Urban Teacher Center (UTC) together with 100Kin10 and dozens of partner organizations, announced the launch of “Blow Minds, Teach STEM,” a coordinated, co-funded campaign to inspire undergraduates and recent graduates with strong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills to become teachers.
The U.S. ranks 27th in math and 20th in science among industrialized countries, slotting in somewhere between the Slovak Republic and Lithuania. There is no way of turning around these dismal results without great math and science, tech and engineering (or STEM) teachers in our nation’s schools. Because of this, President Obama called for 100,000 excellent STEM teachers in his 2011 State of the Union Address.
100Kin10 is a network of 200 multi-sector organizations responding to this exact need. Working with over 30 of those organizations, 100Kin10 partnered with creative agency Cultivated Wit to design the campaign, which introduces STEM teaching as an impactful, even mind-blowing career option for STEM majors and recent graduates, while amplifying the importance of STEM teaching to a much broader audience.
Urban Teacher Center is working in partnership with 100Kin10 to recruit the best and the brightest to teach STEM subjects. In particular, UTC is focused on preparing a new cadre of highly accountable, Common Core State Standards-trained, mathematics teachers who have a deep capacity and desire to support the diverse needs of students. Through its intensive, four-year preparation program, UTC is developing highly effective educators who consistently outperform their peers. These teachers are preparing students for future success in a society with an ever-increasing need for STEM professionals.
“All students-including those in our country’s urban schools-deserve access to today’s innovative, entrepreneurial global economy,” said Jennifer Green, CEO and Co-Founder of Urban Teacher Center. “We need to recruit and prepare a new generation of teachers to build the skill sets and depth of knowledge in math and science that students need to compete and thrive in a 21st century landscape.”
Even before launch, “Blow Minds, Teach STEM” has garnered significant national attention from a range of supporters. Over 700 backers signed up to participate in the coordinated launch on Tuesday, September 16, amassing a social reach of over 12.7 million.
Singer-songwriter John Legend, actor Michael Ian Black, co-founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian, human-centered design firm IDEO, media firm GOOD, “Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf, Time’s first Person of the Planet Sylvia Earle, and the United States Department of Education have lent their voices to “Blow Minds, Teach STEM.” They are joined by multitudes of parents, educators, scientists, mathematicians, and entrepreneurs, alongside a chorus of passionate citizens.
You can join in this effort to bolster and grow our national STEM teaching force by visiting www.blowminds.org.
