Production and distribution of City Club forums and ideastream public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc.. Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's Friday, April 5th.

And I'm Cynthia Connolly, director of programing here at the City Club.

I am so pleased to present today's forum, which is in partnership with the Great Lakes Science Center in part of the City Club's Education Innovation Series.

I think we can all feel the anticipation down here in downtown Cleveland.

The film festival is underway just down the street.

The NCAA Women's Final Four has arrived, and on Monday, April 8th, the city of Cleveland will be in the path of totality of a total solar eclipse.

This weekend, the Great Lakes Science Center and NASA's Glenn Research Center will be hosting total Eclipse Fest, a three day outdoor science and arts festival on Cleveland's north coast.

The City Club will also be there tomorrow at noon for a free forum, talking with Dr. Erin MacDonald, astrophysicist and lead science advisor for the Star Trek series.

I hope our Trekkies will join us with this once in a lifetime celestial event comes in on precedented opportunity to tap into humankind's curiosity about what lies beyond our Earth's limits.

The promise of space exploration and discovering the unknown has inspired generations of youth and grown ups alike.

Now the upcoming eclipse is only amplifying that curiosity.

Here with us today to discuss how NASA is leveraging this historic moment is Kris Brown, deputy associate administrator for Strategy, Strategy and Integration at the Office of STEM Engagement Engagement at NASA.

In her position, Kris provides strategic direction and executive oversight of NASA's STEM engagement.

Her efforts are devoted to creating unique learning opportunities for students, supporting educators and educational institutions.

Agency wide.

NASA's STEM Engagement Investments aim to build a diverse and future STEM workforce.

Moderating today's conversation is Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen, president and CEO of the Great Lakes Science Center.

If you have a question for our speaker, you can text it to 3305415794.

That's 3305415794.

And our city club staff will try our best to work it into the second half of the program.

Members and Friends of the City Club of Cleveland please join me in welcoming Kris Brown and Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen.

Hairston.

Well, thank you.

We are so excited to have you here in Cleveland.

It's really wonderful.

And I have to say, I've been reading quite a bit about you and we could have gone on and on with your bio.

You came to education and and engagement in your current position.

You came to that as an engineer.

That's a journey.

Tell us a little more about your journey.

Thanks for that, Kirsten.

So my journey into engineering was not a straightforward one.

It but my journey in STEM began very early in my development.

I grew up in a small, teeny town in Pennsylvania, a rural, disadvantaged town economically, and I was the first person in my family to go to college.

That that for me was took me to a place in terms of my development that really relied pretty much wholly on my schooling and some encouragement, of course, from my family.

So early on in my childhood, I developed this a passion for building, and that led to drawing and design, which led to me thinking that I wanted to be an architect.

So I actually started at Virginia Tech in architecture school, and then after a year transferred into engineering, I was very much drawn to this idea of understanding how things work and designing and developing new things.

And that was really my draw into engineering.

And then, of course, as I went through my career, I started in the private sector and a few years later landed at NASA and moved through the engineering ranks.

I was an engineer working on space flight hardware at the Goddard Space Flight Center, and then I moved into systems engineering and then into engineering management.

And then I just took this very interesting turn because what ultimately led me to where I am today was a true passion for inspiring and educating youth in thinking about STEM and seeing themselves in STEM.

Every opportunity that I would get, I would volunteer to be a mentor or to take students around Goddard and show them all the work we were doing.

And eventually, as I moved into some leadership positions at Goddard, I ended up doing a number of things around education and public outreach.

I think we're going to talk about that a lot today.

NASA's role in that and ultimately then that led me to the role that I have today, which I really love.

Well, okay, so you mentioned drawing and I do happen to know as a renaissance leader, you are also a semiprofessional classical singer.

Right.

This really resonates with me.

I'm a very nonprofessional musician who plays a small handful of instruments.

And so we both volunteer our time with arts organizations.

So talk a little bit about why you don't see that as a dichotomy.

Mm.

I love I love the fact that you're, that you went here with this question and that that intersection between the arts and STEM is an interesting one.

