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STEM IN ACTION: 

INSPIRING THE SCIENCE AND 

ENGINEERING WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND 

TECHNOLOGY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 

Serial No. 112–34 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

HON. RALPH M. HALL, Texas, Chair 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland 

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma 

JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois 

W. TODD AKIN, Missouri 

RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia 

SANDY ADAMS, Florida 

BENJAMIN QUAYLE, Arizona 

CHARLES J. ‘‘CHUCK’’ FLEISCHMANN, 

Tennessee 

E. SCOTT RIGELL, Virginia 

STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

ANDY HARRIS, Maryland 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota 

LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana 

DAN BENISHEK, Michigan 

VACANCY 

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas 

JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois 

LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

BRAD MILLER, North Carolina 

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois 

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona 

DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland 

MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio 

BEN R. LUJA ́ N, New Mexico 

PAUL D. TONKO, New York 

JERRY MCNERNEY, California 

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland 

TERRI A. SEWELL, Alabama 

FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida 

HANSEN CLARKE, Michigan 

VACANCY 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 

Page 

Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2 

Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3 

Opening Statements 

Statement by Representative Ralph M. Hall, Chairman, Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ..................... 7 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 8 

Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ........................................................................................................... 8 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 10 

Witnesses: 

Mr. Tony Norman, President and CEO of Innovation First International, 

Inc. 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 13 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 14 

Mrs. Nancy Conrad, Chairman and Founder of the Conrad Foundation 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 44 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 46 

Mr. Michael D. Gallagher, President and CEO of Entertainment Software 

Association 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 49 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 50 

Discussion .................................................................................................................

Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions 

Mr. Tony Norman, President and CEO of Innovation First International, 

Inc. ......................................................................................................................... 82 

Mrs. Nancy Conrad, Chairman and Founder of the Conrad Foundation ........... 84 

Mr. Michael D. Gallagher, President and CEO of Entertainment Software 

Association ............................................................................................................ 85 

(1) 

STEM IN ACTION: 

INSPIRING THE SCIENCE AND 

ENGINEERING WORKFORCE OF TOMORROW 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in Room 

2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ralph Hall 

[Chairman of the Committee] presiding. 
2 
3 

HEARING CHARTER

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

STEM in Action: 

Inspiring the Science and 

Engineering Workforce of Tomorrow 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

10:00 A.M.—12:00 P.M. 

2318 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING

1. Purpose 

On Tuesday, September 13, 2011, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will hold the second in a series of hearings to highlight Science, Technology, 

Engineering, and Math (STEM) education activities across the Nation, their role in 

inspiring and educating future generations, and their contribution to our future economic prosperity. The purpose of this hearing, STEM Education in Action: Inspiring 

the Science and Engineering Workforce of Tomorrow, is to showcase a variety of public/private partnerships and initiatives that are successfully inspiring the future 

STEM workforce. 

2. Witnesses 

• Mr. Tony Norman, President and CEO of Innovation First International, Inc. 

• Mrs. Nancy Conrad, Chairman and Founder of the Conrad Foundation 

• Mr. Michael D. Gallagher, President and CEO of Entertainment Software Association 

3. Overview 

• In the U.S, student mastery of STEM subjects is essential for 21st century jobs. 

Finding ways to improve STEM education activities beyond the scope of the federal government, including using best practices derived from non-federal 

sources, is key to the future prosperity of the Nation. 

• The Administration’s FY 12 Budget request includes $3.4 billion in spending for 

STEM education efforts. 

• A growing number of partnerships between industry, foundations, non-profits, 

and local and regional governments recognize the importance of having an educated and skilled STEM workforce and are creatively motivating and inspiring 

future generations of scientists and engineers with little or no federal funding. 

• Innovation First International began by producing electronics for autonomous 

mobile ground robots and is now a leader in educational and competitive robotics products, and a growing developer of consumer robotics toys. Through Innovation First International, VEX Robotics motivates students in the classroom 

with its VEX Robotics Classroom competition as well as a number of other competitions around the Nation. 

• The Conrad Foundation is a non-profit, 501(c) (3) organization built upon astronaut Charles ‘‘Pete’’ Conrad’s history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The 

Spirit of Innovation Awards, a competition founded by the Conrad Foundation, 

challenges teams of high school students to create innovative products to solve 

21st century, real-world problems. 

• The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the U.S. association dedicated 

to serving the needs of companies that publish computer and video games for 

video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA is one of the 

annual sponsors of the STEM Video Game Challenge which aims to motivate 

interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ desire to play and make video games. 
4 

1White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Winning the Race to Educate Our Children, STEM Education in the 2012 Budget, p.1 2White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Winning the Race to Educate Our Children, STEM Education in the 2012 Budget, p.1 3White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Innovation, Education, and Infrastructure: Science, Technology, STEM Education, and 21st Century Infrastructure in the 2012 Budget, 

p. 2. 

4. Background 

STEM Education and the Federal Government 

A consensus exists that improving STEM education throughout the Nation is a 

necessary condition for preserving our capacity for innovation and discovery and for 

ensuring U.S. economic strength and competitiveness in the international marketplace of the 21st century. The National Academies Rising Above the Gathering 

Storm report placed major emphasis on the need to improve STEM education and 

made its top priority increasing the number of highly qualified STEM teachers. This 

recommendation was embraced by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee following the issuance of the report and was included in the 2007 America 

COMPETES Act. The 2010 America COMPETES Reauthorization Act continues this 

priority. 

Beyond activities authorized in America COMPETES, President Obama has called 

for a new effort to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers with strong teaching skills and 

deep content knowledge over the next decade. As a component of achieving this goal, 

the FY 12 Budget Request proposes an investment of $100 million through the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to prepare effective STEM teachers for classrooms across America. This proposal also responds to 

a recommendation by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 

(PCAST) to prepare and inspire America’s students in STEM. 1

In addition, the FY 12 Budget Request proposes $90 million for the creation of 

an Advanced Research Projects Agency—Education (ARPA–ED) with the mission of 

driving transformational improvement in education technology. 2

The President’s new ‘‘Educate to Innovate’’ campaign leverages federal resources 

with over $700 million in private-sector resources. The goals of the program are to 

increase STEM literacy so that all students can learn deeply and think critically in 

science, math, engineering, and technology; move American students from the middle of the pack to the top in the next decade; and expand STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and girls. 

With specific regard to K–12 STEM education funding beyond what has already 

been identified, the FY 12 Budget Request calls for $206 million for the Department 

of Education’s proposed Effective Teaching and Learning in STEM program; a $60 

million (28 percent) increase for NASA’s K–12 education programs; $300 million for 

an ‘‘Investing in Innovation’’ program (expansion of a Department of Education 

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act program); and $185 million for a new 

Presidential Teaching Fellowship program. 

In total, the FY 12 Budget Request devotes $3.4 billion to STEM education programs across the federal government. 3 The 2010 America COMPETES Reauthorization Act called for the creation of a National Science Technology Council (NSTC) 

Committee on STEM Education to coordinate federal STEM investments. The firstyear tasks of the Committee are to create an inventory of federal STEM education 

activities and develop a five-year strategic federal STEM education plan. The inventory, as well as a similar Government Accountability Office (GAO) survey requested 

by the Committee on Education and Workforce, is currently underway and results 

are expected before next year. 

In the 112th Congress, the Science, Space, and Technology Committee will continue to hold oversight hearings and briefings on STEM education activities across 

the federal government and will closely monitor the scope and findings of both the 

NSTC and the GAO federal STEM education inventories. 

Public-Private Partnerships and STEM Education 

In the U.S, student mastery of STEM subjects is essential for 21st century jobs. 

As other nations continue to gain ground in preparing their students in these critical fields, the U.S. must continue to explore a variety of ways to inspire future generations. Finding ways to improve STEM education activities beyond the scope of 

the federal government, including using best practices derived from non-federal 

sources, is key to the future prosperity of the Nation. 
5 

4http://www.vexrobotics.com/competition 

5http://www.conradawards.org/competition 

A growing number of partnerships between industry, foundations, non-profits, and 

local and regional governments recognize the importance of having an educated and 

skilled STEM workforce and are creatively motivating and inspiring future generations of scientists and engineers with little or no federal funding. Such partnerships 

can provide alternative options for education activities outside the scope of public 

financing and delivery. When designed, implemented and run effectively, a successful partnership can increase efficiency and choice and expand access to educational 

activities not necessarily found in the classroom. Oftentimes, public-private partnerships allow state and local governments to leverage the specialized skills offered by 

certain private organizations. Likewise, industry seeks a substantial return on its 

investment with a highly skilled, highly motivated workforce. 

Innovation First International and Vex Robotics Competition 

Innovation First International began by producing electronics for autonomous mobile ground robots and is now a leader in educational and competitive robotics products, and a growing developer of consumer robotics toys. Incorporated in 1996, Innovation First International is a privately held corporation that was founded on the 

belief that innovation is necessary very early in the design process to produce simple and elegant product designs. 

Through Innovation First International, the VEX Robotics Design System is the 

leading classroom robotics platform designed to nurture creative advancement in robotics and knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The VEX platform is expanding rapidly and can be found in middle schools, 

high schools and university labs around the globe. VEX Education works to help 

schools focus on practical, affordable and accessible ways of delivering dynamic 

hands-on STEM educational experiences to as many students as possible. VEX addresses current educational and societal needs by its mixing of competition and the 

real-world applications of mathematics and science concepts through the engineering design process. 

VEX Robotics 4 has found a way to motivate students in the classroom with its 

VEX Robotics Classroom competition. The co-curricular program is specifically tailored to bring robotics competition into the classroom. Robotics can provide an engaging way to integrate all facets of STEM education into the classroom, and headto-head competition is a natural way to capture students’ attention. The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing middle and high school robotics 

program globally with more than 3,500 teams from 20 countries competing in more 

than 250 tournaments worldwide. In the U.S., VEX Robotics Competition events are 

held in numerous states. The Technology Student Association (TSA) and VEX have 

also partnered to spread the word about STEM education and competition. There 

are currently three available TSA VEX competitions around the country. 

Innovation First and Vex Robotics partners include the REC Foundation, 

Autodesk, NASA, BEST, Project Lead The Way, Northrop Grumman, Technology 

Student Association (TSA), SkillsUSA, EMC Corporation, Carnegie Mellon University, Intelitek, Microchip, the United States Coast Guard Academy, iD Tech Camps, 

Automation Direct and the CREATE Foundation. 

The Conrad Foundation and the Spirit of Innovation Awards 

The Conrad Foundation is a non-profit, 501(c) (3) organization built upon astronaut Charles ‘‘Pete’’ Conrad’s history of innovation and entrepreneurship. His legacy 

continues through the Conrad Foundation’s programs that combine science, education, and entrepreneurship in a revolutionary model of incentivized competition. 

The Spirit of Innovation Awards 5, a competition founded by the Conrad Foundation, challenges teams of high school students to create innovative products using 

science, technology, and entrepreneurship to solve 21st century, real-world problems. Eligible students may compete on teams in any of three challenge categories: 

aerospace exploration, clean energy, or cybersecurity. 

In each category, students create a team with a maximum number of five students, find and consult a mentor in the community to help provide expert guidance 

and feedback, and create a proposal. After judging, each team is matched with a 

set of three mentors who are experts in the field and with whom they collaborate. 

Each team must then create a next step plan video including an executive summary, 

budget, and timeline. The public then votes on each team in a people’s choice voting 

process. Each winning team is recognized as Pete Conrad Scholars for that year. 

Winners receive a $5000 cash grant to continue the development of their product 
6 

6http://www.stemchallenge.org/Default.aspx 

as outlined in their Next Step Plan. Finalists then have the chance to attend the 

Innovation Summit which is the culmination of the Conrad Foundation’s Spirit of 

Innovation Awards program and is the launch pad for breakthrough technologies 

from high school innovators. Leading entrepreneurs, government officials, and scientists join the top young innovators and their teachers in a collaborative, social 

forum to help build the progressive technologies and the next-generation workforce 

of the 21st century. 

The Conrad Foundation, through the Spirit of Innovation Awards, attempts to create a collaborative community focused on scientific innovation, education, and entrepreneurship. The program creates life-long opportunities for all students and teachers participating in the program. The ‘‘Portal’’ was created to provide an opportunity 

to help teams with market potential achieve commercialization. It serves as an advisory group to the team and provides intellectual property, legal, business, and technical guidance. It is not limited to just the winners of the competition. Past winners 

and finalists have formed an Alumni Committee to help increase the exposure of 

and opportunities for all students participating in the program. As a result, students 

are provided a life-long, collaborative community of support. 

The Conrad Foundation partners include Lockheed Martin, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, 

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Society for Nutrition, 

the William James Foundation, NASA, National Institute of Health, Sigma Xi, museums and science centers, Popular Science Magazine and Space Ref. 

Entertainment Software Association 

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the U.S. association exclusively 

dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish 

computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the 

Internet. 

Video games are no longer simply a form of entertainment for children and young 

adults. The industry, its customers, and its technology have significantly advanced 

in the past three decades. Entertainment software is now one of the fastest growing 

industries in the U.S. economy, and video games are driving technological and societal advancements that serve gamers and non-gamers alike. 

Educators are increasingly recognizing the impact of entertainment software and 

utilizing games as a teaching device in a growing number of classrooms and business settings. In doing so, they are embracing the cultural and technological shifts 

of the 21st century and expanding the use of a favorite leisure activity, computer 

and video games, into a critical and still-emerging educational resource. More than 

just play, entertainment software is now being used to impart knowledge, develop 

life skills and reinforce positive habits in students of all ages. In addition to being 

a great way to keep students engaged, researchers have found that video games 

have real potential as next-generation learning tools. Games use new technologies 

to incorporate principles crucial to human cognitive learning. 

The ESA is working in cooperation with the Information Technology Industry 

Council (ITI), Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Microsoft Corporation, and the MacArthur Foundation to harness the excitement surrounding computer and video games through a series of STEM-related video game design competitions. 

One such competition is the National STEM Video Game Challenge, sponsored by 

the ESA, Microsoft, and the AMD Foundation, in partnership with the Joan Ganz 

Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E–Line Media. This competition was partly 

inspired by the White House Educate to Innovate campaign. The first National 

STEM Video Game Challenge 6 featured two complementary competitions, a Youth 

Prize and a Developer Prize. 

The Youth Prize engaged middle school students (grades 5 through 8) in STEM 

learning by challenging them to design original video games. The Youth Prize design challenge was open to middle school students from any U.S. school with a special emphasis on reaching students in underserved communities. Twelve winners 

were selected from a group of over 500 entries for their ability to use STEM concepts to design engaging, innovative and well-balanced games. Each winner received 

a lap-top computer, and $2,000 for their school or non-profit organization of their 

choice ($3,000 if the school is a recipient of Title 1 funding from the U.S. Department of Education). 

The Developer Prize challenged emerging and experienced game developers to design mobile games, including games for the mobile Web, for young children that 

teach key STEM concepts and foster an interest in STEM subject areas. The grand 
7 

prize winner received $50,000 for their game that teaches children about the physical structure of bacteria and viruses, as well as how they are spread. 

Chairman HALL. The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will come to order, and I say good morning to all of you and 

welcome to today’s hearing entitled ‘‘STEM in Action: Inspiring the 

Science and Engineering Workforce of Tomorrow.’’ 

Don’t be dismayed by the empty seats here because everybody 

has several committees, and we are in kind of a crucial time in 

Congress right now when our ratings aren’t the highest in the history of Congress and they are all working hard and trying to set 

in on several committees at one time. We have a court reporter 

over here that takes down everything you say and do and it goes 

into the Congressional Record, and people will read what you are 

saying and doing 100 years from now, and that is what is important, and every other Member of Congress gets a copy of your testimony and usually either they read it or somebody on their committee reads it to them, but they will be coming and going from 

time to time. Mr. Rohrabacher is here, and he is going to introduce 

because of personal friendship one of those of you that will be testifying. 

In front of you are packets containing the written testimony and 

the biographies and the Truth in Testimony disclosures for today’s 

witnesses. I will recognize myself for five minutes for an opening 

statement, and everybody will have—other opening statements will 

be put in the record. 

So I say to you good morning. I would like to welcome everyone 

here today for the second in a series of STEM in Action hearings. 

The purpose of this hearing will be to showcase a variety of public/ 

private partnerships and initiatives across the Nation that are successfully inspiring the future science, technology, engineering and 

math, or STEM workforce. 

The Federal Government is investing several billion a year on 

STEM education. While there may be a federal role, industry, philanthropic organizations, non-profits and local governments have 

also acknowledged the importance of making investments in 

STEM. Partnerships and initiatives formed by these investments 

are very critical to the program. Particularly in this difficult budget 

climate, we want to highlight some of these efforts and partnerships that are thriving with little or no federal investment. Specifically, the witnesses before us are all involved with tremendously 

successful STEM-related competitions. 

As we can all agree, a well-educated and trained STEM workforce is imperative and key to our future economic prosperity. But 

we have to capture and hold the attention of our Nation’s youth in 

science and engineering so they will want to pursue these careers, 

not simply be forced into them simply because we need them. Sitting in a classroom and just memorizing text or taking notes can 

often drain the enthusiasm from even the most promising student 

or students. That is why it is important for us to hear from these 

folks about their creative alternatives to teach and inspire kids, 

who may not even realize they are learning. 

Today, we have witnesses from the corporate, foundation and 

non-profit worlds showcasing their creative efforts to inspire, moti-
8 

vate and produce our next generation of scientists and engineers 

with little or no federal funds. 

Our Nation has always been number one in science and innovation. In order to maintain this prominence, we have to have an ‘‘all 

hands on deck’’ attitude toward it. Everyone, in some way, shape 

or form has to have a role to play in STEM education so that our 

children and our grandchildren can also experience a vibrant economy with access to good, solid jobs. 

I look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses, and I thank 

you for being here with us today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Hall follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN RALPH M. HALL

Good morning, I would like to welcome everyone here today for the second in a 

series of STEM in Action hearings. The purpose of this hearing will be to showcase 

a variety of public/private partnerships and initiatives across the Nation that are 

successfully inspiring the future Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math 

(STEM) workforce. 

The federal government is investing several billion a year on STEM education. 

While there may be a federal role, industry, philanthropic organizations, non-profits 

and local governments have also acknowledged the importance of making investments in STEM. Partnerships and initiatives formed by these investments are critical. Particularly in this difficult budget climate, we want to highlight some of these 

efforts and partnerships that are thriving with little or no federal investment. Specifically, the witnesses before us are all involved with tremendously successful 

STEM-related competitions. 

As we can all agree, a well educated and trained STEM workforce is imperative 

and key to our future economic prosperity. But we have to capture and hold the attention of our Nation’s youth in science and engineering so they will want to pursue 

these careers, not simply be forced into them simply because we need them. Sitting 

in a classroom and just memorizing text or taking notes can often drain the enthusiasm from even the most promising student. That is why it is important for us to 

hear from these folks about their creative alternatives to teach and inspire kids, 

who may not even realize they are learning. 

Today, we have witnesses from the corporate, foundation, and non-profit worlds 

showcasing their creative efforts to inspire, motivate, and produce our next generation of scientists and engineers with little or no federal funds. 

Our Nation has always been number one in science and innovation; in order to 

maintain this prominence, we must have an ‘‘all hands on deck’’ attitude. Everyone, 

in some way, shape, or form has a role to play in STEM education so that our children and grandchildren can also experience a vibrant economy with access to good, 

solid jobs. 

I look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses, and thank you for being 

here with us today. 

Chairman HALL. The Chair now recognizes Mrs. Johnson for her 

opening statement. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 

you for all the witnesses that have been invited today. 

As I have said so many times before, we truly have a STEM education crisis in this country, and I don’t need to remind this audience about how poorly too many of our students perform on tests 

of math and science proficiency, or how important it is for the future of our country that we do something to address this serious 

problem. By ‘‘we,’’ I mean all of the stakeholders: federal agencies, 

states, school districts, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and 

parents. We must all work together to leverage our respective 

strengths and resources to tackle this issue. STEM education in 

this country is truly a complex and grand challenge that no one entity can solve alone. 
9 

Today’s witnesses represent the private sector. Companies ranging in size from multinational enterprises on down to local businesses are realizing more and more how critical it is to the longterm success of their businesses that they have access to a highly 

skilled and well-prepared workforce. 

