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Earlier this year, there was an announcement of a strategy by the Jobs Council and President Obama that would ensure that at least 10,000 American engineers will be trained each year. STEM education would be promoted through cooperation between the government and private sector companies.

The initiative will help fund universities for the program and students will be offered incentives to complete their degrees. For ages, our economy has been fuelled by technological innovations and scientific advancement and it is time to focus on generating more number of scientists and engineers in home ground. This is the only way to keep our nation at the top of technological innovations.

According to President Obama, it is not enough to just attract students and encourage them to take STEM subjects. It is important for colleges to retain them and help them complete their program.
Forty percent of students who plan on majoring in science and engineering ultimately end up not obtaining a degree or switching to other subjects. A new study shows that if you factor in pre-medical students, the percentage rises to 60 percent.

This is an alarming trend that must be addressed by bringing about changes in the way science is taught at undergraduate level. Research plays a major role in retaining science students who are very important for our nation’s advancement in the field of science and technology.

In one of his books, David Lopatto, professor of Grinnell College talks about how research plays a major role in retaining undergraduate science students. Through his research study, he shows how it is good to involve younger students and engage them through research. He says that the first priority for colleges should be student engagement. Students must be cultivated, not weeded out through introductory science classes.

Students are not encouraged by the traditional lecture format as much as they are through engagement. The process and role of science in today’s society must be reflected in the course content. All content must be integrated with social issues such as health, environment and infrastructure.

Interdisciplinary nature of engineering and science must be taught to students early. This is the only way to realistically put forward innovation and discovery and enhance the possibilities that students who leave one particular science and engineering field choose to go to another stream of science and engineering rather than to a completely different field.

Dr. Lopatto says that it is important for students to be given an opportunity to involve themselves directly with professors during the original research as potential scientists find it encouraging and enticing going through the process of discovery.

To improve quality of learning in STEM fields and teaching in the undergraduate level, a five year initiative was announced recently by the AAU or Association of American Universities.  According to Hunter R. Rawlings, the AAU President, this initiative will give top priority to research and teaching. Students must be given more opportunities to experience as they learn and this fundamental shift must be dramatically brought into STEM education.