And something that that really plays out for us in the work that we do at.

So about a year and a half ago, I was asked to speak at The Atlantic's Education Summit, and I was interviewed with the head of education for the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

And the session was all about that intersection between art and science.

And so for me, I did some introspection and thinking about the work that we do, and a number of things came to mind.

So first off is scientists and engineers are inherently incredibly creative people, and that's not necessarily the picture that people would hold about scientists and engineers when they think about them.

And so engineers in particular and scientists, we're designers, innovators.

We we look at bringing an idea, a concept from from from that to reality through a design process.

And and that is inherently a very creative endeavor.

And so I like to talk about that a lot with students, because students kind of think of engineers and scientists with that that stereotype that isn't necessarily always very positive.

And so what I like to do is talk about that creative process and how exciting it is and how we are intensely involved in doing that, not just in terms it's not a solitary endeavor, it is really a team sport.

So there is so much collaboration and energy and and amazing things that happen in that creative process.

So that said, we do try to emphasize that a lot in in especially when I speak, but in the work that we do and also in the work we do at an asset in public engagement is, is we spend some of our efforts in looking at how do we meet students and young people where they are, how do we go to them to bring what we do to them in a powerful and compelling way?

And one way we do that is actually looking at how we can look at how we can approach students who might not necessarily be interested in STEM, but are interested in other things.

So for example, this past couple of years we've engaged in some essay contests.

We had one last year with the Girl Scouts of America where girls were asked all across the country to write essays that allowed them to capitalize on their talents and interests in writing, but to also learn about NASA's work and about STEM.

In addition to that, we also do things in the visual arts and also with organizations who are involved in the performing arts.

And so you talked about music tonight is an is I'm participating.

An example of one of those is that we are collaborating with the Cleveland Orchestra and I am lucky to be narrating in concert this evening and bringing music to those who are probably maybe coming to the concert because they're really into space.

So hopefully they will learn something about classical music.

And then on the other side of the coin is having people who are going because they love classical music, hoping that they will learn something about the ACA and the work we do and the science and exploratory work that we're involved in.

So we do a lot of those collaborations as much as we can in hopes that, again, that we really are able to reach students where they are.

I love that.

And of course we're doing so much of that together at the total Eclipse Fest.

We'll have the orchestra there as well.

Many arts organizations and I that probably does bring us back to the elephant in the room of we've got to talk about the total solar eclipse and your nassr.

So I want to be respectful of what always comes first at NASA, which is safety.

And let's do a little show us your specs.

So if you do not have these right safety first, you do need to make sure that as you head towards Monday, you have got your solar eclipse glasses.

Indeed, these are vital.

Q So I am curious if you were not here in your official master capacity, would you be chasing the eclipse Monday?

Great question.

Yes, I think I think I would.

I think I'm I'm feeling very blessed to be here with other national leaders and a huge entourage of NASA people who are going to be descending upon Cleveland.

We have some of them today here with us, and we are really excited about the opportunity to put the eclipse in the spotlight for everyone across the country by having a presence here and in other cities that we're calling sunspots.

All across the country along the path of totality.

And but we're also taking this moment and hoping that we can bring the power of our NASA people who I like to call our STEM superstars, to bring them to all of you and to people across the country to learn more, to learn more about space and the incredible work that we're doing in Earth and space science as well as in human exploration.

So so it's it's a great opportunity for us to get out there and engage with the public and in a powerful way, in a powerful and very compelling, perhaps profound moment.

And so a little bit about the eclipse, of course, I don't think it's any news to any of you in this room that Cleveland is in the path of totality.

It is a very special place.

And I'll talk about that in a second in that on Monday, around 313, we are going to be in that brilliant position of the earth, sun and the moon alignment so that we experience a total solar eclipse.

And in addition to that, we are doing a broadcast from here.

So we'll have a lot of opportunity to bring what is happening here to people all over the country who may not be able to experience it themselves.

I would highly encourage you, if you have not planned to do so already, that you plan to be outside on Monday afternoon between 2:00 and 430 to be able to experience this and talking about being special, this is how special Monday is.

