Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • E3
    • Bridge2
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Programs
    • E3
    • Bridge2
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

STEM education key to state economic success

Get in Touch

By Scott Meacham

Copyright © 2013, The Oklahoma Publishing Company

With the Oklahoma Bioscience Association (OKBio) recently becoming part of i2E, we’ve had a lot of discussions about what it takes to create an expanding bioscience sector within the state’s innovation economy.

A ready answer of course is that it takes scientists — highly educated Ph.D.s who devote decades of their lives to research in the laboratories of Oklahoma’s outstanding universities and foundations.

But the bioscience industry also needs scores of workers — technicians, analysts and research assistants — who are trained in the more “everyday” variety of science and math.

And Oklahoma’s need for a deep bench of technical talent goes well beyond the bioscience industry and isn’t limited to Ph.Ds.

An estimated 20 percent of the jobs in Oklahoma require science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills. Included in this estimate are many jobs that require less than a bachelor’s degree.

This isn’t new to the people at Chesapeake Energy, Devon or Williams. Chesapeake has more than 25 pages of job postings on the Internet. Nearly all of them have a requirement for technical ability.

i2E’s entrepreneurial clients in software, information technology and social media understand it too — companies like MedEncentive, Failsafe Hazmat Compliance and PinLeague. Patent attorneys and investors in technology-driven companies get it, and so do physics and biology professors in our universities.

Yet in a recent survey of Oklahoma high school students, only 12.4 percent expressed an interest in engineering, 8.1 percent in science, 5.9 percent in technology and 1.6 percent in math.

Across the state, there is a broad, general feeling that we could be doing a better job of preparing our young people for future jobs by increasing their education in technical disciplines.

But a general feeling doesn’t translate into more STEM graduates. And waiting to focus on science and math education when students reach high school doesn’t yield the kind of technical expertise that will make the difference between a leading innovation economy and an “also ran.”

Something has to change.

Oklahoma needs a strategy for creating more STEM expertise, from students attending our Career Technology Centers to MBA students and university graduates with associates, bachelors and advanced degrees.

That strategy has to involve parents, educators, business leaders, and the legislature to direct appropriate resources to STEM — and it has to start before middle school when student interest in STEM starts to disintegrate.

Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Meacham at [email protected].

DID YOU KNOW? Oklahoma is estimated to have 81,000 STEM jobs to fill for 2018. SOURCE: [email protected]

 Click here to read the article at newsok.com.

  • admin
    admin

More News

Loading...
headshot of Meredith Wilkerson
Blog, i2E
02.15.23

i2E Spotlight: Meredith Wilkerson, Life Sciences Venture Advisor & OKBio Director

Read more
Black doctor smiling with stethoscope
Blog, i2E
02.09.23

Titan Intake Automates Patient Referrals to Accelerate Care

Read more
man and woman reviewing paperwork at a table
Blog, i2E, News
01.10.23

Stories of Oklahoma Innovation: Building a Startup

Read more
woman in lab conducting a study
Blog, i2E
12.13.22

Bayesic Technologies Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of Data Analysis in Healthcare

Read more
Bison grazing fields
Blog
11.30.22

Bison Underground Merges Nature, Science, and Technology to Tackle Climate Change

Read more
African American family sitting on couch reading and chatting
Blog, E3, i2E
11.22.22

Fokes Connects Families, Caregivers and Care Agencies for Smoother Communications and Care 

Read more
i2e blog post graphic
Blog, News
11.03.22

Introducing: Stories of Oklahoma Innovation

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.28.22

Oklahoma Grown! i2E Invests in BIO startups

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Moleculera Labs BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma State University BIO

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

100 S. Cincinnati Ave – Suite 514
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources

© 2023 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Linkedin Twitter Facebook Instagram

Programs

  • E3
  • Bridge2
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Love's Entrepreneur's Cup
  • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E