How a Failed Super Collider Project Led to Improved STEM Education for Millions of Students

In the 1980s, government, corporate, and academic stakeholders came together on a plan to build a 90 km-wide underground Superconducting Supercollider near Waxahachie to study how matter and energy work. After nearly a decade and $2 billion, funders canceled the project due to escalating costs. But the supercollider project did have a significant impact in creating awareness of the need for science, technology, engineering, and math education.

Early conversations about developing the Supercollider workforce provided the genesis to would become the National Math and Science Initiative. Today, Dallas-based NMSI focuses on training and supporting STEM teachers in schools nationwide to improve outcomes. The organization has trained over 72,000 teachers in nearly 2,000 schools, impacting more than 2.9 million students since its 2007 launch.

NMSI is led by CEO Jeremy Anderson, the son of two teachers from Kansas. He spent time on Capitol Hill working with members of Congress on education issues and also served on the staff of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, focusing on education and developing a high-quality workforce to ensure the U.S. continues to be globally competitive. He worked for 10 years for the education policy organization Education Commission of the States before taking the leadership role at NMSI last year.

NMSI’s services help teachers make learning more relevant and engaging, focusing on students who have fewer resources and opportunities. The organization provides 1:1 coaching and is, importantly, curriculum agnostic, working to make existing lesson plans more robust rather than implementing a new system for teachers to learn.

“If you have hands-on experiences that are relevant to the workforce you’re hoping to go into, it motivates students to get excited and to give it their all,” Anderson says.

Read the full article at D Magazine.