The next total solar eclipse the United States is in the year 2044.

The next total solar eclipse is in the state of Ohio will be in the year 2099.

And the next time Cleveland is in the path of totality will be in the year 2444.

So so you can kind of just take a moment and pause about that.

That is pretty amazing.

And so for me, I really wanted to be here for this just because of how monumental this moment will be and just fingers crossed that the weather here will cooperate.

So far, it's not looking too bad, and hopefully we'll all get a chance to experience it together.

We're expecting all of you to be there.

Well, we're particularly excited.

You talked about your NASA's sunspots, and it's an extraordinary thing that that NASA's really invested in spreading out resources across the path of totality.

But we are especially grateful that NASA headquarters is here in Cleveland in force, because this is your only NASA's center, the NASA's Glenn Research Center.

In the past, I've totality we've got more than 3000 employees at NASA's Glenn NASA headquarters will be here in large numbers and talk a bit more.

I mean, we spent all of our time at Great Lakes Science Center, home of the NASA's Glenn Visitor Center, really talking on a regular basis about the extraordinary things that NASA's Glenn Research Center does.

But I'm very curious to hear from the headquarter perspective on that.

Yeah, I love NASA, Glenn.

It's really great to be back here.

We've got a fabulous team there of dedicated and very talented professionals across all disciplines.

If you don't know much about NASA, Glenn, I would assume a number of you probably do.

But NASA's Glenn is known for its work in the design development and testing of new technologies that are devoted to revolutionizing air travel and also in enhancing our work in in space.

And Glenn is is definitely involved in a whole number of realms, but I'll just talk about a couple of things.

So first off, I know that my my Glenn friends here like to say that the path to the moon goes right through Ohio.

We have our the Artemis program, which is dedicated to getting us back on the moon, which is incredibly exciting.

There are a lot of things that are happening here at Glenn that are inherently involved in in that program.

And so Glenn brings expertize in power, propulsion and communications, as well as some really incredible facilities for testing hardware.

And so Glenn is bringing all that to the table for the Artemis program.

But I think the most important thing, at least in my mind, sorry, in my mind, about the work that's done here, is let's start with when you hear NASA.

The first word that pops into your head is likely space.

But the first A in NASA's stands for Aeronautics, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Glenn is at the heart of the work that we do in aeronautics.

Aeronautics, the the program that or the programs that we are involved in are really pushing the boundaries for air travel in terms of devoting research and development in developing cleaner, more sustainable and quieter air traffic.

And in addition to that, Glenn, is doing research in hypersonic aircraft as well as supersonic aircraft.

So the work that's being done at Glenn is in supporting our aeronautics program, is is literally helping to change the way we're going to fly.

And at NASA, we love to say that when you fly NASA is with you.

And that is true.

There are a lot of technologies that are on current aircraft that really started at NASA.

And NASA, Glenn, has had a hand in that.

And then I think the only other thing I would touch on about you mentioned the 3000 people that work at Glenn.

So we have a cadre of them who will be at the Great Lakes Science Center and at the NASA village next to the Science Center this weekend.

And they I know I'm very confident that they are going to be very willing to share the excitement about the work that they do, as well as being there to help staff and volunteers, some of the activities that will be happening there.

Darlene Walker is here with me today.

She is our lead for the STEM engagement team at Glenn.

And I had a chance to visit with our team last night, and they have incredibly fun and cool things that they're going to be doing with youth and students all throughout the weekend.

So the fact that we've got a lot of folks from Glenn who are going to be interacting with the public and with youth and students is going to be really exciting and a great part of the of the things that are going to be happening here.

We're we're thrilled that so many resources and so much activity from NASA's is really helping us celebrate the eclipse here in Cleveland.

We're very grateful and it reflects the commitment and priorities at NASA headquarters.

Right.

NASA's has really, since its inception, seen that public education and engagement is critical.

And as as someone who has watched NASA as a fan for many, many decades and it's been interesting to see that evolution from a sole focus on education.

