Priming the STEM Pipeline

While at Johns Hopkins, we have an abundance of highly qualified and creative engineering students, we also are acutely aware that many American students – and particularly women and members of underrepresented minority groups – lag behind their peers in other countries in achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Our Center for Educational Outreach is helping us address this STEM achievement gap through innovative and impactful programs, including a 10-year engineering-focused partnership with a Baltimore City school and meaningful collaborations with local corporations that provide internships and enrichment activities for young students.

Nearly 2,000 elementary school students in high-minority, low-resource neighborhoods throughout Baltimore benefit from SABES (STEM Achievement in Baltimore City Schools), a program that was launched in 2012  with a $7.4 million National Science Foundation grant and that was focused initially on improving STEM curricula and delivery in nine city schools. Today, the SABES curriculum is used in the elementary grades in 124 Baltimore City Public Schools, where it makes STEM learning a community activity that involves the participation of students, teachers, parents, and community partners.

Every year, Engineering Innovation, our immersive, pre-college summer program, challenges nearly 500 high school students at approximately `15 locations across the country to think and problem-solve like engineers. Approximately 30 percent of EI students are women, and 20 percent are members of underrepresented minority groups.

Contact Tim Richardson to learn how you can support our STEM outreach efforts.

As science teachers, it’s our job to help the kids learn to keep pushing, and not to give up when they are trying to solve a problem. That approach teaches them to persevere.

Baltimore City Public School Elementary School Teacher