While our government is turning the clock back, other countries 

are pouring resources into building not just their associate and 

bachelor degree-level workforce, but also their Ph.D.-level research 

scientists and engineers, providing them a competitive edge we 

once took for granted. One thing that is interesting to me is that 

while some of my colleagues in Congress think the Federal Government has no role here, an increasing number of major U.S. companies are turning to partnerships with government, including the 

Federal Government, to achieve their workforce needs. 

President Obama also recognized the importance of partnerships 

when he launched the Educate to Innovate campaign last year. As 

part of this campaign, the private sector coordinated with the 

White House and launched Change the Equation. Change the 

Equation brought together a coalition of more than a hundred 

CEOs from some of the Nation’s largest companies, all dedicated to 

working together to improve STEM education in the country. These 

companies, of course, including Time Warner Cable, Exxon Mobil 

and Xerox to name a few, have all committed resources to STEM 

programs across the country. Many of these successful programs 

are run in partnership with federal agencies such as NASA and the 

National Science Foundation. Among the new public-private partnerships announced as part of the President’s Educate to Innovate 

campaign was the National STEM Video Game Challenge, and I 

look forward to hearing from Mr. Gallagher about the National 

STEM Video Game Challenge and how he and his colleagues 

worked with the White House and other partners to make the competition a success. 

Competitions and challenges have tremendous potential to both 

inspire students and teach them STEM knowledge and skills in 

ways that the traditional classroom teaching cannot. However, we 

also know from a recent National Academies report on informal 

STEM learning, and a hearing we held on that same topic in the 

111th Congress, that there remains a big gap in understanding 

how students learn outside the classroom and to what extent informal experiences influence their long-term interest and success in 

STEM. Most of what we know or think we know is based on anecdotes or attitudinal surveys. Here there is a clear and unique federal role in developing the necessary body of knowledge. 

The National Science Foundation is the leading entity in this 

country for funding research on STEM learning in both formal and 

informal environments, including competitions. The results of NSFfunded research over many decades have helped and will continue 

to help to ensure that education practitioners are incorporating effective practices with measurable results. At the end of the day, 

what counts is whether the STEM programs we are hearing about 

are achieving their desired results, not how much money we are 

spending on them or even how many students they touch. 

We are all in this together. I commend the witnesses and your 

colleagues in the private sector for your efforts in helping to im-
10 

prove STEM education in this country. But I would also like to repeat a request that I made at our last STEM hearing, that we not 

continue to ignore the unique and important role of the Federal 

Government in improving STEM education in this country. 

Mr. Hall, I thank you very much for this hearing and I yield 

back. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RANKING MEMBER EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

Thank you Chairman Hall, and thank you to all of our witness for being here 

today. As I’ve said so many times before, we truly have a STEM education crisis 

in this country. I don’t need to remind this audience about how poorly too many 

of our students perform on tests of math and science proficiency, or how important 

it is to the future of our country that we do something to address this serious problem. By ‘‘we,’’ I mean all of the stakeholders: Federal agencies, States, school districts, businesses, non-profit organizations, and parents. We must all work together 

to leverage our respective strengths and resources to tackle this issue. STEM education in this country is truly a complex and grand challenge that no one entity can 

solve alone. 

Today’s witnesses represent the private sector. Companies ranging in size from 

multinational enterprises on down to local businesses are realizing more and more 

how critical it is to the long-term success of their businesses that they have access 

to a highly skilled and well-prepared workforce. While our own government is turning back the clock, other countries are pouring resources into building not just their 

associate and bachelor degree level workforce, but also their Ph.D. level research 

scientists and engineers, providing them a competitive edge we once took for granted. One thing that’s interesting to me is that while some of my colleagues in Congress think the federal government has no role here, an increasing number of major 

U.S. companies are turning to partnerships with government, including the federal 

government, to achieve their workforce needs. 

President Obama also recognized the importance of partnerships when he 

launched the ‘‘Educate to Innovate’’ campaign last year. As part of this campaign, 

the private sector coordinated with the White House to launch ‘‘Change the Equation.’’ Change the Equation brought together a coalition of more than a hundred 

CEOs from some of the Nation’s largest companies, all dedicated to working together to improving STEM education in the country. These companies, including 

Time Warner Cable, Exxon, and Xerox to name a few, have all committed resources 

to STEM programs across the country. Many of these successful programs are run 

in partnership with federal agencies such as NASA and NSF. Among the new public-private partnerships announced as part of the President’s Educate to Innovate 

Campaign was the National STEM Video Game Challenge. I look forward to hearing 

from Mr. Gallagher about the National STEM Video Game Challenge and how he 

and his colleagues worked with the White House and other partners to help make 

the competition a success. 

Competitions and challenges have tremendous potential to both inspire students 

and teach them STEM knowledge and skills in ways that traditional classroom 

teaching cannot. However, we also know from a recent National Academies report 

on informal STEM learning, and a hearing we held on that same topic in the 111th 

Congress, that there remains a big gap in understanding about how students learn 

outside of the classroom and to what extent informal experiences influence their 

long-term interest and success in STEM. Most of what we know or think we know 

is based on anecdotes or attitudinal surveys. Here there is a clear and unique federal role in developing the necessary body of knowledge. The National Science Foundation is the leading entity in this country for funding research on STEM learning 

in both formal and informal environments, including competitions. The results of 

NSF funded research over many decades have helped and will continue to help ensure that education practitioners are incorporating effective practices with measurable results. At the end of the day, what counts is whether the STEM programs we 

are hearing about are achieving their desired results, not how much money we are 

spending on them or even how many students they touch. 

We’re all in this together. I commend the witnesses and your colleagues in the 

private sector for your efforts in helping to improve STEM education in this country. 

But I would also like to repeat a request that I made at our last STEM hearing, 

that we not continue to ignore the unique and important role of the federal government in improving STEM education in this country. 
11 

Chairman HALL. I thank the gentlelady from Texas. She yields 

back. 

If there are Members who wish to submit additional opening 

statements, statements can be added to the record at this point or 

a little bit later. 

At this time I want to begin to introduce our first panel of witnesses. Our first witness is Mr. Tony Norman, President and CEO 

of Innovation First International, which Mr. Norman founded in 

1999. I am proud to say he is a constituent from my district. One 

of the interesting things about Tony and Innovation First is the 

commitment they make to the local community of Greenville, 

Texas. If you visit their plant, you will see local high school students working on projects and interning in the facility to learn 

more about engineering and technology, and many of these students have gone on to college to study engineering at Tony’s suggestion and his behest, and he truly gives back to his hometown 

and wants to build lasting success for Greenville and for the Nation, and he is an international operator. I find him sometimes in 

China, sometimes he is somewhere in Europe, and he is kind of 

hard to find, but we are very fortunate to have him here today because he is one of the busiest men I know. I had the pleasure of 

speaking at one of his operations in Orlando, I think there were 

five or 10,000 folks there, and Tony told me I had 3 minutes to 

speak, and I got into my speech about a minute and a half and he 

was doing what my wife always does to me when I am making 

speeches. He was doing like this, and I think he meant for me to 

stop, and I later learned that with all the great technology in the 

bosom of the United States of America right there in the crowd, we 

had a malfunction of some type, I don’t know what it was, but it 

was a great meeting with a lot of young kids that were there. 

Those who won were happy. Those who lost were determined to 

come back and win next year. But it really gives you a new perspective on the country when you see these youngsters that folks 

like these three people are here testifying for us today bragged on, 

supported and helped. I look forward to it. 

Our second witness is Mrs. Nancy Conrad, and I have known her 

husband for many years, and at this time I yield to Mr. Rohrabacher of California to introduce Mrs. Conrad. I really wanted to 

introduce her but Rohrabacher outranks me, and he got it. I really 

need his vote every now and then. I am even going out to his home 

Sunday to make a speech for him Sunday at noon and I am going 

to fly back Sunday night. That is how much I think of Mr. Rohrabacher. So you ought to be helping me a little more than you are. 

I recognize Mr. Rohrabacher to introduce Mrs. Conrad. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. You got it, Mr. Chairman. You got it. 

It is my personal and professional pleasure to introduce Nancy 

Conrad to Members of the Committee and all of you. She has been 

a close friend for many years. I was a close friend of course when 

Pete was alive and I was a young member of this Committee, and 

he was a very inspiring human being and we know all of his exploits in terms of Apollo 12 and the third man on the moon, but 

when Pete was taken from us, Nancy picked up the challenge of 

making sure that America and the world keeps moving outward 

and realized that perhaps the most important thing we have to do 
12 

to achieve the goal of keeping America the number one space power 

to keeping humankind in the ascension into space was the fact that 

we have to have our young people trained and motivated to be able 

to participate in this great task that humankind has, which is to 

deliver our species beyond where we are at and into the heavens 

and into the universe. 

So with this, after Pete’s passing, Nancy started the Spirit of Innovation Awards as part of the Pete Conrad Foundation. She herself of course was an English teacher and very involved in education and has been well-known throughout the world as an advocate for science education and science as part of a young person’s 

curriculum, but today she is going to be, I believe, talking to us 

about the Spirit of Innovation Award, and I believe she deserves 

an award for innovation in her approach, and I think that it is— 

I am looking forward to hearing all about it and I know that it 

should inspire members of this Committee but also we should be 

grateful, and the students who are participating in this should be 

grateful for something that excites young people about science, engineering, mathematics, things that will carry humankind to our 

next step. So we welcome Nancy Conrad. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you, Mr. Rohrabacher. 

Nancy, we do admire and respect you and remember the service 

of you and your husband. 

Reclaiming my time, thank you, Mr. Rohrabacher, for the good 

introduction. Our third witness and final witness is Mr. Michael D. 

Gallagher, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. Mr. Gallagher also leads the ESA’S partnership with the 

Congressional Caucus for Competitiveness and Entertainment 

Technology. Previously, he was the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the U.S. Department of Commerce. I 

had the pleasure of visiting with him some time ago, and we thank 

all of you because we know it is trouble, expensive. You have to 

have time to get ready for this testimony. You had to come here 

from somewhere and you have to eat while you are here and stay 

somewhere while you are here. You give a lot to be here and we 

appreciate you, and we really ought to have these seats full, but 

as I explained to you, we are in kind of a desperate time up here. 

We are trying to survive a lot of bad situations that is happening 

to our country, and we thank you for giving this time is what I am 

trying to say and not saying it too well. 

But as our witnesses should know and probably do know, spoken 

testimony is limited to five minutes. We are not going to hit the 

gavel on you if you go over five minutes but as close to five minutes 

as you can stay, the more likely you are to win the drawing that 

we may have when this is over. The members of the commerce— 

Committee will have five minutes each to ask questions. We will 

try to hold them to that same. 

So I recognize our first witness, Mr. Norman, for five minutes, 

but you won’t be held to that. 

STATEMENT OF MR. TONY NORMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF 

INNOVATION FIRST INTERNATIONAL, INC. 

Mr. NORMAN. Thank you, Congressman, and thank you, Committee members, for inviting me here. 
13 

I have 20 years of experience in educational robotics, and it basically started back when I worked as an electrical engineer at one 

of the largest defense contractors for this country. We spent a lot 

of time inspiring kids and youth to take careers in STEM education, and in fact, one of the accomplishments we actually had 

was get to bring those kids here to the White House after winning 

a championship. Because of that experience that we kept seeing 

how these kids kept growing in their inspiration, myself and one 

of the other team members decided you know what, let us believe 

our own medicine here and let us start our own company. 

So we started our own company, as Congressman Hall said, in 

Greenville, Texas, and it is really a great high-growth story. In the 

last three years, we have created 150 jobs. We now have offices 

worldwide, and just to kind of give you a quick review of a few of 

them, one of our divisions, Rack Solutions, builds racking equipment for data centers and actually a few products for the U.S. military, and the exciting part is, in this very highly competitive market we are in, we are actually able to compete with U.S. manufacturing, so we felt that was a great accomplishment. 

We actually do know kids. In fact, we know kids so well that one 

of our most successful companies is creating toys. This toy division 

was actually inspiration as well from the robotics program we have 

been participating with, which I will tell you about in a few minutes, and our largest accomplishment to date was last year we just 

received the Specialty Toy of the Year in the toy industry, so that 

was pretty exciting for us. 

The VEX Robotics design system is basically from our third division. It was created as an educational robotics kit, and it is really 

designed for an open-ended problem solving. It is not just a set of 

instructions you actually go through but really it is more than just 

a kit. It is the only platform with significant penetration in the 

daytime classroom and extracurricular competitions, so that is extremely important and I hope to emphasize that a little bit later. 

We are showing up everywhere in the classroom, and I am just curious if you guys could find the VEX robot in this picture. 

Project Lead the Way is one of our partners. We are partnered 

with many 501(c)(3)’s. Project Lead the Way is the largest daytime 

curricular program in the United States and they endorse the platform and also endorse our robotics competition as well as their 

competition. Technology Student Association, another partner of 

ours in the space, they are actually a co-curricular program where 

they are in the classroom and have competitions out of the classroom. They run about 200 competitions, but for robotics, they actually came to us and joined the VEX Robotics competition. 

Another 501(c)(3), BEST, Boosting Engineering, Science and 

Technology, is another inspiring. This one is free to all the schools 

that participate and all of their electronics and sensors are basically from the VEX Robotics system because we have the leading 

platform in the educational space. 

So we come to the actual VEX Robotics competition itself before 

basically seeing the partners we have with the equipment we provided. This last year where Congressman Hall was there, we were 

at Disney World. These are some of our corporate sponsors that we 

are pretty proud of. 
14 

VEX is the largest middle school and high school robotics competition in the world. This is kind of a comparison of where we 

compare to some of our other programs that are out there as well. 

Basically I want to kind of take you through and show you a few 

images from the competition. It is really hard to describe the excitement and the feeling you get there and the enthusiasms that 

the kids actually feel and the scale of it. Basically, it takes a lot 

of donations from corporate sponsors to actually make an event of 

this size actually happen, but it affects the students in such a way 

that we are getting to kids that never would be interested in 

science and technology, and it is basically helping build that workforce for the future. You can see the scale of this event. Once again, 

this was our main arena for the finals and the pit area, and the 

previous slide shows you just the enormous—it is like a huge trade 

show. Over 600 teams were at this event. And of course the excitement, getting them ready, getting them excited about science and 

technology and putting these corporations on display so as a corporation donates, it is not just a blind donation. They are putting 

their company on display. So when it comes to recruiting these kids 

and building that workforce for the future, they are actually there 

ready and the students know who they are, and in fact, they want 

to actually go to that company. 

Recently, we have done quite a bit with the Boy Scouts of America. We helped them create their first robotics merit badge. We had 

a big showing at their jamboree and it was extremely exciting. The 

same thing up here at the Mall in D.C. 

I am just going to end here with, we really plan to continue to 

forge a relationship with more nonprofits, with industry, with leaders in the corporate world, and really help try to build and inspire 

that workforce for the future. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Norman follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MR. TONY NORMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF INNOVATION

FIRST INTERNATIONAL, INC. 

VEX ROBOTICS: INSPIRING AND PREPARING STUDENTS FOR STEM 

CAREERS 

Introduction . . . 

Good morning Committee Members and those joining us here today. My name is 

Tony Norman and I am the co-founder and chief executive officer of Innovation First 

International and VEX Robotics, Inc. I want to thank Congressman Hall and the 

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology for inviting me to speak with you 

here today about how VEX Robotics is inspiring and preparing students for STEM 

careers in the 21st century workforce. At the start of my career I worked for a large 

defense contractor in Greenville, TX, as an electrical engineer, and designing robots 

for competition is one of the things I’m most passionate about. Over the past 20 

years I have had the honor of mentoring, volunteering and supporting local middle 

and high school robotics teams, which even resulted in a national championship that 

led to an invitation to the White House and personal recognition by then President 

Bill Clinton. It was a combination of all of these life experiences that inspired me 

to start my own business, Innovation First International, which is the parent company to RackSolutions Inc., HEXBUG Micro Robotic Creatures, and VEX Robotics, 

Inc. Over the past decade, I’ve been focused on getting VEX Robotics into teachers’ 

classrooms and afterschool programs around the nation, and the world, which is 

what I’m here to speak to you about today. 

The world needs today’s students to become tomorrow’s scientists, engineers, and 

problem solving leaders. The constant breakthroughs in chemistry, medicine, materials and physics reveal a new set of challenges and create an even greater opportunity for solving problems through technology. Finding solutions to these problems 
15 

could help save our country and the world, and it will be the technology problem 

solvers of our future who will become the people who make it possible. 

This underscores the dramatic challenge we face today as a nation: there are not 

enough high school graduates taking an interest in the fields of Science, Technology, 

Engineering and Math (STEM) and feel prepared enough to major in these related 

disciplines going into college. This does not reflect a lack of capacity for new students on the part of technical schools and universities, but a lack of interested and 

qualified applicants. 

Recognizing this dilemma, scores of private corporations and non-profit organizations, including Innovation First International, VEX Robotics, Inc. and the Robotics, 

Education and Competition (REC) Foundation, are creating non-traditional programs and partnerships designed to attract and encourage students to embrace 

STEM education through hands-on learning in the classroom and through afterschool competition, using robotics as the driving catalyst. 

At VEX Robotics, we have found robotics to be such a powerful platform, capable 

of attracting and holding the attention of today’s multi-tasking, connected youths. 

VEX Robotics integrates education and technology, and gets entire classrooms of 

students to have a hands-on experience and understanding for what engineering can 

really be like. It’s more than just a visual exercise of taking something from a textbook and memorizing it. VEX Robotics gives students a chance to create and design 

a robot, and then actually turn that around and build it into something physical, 

something real, that’s a very visceral experience that most young people don’t get 

nowadays. To have students go through this process, they get to see and understand 

what happens when you create your own device, and that’s an amazing and character building experience that gets them really excited and in turn gets us excited 

about their future with us. 

With VEX Robotics, students get energized about ‘‘learning by doing,’’ they get 

comfortable with the ‘‘trial and error’’ process, and they are constantly involved in 

applying their knowledge and putting it into action—which becomes a process that 

sticks with them over the years. The VEX Robotics Competition strongly appeals to 

this intensely competitive generation and represents the perfect storm of applied 

physics, mathematics, computer programming, digital prototyping and design, integrated problem solving, teamwork and thought leadership. 

Defining the VEX Robotics Design System & the VEX Robotics Competition 

. . . 

The VEX Robotics Design System, recognized with the 2006 Best of Innovations 

Award at the Consumer Electronics Show, was designed to be an affordable, accessible and scalable platform used to teach STEM education worldwide. The Vex Robotics Design System includes everything young inventors need to design and construct radio-controlled robotics devices that lift, throw, race and expand the boundaries of experimental intelligence. The VEX Robotics Design System comes with various sensors, electric motors, a servo, wheels, gears, and structural parts. Additional 

accessories are available separately. With VEX Robotics, young people have a fun, 

non-traditional way to learn about STEM, and by working together to create robots 

that perform exciting challenges, they also gain valuable problem-solving and teambuilding skills. 

The VEX Robotics Competition utilizes the VEX Robotics Design System. Each 

season, teams build and program a robot to complete that season’s game, which is 

revealed each year at the VEX Robotics World Championship. The competition is 

played on a 12’x12’ square field. Two alliances—one ‘‘red’’ and one ‘‘blue’’—composed 

of two teams each, compete in each match which consists of a twenty-second autonomous period followed by two minutes of driver-controlled play. The object of the 

game is to attain a higher score than your opponent alliance by scoring game elements in designated goals. Teams have the opportunity of attending local, regional, 

state, national and international competitions. 

The Effects of the VEX Robotics Classroom & Afterschool Competition . . . 

When developing VEX Robotics, we wanted to create a platform that would enable 

kids to have fun while learning at the same time. We also understood that the program must be affordable to become sustainable so that all schools, public and private, could adopt the platform. With VEX, kids learn critical problem solving and 

computer skills, they get experience with hands on building and competition, they 

learn how to become leaders and work as a team, they gain exposure to potential 

future employers, and they get inspired to pursue higher education and eventually 

a career in the fields of STEM. 

Like the Orion Nebula star system, educational robotics is still in its infancy, but 

it is steadily expanding. Robotics has tremendous educational potential as it sits at 
16 

the intersection of STEM subjects. The analogy that we like to use for robotics is 

the Flintstones vitamin: Teachers like it because of its educational ingredients, 

while kids like it because it’s fun. 