And frankly, I think the agency's taking a very sophisticated take now and focusing on engagement.

Talk a little more about that.

What are the priorities?

How did the agency get from education to engagement and what does that look like now?

Well, that's that's that's a lot.

I could probably I could probably talk about that for a long time.

But that's a great question.

I'll I'll cover a few elements of that.

So you're right.

NASA's work in education and public outreach really started at the founding of the agency back in 1958.

It's actually literally written in the Space Act that legislated the beginnings of NASA.

And we take that work really seriously.

We have, in STEM engagement, which then the distinction really for us a few years ago actually when I came into this role, we we really felt the need to be deliberate about talking about our work and that NASA's not an education agency.

That's not what we do.

But that engagement reaching out to students and to the public and educating them about the work that we do.

Having our are a part in contributing to our nation's science literacy, but most importantly, helping to inspire and enable us to build a future workforce, a future STEM workforce.

That next generation of explorers is something that is really inherently very much part of our mission.

And to that end, we actually have a dedicated line item in the NASA's budget that Congress appropriates every year that is is dedicated to stem engagement, our work with students.

So our organization, the one that I lead, has over 250 people across our agency and are the line item in the budget.

This past year, $143 million.

And we devote all of our efforts to engaging students through learning opportunities, supporting educators and providing resources to educators across the country, as well as providing tangible support, financial support to build capacity at universities and colleges all across the country.

We do really exciting work.

And again, it's it's all around that central notion of we want to be part of a tangible contribution to building the nation's future STEM workforce.

And there's a real business case for that, and I'll touch on that briefly.

There's something that I think we are very much we have it very much front and center in the work that we do and that it is estimated.

Now, evidence is is there that we will not have enough STEM workers in the United States over the next decade to support the needs that we have.

So it's estimated that we will be short on the order of 1 million STEM workers.

And so we we really do need to figure out how to attract more students to stem and keep them on STEM pathways.

In addition to that, a number of STEM workers, this is very true at NASA are approaching retirement age or are already eligible for retirement.

So we very much need to bring in a cadre of early career folks to be able to move through STEM careers, to have an adequate supply of STEM workers.

And then finally, women and people of color are still very much underrepresented in STEM.

There is a huge disparity.

So, for instance, while women make up 51% of the nation's college educated workforce, only 29% are represented in STEM.

That's a pretty large disparity right there.

When you look at some of the physical sciences, so some disciplines within the science and engineering professions, the disparity is even bigger.

So as an example, women engineers make up only 16% of the engineering workforce.

When I started many years ago, not that many, but a few years ago, when I started, women made up 8% of the engineering workforce.

So while it's better, I would say 16% really isn't good enough.

We need to do much better.

And for people of color, the numbers are even more, more staggering in a way.

So I think that it is imperative for us and this is something that we hold it now for, that we want to contribute to increasing diversity and equity in STEM, and we want to do that in a tangible way by attracting more students across a diversity of students to be able to come and be part of the things that we do.

And and if the STEM workforce much better represents the population that it serves, will only do better in meeting the challenges that we have as as the nation and the world.

With respect to some of the societal challenges we have.

Climate change being something very prominent there in terms of being able to solve problems and meet the challenges of the day.

Well, we're on the last couple of questions before we get to your questions, so please get those ready.

So let me ask advice on some things.

You just gave a very compelling lead in to this.

We as STEM enthusiasts, engineers, scientists, I'm looking around the room at who's gathered, but we as humans, adults.

What advice do you have for us and what's the call to action you have to us to help address this serious disparity you just talked about?

Thanks for that question.

I like to think of it as it truly takes a village so we can all do this.

And in fact, when I speak with aerospace colleagues across the country, I always issue them the call to action that it's really important for all of us to think about.

How can we contribute to attracting more students to STEM and helping enable those students to remain on STEM pathways?

So eventually they have a chance to have a career in STEM.

And what?

One thing that I like to try to talk about is the fact that we all have compelling stories to tell.

We may not think we do, but we do.

