classrooms.The program began in 2004 and currently has 110 volunteers in four school districts in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Our retired volunteers commit to a few hours one day a week in the classroom for the school year. Those still working commit to a few hours every two to three weeks. Many volunteers exceed those commitments.Volunteers help students learn subject matter through projects rather than by rote. They also present on technical subjects in the curriculum and organize “Ask a Scientist” sessions, in which they answer questions from groups of students.One teacher wrote an email to a volunteer thanking him for the gift of his time and stating that it was an “absolute pleasure” to work with him. “You make science come alive for our children and I am very grateful,” she wrote. “I will do all I can to encourage more schools to use the program and get visiting scientists.”Prospective volunteers are contacted through a variety of mechanisms—such as through societies’ local sections, newsletters, the DC MIT Club, and retirement associations. The American Physical Society has supported the program from the beginning, including annually sending recruiting notices to its members in the DC metropolitan area.I am convinced that a national program can be designed to produce a significant increase in the number of volunteers from the large number of STEM graduates. As of 2019, there were 12.3 million college graduates whose highest degree was in a science or engineering field, according to NSF’s National Survey of College Graduates. A consortium of STEM societies is the best approach for implementing a program in support of K–12 STEM education.Increasing the number of volunteers will not solve the teachers shortage, but volunteers can be a significant help, in particular with assisting teachers who have a limited background in STEM. And they can serve as substitute teachers, as several of our volunteers have done. Section:ChooseTop of page <<© 2023 American Institute of Physics.