VEX Robotics was designed with the classroom and after-school competition in 

mind. It taps kids’ interest in computers, hands on building, and the innate human 

desire to compete, and provides them with a very visceral experience that helps reinforce what they learn in school. By participating on a VEX Robotics Competition 

team, students develop some of the critical skills necessary for the workforce, including problem solving, teamwork, creativity and leadership. 

VEX Robotics taps teachers’ interest by providing them with strong, standardsbased accredited curriculum, higher levels of engagement amongst students, enhanced professional development, enjoyment and oftentimes rewarding stipends. 

Overall, VEX Robotics motivates more students to explore STEM education and 

consider careers in STEM related fields by making STEM fun. It increases engagement in STEM subjects from middle school through college. It prepares students for 

secondary education, it better enables us as a nation to meet workforce demands, 

it increases diversity among the workforce and it strengthens our long-term competitiveness as a nation. 

Statistics show that we need to encourage more minorities to explore engineering 

opportunities. We need more affordable and widespread programs. And we need 

more teachers and mentors to provide leadership among underrepresented minorities. For example, more than 1,000 inner city students from Baltimore City school 

districts have benefited from their involvement in VEX Robotics over the past two 

years. Specifically, pre and post test scores indicate significant gains in science and 

math test scores as well as class attendance amongst students who were exposed 

to VEX Robotics versus students not exposed to the platform. 

Students with a previously undiscovered aptitude for STEM curriculum are beginning to flourish in growing numbers due to the growing efforts of schools, volunteer 

organizations, corporations, and government entities that are working to integrate 

robotics platforms such as the VEX Robotics Competition, into the fabric of America’s middle and high school education system. 

It’s meetings like this one today that provide encouragement and show how many 

different leaders and industry entities are focused on this critical STEM problem. 

As documented by James Surowiecki in his best seller The Wisdom of Crowds, the 

best solutions emerge when a broad and diverse sample of individuals work on a 

solution to a problem. 

The Importance of VEX in the Classroom & As an After-School Competition 

. . . 

VEX Robotics, Inc., is ten years in development, and a leader in designing and 

supplying the most advanced technology to the largest number of middle and high 

school classrooms and educational robotics competitions worldwide. VEX was designed for education, architected for competition, and cost engineered for scalability. 

We are backed by industry leaders and VEX Robotics is the apparatus of choice for 

multiple curriculum developers. Our vision has been to offer the most comprehensive, cost-effective learning platform that can be scaled for Elementary to College 

students and even further into the workforce of the 21st century. 

Meanwhile, the VEX Robotics Competition, created by VEX Robotics, Inc. and operated by the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation, is a program 

that inspires and prepares hundreds of thousands of middle school, high school and 

university students worldwide to pursue STEM-related education and career paths. 

Our vision and goal is to motivate, excite and prepare students to go to college 

and pursue STEM education to prepare them to enter the workforce specializing in 

a STEM focused career. Most robotics programs that exist today end at high school, 

are costly and solely focused on after-school competition, and rely heavily on engineers from industry partners to volunteer their time. VEX Robotics addresses this 

issue by dramatically lowering the cost of participation for schools and students, by 

extending beyond high school through to college, and by involving higher participation and support from parents and teachers as mentors—because we want robotics 

to motivate students to go beyond high school—we want robotics to show students 

that they can all become top STEM professionals. 

Why is this important to us? For years now, after school robotics competition programs have focused on inspiring students to pursue STEM careers. It is no longer 

enough to just inspire kids with robotics through after-school competitions, which 

is what differentiates the VEX Robotics platform from any other robotics platform 

on the market. VEX Robotics is the only middle and high school robotics platform 

with significant penetration in both the daytime classroom instruction and extracurricular competitions. 
17 

By exposing our youth to VEX Robotics in the classroom as well as after-school 

with the VEX Robotics Competition, more students have better access to STEM 

training and mentoring in the field, making them better able to compete and emerge 

as leaders in the future global economy. VEX Robotics provides students with a 

‘‘real world’’ example of the skills they observe and learn in other classrooms and 

allows them to see relevant applications of their knowledge in real life situations. 

They get exposure to companies that could be their future employers, thanks to our 

valued partnerships. It’s the perfect model for the workplace. 

VEX Robotics kits range from $299 to $849, and the daytime curriculum ranges 

from $199 to $1,295. With VEX Robotics, you can put entire classrooms of students’ 

hands physically on robots, working in groups of one, two and three. Our custom 

system is of the highest standard and includes over 700 items to choose from. We 

provide Classroom lab kits as easy answers for teachers who want to know everything they need to start a program in the classroom. In order to continue to ensure 

the growth of VEX Robotics, we are committed to keeping costs low and will continue to improve and innovate when it comes to the software and hardware we offer. 

VEX Robotics Partnerships . . . 

The VEX Robotics Competition continues to experience explosive growth year over 

year, with more than 4,000 teams from 20 countries playing in over 250 tournaments worldwide. We would not be able to prepare the next generation of STEM 

inspired minds through robotics education, without the support our valued partners. 

Our partnerships include the REC Foundation, Autodesk, NASA, BEST, Project 

Lead The Way, Northrop Grumman, Technology Student Association (TSA), 

SkillsUSA, EMC Corporation, Carnegie Mellon University, Intelitek, Microchip, Innovation First International, the United States Coast Guard Academy, iD Tech 

Camps, Automation Direct and the CREATE Foundation. 

Daytime Classroom Curriculum & Competition Partners: 

• VEX + Project Lead the Way (PLTW): More than 400,000 students in more 

than 4,200 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are taking 

PLTW courses in the 2011–12 school year. In addition, PLTW has trained more 

than 18,500 teachers to instruct its engaging, rigorous STEM education curriculum. PLTW is the nation’s largest co-curricular program in the U.S. and its 

partnership with VEX Robotics gives current and future PLTW schools new, exciting and cutting-edge opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. 

Students use VEX Robotics equipment during the school day, and they also 

have the ability to take part in the after-school VEX Robotics Competition. 

These competitions allow students to apply their robotics knowledge from the 

classroom in a unique, problem-solving environment. 

• VEX + Technology Student Association (TSA): TSA serves more than 

150,000 students at 2,000 schools in 48 states, and is a national non-profit organization for middle and high school students with a strong interest in technology. The TSA–VEX Robotics Competition provides students with a hands-on, 

co-curricular competition for learning STEM and complements the existing technology-related competitions offered by TSA. TSA–VEX Robotics teams compete 

either at events held at TSA state conferences or at other official VEX Robotics 

Competition tournaments. The season culminates with a championship event at 

the National TSA Conference. Specific details on events are available at 

RobotEvents.com. 

• VEX + SkillsUSA: More than 300,000 students and advisors join SkillsUSA annually, organized into more than 17,000 sections and 54 state and territorial 

associations. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry 

working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations. SkillsUSA has partnered with VEX Robotics for their Mobile Robotics Competition, which utilizes VEX Robotics hardware. 

• VEX + Da Vinci Minds: DaVinci Minds has implemented VEX Robotics in core 

classroom curriculum spanning 11 school districts in Texas, where students 

work continuously throughout the year to prepare to become tomorrow’s 

innovators. DaVinci Minds offers products and services for middle schools, high 

schools, community colleges and universities in a broad array of programs that 

center on the intersection of technology, education and workforce development. 

Da Vinci Minds chose to partner with VEX Robotics due to its price, reliability 
18 

and flexibility. Da Vinci Minds has implemented VEX Robotics in high school 

math classes in about 11 school districts in Texas and is expanding. 

• VEX + Autodesk: Autodesk is a curriculum partner, and also supports the 

VEX Robotics Competition. The Autodesk VEX Robotics Curriculum is a comprehensive robotics program developed for secondary schools by experienced 

educators and technical experts in partnership with Autodesk and VEX Robotics, Inc. The curriculum meets U.S. academic national standards and helps students master the fundamentals of robotics and the engineering design process 

while learning to use industry-leading Autodesk Inventor design software and 

the leading classroom robotics solution, the VEX Robotics Design System. The 

robotics curriculum actively engages students in real-life design projects and 

helps them to develop science, technology, engineering, and math skills in a 

challenging and exciting context. By integrating Autodesk’s VEX Robotics Curriculum into your classroom, your students will see the dynamic connections between science, math, and technology, and they will be better prepared for college and careers in engineering, design, and robotics. 

• VEX + Intelitek: Intelitek is a curriculum and software provider for VEX Robotics. Intelitek’s Robotics Engineering Curriculum is a two-year robotics program for applied science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This curriculum maps to national STEM Standards and custom-maps to any local standard. REC was built speci?cally for the VEX Design System and includes lessons 

with hands-on experience for robotics, engineering, and programming. REC provides a strong blend of mechanical principles and STEM activities with sensor 

use and programming. Activities are leveled for multiple skill levels and each 

semester includes a teacher guide to provide answers and sample programs. 

• VEX + Carnegie Mellon University (CMU): CMU is a curriculum provider 

for VEX Robotics. The CMU VEX curriculum is broken into six major sections: 

safety, project management, planning your project, robotic lessons, programming lessons, and engineering activities. The curriculum is designed to support 

teachers using the starter kit and also teachers interested in taking advantage 

of VEX’s advanced features like: advanced programming, controlling motors 

using PWMs and relays, pneumatics, homebrew sensors. Reorganized units 

make for ease of navigation. Units provide step-by-step instruction and openended challenges where appropriate. Quizzes are incorporated with the handson learning experience to aid in retention. Key mechanical engineering concepts 

are coupled with the ability to study programming and sensor use in-depth if 

desired. 

Extracurricular VEX Robotics Competition Partners: 

• VEX Robotics + REC Foundation: The REC Foundation, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization, partners with VEX Robotics, Inc. to organize and operate 

the VEX Robotics Competition worldwide. The REC Foundation supports robotics and technology events and programs that aim to inspire and motivate students to advance in STEM education. In addition to supporting competitions for 

some of the world’s leading robotics platforms and organizations including VEX, 

TSA and BEST, the foundation also provides program support and workshops 

focused on technology and professional development for educators—including 

the RobotEvents.com community portal website which helps promote multiple 

high quality programs and provides online registration and event pages for hundreds of events around the world. 

• VEX + BEST: VEX Robotics is a proud supplier to the BEST Robotics Competition. BEST Robotics, a non-profit organization reaches roughly 750 schools in 

14 states resulting in roughly 11,000 students currently active in the program. 

BEST partners with universities and other companies including VEX Robotics, 

to offer robotics kits to middle and high school students at zero costs to schools. 

BEST uses the VEX Cortex Microcontroller, VEXnet Joystick and other accessories, which we provide to them at a heavily discounted rate. The REC Foundation and VEX Robotics are also proud to host BEST’s annual national championship competition. 

• VEX + BSA: VEX Robotics is proud be a partner with the Boy Scouts of America on the Robotics Merit Badge. Boy Scouts now have the opportunity to earn 

a merit badge while learning about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Not only did we help in developing the Robotics Merit Badge Requirements, but BSA demonstrated the new Robotics Merit Badge as a workshop at 

the VEX Robotics World Championship, and more than 20 of the first Scouts 

to receive the Robotics Merit Badge were in attendance. 
19 

• Additional Corporate Support: Corporations are throwing their support behind STEM development programs like VEX Robotics in order to ensure there’s 

an adequate talent pool of engineers to fill open positions in the future. Northrop Grumman, Autodesk, EMC, BAE Systems, Baxter, Boeing, Boston Scientific, Chrysler, Dassault Systems, Delphi, Google, GM, Texas Instruments, 

Timken, Xerox and 3M are just a few of the sponsors of national robotics competitions in the U.S. 

• Parent / Teacher Involvement: VEX Robotics Competitions would not be 

what they are today without the support and commitment we receive from parents and teachers. VEX Robotics sees significantly higher participation and support from teachers given the daytime classroom integration through curricula 

materials and scale of the design & build process that lends itself to a wider 

participation by students. Many parents and teachers involved with VEX Robotics describe themselves as coaches, mentors, non-technical mentors, or a combination of two or more of these roles. A coach is defined as someone who helps 

students with design, building, and planning related to competitions; a mentor 

is defined as someone who shares his or her specific expertise in engineering, 

robotics, computer programming, and/or technological areas who serve as advisors to teams; non-technical mentors are defined as someone who helps coordinate travel, chaperones students, or odes event planning or other similar activities. 

Preparing Students for the Workforce . . . 

Through their participation in the VEX Robotics Competition and the work they 

do within their teams, students pick-up many of the academic and life skills necessary to excelling in the workforce. In fact, at VEX Robotics, Inc., our high school 

and college internships are extended to those who excel at the VEX Robotics Competition. Many of our full time employees were initially discovered through their 

leadership and participation in competitive robotics programs. 

According to a study conducted by the Center for Education Integrating Science, 

Math and Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology in June of 2011, student and mentors overwhelmingly reported positive student effects from participating in VEX Robotics Competitions, in areas including: 

• Teamwork– By participating in the VEX Robotics Competition, students develop critical teamwork skills, specifically referencing a growth in taking individual responsibility for one’s part on a team, solving difficult problems with 

teammates, and being a good teammate. 

• Interest in STEM– By participating in the VEX Robotics Competition students 

develop an interest in STEM education and career opportunities, something 

that was previously lacking. VRC participation positively impacts students’ interest in STEM, creating a greater interest and desire to learn more about robotics, engineering, computer science, design and STEM career opportunities in 

high school, college and beyond. 

• 21st century skills– The VEX Robotics Competition positively impacts students in developing their 21st century skills, specifically in terms of accepting 

and providing critical feedback, goal setting, using time effectively, collaboration, self-direction and motivation, and learning from their failures. Many of the 

teamwork forming dynamics that they go through are parallel to those they will 

encounter in the workforce. 

• Self-efficacy– By participating in the VEX Robotics Competition, middle 

school, high school and university students’ confidence increases, related to 

school achievement, doing well in STEM coursework, succeeding in a STEM career, asking questions, presenting ideas, fundraising and communicating. 

• Sportsmanship– Participating in VEX Robotics Competitions helps students 

grow their character in terms of sportsmanship, learning how to be honest and 

fair in competitive situations, and learning how to value each team member’s 

contributions. 

In addition to improving retention of key STEM principles as a result of participating in the VEX Robotics Competition, there is also a correlation between participating in VEX Robotics Competitions and performing and scoring well in STEM 

classes. 

How we as a Nation Can Spark a Greater Student Interest in 

STEM Education . . . 

What we need to do is clear—we need to democratize student robotics participation. We need to engage, inspire and prepare students to pursue science, engineer-
20 

ing and technology in higher education and as a profession—and robotics serves as 

the perfect catalyst. Robotics makes STEM relevant to students, and relevancy 

drives engagement, inspiration and action. VEX Robotics was designed for education, architected for competition, and cost engineered for scalability. Our goal is 

to continue to forge the necessary relationships with non-profit organizations and 

industry to fuel tomorrow’s workforce by making VEX Robotics accessible to everyone, and integrating this hands-on learning tool to as many schools as possible, to 

as many students as possible, in as many cities, states and countries as possible. 

Corporations have the most to gain from investing in programs like VEX Robotics 

and preparing students for the workforce. If every corporation were to allocate some 

of the resources that they use on recruiting efforts and community involvement, and 

reinvest those funds into programs like VEX Robotics, they would gain enhanced exposure for their company, they would be giving back to their community, and most 

importantly, by investing in these kids at an early age, corporations would gain immediate access to some of the best and brightest minds from which to pull talent 

when it comes to workforce development. Supporting robotics creates a life-long 

learner that is actively involved in building their 21st century skills in addition to 

developing their expertise in the fields of STEM, which are qualities that all good 

employers need and when they look to bring a talented new hire on board. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about VEX Robotics and the 

VEX Robotics Competition, and how we are inspiring and preparing the science and 

engineering workforce of tomorrow. 

[The powerpoint slides accompanying Mr. Norman’s statement follows:] 
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Chairman HALL. I thank you very much. 

I now recognize Mr. Gallagher for five minutes for his testimony—I mean Mrs. Conrad for her testimony. Same five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF MRS. NANCY CONRAD, CHAIRMAN AND 

FOUNDER OF THE CONRAD FOUNDATION 

Mrs. CONRAD. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, 

thank you for this opportunity to discuss our participation in solving America’s STEM education crisis, or as I call it, the edudemic. 

In a recent article in the New York Times, Tom Friedman said, 

‘‘If we want more jobs, we need to create more Steve Jobs.’’ Steve 

Jobs took his knowledge of STEM and created a phenomenon that 

impacts our lives in ways we can’t even currently quantify. Bill 

Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, they have done 

the same thing. They too have taken their knowledge of STEM, 

combined it with innovation and entrepreneurship and created 

world-changing breakthroughs which have forever altered the way 

knowledge is valued, shared and utilized. 

The hallmark of America’s culture is innovation and entrepreneurship. It is how we got to the moon. It is how companies like 

Apple, Facebook and Google were formed. It is how our country will 

continue to explore the universe, discover cures for disease and become good stewards of the world we share with our global neighbors. 

If we are to reinforce America’s economic stability and ignite our 

Nation’s passion for STEM education, we need to embrace an academic plan that focuses on the relevance of the knowledge we share 

with our students. We all know memorizing facts to pass a test 

isn’t doing the job. 

The Spirit of Innovation Awards program, the flagship of the 

Conrad Foundation, is rooted in this concept. Our program challenges teams of high school students to create solutions to realworld problems using STEM-based principles and practices supported by innovative thinking and entrepreneurial skills. We are 

energizing the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators 

needed to sustain our economy. Students who participate in the 

program come from all socioeconomic levels. Our student entries 

come from across the United States, from the Navajo Nation to 

Thomas Jefferson High School, ranked the number one high school 

in the country. We are pleased that one-third of our students are 

girls and one-third are inner-city students. 

The Spirit of Innovation Awards program operates year-round 

through our online community and our annual event. Our teams 

are supported in their journey by their teachers and our community of mentors and experts who together endeavor to help these 

students hone their own design skills as they create the innovative 

products. From aerospace and energy to cybersecurity and nutrition, no question is too large for these students. 

Finalist teams are selected to participate in our Innovation Summit at NASA Ames Research Center where they meet world-renowned scientists and entrepreneurs from industry, government, 

academia and venture capital. The students present their ideas and 

are coached and mentored by these experts with the intent of 

bringing the students’ product to the marketplace. Winners are 
45 

awarded a grant to continue the development of their product and 

selected teams are invited into our portal where we assist them in 

patenting their product if it is needed and then licensing their intellectual property. This is a way for them to monetize their ideas 

without dropping out of school to create companies. We are four 

years young and already seeing amazing results. Let me provide 

you with a few examples. 

Winning teams of the past have addressed nutrition needs for astronauts, developed light electric cars, and a smartphone biomedical application for monitoring heart rates. Daniel and Isaac 

from Katy, Texas, have two patents on an offshore geothermal energy-generating system and they have been archived into the Kennedy Presidential Library. Michaela and Shannon from Battle 

Creek, Michigan, created a nutrition bar that meets NASA’s standards for nutrition and stability in microgravity. They have been 

honored at the White House and recently their product was flown 

above STS 134. This is where real science gets real. 

Our program and the media coverage our students receive shines 

a spotlight on how cool science can be and how interesting and 

challenging the careers in STEM can be. We are not just growing 

a program, we are driving a movement. We have turned geeks into 

rock stars. 

Our competition is open to all who wish to participate free of 

charge. We are supported in partnership with Lockheed Martin, 

PepsiCo and Kraft Foods. We receive program support from NASA, 

the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society for Nutrition, the William James Foundation, the National Institute of Health, Sigma Xi, museums and science centers, 

Popular Science magazine, SpaceRef and STEM Connector. 

This year we are also taking advantage of a unique opportunity 

to provide our winning teams of students with a global scientific 

experience. In partnership with the Department of State, we are 

planning for winning teams to travel to a major international conference on sustainable development to be held in Rio de Janeiro, 

Brazil, in 2012. Interactions with scientists from around the world 

will have a lasting impression on these students whose paths may 

lead toward global science and technology. 