And so I encourage all of you and all of those who are who are out there listening to think about, well, what story do you have to tell about your journey and to readily share that with young people?

Because there is always something that resonates with them, some connection that they that they see.

So I think that's really important.

The work that we're doing, of course, at NASA is is providing a whole spectrum continuum of learning opportunities for students that range from student challenges to internships and fellowships, things that students can get online and participate in.

And so I like to also encourage students to go in search of those learning opportunities.

When I'm with young students, I always tell them that I actually ask them to put on their exploration hats or their or their astronaut helmets and to really help and help them envision what it was.

What does it feel like to be an explorer?

And so having that notion of of encouraging young people to to explore, to try on something new, to learn, in order for them to learn new things and hopefully discover something that jazz and STEM and that they're really excited about is, I think, something we can all do.

There is a whole range of things that are out there waiting for students and kids to engage in.

And and there are so many things that really can be at their fingertips.

And and for us to provide that encouragement, to be able to go and try on something that they haven't tried before and not to not to be afraid of failing is is another message that I think we can deliver to them.

And for us, with the opportunity of is that we offer we're also working with educators and and teachers are such a power with our nation's children.

They can they can encourage us, not just one student.

When we work with the teacher, we're not working with one student.

We're working with many students.

And so we look at our ability to magnify our impact that way.

And I think that's a very important aspect of the work that we're doing.

And so I think having relationships between teachers and students is also really helpful.

Finally, the only other thing that I would I would mention is that going back to that idea that it takes a village is at NASA, we don't do our work in STEM engagement on our own.

We have three priorities that we've laid out.

One is looking at broadening student participation.

The second is enhancing the work that we're doing in K-12 so that we can build a better foundation of students who are starting on STEM pathways.

And then our third priority is we are establishing strategic partnerships with organizations that have large footprints or who have an ability and expertize in areas and education to be able to reach students so that we can magnify our impact.

And so we have had a range of partnerships just this past year, over 120 partners.

So discussions with partner organizations, perspective partners.

And then we have built formal agreements with a whole range of partners, as well as through our grants and cooperative agreements with science centers and museums like the Great Lakes, Science Center libraries, other educational organizations all across the country.

So we are building a village at NASA to be able to do this work and better.

And we're also looking to be able to provide aid and more resources to more students.

And finally, the only other thing I'll touch on, we have powerful role models out there.

We have several in this room.

I want to mention that Jessica Watkins is here, one of our astronauts, and.

She is incredible.

Jessica is a great example of one of those STEM superstars.

And so I think it's very important that students are able to see and experience in a palpable way, exciting work being done by amazing people.

And we have lots of STEM superstars at NASA and in many, many organizations around the country who don't do space to do other things in STEM and we hope that that youth and students will be able to see somebody and hopefully see somebody who looks like them doing amazing work.

And that takes students in a very in a very positive trajectory, enable for them to to think about having a STEM identity and seeing themselves being able to do this really cool work.

I love that.

I thought I was heading into a career in law until my 10th grade biology teacher, Mrs. Benson, tapped me on the shoulder and said, Hey, have you considered applying for this thing over here?

So I love your call to action and I hope everyone will take it very seriously.

Well, let me wrap up by giving you one more chance to give us advice or any kinds of compelling things we should be thinking about as we head into April 8th with the total solar eclipse.

I know we've known about this eclipse coming for centuries.

We've been preparing at the Science Center since 2017.

But I think NASA, Glenn, has been preparing much longer than that.

NASA's headquarters has been preparing for a great deal of time.

So what's your advice when we get to that moment?

I've got we've got our team here.

I'm looking I'm looking at Kelly Couric.

Who Kelly has is the lead for the entire agency, for all things eclipse.

And she's done a fabulous job.

So, Kelly, I wish you were here because you could probably talk about this much more than me.

I think ultimately, Kristen, I, I think, first of all, get out there and experience the eclipse.

Please do that.

Wear your glasses.

Of course.

