WHY SCIENCE AND MATH EDUCATION IS SO IMPORTANT

And why the Wimberley Education Foundation
is interested in receiving
grant applications in these fields

Scientists and mathematicians lay the foundation for—and engineers of all kinds (civil, electrical, software, etc.) build—the infrastructure that shapes modern civilization. Science and technology permeate every aspect of 21^st Century life. The global economy is heavily dependent on science and technology, yet the United States is in danger of losing its economic dominance of these sectors. With such a loss will inevitably go our standard of living.

To remedy this situation, we need more of our youngsters to seek careers in science and engineering. We will not solve this problem by throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the college and graduate school level—because we aren’t sending enough of our nation’s youth with science and math aspirations to them in the first place.

In the past it didn’t matter that U.S. students were being replaced in graduate science and engineering programs by foreign students, because the latter stuck around to help the American economy. Now, however, they are going back home—to Brazil, India, Singapore, China, Russia, all over the world—to help develop science and engineering capabilities in their native countries. It’s wonderful that they can do so, returning to their own countries, languages, cultures, and working to enhance their standards of living. But the problem for the United States is that we have insufficient replacements in the pipeline.

The answer, we think, begins in elementary school, and progresses through middle and secondary education. We must make math, science, and engineering exciting to our students. We must expose them to the challenges, rewards, and satisfactions that can come from pursuing careers in these fields. It’s not enough to just teach math, chemistry, biology, and physics. We need to stimulate, fascinate, and motivate our students with the wonder and excitement inherent in these fields of study.

And that is where Wimberley Education Foundation grants can come into play—to go beyond the bare curriculum by funding programs and projects that will motivate a few students every year to pursue math, science, and engineering into college, graduate school, and lifelong careers. So please be thinking about how you could accomplish this if only you had something that the District doesn’t provide—but the WEF might. A good grant application begins with a good idea. Articulating it, and complying with the application instructions is important . . . but nothing will win the WEF Grant Committee members’ attention like a really imaginative, creative concept for stimulating, exciting, and motivating your students to follow careers in math and science.