Many, including The National Academies, President Obama's Administration, and technical industry leaders, have recently called for improving the participation and performance of America's students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to maintain American technical competitiveness in a global economy. Ralph Cicerone, the President of U.S. National Academy of Sciences, has also advocated improving the STEM "pipeline" and science education saying: The reinvigorated research community must also engage the interests of new science students, so that U.S. science can maintain leadership in certain fields and be a strong, reliable partner in many critical international research efforts. That means becoming more deeply involved in improving science education at all levels, including working with pre-college students and their teachers and exposing many more students to real science and scientists. Such interactions can raise the career aspirations of young people. Thirty percent of U.S. K-12 students attend rural schools, which comprise 40% of all domestic schools. Thus, to heed Cicerone's imperative to "expose many more students to real science," rural students as a significant portion of the student population should be included in science education initiatives and the STEM pipeline.
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