About NT Navy STEM Coalition
Welcome to the North Texas Navy STEM Coalition (NT-NSC) led by the College of Engineering at the University of North Texas!
The NT-NSC program is borne out of the support received from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) STEM program and the PACCAR Technology Institute at UNT. The US Navy has widely and extensively supported programs that help develop a world-class pool of U.S. talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The mission of the NT-NSC program is to integrate education, training and research initiatives to engage students in the STEM disciplines at UNT and in the North Texas region. By building a community and network catering to students across the education pipeline in the North Texas region, we wish to influence perspectives that will help address our nation’s pressing problem to meet the high demand for well-trained STEM personnel, including for future Naval careers.
Various sources indicate that the interest US students appear to have in STEM disciplines is relatively low, lagging well behind that of other countries. This is self-evident by simply looking at statistics of recent college graduates from various countries. In China, for example, engineering accounts for about 33 percent of the country’s B.S. degrees, compared to just 4 percent in the U.S. Many studies point out that interest in STEM must be cultivated early - in middle and elementary school, and certainly by high school. Through programs like this one created from ONR’s sponsorship, educational institutes across the country must work earnestly to help develop and foster this interest to encourage more students to pursue STEM careers. Having a greater STEM talent pool in the US will help ensure the US remains economically strong over the years to come.
NT-NSC engages people at multiple levels in our internal UNT community – faculty, students, and postdocs – and our external North Texas community – the K-12 school districts – to create a collaborative environment and build an ecosystem that will help influence STEM perspectives for students in the North Texas region.
The focus areas for NT-NSC are curriculum development, mentoring and training activities, diversity initiatives, and sparking interest in research for students to pursue more advanced graduate degrees in the STEM fields.
Naval STEM (ONR site)
The ONR has a strong commitment to STEM outreach through its educational programs and for workforce development. The K-12 segment of the continuum targets the goals of awareness, inspiration, and engagement, with particular focus on developing the potential of students who would not ordinarily have the chance to successfully pursue a STEM degree. ONR’s Education and Outreach programs are further outlined here.