We are solely funded through philanthropic grants and individual and corporate entities. Our biggest challenge is funding the 

program so we can scale it to reach mass numbers of students and 

expand the services and programs associated with the context. The 

Spirit of Innovation Awards program is the only incentivized learning program to combine STEM with innovation and entrepreneurship. 

Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members, I believe we must all accept the challenge to embrace and propel our students to tomorrow’s innovation generation. While our education system may be 

broken, our students are not. When given the opportunities, their 

talents shine. They are amazing, they are innovative and they are 

brilliant. Our students will be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, 

Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. This is how we engage America in STEM education and this is how we build the innovative workforce for the future. We need to leave a better coun-
46 

try for our children but we also need to leave better children for 

our country. 

Thank you for your kind attention and I will be delighted to answer your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mrs. Conrad follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MRS. NANCY CONRAD, CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER OF THE

CONRAD FOUNDATION

1. Please describe in detail the STEM competition(s) your organization 

leads, including its history, development, participation, parent/teacher 

involvement, costs associated with the competition and with participation in the competition, and success rates/stories. 

Built on the Legacy of A Pioneer 

The Conrad Foundation and its programs are based on the rich legacy of the late 

Apollo 12 Astronaut and entrepreneur, Charles ‘‘Pete’’ Conrad. The Foundation was 

created by Pete’s wife, Nancy Conrad, a teacher, education activist and Chairman 

of the Foundation. 

Pete was expelled from a prestigious school in the 11th grade, at which time he 

couldn’t read and he couldn’t spell. In those days, educators didn’t always recognize 

dyslexia. His mother took him to a small school where the headmaster saw something special in this young man and took him under his wing. Pete went on to earn 

a scholarship to Princeton where he became an aeronautical engineer. 

He was a test pilot when President Kennedy put out the call for this country to 

go to the Moon. Pete was accepted to enter NASA’s manned spaceflight program 

where he flew four missions including Gemini V, Gemini XI, Apollo 12 and Skylab. 

He was the third man to walk on the Moon and was awarded a Congressional Space 

Medal of Honor for his rescue of Skylab. Toward the end of his life, Pete was working on the commercialization of spaceflight. 

He was pioneer of the past and at the leading edge of the vision of the future. 

Pete got his moon shot because an educator took him under his wing. Our program 

is designed to help teachers to take students under their wing, provide mentorship 

and give students their ‘‘Moon Shot.’’ 

Why Our Contest Works 

The Conrad Foundation’s Spirit of Innovation Awards (SOIA) presents high school 

student participants with a very broad challenge: create an innovative product that 

can be used to address a real-world problem with a real-world solution which can 

ultimately be viable in the commercial marketplace. 

The competition is free of charge to students in the United States and is also open 

at no cost to international students. These students are given a blank slate within 

several major categories that can include clean energy, aerospace exploration, and 

health and nutrition. But they’re not just asked to complete a science project: they 

are required to conduct research to determine their creation’s potential market impact and develop a full business plan. 

Utilizing a network of world-renowned scientists, engineers, academics, and business leaders, the Conrad Foundation connects the student teams with mentors to 

assist in making their ideas a reality. 

A panel of experts selects the top entries to attend the annual Innovation Summit, hosted at NASA–Ames Research Center, were students present their technologies. There, program participants also have the opportunity to interact in a peer 

to peer environment, with a slate of guests who have been among the foremost 

science, business and academic leaders in the world. 

Each year several student teams are also chosen to go into the ‘‘Portal,’’ where 

the Conrad Foundation helps students acquire the patents and funding needed to 

bring their creations to the open market. 

Products of Our Success 

Over the course of the past four years of our program engaged more than 1,000 

students from a broad socioeconomic demographic nationwide. 

Our student teams received technology patents and recognition from government 

regulatory agencies and the President. They are featured in national and international media including BBC, Fox News, CNN, Elle Girl, MTV Geek, and Popular 

Science. 

Our students are also sought after to serve as speakers at national and international industry and academic conferences such as the International Space Devel-
47 

opment Conference, AIAA conferences and TEDxSF. There are former student 

projects now archived in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. 

A few examples of our exemplary students’ achievements include: 

Daniel and Isaac, high school students from Katy, Texas, have two patents on offshore geothermal energy generation system that captures energy using deep sea hydrothermal vents as a heat source. It would use a modular power network to transfer the energy to shore. They been interviewed by the BBC, featured in Popular 

Science Magazine and archived into the Kennedy Presidential Library. 

Mikayla and Shannon, high school students from Michigan, created a nutrition 

bar that meets NASA’s exacting standards for nutrition and stability in microgravity situations. They have been interviewed by Elle Magazine, MTV, CNN, and 

Fox, and have been honored at the White House. Recently their product was flown 

aboard NASA’s shuttle mission STS–134. 

Building on Strong Metrics 

To ensure we are meeting our mission of improving the delivery of STEM education to students and providing quality mentorship opportunities, we survey teachers and students at the completion of the SoIA. Developed by a former student competitor and a NASA education specialist, the surveys are used to assess the success 

and value of the program as a tool for project-based learning in STEM education. 

Across the board, both students and teachers agree that the format provided by the 

Conrad Foundation enhances and improves student interest in STEM education and 

STEM career opportunities. 

2. Elaborate on the public/private partnerships and initiatives that make 

the competition a reality, the role of each partner, why an entity chooses 

to be a partner, and how the partnership is successfully inspiring a future STEM workforce. 

Partners Help Students Achieve Their ‘‘Moon Shot’’ 

Because our Foundation is built on the legacy of Pete Conrad, the third man to 

walk on the Moon, our business model for our program is based upon America’s 

original plan to achieve the ‘‘Moon Shot’’. To reach the moon, the U.S. went incrementally, through a rich collaboration of academia, government and industry. 

The Foundation mirrors that philosophy by partnering with the best academic, industry and corporate organizations in North America. All our partners recognize the 

value of investing in STEM education and preparing and nurturing the future workforce of our country. 

The Conrad Foundation established three categories with corresponding criteria 

to define new and current partnerships: 

Corporate Partners: We select Corporate Partners for each category that align 

with our mission and are respected leaders in the category field. This year, these 

sponsors include Lockheed Martin, PepsiCo and Kraft Foods. 

Challenge Partners: Each year we have one official Challenge Partner for each 

category to provide expert mentors, judges for submissions and post-competition 

opportunities for students such as speaking at national conferences, internships 

and career opportunities. Current partners include American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Society for Nutrition and the William James 

Foundation. 

Program Supporters: These are organizations or programs that support the 

Foundation and SoIA year after year. We thank them for promoting our program 

through their networks and being a great resource for the completion. We put 

them on our website and invite them to the Innovation Summit. Our primary 

Program Supporters include NASA, National Institute of Health, Sigma Xi, museums and science centers, Popular Science Magazine and Space Ref. 

This year, in partnership with the Department of State, we are planning for winning teams to travel to a major international conference on sustainable development 

to be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in 2012. Interactions with scientists from 

around the world will have a lasting impression on the students, whose paths may 

be toward global science and technology. 

3. Expand on the current success of the program/initiative and its contribution to inspire and affect the workforce of tomorrow? What are the 

biggest challenges and barriers that you face? 
48 

Nurturing Tomorrow’s Workforce Today 

The Spirit of Innovation Awards program reaches all socio-economic levels and 

ranges from students from the Navajo Nation to Thomas Jefferson High School for 

Science and Technology, the number one rated school in the country. Our program 

attracts high school aged students from coast to coast. Roughly one-third of our students are young women, one-third are underserved and one-third are students who 

enter many competitions. 

The Spirit of Innovation Awards is the only competition for teams of high school 

students combining STEM, innovation, entrepreneurship and education to solve real 

world challenges. Further, it is one of the only programs that actively collaborates 

with other STEM organizations. This competition is an open platform, free and 

available to all socioeconomic levels nationwide. 

Our students learn design thinking skills and the system of incremental development from idea to design to reality. This competition isn’t about proving how many 

STEM facts students know. It is about taking everything they know, learning more, 

and working as a team with their fellow students, teachers and mentors to create 

something commercially viable with large-scale social impact. While we help these 

students understand the importance of what they are learning, they also have the 

opportunity to innovate and gain recognition at a very early age for their product 

designs. 

As a result of our program, several of our students received patents and media 

recognition, interacted with government, industry and academic leaders, and gained 

the opportunity to commercialize their product ideas. We are not only hosting a program, we are driving a movement. We are giving teachers an exciting and dynamic 

way to teach STEM, and we are growing the young innovators who will sustain our 

knowledge-based economy. 

Addressing Our Challenges 

One of the largest hurdles to overcome was developing a way to scale the program 

in such a way that we can reach a greater number of participants. In order to increase the depth of participation, we identified two simple ways to create a significant amount of improvement in the contest. 

• Improve the way we process team applications, which we’ve accomplished 

through the implementation of an online judging platform that will be used by 

our Challenge Partner judges. 

• Streamline the application process into a three phase approach which makes 

the initial ask of the student teams simpler and the overall process easier for 

the coaches to manage. 

However, because we are solely funded through government and philanthropic 

grants, and individual and corporate donations, our biggest challenge is funding the 

program so we can scale it to reach mass numbers of students and expand the services and programs associated with the contest. 

4. Please describe the effects your competition has on the students who 

participate and elaborate on any other STEM education-focused activities your organization spearheads. 

We have a vision for the 21st century learning environment of student-centered, 

immersive learning, fueled by collaboration with teachers and public/private organizations. When we set the goal of creating a nation populated with creative student 

innovators, we knew the end result would be building a future rich in economic diversity, complete with a well prepared workforce and visionary future leaders. 

As a result of our program, several of our students have received patents and 

media recognition, interacted with government, industry and academic leaders, and 

gained the opportunity to commercialize their product ideas. In addition, we introduce students to new and possibly unconsidered career paths in the STEM industries by giving them unequalled access to mentors and experts in a broad array of 

specializations. These mentors and partners are guides to college course recommendations, internships and job shadowing opportunities. 

We continue to engage our student alumni by encouraging them to serve as mentors and provide peer feedback to current-year teams. These alumni will also help 

us recruit new competitors in an effort to help grow and expand the contest. 

The Conrad Foundation is a firm believer in continuous evaluation to ensure we 

are meeting the needs of our nation and providing the best quality support to the 

field of education. While SoIA is our flagship program, as we grow as an organization, we intend to develop additional programs to help support the mission of promoting the value of STEM education nationwide. 
49 

5. How can we as a nation spark a greater student interest in math and 

science education? 

The aim of our competition is to ignite America’s interest and passion for STEM 

education. We do this by building relationships in an engaged learning community 

of students, teachers, mentors, advocates, industry, academia, venture capitalists, 

government who are excited about the purpose of STEM education. 

By committing to this course of action we help students understand that what 

they are learning has relevance, which has been proven to be a critical element in 

student engagement of education programs. By expecting students, teachers and 

mentors to embrace a rigorous program that blends STEM, innovation and entrepreneurship, we are we are growing the young innovators who will sustain our knowledge-based economy. 

Chairman HALL. We thank you. 

I do now recognize Mr. Gallagher for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL GALLAGHER, PRESIDENT AND 

CEO OF ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Chairman Hall, Ranking Member Johnson, distinguished Members of the Committee, I am grateful for the opportunity to testify at this hearing this morning. My name is Michael 

Gallagher and I am the President and CEO of the Entertainment 

Software Association, the trade association that represents the industry that creates video games on virtually every device that has 

a screen and a battery including video game consoles, personal 

computers, handheld devices like cell phones, and over the Internet. 

We at ESA, the staff and the members, are very appreciative of 

the continued focus of this Committee on the limitless value of 

technology and education and the importance that that focus has 

to the American workforce in the years ahead as well as today, and 

we are grateful to be part of this conversation. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines to invent is ‘‘to produce for the first 

time through the use of the imagination or of ingenious thinking 

and experiment.’’ Inventions are the bedrock of the United States 

economy since it was born. If you look at our history in addition 

to the current technologies that Mrs. Conrad highlighted but going 

back to the light bulb, planes, trains and automobiles, the cell 

phone, telephones in general, computer and the Internet, each of 

these breakthroughs, each of these breakthroughs, each of these inventions created and spawned scores of millions of jobs for generations of Americans. What they all share in common are root elements in STEM and in STEM education. It is of vital economic interest for our country that we continue to be as dynamic and worldleading as possible in the area of educating our youth in STEM. 

Yet today there is a yawning gap between our needs as a society 

and as a country and what we are producing in the classroom, and 

that gap is recognized in bicameral, bipartisan, State and Federal 

arenas. Business and the public sector all agree that we are in a 

mode where we must enhance our productivity in the classroom for 

the benefit of our current and our future economic aspirations. 

The video game industry is living in this challenge. Today, we are a $25 billion domestic industry. We have grown 120 percent 

over the last five years and the jobs that are created are across the 

country in 30 different states where we have sites and enormous 

productivity coming from jobs in our industry. These jobs are fundamentally dependent on physics, math, computer science and the 
50 

core STEM curricula that this hearing is focused upon. However, 

beyond our industry, we also have the need of broader corporate 

America looking at trying to innovate and invent in today’s economy, and in a study that was concluded a year ago, over 100 of the 

Fortune 500 companies indicated that they would be using video 

game technology to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their 

workforce, and these are companies like Bank of America, IBM, 

Canon, American Express and others who are seeing the value of 

the technology that is inherent in what we do. 

Looking beyond, however, just the corporate opportunity, ESA 

was approached by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, otherwise known 

as Sesame Street, about three years ago and was challenged to do 

more in the area of education because they as educators understood 

the connection between our industry and youth, and many studies 

show—Pew has a study that shows not surprisingly that 97 percent 

of boys play video games but 94 percent of girls do as well, and so 

we have a medium that is creative, that is dynamic, that is captivating to the youth of our country. We should be capturing that energy. So in partnership with Microsoft, PlayStation, Electronic Arts 

within our industry as well as the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the 

MacArthur Foundation, E–Line Ventures and AMD, we launched 

two different competitions focused on capturing that interest of 

youth and putting it into the classroom in a practical, exciting way 

for education purposes. 

I look forward in the question-and-answer session to detailing 

the specifics of those competitions and their success, but this last 

March, we awarded—one of the national challenges awarded its 

prizes for the first round in the first year of competition, there 

were over 500 entrants in the competition and we brought a short 

video for the Committee today to give you a flavor of what is happening in the classroom with the ideas that come from our industry, and if we could roll the clip. I thank you for the opportunity 

to be here today. 

[Video playback.] 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gallagher follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL D. GALLAGHER, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION

Introduction 

Chairman Hall, Ranking Member Johnson, and distinguished Members of the 

Committee, I am grateful for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. My name 

is Michael D. Gallagher, and I am the President and CEO of the Entertainment 

Software Association (ESA). ESA is the U.S. trade association in service to companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, the Internet, and mobile phones. The members and staff at ESA appreciate 

your continued focus on the limitless value of technology in education, and its importance to the American workforce, both today and in the future, and we are grateful to be part of this conversation. 

If this country is to thrive in the coming years of the 21st Century and beyond, 

our nation’s children must regain their position as elite students of science, technology, engineering, and math. Those four subjects, known collectively as STEM, are 

the key to unlocking a future of American prosperity. 

Over the past several years, ESA and the video game industry have undertaken 

several initiatives in an attempt to play a catalytic positive role in engaging children 

in core STEM subjects. These initiatives, designed to tap into our industry’s culture 

of innovation and children’s enthusiasm toward video games, involve wide-ranging 

public-private partnerships. The initiatives that ESA and its partners have undertaken will hopefully be impactful on a larger scale in terms of engaging American 
51 

schoolchildren on STEM. While these initiatives are in their infancy and their effect 

cannot yet be fully measured, three things can be sure about the initiatives: first, 

research from organizations like the Federation of American Scientists, National 

Science Foundation and the Joan Ganz Cooney Cetner at Sesame Workshop have 

highlighted the enormous potential of computer and video games to foster highly engaged, effective learning and motivation for STEM; second the use of games and 

game-making for education is being greeted by children with tremendous enthusiasm as you will see in the video footage that will be part my testimony and third, 

all of the ESA STEM video game partnerships have collectively cost the American 

taxpayers a total of zero dollars. 

The various roles of ESA and the entertainment software industry in these initiatives—either as a convener, a financial supporter, or a project manager—are roles 

that we are honored to play. As the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is demonstrating by virtue of this hearing, government at all levels can enlist 

the further support of private sector experts and examples to improve America’s 

educational performance by drawing attention to initiatives like these. 

STEM as the Foundation of the Entertainment Software Industry 

The video game industry has a keen understanding of the importance of STEM. 

We are an innovative and dynamic $25 billion industry that is based almost entirely 

on STEM. 

This is a rapidly expanding nationwide industry that grew 120% over the past five 

years and employs over 120,000 Americans, including engineers, animators, graphic 

designers, musicians, and writers, who earn an average salary of $90,000. These 

high tech, high-paying video game jobs are at the forefront of 21st Century, creative 

‘‘nex’’ economy, and are a real-world manifestation of the importance of quality 

STEM and arts education programs. 

While the Entertainment Software Association represents video game publishers 

with worldwide large scale presence, it also includes smaller, American video game 

companies like 38 Studios of Providence, Rhode Island and Her Interactive in Bellevue, Washington. Many companies in our industry started as the idea of a single 

entrepreneur, then grew into small businesses before blossoming into successful enterprises. One such company, Epic Games, headquartered in Cary, NC, has grown 

from humble roots into a multinational entity with its own video game engine technology that is used throughout the industry. 

American colleges and universities are swiftly realizing that our industry is where 

the jobs are. Currently, 343 U.S. trade schools, colleges and universities offer 

courses in video game design and development, including 43 university graduate 

programs. Mister Chairman and Madam Ranking Member, Texas alone is home to 

24 such programs, including prominent programs at your alma maters, Southern 

Methodist University. Speaking of the Lone Star State, Texas is quickly becoming 

a major center for high-paying, high-tech video game industry jobs. Thanks to a 

competitive state tax incentive and the leadership of Governor Perry, Texas recently 

leapfrogged Washington to become the number two state in the country for video 

game jobs, adding 1,700 positions in a fourteen month period alone (from April 2009 

to August 2010). 

Though our industry is strongly represented in places like Austin, Silicon Valley, 

Seattle, and Los Angeles, we are a nationwide industry with employees in more 

than 30 states. As the explosion of casual games and online app sales has shown, 

no single geographic area has a monopoly on creativity; anyone with an idea, a 

broadband connection, and programming skills can bring the world the next Angry 

Birds. But again, none of these economic growth opportunities are possible without 

a solid and broadly-based STEM foundation. 

Presidential Acknowledgement of the Importance of STEM 

In order for Americans to access such high-tech, high paying careers, they need 

the proper skill sets for these opportunities. The fundamental necessity of STEM 

education has not gone unnoticed by the White House’s two most recent occupants. 

In 2007, President George W. Bush noted that ‘‘(w)e want to make sure we 

strengthen math and science, because we can’t be a competitive nation without more 

scientists and more mathematicians. Because in order for us to make sure the best 

jobs are in America requires us having mathematicians and scientists and engineers 

and physicists.’’ 

Similarly, in September of last year, President Obama announced his initiative 

aimed at stimulating the private sector’s recruitment of 10,000 STEM teachers over 

the next two years, when he stated that ‘‘(s)trengthening STEM education is vital 

to preparing our students to compete in the 21st century economy and we need to 

recruit and train math and science teachers to support our nation’s students.’’ 
52 

This past April, President Obama spoke again about STEM’s importance at 

Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters, emphasizing that STEM education—especially to 

girls and minority students—is one of the most important investments the U.S. can 

make if it hopes to produce college and career-ready students. 

The Educational Power of Video Games 

Although there is general agreement that STEM education is a key to rekindling 

America’s global economic competitiveness, we nevertheless face a critical STEM 

skills shortage. The current unemployment crisis is not simply a jobs problem, it 

is a skills problem, and it is our nation’s challenge to train people to qualify for the 

high-skilled positions necessary to compete and thrive in the global economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the August 2011 unemployment rate for 

those with bachelor’s degrees or higher was 4.3%. For those that were just high 

school graduates, it was 9.6%. To give one example in our industry, Microsoft recently reported that it has 4,551 unfilled job openings, more than half of which are 

for computer science positions. 

