Cedar Falls, Iowa — The Iowa Mathematics and Education Partnership (IMSEP) announced Monday that key public and private leaders in Iowa’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education arenas recently joined forces to begin to create a STEM education strategic plan for the State of Iowa.
IMSEP is a collaboration of Iowa’s public universities–including Iowa State University–in affiliation with STEM education organizations across Iowa, charged with improving mathematics and science performance of Iowa’s K-12 students; preparing more high quality math and science teachers for Iowa’s schools; and promoting statewide collaboration and cooperation in STEM education.
A representative from the Iowa Department of Education, Rockwell Collins and IMSEP collaborated with leaders in government, business, education and the scientific community to begin the important process of creating a strategic framework to encourage alignment of all state STEM initiatives under common goals.
“This directive will serve as a math and science scaffold, if you will,” said Jeffrey Weld, PhD, director of IMSEP. “Iowa currently has numerous organizations and programs designed to do one thing — move our state forward by improving math and science education for our students and citizens. This ‘meeting of the minds’ is the first organizing step among Iowa’s key stakeholders.”
IMSEP is charged with keeping the process in motion, with an expected strategic plan to be delivered to the governor’s office by December 2010.