And I think I would love to invite all of you and any of any who are listening out there to please come and be part of the festivities that we're doing at the Great Lakes Science Center and at the NASA village that's going to be there.

We're going to have all kinds of really fun and immersive activities going on.

I saw a huge list of things that were super cool, virtual reality demos of various things a mars habitat, and then of course, access to a whole number of people.

Jessica will be there along along with astronaut Snoopy, who will be there too for photo ops and things like that.

But there will be a whole realm of possibilities of learning at the festivals.

So I would encourage you to definitely consider coming to that.

And then really, I don't know about you, but I have found myself thinking more about the human side of this, that if we can just imagine, there are 37 million people who are living in the path of totality.

I think there will be a lot more people descending upon the path of totality for Monday.

You could kind of think about even here in that moment of totality, all of us gazing up at the sky and taking this in, it really starts to help us focus on the and the incredible possibilities out there in understanding the universe and our solar system and our earth and its place in all of that.

And how can we think about preserving and sustaining our home planet and and really that interconnectedness of all of us, all looking up at the sky all together and connecting with one another in and in a profound moment, the profound cosmic moment that that we can't control.

I mean, this is just something that NASA didn't make this up, right?

I mean, this is that this is a natural thing that won't happen for many, many years to come.

So it's very exciting and we're really thrilled to be part of the work with with you all, as well as being part of everything that's being happening will be happening here in Cleveland.

So it's very, very exciting.

Well, we're about to begin the audience Q&A for our live stream and our radio audience or those just joining.

I'm Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen, president and CEO of Great Lakes Science Center and moderator for today's conversation.

Joining me at the City Club is Kris Brown, the deputy associate administrator for Strategy and Integration Office of STEM Engagement at NASA.

Today, we're discussing how NASA plans to leverage this historic total solar eclipse to inspire the next generation of scientists and space explorers.

We welcome questions from everyone City Club members, guests, those joining via livestream at City Club dot org or radio broadcast at 89.7 W WKSU Ideastream Public Media.

If you'd like to text a question for our speaker, please text it to 3305415794.

That's 3305415794.

And City Club staff will try to work it into the program.

May we have the first question, please?

Hello.

Our first question is a text question that says, what kind of challenges are you seeing in recruiting young scientists to NASA?

We increased competition from private sectors like Blue Origin, Lockheed and others.

That's a great question.

Thank you for that.

So I think that the commercial commercialization of space and all of the activity that I know you all have been seeing with respect to our partners is really an exciting time for us.

And so I think it does increase competition in terms of our ability to hire.

But I think that's a really good thing in that we are all all of us in the aerospace industry are very much committed to building our workforce and and in training at a skilled workforce.

So we have a lot of collaborative activities that we are doing with the aerospace industry around how to engage students as well as how to train and provide skills to early career employees.

And I think that's something that we're all very much committed to do together and that the the aerospace industry right now is incredibly, incredibly exciting and fulfilling.

And there's just lots of work out there.

So we're we're very thrilled about the state, the current state of aerospace right now.

Next question.

Why is it so hard to get back to the moon and why did we stop going?

Okay.

Well, I could write maybe we could write there.

There have been books, I think, written about that.

So so the journey for us, at least in the time I'm just talking personally from my career, is that that there's been a lot of transition.

And when transition happens, priorities shift.

So over time of course, post, post Apollo, there was a period of time where we were devoting much of our human exploration efforts to near-Earth endeavors and we had the space shuttle and built this amazing laboratory called the International Space Station.

Jessica has lived on that.

And I mean, there's just an incredible, incredible potential there in learning how to live and work in space and doing really worthwhile, valuable science efforts.

They are doing that 24 seven and have done for many years now.

And and in in the time when we started to shift to thinking toward how do we go more into space exploration that takes resources.

And there are only so many resources that NASA has to has access to.

And so we have, over time, been shifting the focus to how to continue to sustain the assets and all the work is being done there and continue our learning, which is valuable, extremely valuable to us being able to pivot and move further and further into space.

How to do that while making critical investments in technologies and infrastructure in order to enable us to do that further exploration into space.