The United States must educate and develop its own supply of talent for the 21st 

century ideas-based economy, and STEM is essential to filling the workforce of the 

future. However, education experts tell us that children increasingly lose interest 

in core STEM subjects because students do not find these subjects engaging, and 

they don’t see the relevance of STEM to their lives. 

Since video games enjoy such high nationwide levels of adoption and enjoyment, 

they can be important educational tools to help bridge the current STEM gap. They 

are ubiquitous in children’s lives—46 million children between 5 and 17 years old 

are currently gamers, according to The NPD Group. As the Pew Trust and MacArthur Foundation recently found, ‘‘(f)ully 97% of teens ages 12–17 play computer, 

web, portable, or console games.’’ http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7BB0386CE3– 

8B29–4162–8098–E466FB856794%7D/PEWlDMLlREPORTl080916.PDF 

Researchers and educators are increasingly arriving at the conclusion that computer and video games are one of the most effective ways to reach America’s children. ‘‘Digital technologies are helping us to re-imagine learning,’’ stated Connie 

Yowell, MacArthur’s Director of Education. ‘‘In the digital age, the learning environment is turned on its head—it’s no longer just the dynamic of the student, the 

teacher and the curriculum. Today, kids learn and interact with others—even from 

around the world—every time they go online, or play a video game, or engage 

through a social networking site.’’ http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/ 

b.6035061/k.43F1/DigitallMedialLearninglCompetition.htm. MacArthur is currently funding a $50 million, five year digital media and learning initiative. 

They help address many of the challenges confronting our current education system—a lack of student engagement, for example. Educators want to take advantage 

of the enthusiasm of our children for gaming and many are using our technology 

as teaching devices. New programs that incorporate video games into traditional 

education engage students of all demographic groups and academic inclinations. 

This approach makes intuitive sense: our economy is increasingly digital, and our 

education system should map to it. Video games promote the skills needed to effectively operate in a global economy—complex systems thinking, critical analysis, 

strategic planning, creativity, and collaboration. The workplaces of today are radically different from those of the 1950s; however, our classrooms are largely the 

same. 

The key question is how to tap into the natural passion of youth for playing and 

making video games, and connect this passion to building a motivation for STEM 

and other core curriculum subjects and developing critical 21st century skills and 

job pathways. There is enormous power and potential in the medium. To fully realize this potential, we will need innovative public private partnerships, and I applaud the leadership of this Committee in this regard. 

There is great opportunity for highly engaged STEM learning not only in having 

students play well design game, but also in having them make them. As Alan 

Gershenfeld, founder of E–Line Media (one of ESA’s STEM Challenge partners), 

points out, ‘‘(d)esigning a digital game requires one to think analytically and holistically about games as systems, to experiment and test out theories, to solve problems, to think critically, and to effectively create and collaborate with peers and 

mentors. These are all skills that will be needed in a twenty-first century where virtually every job will involve navigating a complex, ever-changing, digitally 

networked global landscape and where many of the future jobs have yet to be invented. Designing and developing video games is certainly a very complex process— 

and yet many kids can’t wait to jump in and start.’’ 

There is an aspirational aspect to this discussion that must be considered, one 

that taps into the notion of which careers children aspire to undertake when they 
53 

reach adulthood. If children see video game design as a ?cool? and viable career 

path, and STEM as the foundation of that path, then these subjects will become 

more compelling and relevant to them. The space program (and children’s fascination with astronauts) spawned two generations of aerospace engineers. We believe 

that video games can provide a similar role as a catalyst for future generations of 

members of the high-tech sector; a sector that represents a critical component of 

this country’s path to economic growth. 

In June 2009, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop released a report, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, titled Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children’s Learning and Health which concluded 

that computer and video games provide ‘‘an important, untapped opportunity’’ to 

support learning, particularly when children and adults play together. That same 

year, the Center launched its Innovation in Children’s Digital Media prize program, 

providing incentives for university media labs as well as the entertainment software 

industry to develop research-based games that promote learning through digital 

media. 

Games also use new technologies to incorporate principles crucial to human cognitive learning. University of Arizona education professor Dr. James Paul Gee recently concluded that video games intertwine instruction and demonstration, a more 

effective learning technique. In his book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us 

About Learning and Literacy, Gee points out that video games, unlike the U.S. Education system, are designed to effectively engage youth because video games are 

interactive, customized, and ‘‘pleasantly frustrating.’’ http://newlearningonline.com/ 

new-learning/chapter-9-learning-communities-at-work/james-gee-on-video-gamesand-learning/ Therefore, video games are great assessment tools in learning; you 

don’t advance or ‘‘level up’’ if you haven’t internalized the appropriate knowledge. 

Moreover, students who design video games around core academic subjects like 

STEM, by becoming not just consumers but producers of educationally beneficial 

content, are more interested in pursuing careers in these fields, as LiveScience reported in its recent article ‘‘Video Game Design Program Boosts Interest in Science 

Careers.’’ http://www.livescience.com/10197-video-game-design-program-boosts-interest-science-careers.html 

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation highlighted the educational 

benefits of game play in a 2010 report on the need to transform education in STEM 

subjects as a way of refueling the U.S. innovation economy. The report stated that 

‘‘videogames are well structured to be learning experiences,’’ because they provide 

players with significant feedback, feature embedded rewards systems, instant assessment, engage a variety of senses, allow a user to determine the pace of play, 

and encourage collaborative learning in instances of multi-user play. 

Real World Examples 

A recent example of an innovative approach to utilize video games in a learning 

environment, is the iCivics initiative, in which former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor collaborated with Georgetown University Law School and Arizona 

State University to develop an online, game-based learning platform to teach students about civics. First launched in 2009, iCivics now features five games about 

constitutional law and the branches of U.S. government, each of which also comes 

with suggested lesson plans that are tailored to meet state-specific learning standards. In 2011, the ESA Foundation awarded a grant to iCivics to develop its newest 

offering, an international relations focused, multiplayer game available on the 

iCivics website and Facebook. 

An example of putting these beliefs into practice is Quest to Learn, a New York 

City public school grounded in principles of game design, the first of its kind. Chicago Quest, following the Quest to Learn model, just opened for the current school 

year. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011–03–29/news/ct-met-video-game-school0330–20110329l1lvideo-game-elizabeth-purvis-charters Quest to Learn is the first 

public school in the nation based on the principles of game design. http:// 

www.360kid.com/blog/2010/01/salen-interview/ As the New York Times recently described the philosophy of Quest to Learn and Katie Salen, its founder, ‘‘building a 

game—even the kind of simple game a sixth grader might build—is equivalent to 

building a mini-world, a dynamic system governed by a set of rules, complete with 

challenges, obstacles and goals. At its best, game design can be an interdisciplinary 

exercise involving math, writing, art, computer programming, deductive reasoning 

and critical thinking skills.’’ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19videot.html?pagewanted=1 

As the generation that grew up with video games enters and assumes leadership 

positions in the work place, computer and video games are being increasingly used 

to conduct business. A growing number of major companies, from automobile manu-
54 

facturers to beverage producers, employ video games to find and train employees 

and increase sales among their younger tech savvy customers. With the video game 

industry booming and its products gaining broader acceptance, the use of games in 

the work place is certain to expand in the years ahead. By the end of 2012, between 

100 and 135 of global Fortune 500 companies will have adopted gaming for learning 

purposes, according to The Apply Group. One entertainment software company, 

Games2Train, has developed employee training games for American Express, Bank 

of America, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Nokia and Pfizer. In addition, Canon uses a 

video game in which repairmen must drag and drop parts into the right spot on a 

copier to train technicians. IBM has also produced Innov8, a free, interactive game 

that teaches graduate students business and technology skills. 

ESA STEM Initiatives 

In collaboration with our partners the MacArthur Foundation, the Joan Ganz 

Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, E–Line Ventures, AMD, and our ESA member 

company partners—Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts (EA), and Microsoft—ESA helped launch two STEM video game design challenges. 

In 2010, ESA launched its first STEM competition, Game Changer, with MacArthur, Sony PlayStation, and Electronic Arts. ESA’s effort is a component of MacArthur Foundation’s $2 million annual Digital Media and Learning Competition, 

which ‘‘advances the most innovative approaches to learning through games, social 

networks and mobile devices.’’ This competition challenged developers to create 

STEM-related learning content for two existing video game titles that were popular 

with children—Sony’s PlayStation’s LittleBigPlanet and EA’s Spore. 

The second STEM competition, the National STEM Game Challenge, was undertaken with founding partners Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, E– 

Line Media, the AMD Foundation, and Microsoft, along with outreach partners including the American Library Association, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, The 

International Game Developers Association, the American Association of School Librarians, and BrainPOP. The Challenge was launched in September 2010 by President Obama as part of the national ‘‘Educate to Innovate’’ campaign. 

The President noted that ‘‘(o)ur success as a nation depends on strengthening 

America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation.’’ The President 

added, ‘‘I applaud partners in the National STEM Video Game Challenge for lending 

their resources, expertise, and their enthusiasm to the task of strengthening America’s leadership in the 21st century by improving education in science, technology, 

engineering and math.’’ 

The Challenge encourages the design of new video games that engage America’s 

youth in STEM-related learning by targeting the participation of developers across 

three demographics: middle school youth, college game developers, and professional 

game designers. Last year, the youth segment of the contest attracted over 500 submissions from children all over the country, the winners of which are featured in 

the video shown during my live testimony. The second year of the Challenge will 

launch this Friday, September 16th as part of the Department of Education’s Digital 

Promises initiative, which showcases the positive role that the federal government 

can play, at no cost to taxpayers, of incentivizing public-private partnerships to develop innovative approaches to vexing policy issues. 

Each year during the video game industry’s preeminent global computer and video 

game trade show—the E3 Expo—ESA organizes the annual Games and Learning 

Summit to promote a dialogue among industry leaders, educators, policy makers, 

and others on the growing role of video games in education, health, and economic 

development. This year’s summit featured over 60 experts and spawned several public-private partnerships that, while currently in their nascent state, will hopefully 

prove to be as successful as the Game Changer and STEM Video Game Challenge. 

Earlier this year, ESA funded and organized The Atlantic’s ‘‘Technologies in Education Forum.’’ The forum focused on ‘‘the new policies, technologies, and tools available to those working on the front lines to bolster American student learning and 

achievement, especially in the critically important STEM curricula.’’ The audience 

of stakeholders learned what public policies are necessary to bring new technologies 

into classrooms, how educational video games are changing the way students learn, 

and how new technologies can be used to improve vital intellectual skills and prepare the near future American workforce to compete in an increasingly advanced 

global economy. The forum featured keynote speakers from Congress and the Administration and three panels covering the future of technology in education, the 

path to a new curriculum, and the long term benefits of increasing the role of technology in workforce development. The panelists included experts from the Federation of American Scientists, DARPA, the National Math and Science Initiative, 

among others. 
55 

Another notable example in the public-private partnership STEM realm, while not 

an ESA initiative, is the Girlstart program in Texas, which stems from the work 

of ESA STEM partner AMD, as well as Dell (in collaboration with the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America). The 

Girlstart initiative seeks to empower girls in science, technology, math and engineering by establishing after-school programs, camps and workshops where participants can hone skills used to create computer and video games and explore their 

interests in these and other STEM-related professions. 

ESA Foundation’s STEM-related Grants 

The ESA Foundation (ESAF) is dedicated to supporting positive programs and op- portunities that improve the lives of America’s youth, and has raised over $11 million for a wide variety of worthy causes. The Foundation awarded a range of grants 

that further STEM education and exploration through video game technology. An 

ESAF grant in 2011 to Case Western Reserve University supported the Great Lakes 

Game Project Challenge through a partnership between Electrical Engineering and 

Computer Science Department and the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case. Students will compete to create a video game focused on wind energy and sustainable 

energy generation. 

The 2011 ESAF grant to a group called Edheads will fund the development of an 

online interactive engineering design experience centering on nanoparticles. 

Edheads will work with the Ohio State University Nanoscience and Engineering 

Center to create a video game that will blend engineering, human health and medicine, and critical thinking skills to appeal to girls ages 15–18 who are considering 

medical careers. 

Several years ago, ESAF made a three-year commitment to the Federation of 

American Scientists (FAS) to support additional teacher training, improve game 

support materials, increase outreach activities and widen distribution and evaluation. FAS created Immune Attack, an educational video game that introduces basic 

concepts of human immunology to middle school, high school and entry-level college 

students. Designed as a supplemental learning tool, Immune Attack aims to familiarize students with molecular biology and cell biology concepts as they pertain to 

the battle between white blood cells and infectious agents. ESAF first supported distribution and development of materials as well as teacher trainings for the game 

in 2007. 

ESAF awarded a grant to the World Wide Workshop Foundation in 2011 to expand the integration of the Globaloria Platform in low-income rural counties in 

West Virginia. Globaloria is an online social learning network for designing and constructing web-games, which includes programmable wikis and blogs, game programming tutorials, content resources and a self-paced curriculum. Globaloria ‘‘seeks to 

transform education by merging technical and computational skills into a rigorous 

academic curriculum.’’ http://www.worldwideworkshop.org/programs/globaloria/ 

globaloria-in-wv 

ESAF looks forward to announcing new grant winners for similar projects in the 

next month. 

Conclusion 

STEM education is critically important to our economic success as a nation. To 

better engage youth in learning opportunities around STEM skills and processes, we 

must reach children on their own turf. The entertainment software industry is playing a critical role in helping to address America’s STEM skills crisis by leveraging 

the creativity of our industry to showcase the benefits of STEM education. Video 

games offer a unique way to captivate the imagination of students with STEM by 

tying these subjects to familiar activities which they enjoy. Video games provide a 

powerful environment for STEM learning by letting players interact with and even 

design a story, rather than passively consume it. In other words, America needs to 

build a future workforce of not just consumers, but creators. 

As I noted above, visionary educators are increasingly recognizing the positive impact of entertainment software and utilizing games as a teaching device in a growing number of classrooms, especially in the area of STEM. In doing so, they are embracing the cultural and technological shifts of the 21st century and expanding the 

use of a favorite leisure activity, computer and video games, into a critical and stillemerging educational resource. 

As Michael Levine of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop recently 

noted, ‘‘(t)he transition to a technology-rich education system that maps to the modern knowledge-based economy is happening. There is no putting the digital genie 

back into a bottle. It’s our job—from game developers to the White House—to harness the creative power and potential of gaming to help schools engage and excite 
56 

a new generation of technologically-savvy learners.’’ We at ESA and in the entertainment software industry are honored to play a role in catalyzing this transition. 

Chairman HALL. I now thank all of you for your testimony, and 

remind Members of the Committee that we are still limited to five 

minutes on our questions, and I will yield myself five minutes to 

start with. 

I just—I want to start out by saying how amazed I am, Mr. Norman, at the progress you have made from the day you broke 

ground out there and how amazed I was when I just accidentally 

stopped by to visit you and to meet you there and to get to walk 

through your place to see youngsters at tables and the success just 

obvious and you trying to buy all the property around you to where 

you could expand. 

I thought back to Eric Johnson, who was a great man that 

bought Texas Instruments, and you know, I was talking to him one 

time and he said he bought Texas Instruments on December the 

6th, 1941. On December 7, 1941, he was driving out to see what 

he had bought, and I said as the matter of an engineer, you are 

great, but as a matter of timing, you are super because December 

7, 1941, is a date that lives in infamy that started World War II 

and TI just went straight up like your company has done. 

I had the privilege of witnessing the VEX Robotics world championship earlier this year, and we walked through and got to meet 

with a lot of those youngsters. Talking to these brilliant and engaging young people and watching their enthusiasm as they competed 

and talked to us, both of us, about their robots and that was really 

inspiring to me, and if I recall correctly, there is no prize, no monetary or otherwise prize for the winners of the VEX Robotics world 

championship other than the thrill of victory, and those that lost 

seemed to be just as thrilled to have participated and the one thing 

they were really moved in on was next year. They were getting 

ready for the next one. 

What is providing the motivation for these kids to compete year 

after year? What do you find? 

Mr. NORMAN. Well, I think the main thing that is driving it, I 

mean, obviously it is kind of like the Flintstones vitamins: it is fun 

but they don’t really know it is good for them. And once you start 

getting them involved, I had a case with my own son, he didn’t 

know what I did until he started seeing the robotics and the programs and stuff we did around that program. So some of these parents that are engineers have for the first time taught their kids 

what they have done and what they do for a living and they see 

us as professionals in the workforce creating these things, and especially for our toy division for the high school students working 

for us and the college interns to see something they worked on all 

of a sudden appear in the real world is pretty amazing. So that robotics competition does that same thing with all those corporate 

sponsors that are involved. They get kind of a peek into what that 

company does and what it would be like to work in that kind of 

environment with science and technology as their background. 

Chairman HALL. VEX Robotics world championships is an international event. Share a little more with us, if you will, about how 

these teams and alliances from different parts of the world work 

together in the competition and how this provides and enhances 
57 

very valuable communication and cooperation skills among the contestants. 

Mr. NORMAN. One of the aspects of the competition is basically 

putting—forcing two teams to work together as an alliance against 

another two teams, and it changes each match so you are not sure 

who you are competing with the next time. So it forces kind of that 

be nice and don’t do anything you shouldn’t, and it kind of teaches 

them that professional respect you should have as you work in the 

real environment. So once again, it is life lessons as well as science 

and technology. 

Chairman HALL. I will send my grandchildren over there for you 

to talk to. 

What makes VEX Robotics different from other programs that 

are available today and what does it take to accelerate growth and 

reach more students with this program and what barriers do you 

face in achieving accelerated growth? 

Mr. NORMAN. Well———— 

Chairman HALL. What holds you back? What are you concerned 

with? 

Mr. NORMAN. Well, we have been involved, like I said, for 20 

years, and I have been involved in a lot of the programs out there 

and a lot of them are extremely good at what they do. What kind 

of differentiates VEX is we started and dissected everything as engineers do. We started with the platform, made sure we had the 

most high-tech platform we have and also make it scalable so it is 

cost-effective. We looked at the program and how important the 

program was in mentorship from these other companies, and the 

partners that we went—you saw some of the 501(c)(3)’s we are involved with and getting those partners there. Then comes the daytime curriculum. You need to be in the daytime as well as extracurricular, and we actually accomplished both of those through our 

program, and really our growth has been all grassroots, finding 

these companies to spend money instead of recruiting people to put 

their name out there in front of these students and help their environment. And then, you know, obviously any money we would get 

would help accelerate that path but right now we are doing an extremely good job doing it the grassroots way. 

Chairman HALL. I have about nine seconds left. Mrs. Conrad and 

Mr. Gallagher, I’d want to ask you, what do you find to be the most 

rewarding and aspiring aspects of the work you are doing, but I 

may get a chance to do that later. If I don’t, I am going to ask 

unanimous consent to write letters to you and ask you to answer 

these questions. 

At this time I recognize Mrs. Johnson, the Ranking Member of 

this Committee, a very good friend of mine and a neighbor of mine 

in Texas. I recognize you for five minutes, Mrs. Johnson. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Hall. 

I am very impressed with the witnesses today and I am delighted 

that you have taken time to come. 

I have been working with some nonprofit groups that are attempting to improve and be a part of volunteers in STEM programs 

around the country—two hundred and some chapters—and one of 

the things that we have encountered is a lack of evaluation tools. 

So what I would like to do is ask you to share some of the tools 
58 

you use to evaluate your program and its effectiveness with students and then allow me to copy from you. So would you start, Mr. 

Norman? 

Mr. NORMAN. Sure. Well, I mean, obviously there is the normal 

studies. We just recently did a study through Georgia Tech to kind 

of put quantitative numbers on what is happening, but for us, it 

is really easy to see what we saw even in our local high school is 

all of these students that started not only started heading towards 

that science and technology role but they also became the leaders 

in most of the organizations within the school, anything from a social thing to a chess club to a math club, and it really gave them 

that rise to be a leader as well. 

So that is one way, and also once again, they come back in jobs. 

We see a lot of them come back as co-ops, and we literally build 

our entire workforce from the robotics community. That is how we 

have done it. We have eight team leaders from around the country 

that are leaders in our company now. 

Mrs. CONRAD. We have done something quite unique, I think. 

One of the systems by which we measure what we do—am I on? 

Now I am on. Thank you. I need adult supervision all the time. 

Chairman HALL. That is what is good about having an engineer. 

Mrs. CONRAD. We need an engineer. Is there an engineer? 

