National Governors Assoc and Innovation America

[KathieK]

The 2006-2007 National Governors Association Chair, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, has introduced Innovation America, which will partner governors and the business community to "ensure state policies compliment and reinforce private sector innovation." The Governor unveiled her initiative at the closing session of the annual NGA meeting, saying in part, ""The goal of my Chair's initiative is to educate our students to be innovators, and to carry that spirit of innovation through their university experience and into the workforce. Math and science education teaches true problem solving skills that, in turn, will increase our nation's capacity for innovation in virtually every field."
As reported in the Eastern Arizona Courier, "Napolitano said one of the positive aspects the Innovation America campaign will build upon is the use of projects, such as the FIRST robotics project at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix, that has sent teams to compete nationally."

This is good stuff!

[N7UJJ]

Kathy,
Thanks for the posting. We knew about the Governor's initiative, but that quote about Carl Haydn and FIRST did not make the Phoenix papers.

Our team has met with her three times in the last year and a half. We even proposed an Arizona plan to encourage schools to participate in "FIRST-like" extracurricular activities and she put $3,000,000 in her proposed budget for the new year. The legislature cut it out, so it did not go through this year, but we will try again.

Woodie Flowers says something like 5% of high schools in the U.S. have FIRST teams. (http://mitworld.mit.edu/play/371/ He speaks about 31 minutes after the beginning)

Maybe we will reach the critical mass when many schools will start to form FIRST teams or at least do more project based math, science, and engineering. At least our governor seems to be all for it!

Allan