Abstract Detail

Teaching Section

DeAngelis, Patricia [1], Havens, Kayri [2], Holsinger, Kent E. [3], Kennedy, Kathryn [4], Kramer, Andrea T. [5], Muir, Rachel  [6], Olwell, Peggy [7], Schierenbeck, Kristina A. [8], Stritch, Larry [9], Sundberg, Marshall [10], Zorn-Arnold, Barbara [11].

Botany Graduate Students Perceive Strengths Where Employers Find Deficiencies.

Preparing students for careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines in collaboration with private sector partners and mission-oriented federal agencies has been recognized as a critical national need for several decades. Nonetheless, our recent survey of more than 1500 plant scientists, faculty, graduate students, and land managers suggests that potential employers in government agencies and the private sector believe that students are still inadequately prepared to meet some of the grand challenges facing the United States in a competitive world. Of even greater concern is that some of those skills identified by students as their greatest strengths closely match the areas where their skills are found to be most lacking by future employers. While our survey focused on botany, we suspect that the results are applicable throughout the STEM disciplines. Our results lend urgency to President Obama’s recently announced “Educate to Innovate” campaign, which is designed to further enhance training in all STEM disciplines.

Broader Impacts:

1 - US Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N Fairfax Drive Suite 110, Washington, DC, 22203, USA
2 - Chicago Botanic Garden, Cons Sci Department, 1000 Lake Cook Rd, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022, USA
3 - University of Connecticut, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 75 North Eagleville Road, U-3043, Storrs, Connecticut, 062693043, USA
4 - Center for Plant Conservation, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63110
5 - Botanic Garden Conservation International
6 - U.S. Geological Survey , 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA, 20192, United States of America
7 - Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, LSB204, Washington, DC, DC, 20240, USA
8 - California State University Chico, Department of Biological Sciences, Chico, California, 95929-0515, USA
9 - US Forest Service, WO, Range Staff, 3S, 201 14th Street, SW, Washington, DC, 20250, USA
10 - Emporia State University, Biological Sciences, Box 4050, 1200 Commercial Street, Emporia, Kansas, 66801, USA
11 - Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022, USA

Keywords:
graduate students
Faculty
Federal Agencies
Non-governmental Agencies
preparing studends.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 44
Location: 554B/Convention Center
Date: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Time: 4:00 PM
Number: 44010
Abstract ID:273