So we have a system that measures what we do. We work with 

a former NASA educator to help us with that. But in addition, we 

have a system that was designed by a student that measures the 

student’s response to the work that we are doing. The student actually entered the ISEF, the Intel competition with this matrix and 

used us as a guinea pig, and it was just such a fantastic system 

to measure a student’s input into the program so we have now 

adopted his tool as part of our measuring system, and I think if 

you are going to do student-centered education, what better place 

than to have a student-centered measurement tool in place. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Yes. From our perspective, the first thing is 

great partners. I listed a number of them but the Joan Ganz 

Cooney Center has been an innovator in education for over 40 

years. The MacArthur Foundation is extraordinarily dedicated to 

doing things that have an impact in the classroom. And from our 

perspective, our industry is very young and it is very action-oriented. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about what we are 

doing; we spend a lot of time and energy doing it. So I would say 

the focus first on expert partners and leveraging their knowledge 

of how to judge success in the classroom from an innovation perspective not from an inertia perspective, which if the Members of 

the Committee, or Mr. Chairman, if you saw the movie Waiting for 

Superman, you can see the tremendous amount of inertia that is 

present in our education system. The partners that we work with 

have a reputation for being innovative and overcoming it. 

Second, the focus is on the kids. It is on the learner, not on the 

teacher, and when the learners are engaged, you are going to get 

a better outcome, and we see that intuitively but both the MacArthur Foundation and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center have put out 

publications that point to the catalytic value of our industry in engaging children on this path, not just entertainment but of learn-
59 

ing, and much like Mr. Norman said, it is embedded in the process. 

It is not something that is force fed to them. 

And then we also make sure, or the partners look at how well 

the games not only are engaging but they are teaching the material. They also have wonderful assessment mechanisms. When you 

have a scoring process in a game, the kids are being tested as they 

are going through it and they don’t even really know. It is just part 

of the experience, which also makes it fun and engaging. 

And then finally, it has to scale because our goal is to develop 

solutions and exciting opportunities in the classroom that then can 

be spread throughout the country quickly because we don’t want to 

waste another generation of children while these innovations—once 

they are ready, they should go immediately. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you. My time is expired. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady has yielded back her time. Recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Rohrabacher, for five 

minutes. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 

you for holding this hearing and calling these witnesses, and let us 

just note that our founding fathers held technology and innovation 

at a high level, high priority. Very few things were actually written 

into the Constitution but patent rights—you know, the word ‘‘right’’ 

was only put in the main body of the Constitution when talking 

about the right technology rights of an inventor or a writer, and 

of course, my favorite founding father was Benjamin Franklin, who 

of course Chairman Hall reminds a lot of Benjamin Franklin, 

meaning a very beloved man. I was comparing you to Benjamin 

Franklin, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman HALL. You know, we were in law school together. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. I thought so. 

The significance today is we know and we have the same value 

on innovation. The American people place the same value on innovation and technology today. However, we are mired down in our 

society and we are being held back, and there are forces at play 

that are holding us back, and not the least of which is the failure 

of public education, which is mired now in bureaucracy and union 

roadblocks to excellence, and people in public education refusing to 

acknowledge that perhaps a science teacher might need to be paid 

more than a basket-weaving teacher or something like that. So 

those of you in the private sector are stepping forward, and I think 

this is a natural happenstance in America, and that is, the American people are stepping forward to correct a problem, and that is, 

we don’t have the progress, and we call it STEM, but we don’t have 

the progress in science and engineering and mathematics that we 

should among our young people. 

I would like to first ask Ms. Conrad, in terms of your foundation, 

how do you—first of all, how do you pay for these awards and everything? You are not a government agency. How do you pay for 

your upkeep? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Good news and bad news. The first two years, I 

funded the program. My children then said to me, mother, you are 

about to be put up for adoption, and the program got too big for 

me so that was the very good news of this. We raise our funds 

through partnerships with large corporations, for example, Lock-
60 

heed Martin and PepsiCo and Kraft, and corporations of that nature who really understand and work with us as leaders in developing the innovative workforce for the future. I mean, we are growing their workforce. The amount of money that the students receive 

as the award for this competition—and we only—we don’t do first, 

second and third, we do one winner per platform. This year we will 

be doing aerospace to create products for use in aerospace, energy 

to create products for use in energy, we don’t care if it is renewable, storage or efficiency. We don’t say make this and if you make 

it better than the next guy you win. We just say here is the problem, make whatever you want. And then this year we are going to 

challenge students in nutrition and ask them to help solve weight 

problems, specifically obesity and healthy lifestyles. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, that is great. 

Mrs. CONRAD. Yes. So they come up with things that are so out 

of the box, and we don’t tell them there is a box, so they just jump 

right out and create amazing products. 

The award that they get, we fund one team that wins in each 

category. We fund them sort of like venture capital. We ‘‘invest’’ in 

their product idea. Some of them have come up with such outstanding products that we help patent them if they need a patent, 

and then help them license their IP into the marketplace. The kids 

get a $5,000 grant, and the grant is discretionary. It must be used 

to continue to develop their product idea. So the funding comes primarily—well, at this point almost solely from corporations that 

work with us. We also have had a discretionary grant—pardon 

me—an unsolicited grant from NASA Ames that has been very 

helpful to us, and NASA Ames has been tremendously supportive 

of our efforts. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. I think Pete would be very proud of everything you are doing and so I thank you very much. 

Mrs. CONRAD. Thank you, Dana. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you. The gentleman yields back and I 

now get to recognize the gentlelady from Maryland who sits just as 

far away to the right of me as she can sit. I recognize her for five 

minutes. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Wow, Mr. Chairman. You know, you started out, 

Mr. Chairman, this morning saying that there weren’t a lot of us 

here but I think it is important for us to recognize quality and not 

just quantity and so I am glad to be here with the Members of the 

Committee and also our witnesses and thank you very much for 

your testimony. 

Among the occasional frustrations that I have here in this institution is that we are constantly insisting on either/or answers, responses to questions in a really dynamic world that is anything but 

either/or answers, and that is looking at STEM the relative role 

and responsibility of the Federal, State and local government of our 

private partners in developing this next generation so that it has 

the skill set to compete in the 21st century, and I think it is on 

all of us in each one of these sectors to do what it takes to develop 

that next generation, and I take it from your testimony that you 

share that. 

I want to start with Mr. Norman because I do understand the 

value of STEM partnerships like yours. I know that we have 
61 

Project Lead the Way projects in my Congressional district in 

Prince Georges and Montgomery County just outside the city, but 

one of the things that strikes me is that it would be impossible to 

take advantage of the platform that you offer had it not been for 

federal grants and State grants and local support for the local 

school systems that are partners in those projects, that having the 

platform itself is not enough to engage students on an ongoing 

basis. We need the federal support that comes to our State and our 

local school systems to enable the resources and teachers to be able 

to effectively participate in those projects. 

You talked—in your financial disclosure form, I notice that you 

did not mention that you actually have an active grant from NASA, 

for example. I am sure you have other—or maybe you have other 

federal grants and opportunities too and so the work that you are 

doing and the platforms that you provide aren’t just reliant solely 

on the purview of the private sector. There is at least at some level 

a partnership with the Federal Government and so can you explain 

to us why you did pursue federal funding and what value that provides in your ability to develop these really innovative and creative 

programs for students around the country? 

Mr. NORMAN. Absolutely. I guess the clarification I need to put 

in is, I am here representing Innovation First International, which 

has a company that is VEX Robotics that created this platform and 

finds those partners. The actual VEX Robotics competition is managed by another nonprofit called the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation. That foundation was created after years similar to Ms. Conrad where our self-funding was—it was getting overwhelming based on the size and the growth we had, and we 

thought the best way to actually be able to accept more donations 

from other corporations was to have that true 501(c)(3) backing us. 

So we have actually kind of handed the management off of that 

competition to that nonprofit. That nonprofit has gone and gotten 

some NASA grants, in fact, but it is an extreme minority compared 

to the corporate donations that exist. 

Ms. EDWARDS. But I guess my point is, and I will go to Ms. 

Conrad and Mr. Gallagher as well, is that the things that you do, 

and I think they are really valuable and they are terrific and you 

reach students, but in order to reach your traditional public school 

student who, you know, may not come from a background that allows them to participate and all kinds of other limitations, wouldn’t 

you agree that we do need the combination of the value that we 

get out of our scientific and research institutions along with what 

happens in the private sector? 

I know in my community, NASA, Goddard, NIST, NOAA, these 

agencies are really unique partners along with our university community that receives federal funding that enables them to assist in 

our K–12 education. So the Federal Government and its agencies 

are not an aside to the work that we do; it is a partner. Isn’t that 

correct? 

Mrs. CONRAD. I would say that the partnership, and I will call 

it that, that we have with NASA has been extraordinary. It is not 

about funding necessarily but it is about support in terms of facilities and mentors and information and something that you can’t put 

a number on but has tremendous value not only to the foundation 
62 

but to the students. I mean, our students, when they come to 

NASA Ames to do our innovation summit, they are so excited to 

be at a NASA facility, and Pete Warden comes and talks to the 

kids and it is very peer to peer, and it gives them a whole different 

perception of a government agency. It is much more inclusive and 

more dynamic and interesting and exciting for these young students. The Department of State is working very closely with us 

now, not necessarily having anything to do with money, but support and collaboration and partnership, and I think when you create new systems and you do it through collaboration and bring silos 

of excellence together with a strategic plan of actually growing a 

new system of education, then everyone can get in the sandbox together, so to speak, and actually drive the change that needs to 

happen from the point of view of collaboration, which may or may 

not include funding. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you. My time has run out. 

Mr. Chairman, again, the point, though, is simply that whether 

it is resources or facilities and those things, those are resources, 

that is money also. It just doesn’t come in the form of cash. Thank 

you very much, and I yield. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you very much, Ms. Edwards. 

The gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Fleischmann, is recognized 

for five minutes. 

Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to 

thank the panel today. This is really incredible. I have enjoyed it 

very much. I represent the 3rd district of Tennessee, which has the 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory in it and Y12, so it is a very, very 

strong science centric district, and this is really helpful for me. 

Mr. Gallagher, I have a question for you, sir. You testified that 

no federal dollar support is involved with your competitions. At the 

same time, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is touted as 

part of the President’s Educate to Innovate initiative. Could you 

kindly detail for us how the two are connected and what the federal contribution is if it is not monetary, sir? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. I am very pleased to take that question, and it 

is something that we are particularly proud of. When it comes to 

the role of the government, we see it on the front end as being the 

beacon of leadership, and then once we develop solutions, exciting 

tools for use in the classroom that they actually need to be implemented by government on the State level because that is where the 

rubber meets the road when it comes to education, so with the 

White House, there is a great enthusiasm for the ability of our industry to connect with youth on STEM-related issues and STEM 

opportunities. So we were put together with our partners through 

the leadership of the White House as part of an overarching leadership initiative that was not funded by federal funds. It is much 

more of a leadership exercise, and again, shining that beacon. And 

then we are in the process now, we are just going to start year two, 

will be announced this Friday in partnership with the White House 

again through the Department of Education. We intend to make 

that announcement with our partners. We are excited about taking 

the challenge to the next level. But when we have these modules, 

these units that are useful in the classroom, when those then need 

to be implemented, that is going to need to be done by the teachers 
63 

on the ground and it is through greater partners like Brain Pop 

that we would expect to see that happen. 

Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Thank you very much. 

Now I have got a question, and I will start with Mr. Norman and 

going across the panel. Do you all track the college or career paths 

of your competitors, and if so, what are you finding? 

Mr. NORMAN. Not from the company side. From the foundation 

side, they are putting plans in place to try to help track that but 

at this time, you know, from the company side and the product 

side, we do not track that. 

Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Mrs. Conrad? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Yes, we are tracking it and we are watching our 

students enter STEM-related fields in college. 

Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Okay. So there is a direct correlation between 

what you are doing and productivity on the other end? 

Mrs. CONRAD. There seems to be, yes. 

Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Excellent. 

Mr. Gallagher? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Yes. Our experience as an industry is almost in 

reverse. There is such a huge demand within our industry for 

qualified STEM-educated workers that we look at the university 

system and we see that as where they are grown, and we just released a study, the Entertainment Software Association did, that 

counted 343 universities around the country that either offer a curriculum in video games or have degrees in video game technology. 

Twenty-four of them, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Johnson, are in the State of Texas, and I am proud to say that SMU, 

your alma mater, also offers a program that is focused upon video 

game excellence and going right into this workforce. So we are seeing it more from, we have a need and then let us grow it from the 

bottom up. 

Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Chairman, I yield back, sir. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. The 

gentlelady from Ohio, Mrs. Fudge, is recognized for five minutes. 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you 

all for being here. I just have a few very short questions. 

First, if you could each just tell me in a program cycle or year, 

if that is your cycle, how many young people are involved in your 

program? 

Mr. NORMAN. In the VEX Robotics competition, once again, there 

are several of the other partners that use out platform but just in 

the VEX Robotics competition, we were running right at 4,000 

teams from schools, and teams range anywhere from five to 15 students per team. 

Ms. FUDGE. Okay. 

Mrs. CONRAD. Mr. Norman, we will take your overflow. We are 

very small. We are very young. We get about 600 teams coming 

into our competition right now. 

Ms. FUDGE. Okay. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. In the National STEM Video Game Challenge, 

we had 500 students compete in year one and then we will look to 

see that grow in year two. 
64 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you. Now, let me ask, would all of you agree 

that all students need to have STEM education? 

Mr. NORMAN. Absolutely. 

Mrs. CONRAD. Absolutely. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. I would agree, it is a top priority for students 

to have a grounding in STEM. However, our economy is diverse. 

Our needs as a country are quite broad and there may be a need 

for a broader range of skill sets. 

Ms. FUDGE. I am not saying exclusively STEM. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Okay. All right. Very good. Yes. 

Ms. FUDGE. Okay. Now, let me also say, and I appreciate Ms. 

Conrad’s comment about, you know, how research and development 

in STEM fields have been the result of things like cures for diseases and how we send people to the moon, but I would say that 

we all need to recognize that most of that came as a result of government-funded research and development, and I think it is significant to say that. 

Certainly as well, I think that it is important that all young people have an opportunity to not necessarily be involved in a competition but in fact to prepare themselves for jobs are going to be created in the next few years. I mean, there are some studies that say 

80 percent of all new jobs in the next 20 years are going to come 

out of the STEM fields, so I think all young people need to have 

that opportunity. 

Let me just ask a couple of very quick questions again. What 

functions of your program are enhanced by involvement with entities like public schools and that are funded and regulated by the 

Federal Government? My colleague tried to get to that issue. I 

want to just go back to it. 

Mr. NORMAN. With public schools, once again, most of the funding for our program is a school partnering with a local business 

and not actually going and trying to find State or government funding. It is actually literally finding a corporation in their area and 

having them sponsor that———— 

Ms. FUDGE. I am not talking about funding. I said what functions. How do you interact with the public schools? Let me say it 

that way. 

Mr. NORMAN. How do we interact? 

Ms. FUDGE. Yes. 

Mr. NORMAN. Well, I guess the biggest thing is the curriculum 

inside the classroom itself. I mean, it becomes a daily—the schools 

that have been the most successful and involved the longest, they 

actually create classrooms within the school, that is, actually the 

real robotics classroom———— 

Ms. FUDGE. Do they provide the teachers or educators? How does 

that work? 

Mr. NORMAN. Well, we have a couple of partners. We have Carnegie Mellon University that creates curriculum. Intellitech is a 

for-profit company that creates curriculum. AutoDesk creates curriculum. And all of those together really help pull it to get it to the 

classroom. The most important thing, though, is getting the teachers trained, and that is where a lot of these same partners actually 

train the teachers. 

Ms. FUDGE. They train the public school teachers? 
65 

Mr. NORMAN. Because teachers are scared of technology. Some of 

the teachers that have been in the workforce for a long time are 

scared of technology and you have to get them over that hump. 

Ms. FUDGE. Okay. I just want to be sure. So these are public 

school teachers that are teaching? 

Mr. NORMAN. Public school teachers. 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you. 

Ms. Conrad? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Thank you. Our entry into the school systems 

comes primarily through partnerships. We also partner with 

Project Lead the Way. We don’t do curriculum and we don’t teacher 

training. We have partnered with the National Science Teachers 

Association, which gives us access to a number of teachers who 

take our program in because it is an exciting way to bring STEM 

education into the classroom. So we are very much part of the inclass and after-school programs as well. 

Ms. FUDGE. Great. Thank you. 

Mr. Gallagher? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. The function of public and private schools in our 

competition is principally to have the students that are available 

to compete, right, the 500 students that competed in the National 

STEM Challenge, so they spread the word, and partners like Brain 

Pop are actually an organization of 100,000 middle school teachers 

that then are told about the competition. The kids then organize 

and then bring the projects forward for judging and for potential 

award. 

Ms. FUDGE. Okay. Thank you. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. We also have the transmission mechanism at 

the end of the day will actually be through the schools themselves 

implementing these modules that are developed by these kids. 

Ms. FUDGE. Thank you so much. 

Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady yields back. The Chair recognizes Mr. Brooks, the gentleman from Alabama, for five minutes. 

Mr. BROOKS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a quick overview, I 

would note that the vast majority, in my judgment, of improvements in technology over the years have been because of the private sector where there is a profit incentive for people to excel. It 

might be new diagnostic tools in medical care. It might be new 

treatments in medical care. It might be technology, for instance, in 

the gaming industry with computer games or what have you. So 

our question here today is this additional bump that the Federal 

Government provides, what do we get for it and it is worth the cost 

in this time of budgetary issues that everybody in America is familiar with? 

Now, that having been said as an overview, the Federal Government is spending more than $3 billion a year to improve STEM 

education in this country. Mr. Gallagher mentions President 

Obama’s goal of recruiting 10,000 STEM teachers and recruiting 

10,000 engineers. In the 2007 America COMPETES Act, back when 

President George Bush was in office and the Democrats controlled 

the House and the Senate, Congress initiated a program to recruit 

10,000 STEM teachers, so the President’s idea is not exactly new. 
66 

Regardless, the Federal Government has been investing billions 

in STEM education for years, and the numbers do not seem to be 

improving dramatically. Is it a teacher issue, a subject-matter issue 

or something else? Are initiatives such as yours not only grasping 

students’ attention but holding that attention and developing it 

into something more? Any of you all can volunteer any insights you 

may wish to share on the topics that I have just raised. 

Mr. NORMAN. I guess basically what we pointed out earlier is it 

has to be fun, once again back to the Flintstones vitamin. Once 

they get engaged, they realize it is fun. And also once again 

partnering with these corporations within their community. You 

are putting these engineers and these inventors on a pedestal and 

you are basically creating someone that you want to be. It is just 

like everybody wants to be a quarterback of a football team. Well, 

when you are involved in these programs, you want to be that engineer that is designing and inventing the next toy or medical device 

coming out. 

And as far as like, you know, basically—and going back to the 

NASA comment on funding on our program, it is my understanding 

that that funding is actually used as a recruiting tool for NASA for 

their future scientists and engineers to come work for NASA. It is 

really their recruiting program. It is not a hey, we are going to give 

money to just pump STEM. That is their—that is a lot of the program they are trying to push in there as well. 

Mrs. CONRAD. You talked about better teachers and things of 

that nature and better schools. I think if we can look at education 

from a systems point of view and look at it that it is not just teachers or the technologies or the students or the parents or the building, it is really all of it, and I think what the private sector can 

do that perhaps is more nimble is to take that systems approach 

and bring all of those silos of excellence together to really drive 

something superior in the STEM education field because we are 

nimble and we can act quickly and we can respond to students and 

we can create student-centered education very quickly. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Congressman, I completely support the core 

challenge of your question is that we, as I stated in my opening 

testimony, face a crisis of making sure we have the STEM-educated 

workers we need to keep ourselves prosperous here in the United 

States and keep us in a leading position in the world, and that gap 

that is at the core of your question is precisely what motivates our 

interest in this subject. So while we are not federally funded for the 

efforts that we are undertaking and we are working aggressively 

to catalyze solutions, it is a bipartisan opportunity. It is a very, 

very important goal for us to tackle as a country, and we are much 

more focused about the solution instead of the cause, and we really 

want to develop those tools that are going to be useful in the classroom and ready immediately. 