And that takes that takes a lot of investment over a period of time.

And then I'll go back to what I said about changes in administration.

NASA's the government agency, as you all know.

And so changes in administrations over time do have an impact on shifts and priorities.

And so over the last number of years, we have had experience.

We've been experiencing some of those shifts which then makes some of the work we do, either take a bit longer or having to shift priorities within the work that we're doing.

So I think that we're incredibly grateful for the support that we get from the American people and from Congress in the work that we do across all of the things NASA's engaged and I talked about aeronautics space and earth science, human exploration and all of the technology development that we absolute need to invest in in order to do the bold work that we do.

And and we are, I think, very lucky in that we have that bipartisan support and we continue to move toward the moon, toward the moon in terms of very deliberate and careful steps.

Going to the moon is hard.

And we but we know that we're we're we're up for it.

And we've got a lot of exciting work ahead of us.

We've talked a little bit about the focus in space in general, but with regards to continuing and developing that pipeline from youth to career in STEM, what do you think is the biggest challenge to that?

And I asked that in part because recently it came to my awareness.

We don't always realize the impact of a societal issue on, you know, whatever our particular goals are.

So what do you find is the biggest challenge to getting those interested in continued interest in STEM?

That's a big question because there are a number of challenges.

I think I've mentioned a few of them that the investments that Nassim make in this STEM education ecosystem, RTD versus the need.

And so I think that the the challenges across the board are are such that we do need to rally as as a nation around how can we tackle not only attracting students to STEM, which I think is a big challenge, but then enabling those students to continue on STEM pathways and persist.

To be able to be prepared to enter into STEM careers.

And I think there are a number of pathways to do that.

I mean, one of the things that we've been talking about at NASA is that we have we have a technical, skilled workforce in the aerospace industry that are our people who work on hardware.

So they're welders and and designers, people who are inherently doing hands on work, day in, day out.

We actually have a shortage of them right now.

So one of the things that we're talking about as an industry is how can we get more youth and and even into high school students interested in thinking about, well, how could I engage in that as a career?

And that entail time at a community college or some some technical skills that they build through an apprenticeship kind of model.

So we've been talking about that as well.

And it's, I think, challenges that we're probably all familiar with.

The challenges that we're experiencing now post-pandemic in and that and the shortage of teachers.

And there are a whole range of things there.

Of course, we at Nasser don't really help solving those problems.

But what we what we hope that we're doing is providing resources to teachers all across the country to be able to bring some of those resources into their classroom and support informal educational organizations such as Kirsten's and bringing some content and resources that they can they can use so that children outside of school can maybe have access to things that might help them build STEM identity.

But I think this is just me personally speaking is that I think one of the biggest challenges is really how to attract those students into STEM as an interest to begin with.

How can we build that STEM identity?

Right now, students really need to be at that place by the time they get through elementary school and into early middle school.

And if we don't have them interested by then, we've lost them on a STEM pathway.

And that's a bit of a daunting challenge if you think about the things that are happening in elementary schools with respect to bringing bringing children to appropriate leading reading and math levels, how can you build that interest in STEM?

And so it kind of goes back to what I was saying a bit earlier about encouraging youth to try on some things, perhaps outside of school that they might be interested in.

Boys and Girls Clubs have a great variety of things that they're doing in in communities where we would reach to the the underrepresented, underserved in STEM.

So having access to some of those activities as well can really help build that early interest and that spark of interest that we hope we can get to.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for being here.

Welcome to Cleveland.

My name is Gary McKeon, the City Club member, retired engineer and big fan of all that Nassar does so today checks a lot of boxes for me.

Before I ask my question, I want to thank Nassar for their very significant support of many, many different citizen science programs.

We're outside of the educational realm.

Citizen scientists, volunteers such as myself can participate in programs, everything from space exploration to the biological sciences.

Knowing that you can't have STEM programs in every school, whether it's K through 12 college or whatnot.

How much interaction does the Office of STEM Engagement have with the citizen science programs to kind of expand that village and bring you the non students parents and so on and so forth into the into the STEM umbrella.

