Weird Science: Further Thoughts on the STEM Educational Challenge

The author notes that the sciences are now something one must latch onto early and successfully as a teenager, and endure against all odds. This pivotal point requires maturity and even myopia--delayed gratification and voluntary dorkiness--traits not common in the young. As a nation, Americans are losing their hegemony in the sciences. In just the past decade, China quintupled its number of doctorates in engineering and the sciences, Korea and Taiwan doubled theirs, but the U.S. stayed stable. As individuals, Americans operate more and more contraptions, but understand them less and less. While there is no single solution to the problems of the STEM pipeline--where scientific interest is squelched over time and newcomers are barred from entry--the author offers a few thoughts.