Mr. BROOKS. Let me have one follow-up question for whichever 

of you may want to answer. By way of background, my dad is an 

engineer, my two sons are engineers. My mom, my wife and my 

two daughters are teachers, my wife, a math teacher up until the 

time I got elected, very active in the STEM program in her middle 

school. There is a control issue. Where do you think the control of 

these STEM investments should be? At the Federal level, at the 
67 

State level, at the local school board level, in the private sector 

where you all tend to be? What do you recommend? 

Mr. NORMAN. All of the above. No, actually, the local level for us 

seems to work better, and the reason I equate to that is from the 

standpoint of the corporations for us are the ones that provide the 

money, and the key to our program is finding that teacher that was 

willing to be a champion and go do this, and without that champion teacher, then you don’t have that. Obviously, funding from the 

high levels would be a huge rocket for this program but we are 

building it in lieu of assuming we will never get funding from the 

government. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. I would comment that it is go to the core competence of the actors that we are seeking to engage, and the Federal Government is really good at drawing large attention and having large projects that capture the imagination of kids and provide 

infrastructure, a pathway that they can understand or be excited 

by. The states are the ones that are the, remember I said before, 

the rubber meets the road, and that is where the implementation, 

the transmission mechanism has to happen. The private sector, we 

have a variety of tools at our disposal because of technology, because of the nature of our workplace. In my case, the engagement 

of our industry is that youth pay great attention. Each one has a 

core competence to add to an overall solution. 

Mrs. CONRAD. I agree. I think that these smaller programs have 

the power to really drive impact where the government is looking 

for very large scale, very huge programs and it is all based on evidence-based education and numbers, and young programs such as 

the programs that Mr. Gallagher and I have, we don’t have that 

large scale to get the funding that would be from the Federal Government or through the States right now. That will come. But we 

have the ability, as I said, to be nimble and to really drive something unique and exciting for these young students to get them engaged. 

Mr. BROOKS. Well, thank you for your insight, and Mr. Chairman, it seems that I owe you 2 minutes. 

Chairman HALL. Ms. Johnson says we will send you a bill. 

The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, is recognized for 

five minutes. 

Mr. SARBANES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses today. 

I want to continue this theme about the partnerships between 

the Federal Government and the various initiatives that you are 

involved with and others, and Mr. Norman, you made a couple of 

statements that I would like to repeat because I think they are 

good ones. Early on, in response to a question, you said that any 

additional money that you can get for your program will help to accelerate the projects that you are involved in, and then you said 

just a moment ago that funding from high levels would be a huge 

rocket for your program, and I just—I want to emphasize that because Congresswoman Edwards introduced this subject of not getting stuck in an either/or kind of frame here, but really examining 

the full potential of partnerships to be developed between government and the private sector and ordinary citizens. I mean, I am 

sure your programs pull in a tremendous number of volunteers, in 
68 

a sense, who become as key an ingredient to the success of them 

as any of the more formal components are and so these partnerships have tremendous potential, and there has been some reference to the investment made by the Federal Government in 

STEM education, suggesting somehow that is maybe off base or 

more than it should be or something, and I think we should be very 

proud of that investment, and I think we should make good decisions about how that is going to be productive for our future. And 

I think your testimony, all of your testimony is consistent with that 

perspective, so I want to thank you for it. 

Maybe if you could just each of you speak to it for a few more 

seconds on my time, I would be happy to have you do that, because 

in an environment where the imperative every day seems to be to 

cut back, we are at risk of undermining the kinds of partnerships 

that you are engaged in and can mean a great deal for our future 

and frankly they will pay us back in spades on investment in terms 

of the new inventions that will be generated and what it means for 

our competitive position around the world and for our economy. So 

I invite you to offer a few more comments on that if you like. 

Mr. NORMAN. Yes, and I think it is important that when once 

again when you look at the private sector and look at donations 

from the private sector, as I said, a lot of it is what I consider recruiting for that company and giving back to their community. But 

the important thing is, is rather than if someone just—if every 

company involved with us just wrote a check, that wouldn’t be 

impactful. Money is not that—it is taking their engineers and the 

people in their community and making them heroes and making 

them want to be that person and go to that person. So that is 

where it is a little bit different. 

And when I say Federal funding would extremely help, you 

know, rocket I mean, I am looking at, you know, we can’t afford 

enough teacher training. I would actually take the entrepreneurial 

way we built our company, which was I would market our program. 

I would market the program to the Nation and tell them what we 

are doing and try to get those companies to jump on board so that 

I didn’t have to worry about that funding in the future. 

Mrs. CONRAD. I think all of us face the funding monster every 

year, and it is an annual thing, and yes, government participation 

in programs such as ours would make a tremendous difference. I 

mean, in scale, we would go to the moon, if you will. So it would 

be really fantastic if government could see its way to including 

young, innovative programs such as the programs we have in their 

funding cycles. That would be fantastic. And as Mr. Norman said, 

what is incredibly important beyond and above and with that is the 

integration of government agencies with our programs, with our 

students in direct ways, even peer-to-peer ways. 

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Gallagher, let me jump in and ask you a different question because I am going to run out of time. Your industry has incredible influence over our young people, and you know, 

it can be for good, it can be for bad. It can—I don’t think it can 

be neutral. I am convinced that one scenario for our future is that 

one day everyone will come home and play video games all night 

and then they will go back to work the next day and they will be 
69 

working at jobs creating video games and that will essentially be 

our economy and our world. 

You know, I see all these devices, the Wii, the DS, the 

handheld—all these things that really consume the imagination of 

our kids, and what I am curious about is, are you all looking at 

how on the gaming side, think of what happens at home, what happens in the entertainment, as it were, leisure space of the next generation and how you can start to tease into that connections back 

to education, so we are not thinking about what happens in school, 

what happens at home but how to link those together. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Congressman Sarbanes, that is an excellent 

question, and the answer is yes, we are doing that and it is 

through the first partnership that we developed. It is a competition 

called Game Changer and the partnership focused on how do you 

take titles that are very popular with kids right now and add an 

education component to it because as Mr. Norman highlighted earlier, if you make it homework, they won’t do it. If you make it boring or monotonous, then they tend to be distracted to go do other 

things. How do we capture the appeal of our industry and channel 

their energy in an area where they are learning without really 

thinking about it? And the two titles that our industry made available, which is very highly protected intellectual property but they 

said okay, we will open this up and make available. One is Little 

Big Planet, which was Game of the Year two years ago. That was 

made available by PlayStation. And the other was Spore, which 

was made available by Electronic Arts published by EA, and both 

of those games are very creative where the kids need to develop everything from physics and math to make the games work. They actually design their own worlds. They are doing that within a curriculum that is math-science based. So that is one example of what 

we are doing. 

On the other competition, it is focused on a core principle. We believe that we should be developing a middle class not just of consumers but of creators, and by putting the tools in their hands like 

we saw in the opening video, you are seeing the kids create their 

own experience. In that process, they are learning and they are 

learning in a dynamic way that is going to be more applicable in 

the world that we are competing in today than where we were 50 

years ago, which is unfortunately the classroom that they are sitting in. 

Mr. SARBANES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman HALL. With good questions. Thank you, sir. 

Now we recognize the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Quayle. He 

is famous for one thing and that is that he is probably the youngest 

Chairman of a Subcommittee up here and his father is also famous 

for being the father of this youngest Chairman. I recognize Mr. 

Quayle for five minutes. 

Mr. QUAYLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to kind of pose this to all of you, but I am from Phoenix, 

Arizona, and we have a really large and robust high-tech sector. 

We have a lot of engineers and mathematicians and a lot of big 

companies that rely on engineers. And one of the things that they 

keep telling me, they say look, the quality of the engineers and peo-
70 

ple that are coming out are just as good as ever, but the quantity 

is just really low. 

And one of the other things is that how are we going to really 

capture the imagination of young people to stay involved within 

math and science and engineering—and as we look at the graying 

of the workforce in the high-tech sector, especially amongst engineers, I have spoken to a lot of them who have said look, ‘‘I would 

really like to give back to my community and enter into the teaching profession.’’ The only problem is it is very difficult to get in and 

actually teach because of the licensing and the certification programs, and we have had people who tried to and were actually 

rebuffed after 20 of 30 years within the high-tech field. I think that 

we are losing out on some great practical experience, not just the 

fact that some of them have Ph.D.’s, but the practical applicability 

of math and science that could really look at kids saying hey, you 

know, if you take this algebra class and you take it seriously, if you 

take calculus and you take it seriously, these are the products that 

you get to make at the end of the day. So my question is, I know 

that licensing and certification is on the local level, the State and 

local level, and I want to keep it that way, but is there some way 

that we could have a flexible program, some sort of flexible accreditation that we could push and that we could really emphasize to 

make it easier for those that have the practical experience who 

want to get into the teaching profession, who want to give back to 

their community because that is giving back after they are retired. 

Do you think that that is feasible and do you think that there is 

a way to push that so that we don’t lose out on all this knowledge 

that is just sitting on the sidelines that wants to engage those 

young people but it is really difficult for them to get involved? I ask 

it to all three of you. 

Mr. NORMAN. I will answer that briefly. I am not exactly sure 

how to make that type of certification happen but I will point back 

to that creating that, you know, community heroes we keep talking 

about, that mentorship so that kids want to become that. I think 

you are spot on by saying if we had that person from industry and 

could talk about what they did or what they accomplished in their 

career would obviously help push kids want to be that person rather than the basketball player or the football player. And we work 

with microchip very closely, too. 

Mr. QUAYLE. Okay, great. 

Mrs. CONRAD. My response to you is the following. We have a 

very close community of mentors that work constantly with our 

young teams of entrepreneurs and innovators, and this is really a 

place where people like the folks you are talking about can drive 

an immediate, robust, amazing impact with young people, which 

may not be the classroom but it certainly has great ROI for what 

I call the gray birds, and when you really look at mentorship, it 

is a circle. These gray birds are learning just as much from these 

students as the students are learning from their mentors. So I encourage you to think about the vast array of amazing minds that 

can pay it forward through mentorship and especially active 

mentorship programs such as the one we have. 

Mr. QUAYLE. Before you answer, Mr. Gallagher, I think, Ms. 

Conrad, that one thing is that within the mentorship and within 
71 

those programs, you have to have the kid, the child, the student 

to actively pursue that whereas if it is in the teaching, they are in 

the classroom, and you might be hitting a kid who might not have 

even thought about that subject matter and then they just get inspired and then they pursue it long term and they are actually the 

future, you know, creators of Intel going forward. 

Mrs. CONRAD. No, I agree with you and I think one of the really 

tremendous things that we are doing within our program and in 

our competition is active mentorship. It is really robust and there 

is a lot of people from companies and government agencies that are 

in there all the time mentoring our young students. So it is a way, 

it may not be the way, and there is a program, I believe, that Sherry Lansing created that brings—Sherry Lansing was Paramount 

Pictures. She has created a program to actually bring retired engineers and such back into the classroom and to offer training to 

them to enter the classroom. 

Mr. QUAYLE. Okay. Great. Thank you. 

Mr. Gallagher? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Thank you. Yes, three quick points. First, you 

are exactly right. The aspirational component of what our industry 

represents to kids mesmerizes them. You bring in a professional 

who actually has a very deep STEM education who is making video 

games, you put them in a classroom and the kids pay rapt attention. They are very focused on how do I be like you. And so those 

are types of flexibility we think is going to be necessary in the out 

years once we have these modules in place where the kids will then 

say all right, well, here is how I do it, now I have this lesson module that makes sense and these are more integrated as opposed to 

the separated nature that we have today. 

The second thing that I would add is that Quest to Learn is an 

experimental school. It was started in New York and now has 

opened a second facility in Chicago. The entirety of the curriculum 

is taught through video games through their design and then 

through their playing and execution, and to demonstrate again that 

this can work, and it is going to take very novel approaches to take 

today’s teaching corps and be able to expose them to those types 

of methods. 

The third point that I would add is that that is being done in 

an aspirational manner by Sandra Day O’Connor, former Justice 

Sandra Day O’Connor, in partnership with Arizona State University. She has a game that she has developed called I Civics which 

was developed in 2009. There are now give games that teach kids 

civics through video games. So you can leverage all of these various 

pieces, put them together in a successful way. 

Mr. QUAYLE. Great. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady from California, Ms. Lofgren, is 

recognized for five minutes. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for 

this hearing. As always, sometimes the questions my colleagues 

ask, inspire as many questions in me as the witnesses themselves, 

and as I was listening to my colleague from Arizona, I was remembering William Shockley, who shared the Nobel Prize, coming and 

attempting to teach in my 9th-grade science class, and he was a 
72 

brilliant scientist but he was a disaster as a 9th-grade science 

teacher. So I do think, however, that engineers and scientists have 

a role sometimes in the classroom and I do think that there needs 

to be flexible certification but certainly as mentors and helpers. 

And I have been, as I think most of us have been, to science extravaganzas. I know that Synopsys in particular in the valley has 

been very generous in funding science exhibitions. I remember I 

went to one this spring. It was, you know, 7:00 in the morning and 

it was East Side San Jose ́ High School, so not the most advanced 

part of Silicon Valley, and it was thousands of kids who were just 

vibrating with excitement over the science fair, and I talked to one 

young man who was a junior who had done an experiment in 

nanotechnology carbon tubes and he had secured, with the assistance of a company, their electron microscope. I asked him, did it 

work? He said well, I don’t know because the oven at the lab 

wouldn’t get hot enough. So it is worth remembering that what we 

do in these wonderful events also relies on a properly funded school 

system. I mean, if you don’t have a lab that works, it is not going 

to work. 

One of the things I am interested in—in the valley, if you can’t 

measure it, it doesn’t exist—so I am interested in how we measure 

the outcomes, and obviously, you know, to have a thousand kids vibrating about science is better than a lot of other things they could 

be doing even if there is not a flow into better grades or better careers. But our goal is to do better than diverting kids from mischief. It is to actually improve their education and to get them into 

a better spot. 

I just had a chance to read a report from the School of Education 

at the University of Pittsburgh indicating that in their analysis, 

the participation in robotics actually had no measurable positive 

impact in terms of academics. I don’t know whether you all have 

the capacity—and this is my question, really—to connect up with 

the schools, be they charter, private or public, that are giving you 

your students to get the metrics measured both to see how they— 

and then also to fine-tune what you are doing so that the excitement also translates to academic achievement. 

You know, I have seen kids at First Robotics, the big robotics in 

the valley where, you know, they are building something but they 

don’t necessarily—they haven’t learned anything about electrical 

engineering, they haven’t learned anything about math. How do we 

collaborate with the wonderful work that you are doing with the 

actual academic world and how can there be feedback? What are 

the metrics and what would you need to make that happen? 

Mr. NORMAN. Well, I guess from my standpoint, once again, I am 

more on the for-profit side, and as an entrepreneur, I measure my 

results based on what I see and what I feel, and that makes me 

run really fast. Funny enough, the person behind me is a teacher 

from San Jose ́ that is the president of the REC Foundation and 

that is kind of his job to figure out how to measure that. But what 

we do see is story after story after story of schools with a less than 

50 percent graduation rate, once this program goes into place we 

have seen them go all the way up to 100 percent before. 

Ms. LOFGREN. So attendance is—you can measure attendance 

and that is good. Time on material, that is a good thing. Is there 
73 

any way to hook up like the test scores with the participants and 

get feedback from the academic world of what you are doing to 

fine-tune these———— 

Mr. NORMAN. I am sure there is. There is obviously a lot of privacy issues you deal with actually with kids and what you can and 

can’t track. We had several brainstorming sessions of how to accomplish but that part of the issue of our success is we are growing 

at such a rapid rate, sometimes we are kind of the dog that caught 

the bus and it is, you know, resources. 

Mrs. CONRAD. One of the things that we are teaching, so to 

speak, is design thinking skills, real out-of-the-box capabilities, a 

very difficult thing to measure at best. Having said that, that is 

just part of what we do so the design thinking skills are applied 

to product development, and as we see more products being developed and kids actually patenting and commercializing that product, 

there is a tremendous ROI not only to the students but to the 

world at large as these students solve these problems. As we grow 

and as we go and as we scale and measure more and more, I believe, like you, the juice factor is tremendous. Just getting kids excited to learn———— 

Ms. LOFGREN. Oh, no, I don’t disagree with that. Having the excitement is valuable even if it doesn’t result in a single increase in 

test scores but I am wondering, can we do better? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Well, excuse me, Congresswoman, but is test score 

everything? From the point of view of are we serving the student 

by just giving them a test to measure what they have learned and 

how do you measure design thinking. 

Ms. LOFGREN. You know, it depends—I guess one of the questions is, what are the metrics you want to look at. 

Mrs. CONRAD. Exactly. 

Ms. LOFGREN. And, you know, I am running out of time so I don’t 

want to cut Mr. Gallagher off, but I am very interested and I don’t 

think it is something that the Congress can do, but to see whether 

collaborating, maybe we can even do this at home to see are there 

some metrics certainly in the math arena—that is highly measurable—where we could help and really track performance, understanding that individual students have privacy but when you have 

a group you can get a group outcome as well. 

Mrs. CONRAD. I think that is a great idea. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Thank you. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Congresswoman, thank you for your leadership 

on so many issues in the technology sector, and in answer to your 

question, I would offer one example. On March 30th, we had an 

event here that was put on by the Atlantic, and it was purely focused on using video games in education and how do we that from 

end to end, from policy all the way through to practical results, and 

Connie Yao, who is a senior leader at the MacArthur Foundation, 

offered some thoughts along this line which I think are particularly 

valuable in answer to your question. She immediately states up 

front that she has no love for our industry, that she does not have 

a deep affection for technology. What she is motivated by is does 

what you are saying you are going to do work, period, and that is 

what she puts her effort behind, and her primary focus is exactly 

the focus of your question is assessment. She believes that cur-
74 

rently we are not assessing students properly in the classroom, 

similar to Mrs. Conrad’s thought, and that the video game environment provides instantaneous feedback. You know exactly how you 

are doing in that moment. It provides experimentation for learning 

to then occur and then there is a better learning process because 

the assessment is richer, deeper and produces a better student at 

the end of the day. I think that is what she would say if she was 

here. If I got it wrong, I know she will correct me. 

Ms. LOFGREN. Good. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady yields back. The gentleman from 

Texas, Mr. Smith, is recognized for five minutes. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Chairman, before I get to my questions for the panelists, I 

would like to mention that Mrs. Conrad in her discussion a while 

ago of mentoring reminded me of a personal experience, and I 

know I have mentioned it before but I think it has been a while, 

but it was one of the most satisfying experiences I have had in all 

my years with Congress even though it took place outside of the 

halls of Congress, and that is that a number of years ago I volunteered to tutor a student who might need help in the local school 

up here where I live in northern Virginia, and I was asked if I 

would tutor a young girl who was failing math, and I said well, I 

will certainly try. And this was a young girl who had all the stereotypes against her. She was from a broken family. Her mother 

didn’t speak English very well. She lived in an apartment below a 

garage apartment that belonged to another family. And of course, 

there are sometimes the belief that girls don’t like math. In any 

case, I, who didn’t know what he was doing, tried my hand at tutoring for the very first time. At the end of the year, she ended up 

getting an ‘‘O’’ for outstanding in math and won a science award, 

and she is now in college and in fact was an intern in my office 

this summer. So it is nice to be able to have kept up with her over 

the years. 

But from that personal experience, I took or learned a couple lessons. One was the importance of tutoring, particularly tutoring by 

those who really know what they are doing and how much that can 

be helpful, just a little bit of an extra effort perhaps outside a class 

or after school. The other is, I think it is important to catch—to try 

to influence students before they ever get to high school. You have 

to really have an interest in science and math before that or you 

are not going to be likely to take algebra as a freshman or calculus 

as a senior or whatever it is these days that we encourage our 

STEM-type students to do. 

In the book—this is a stretch—in the book Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying that much can 

be made of children if they are caught young enough, and I think 

that that is true when it comes to teaching them to enjoy the 

sciences or math or whatever it might be. You are welcome to comment on this, but as I say, what I took away from it is try to catch 

the children young, younger than high school, to provide mentoring 

and/or tutoring and you can really perhaps change some lives. 