Gary, thanks so much for that question.

And we are indeed working very closely with our friends in the Science Mission Directorate in in how in addressing how can we leverage the investments that we are making in the Office of STEM Engagement such that we can reach more students and do it in a highly relevant way that is in alignment with a lot of the challenges and the work that we're doing in science.

So some of those mission drivers and so I mentioned that we do grants and cooperative agreements with colleges and universities all over the country.

This past year we have developed a number of different opportunities that in association with our colleagues in the Science Mission Directorate that are allowing students at universities to help do research in in things that are highly in need against mission priorities in our work in science.

In addition to that, we have developed relationships with a number of citizen science organizations within NASA, and I'll name one Globe.

I don't know if you're familiar with Globe, but Globe is a program that's been in play for many years now, and it has students all over the world, in schools, all over the world doing citizen science around understanding our home planet Earth.

And so recently we have been teamed up with Globe on how we can do a number of activities.

And I'll give you one example that I'm personally really thrilled about.

We brought together a team that gathered last fall to answer the question What could NASA do to help move the needle in climate and Earth science literacy across the country?

And what could that look like?

And globe was part of those discussions.

We ended up creating an initiative called Earthrise.

Earthrise is a monthly installment of resources, videos, hands on activities and a number of things that can be done in the classroom and an informal educational settings that we send out to teachers all over the country.

So right now, I think we're approaching 4000 people who have registered to be part of Earthrise.

And so each month they will get this installment of Goodies and be able to take those and use them with their students.

We're super excited about it.

If you're a teacher out there, please go and register.

If you look for NASA's Earthrise Education, if you Google that, you'll be able to pull up information about how to register.

But that's an example of how can we how can we invite students to not only learn about some of these things, but actually engage in citizen science activities that will enable them to learn and get immersed in the work that we do in a real and tangible way.

The other thing that we've done most recently is we do work with one of our partners code code.org.

They have a coding event that they do every December.

And for the past two years we have engaged with them to have a NASA module in the work that they do, so that students around the country can engage in NASA content and and do some coding against a particular set of projects.

So that's a couple of examples.

But we're very much into students, immersing students and learning in a real and tangible way because in the end that's what most excites them and helps lead them to to move toward a journey in STEM to a wider start.

By we'll have a citizen science program in action at the.

Great yeah yeah.

Yeah I am I guess I'm the last question because it's time first I want to plug the Jessica.

Which one is Jessica on your accomplishment?

My question is, it's kind of a question that brought me here today when I saw the topic.

I wanted to be here because my organization, which I'm not going to talk about, is very much involved with taking young people and parents to the International Women's in Air and Women's Air and Space Museum that we have here in Cleveland that not many people know about.

And when you talked about STEM and giving examples of opportunities and people that have have accomplish a great deal, I think that is a tremendous asset along with with the with Nassar and and the space and and the museum and what have you.

I think we need to show all of it, broadcast it, put it on and on the first thing in the news or what have you, that we have these assets here, but people don't know about it.

No, the people don't have access to Nassar like they'd like to.

But we've got the International Women's Air and Space Museum sitting right here on the lake and that many people, it's really near your organization, but we need to take advantage of it.

Our organization has taken parents and children to that museum to just do a walk through and the diversity and the skills and everything that's there, it's just phenomenal.

So I'm complete.

Thank you.

So I think we're going to end it there.

Thank you so much for joining us, Kris and Kirsten, for joining us here at the City Club.

Today's forum is part of our Education Innovation Series in partnership with Nordson, and forums like this one are made possible thanks to generous support from individuals like you.

You can learn more about how to become a guardian of free speech at City Club dot org.

We'd also like to thank the Great Lakes Science Center and the team at NASA's Glenn Research Center for hosting tables at today's forum, as well as their work to make today's forum possible.

You can learn more about upcoming forums at City Club dot org.

And that brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you.

Members and friends of the City Club.

I'm Cynthia Economy and this forum is now adjourned.

Oops.

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