Media

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers are essential to Oregon's economic growth. We believe the media is interested in reporting on ways to keep Oregon competitive. We would welcome any enterprising reporters that want to follow our team progress throughout the year. All media inquiries should be directed to Ilana Walder-Biesanz at izwb.calico@gmail.com

According to the "Oregon Quarterly" magazine, put out by the University of Oregon, in the Autumn 2007 edition: South Korea now graduates more engineers than the United States; the EU, three times as many; and China six times as many. China has a fifteen year plan to increase its technological capacity. The president of the Hong Kong University of Science and technology expects 25 to 30 percent annual increases in his institution's budget.

The question arises: What is the US doing to keep up?

The Tualatin High School Robotics team hopes to connect potential engineers with professional mentors and fun challenges, encouraging students to major in engineering and become professional engineers. In this way, our team is making a difference and slowly turning around the undesirable statistics which may put the United States behind other countries in our technological advancement and product improvement.

On April 17, 2007 the Washington House of Representatives passed a bill with a 96-2 vote. This bill made hands-on science education a mandatory part of all science curricula in the state of Washington. This bill provides complete government funding for lessons based on improved curricula in mathematics and sciences. The bill also provides funding for after-school support programs in math and science. In addition, Maine and Hawaii have passed bills providing government-subsidized FIRST teams to every high school in their states. We hope to make Oregon the next state to pass a bill supporting creative, hands-on approaches to science education. We will be contacting the governor's office and our state representatives on behalf of this cause and we urge you to do the same.