Let me ask my question to all the panelists, and you are welcome 

to respond to my lessons as well as my question, which is a little 

bit different, and this, Mr. Gallagher, plays off of a sentence in 
75 

your written testimony. You said that ‘‘the current unemployment 

crisis is not simply a jobs problem, it is a skills problem,’’ and I 

would like everyone to respond to that, but if you would start, Mr. 

Gallagher, I think that actually is connected to my experience 

which goes beyond jobs. It is teaching young people skills that they 

can use in jobs. And my understanding is that a lot of our companies today perhaps particularly the high-skill companies are not 

finding individuals with the skills that they need and unfortunately that goes back to what they might have learned or what 

they might have gotten excited about many, many, years ago. But 

Mr. Gallagher, if you will begin? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Thank you very much for the question, Congressman, and I appreciate your highlighting that one sentence because it is very, very indicative of the reality that our industry 

faces. Currently, Microsoft has openings, you know, they are looking for over 4,000 engineers or computer science majors, and they 

are working very hard to fill those positions, very hard to find and 

fill those jobs. 

Mr. SMITH. I wasn’t here earlier but I am familiar with and I am 

sure they were discussed how few graduates we are producing here 

in this country compared to the number of foreign students who 

are coming over to take those jobs, too. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. That is a very significant contributing component to the gap. John Riccitello, who is the chief executive officer 

of Electronic Arts, will be here next week giving an address at the 

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and he will be—one of the themes of 

his remarks will very likely focus on a passion of his, which is that 

we do have this skills gap where we have tremendous needs for 

highly compensated jobs. The average wage in my industry is over 

$90,000 a year. Those jobs are highly sought after and very aggressively sought by those that are motivated in the STEM arena. 

However, the rest of the economy, there is a severe disconnect because of the competitive nature of the world economy. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mrs. Conrad? 

Mrs. CONRAD. You know, I think it is unfortunate that we have 

diminished the skills that are out there in the workplace because 

I think if you kind of unwind the ball, at the core of that is that 

we don’t have students who have a passion to learn. I call it the 

education Cuisinart where we put kids in there and we just stuff 

facts into their heads so that they can take a test instead of realtime assessment as they are going, education centered on the student rather than on a test so that there is continuous assessment, 

and if a kid is snagged up—and this is what Kahn Academy has 

done which is brilliant. If a kid is snagged up in algebra, they help 

him get past the snag so that they can move on, and that is really, 

I think, part of the thing that has impacted our system of education in such a very, very strong way that skilled workers, whether they are machinists or artisans or whatever they are, people 

aren’t getting excited in the classroom anymore. It is not—as we 

talked about, Mr. Norman mentioned, yes, it is about fun but you 

have got to get the passion re-engaged in our young people so that 

we can increase the numbers and not sit around admiring our 

problem in education. 
76 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mrs. Conrad. 

Mr. Norman, I also noticed you developed a curriculum in regard 

to the robotics competition and so forth, and I think that could be 

helpful, but if you want to respond real quickly, my time is up. 

Mr. NORMAN. I guess I have to hit the button first. There are 

several things that you mentioned. Recruiting is very, very important to all the workforce and that is why I think that companies 

that spend the money that they would normally spend in recruiting 

on a program such as this, they can help get that incentive for students to get involved in STEM and then also be ready for them 

when they come out. 

A quick thing about the international. We deal a lot with international growth, and you would be amazed at how the foreign 

countries, specifically China, has realized that what they are missing—they create a lot of engineers and a lot of book-smart people 

but what they have been missing all along is innovation so they are 

highly endorsing these types of programs that are mentioned here 

at this table to actually push that innovation and get that different 

thought process and we are working closely with the governments 

of Mexico, Malaysia, China, you would be amazed at the push they 

are doing to try to get that step. 

Mr. SMITH. We need to equal or better the push that other countries are making, I think. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman HALL. Thank you. 

The Chair recognizes Ms. Sewell, the gentlelady from Alabama. 

Ms. SEWELL. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I would like to thank 

all of our panelists for being here today and also to congratulate 

you on the success of your programs. 

I wanted to address the issue of access. I represent Birmingham, 

Alabama, but I also represent nine very rural communities in Alabama, and the reality is, that we don’t have private companies that 

have technology at their fingertips to help partner with our public 

schools or with schools in general there, and so there needs to be, 

I think, a concerted effort if America is to get back to number one 

in the STEM education field to really address the access issue. The 

reality is that my old high school only has four microscopes for a 

classroom of 30, so lack of resources and lack of access. And so I 

would like for each of you to address how you think we can get 

partners to see the value in developing the necessary infrastructure, if you will, to provide access to all of our children, not just 

those that are fortunate enough to live in Silicon Valley or California or places where there is a real community of science-related 

fields that can mentor them. What about rural America? 

Mr. NORMAN. I think from what we have seen, I mean, it kind 

of comes down to the chicken and the egg. Once the program has 

started and the community sees what is happening, there is a big 

influx of support within the community where companies are giving $200, $300, you know, very small—and even families pitching 

in on this program. So where I think it is important to have not 

just a huge investment program where it is extremely expensive, 

thousands of dollars to participate. You know, we try to be as scalable as we can, and when you talk with some of the programs that 
77 

we are mentioning here, just getting some program started is the 

most important and then evolve to what you can get to. 

Mrs. CONRAD. We had an experience in a rural environment in 

the Navajo Nation, and the teams came in about two years ago, one 

team, now it is like lots of teams, and because we are free and we 

are very user-friendly to all students, we are starting to grow a 

very big presence in terms of these sorts of communities. A third 

of our kids are inner-city kids. And my thinking is, it is not how 

smart are you, it is how much can you take what you know, stretch 

it and make something out of nothing and come into this group. 

The mentors come in through the communities where these children learn, and it is all starting to come together as a movement 

in innovation. 

Ms. SEWELL. How can we promote more private companies to actually want to come to rural communities and partner with them? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Well, the companies that we partner with partner 

across the board with us so we reach into the rural communities, 

the partners come with us. 

Ms. SEWELL. How can we encourage you to come to Alabama? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Just invite us. 

Ms. SEWELL. You are invited. 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Congresswoman, first a general thought and 

then a specific act, a thing that we are focusing on in regard to 

bringing the promise to rural America. First, we all need to leverage what is within our reach to deliver the STEM promise to all 

of America including the rural areas and that is the consistent 

theme is what is within our reach. With the tools that we see, first 

of all, you have almost universal penetration of personal computers, or PCs. You also have video game consoles, current-generation consoles in 70 percent of American households right now so 

those two factors mean that the tools are present. You connect 

them with broadband, which they are very important policies that 

both Congress and the Administration are pursuing to increase 

broadband penetration, it is in the homes of all the families including in the most rural areas. 

Ms. SEWELL. Oh, yeah, Mr. Gallagher, you are definitely in all 

the homes in the rural areas. GameBoys are everywhere and people do use that. But how are you leveraging that, and your association leveraging that very critical resource that you have at your 

fingertips because—and moving and trying to penetrate those rural 

communities and step up the game when it comes to science and 

technology? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Well, there are two purposes of how that is 

done. One is driving the passion that Mrs. Conrad talks about, is 

to enlighten in these kids an excitement about a path. You motivate them and then they get over the hump on some of these 

STEM setbacks where it gets hard. That is one. 

The second one specifically is that ESA has a foundation. The 

foundation awards grants competitively. One of them is to 

Globaloria, and Globaloria is now a nationwide program but it 

started in rural West Virginia and it is focused on taking video 

games and teaching children 21st century skills through video 

games, and we have a very productive partnership in the grant 

that was done through Globaloria. 
78 

Mr. NORMAN. I would like to add one last comment, if you don’t 

mind. One of our partners, which I mentioned earlier in the testimony, the BEST program, Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, they are actually a free program as well that gets people 

involved, and it is a good way to start out, and they are very active 

with Auburn University in your State. 

Ms. SEWELL. Thank you. 

Chairman HALL. The gentlelady yields back. The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Illinois, Mrs. Biggert, for five minutes. 

Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 

you for holding this hearing today on STEM education, an issue 

that is very near and dear to my heart, and in addition to serving 

on the Science Committee, I also sit on the Education Committee 

where we are working to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and as part of that effort I recently introduced a resolution, H.R. 378, and it is a bipartisan resolution expressing the sense of Congress that strong consideration be given 

to the role of science education in the educational accountability 

system in the next education reauthorization bill, and I introduced 

this because I believe that incorporating science and math in education is most critical and it is most critical now than ever. Recent 

studies showed that 21 percent of high school science departments 

have reported that the facilities presented a serious problem to 

science education and yet only eight percent of schools surveyed reported that there was a lack of student interest. And so that was 

a serious problem. So if we are to meet the future demands of the 

complex, diverse and competitive workforce, there is clearly a gap 

that we need to fulfill now. 

My first question kind of goes along with what Ms. Sewell was 

talking about except that I was wondering if any of you are 

partnering with the local, regional or State governments on STEM 

activities. Mr. Norman? 

Mr. NORMAN. Sure. Yes, we do, and in fact, one of the partners, 

which is Project Lead the Way that we are working very closely 

with, works directly with the State Board of Education and they 

actually from what I understand have a really close relationship 

there, and through that program we grow that program and other 

programs with it. 

Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you. 

You know, we have got—within the Elementary and Secondary 

Act, grants are given only for the LEAs, those that are the teachers 

and the schools, and cannot be initiated by non-government entities, like for example the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is very interested in working with the schools and having the 

grants so that they can go to the different schools. Would you think 

that the STEM education would benefit from having these kind of 

grants being given to, you know, educational groups instead of just 

the schools, Ms. Conrad? 

Mrs. CONRAD. Yes. Actually, when we built our program, part of 

the way we reached out to grow scale is through partnerships with 

museums and science centers. They have tremendous opportunity 

to bring community in to teach and to transfer information outward, so yes, I think that is a capital idea. 
79 

Mrs. BIGGERT. But it is making it very difficult without having 

the grants to be able to do that. 

Mrs. CONRAD. Exactly, and it would be a tremendous effort if she 

can find a way to access that, not only into the museums and 

science centers but have that ability for the museums and science 

centers to work with folks like us, which we already do, and right 

now we have gotten to the place where we are now looking for 

some States and some groups of that nature that would work with 

us closely on that. 

Mrs. BIGGERT. Well, look to Illinois. 

Mrs. CONRAD. I love your Museum of Science. 

Mrs. BIGGERT. And then secondly, Mr. Gallagher, I know that I 

didn’t get to hear your testimony but I would welcome the feedback 

that you get and all of you the learning targets that have changed 

since the days of the Oregon Trail and Carmen San Diego, and I 

recognize the medium of games. I have nine grandchildren that are 

walking around with all these tools all the time and, you know, the 

desktop or the iPhone has expanded but has the complexity of potential skills expanded with that? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Congresswoman, that is a very good question, 

and we believe that the more immersive environments that our 

technology creates are critical for learning, how to do your job in 

the 21st century. You need to juggle many different components. 

You have to make multiple calculations. You have to do them 

quickly. You have to do them dynamically and you have to do them 

in three dimensions. That is not just how it is done inside of a 

game, it is how it is done in a competitive workforce as well. So 

we believe that in the right hands the tools that we have as an industry can be used to catalyze those same thought processes 

amongst kids in a very productive way and we also believe, and I 

emphasized this at the outset, it can be done now. The improvements that need to be taken need to be done now, not after we lose 

another generation of students that are not going to be competitive 

in the world marketplace. 

Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you. That is very interesting. Is there help 

for adults? 

Mr. GALLAGHER. Yes, there is. 

Mrs. BIGGERT. Thank you. I yield back. 

Chairman HALL. I thank the gentlelady. The round of questions 

are completed obviously, and I thank the witnesses. The book on 

witnesses is that we invite people who know much more about the 

subject than we do, and from that we arrange our bills and legislation that we will later debate. I say this, we have had good questions today. I think you have given very abundant, good answers 

and I think you have been a very unusual group and I thank you 

very much. 

The Members of the Committee might have additional questions 

for you, but I am going to quit talking. I am afraid some other 

Member is going to come in and want five minutes and it is right 

close to noon. But I thank all of you. We may ask you to respond 

to these questions in writing. They will do it within the next couple 

of weeks. 

The witnesses are excused and this hearing is, with my gratitude 

to all three of you and to those who back you up, we are adjourned. 
80 

[Whereupon, at 12:02 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 
(81) 

Appendix I: 

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
82 

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Mr. Tony Norman, President and CEO of 

Innovation First International, Inc. 

Questions submitted by Chairman Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. Understanding that we are in the midst of difficult economic times and with severely limited resources, what role should the Federal government play in STEM 

education? 

A1. A lot of success can be accomplished through public / private partnerships at 

the corporate level. That being said, in addition to the current investments puts 

forth towards STEM Education, it would be beneficial to see the Federal government take action towards incentivizing school districts to adopt co-curricular robotics programs, and encourage teacher training programs that would fuel the awareness and integration of hands-on programs like VEX Robotics in classrooms across 

the nation. Any efforts the Federal government could take to identify industry mentors and innovation ambassadors that would communicate the benefits of programs 

like ours directly to their local constituents would be great. Lastly, the Federal government could take new measures to connect with America’s large corporations and 

show them how their investment in programs like ours leads to workforce development. 

All of these suggestions would help ensure that the most hands-on STEM based 

programs that excite and motivate students to pursue STEM degrees in college and 

careers in STEM fields, become accessible to as many schools as possible, to as 

many students as possible, in as many cities and states as possible. 

Q2. What makes VEX Robotics different from other programs available today? What 

does it take to accelerate growth and reach more students with this program and 

what barriers do you face in achieving this accelerated growth? 

A2. VEX Robotics is the only middle and high school robotics platform with significant penetration in both the daytime classroom instruction and extracurricular competitions. VEX Robotics was designed for education, architected for competition, and 

cost engineered for scalability. VEX attracts students that wouldn’t have ordinarily 

had a previous interest in science and technology, and because it is affordable, VEX 

reaches underserved student populations and improves the diversity of those students interested in STEM. 

Most robotics programs that are offered today end at high school, are costly, and 

solely focused on after-school competition, and rely heavily on engineers from industry partners to volunteer their time. VEX Robotics addresses this issue by dramatically lowering the cost of participation for schools and students, by extending beyond high school through to college, and by involving higher participation and support from parents and teachers as mentors—because we want robotics to motivate 

students to go beyond high school—we want robotics to show students that they can 

all become top STEM professionals. 

To accelerate growth and reach more students with this program we need to get 

more corporations to invest and join forces with VEX Robotics, we need more teachers to become champions of robotics in the classroom which leads to more teacher 

training, and we need more school districts to encourage schools and teachers to 

adopt VEX in the classroom. 

Potential barriers that we face in achieving accelerated growth boils down to incentives, teacher / mentor training, school resources and credentials—all of which 

would help fuel both mentor and teacher involvement. 

Q3. You testify that your robotics competition is the only one that provides in-classroom training and out of classroom experiences. Please tell me more about the 

in-classroom experience. How are schools incorporating this into their curriculum? Is it offered as a separate elective or made part of another class? 

A3. We testified that VEX Robotics Design System is the only platform that was 

designed specifically for classroom and extracurricular use. How schools incorporate 

VEX into the in-classroom experience varies on a case-by-case basis. At some schools 

you will find teachers incorporate VEX into their engineering, math, or science 

classes. Other schools will work to establish a separate robotics class using VEX 

hardware, creating their own curriculum, or utilizing one of our curriculum partners 

such as Autodesk, Intelitek and Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy. 

Other ways you will find VEX incorporated into the classroom is through some of 

our other partners and curriculum providers including Project Lead the Way, Tech-
83 

nology Student Association or Da Vinci Minds. As you can see, there are various 

entry points for VEX entering into the classroom setting. 

Q4. VEX Robotics Competition is an international competition. What distinguishes 

American students from their international counterparts? 

A4. Aside from technical language barriers, once students reach the stage of a VEX 

Robotics Competition—they all get a chance to operate on a level playing field. Certain teams will have a superior robot, others will be better strategists, some will 

be better on-the-spot problem solvers, and others will be better communicators. 

Other than that there truly aren’t many major distinguishing characteristics between the American and the international students, expect for the age factor. Each 

year we see an increasing number of younger kids coming to compete from China 

and Australia as their governments have prioritized VEX in the classroom which 

in result has fueled their success and growth. 
84 

Responses by Mrs. Nancy Conrad, Chairman and Founder of the Conrad Foundation 

Questions submitted by Chairman Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. Understanding that we are in the midst of difficult economic times and with severely limited resources, what role should the Federal government play in STEM 

education? 

A1. We believe it is vital for our nation’s leaders to understand the imperative to 

educate and prepare our children to be at the forefront of STEM education, technology and industry. It is our opinion that establishing new federal policies is not 

the answer. Federal efforts should include thought leadership, allotting resources for 

research and providing funding to supplement activities undertaken by states and 

independent organizations focused on innovative and evidence-based STEM programming. 

In addition, special attention should be paid to the nation’s STEM educators and 

to developing funding mechanisms to help supplement the out-of-pocket costs often 

incurred by these instructors. 

It would be beneficial to the STEM movement to have a database that served as 

a unified resource for jobs, internships, career preparation, grants and research 

funding specifically for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. 

Q2. You testified that one third of your competitors are women, one third from underserved groups, and one third from students who enter multiple competitions. 

Is this by design, or is this just the way the applications came in? If by design, 

how are you reaching out to women and underserved populations? How do these 

individual groups do in the competition? Is the breakdown of winners similar? 

A2. We put extra effort into nurturing relationships and creating Champion Partnerships with organizations capable of promoting our program to girls and underserved populations. Organizations such as the National Girls Collaborative Project 

and Girl Scouts of America make our program available as a resource to their communities. This year, 33 percent of our participants are girls. 

Our program is available at no cost to all participants, making it a viable program 

for low socioeconomic student populations. To increase our reach to this underserved 

population, we developed relationships with school districts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco to specifically involve their larger communities 

of low-socioeconomic populations in the program. In addition, several teams from 

the Navajo Nations have been active participants in our program. Many of these 

Navajo students are from very private communities, making their public participation in the program all the more significant. 

Last year’s winning teams came from across the country and represented a broad 

spectrum of racial and economic diversity. While one-third of the total challenge 

participants were girls, they performed exceptionally well in the overall competition 

with 42 percent of the winning participants being girls. Of the five winning teams, 

two teams were comprised entirely of female team members. 

Q3. Who mentors the students on the business side of things? Who helps them with 

the patents and how many patents have been secured by competitors since the 

inception of the Spirit of Innovation Awards? 

A3. We provide students with mentors from different professional membership societies, such as Sigma Xi, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 

and the American Society for Nutrition. Each year, their membership provides both 

technical and business expertise for the students. Our partners at NASA, Lockheed 

Martine and PepsiCo also encourage their workforce to interact with the students 

to provide their professional guidance and to share their STEM knowledge. We are 

often independently approached by other experienced entrepreneurs who offer their 

unique expertise to our students. 

The Conrad Foundation’s Board of Directors offers a sub-committee called the 

Portal comprised of intellectual property lawyers and entrepreneurs who help selected teams file and secure patents of their own. At this time, three patents have 

resulted in this program. 
85 

Responses by Mr. Michael D. Gallagher, President and 

CEO of Entertainment Software Association 

Questions submitted by Chairman Chairman Ralph M. Hall 

Q1. Understanding that we are in the midst of difficult economic times and with severely limited resources, what role should the federal government play in STEM 

education? 

A1. STEM education is key to rekindling America’s global economic competitiveness, yet at present we face a critical STEM skills shortage. The United States must 

educate and develop its own talent supply for the 21st century ideas-based economy. 

However, due to the resource limitations referenced in the question, it is critical 

that each level of government fund and stimulate precisely those elements of STEM 

education spending within their core competence. As I underscored in my testimony 

at the hearing, the Federal government is particularly strong on the ‘‘big infrastructure’’ items like NASA, NIST, and other areas of large, national scope research. 

And, states and local governments are much more strongly enabled in the classrooms themselves, as well as the educational efforts that historically have been provided by state and local governments. 

That said, the federal government can be effective in this regard in the following 

four ways: 

1. The federal government should focus on having executive agencies collect 

assessment data and other evidence that focuses on the effectiveness (for 

whom, how, and under which conditions) of STEM education. 

2. The federal government should encourage the adoption of technology in the 

classroom to ensure that student engagement on STEM education maps to 

21st Century workforce skills such as systems thinking, critical analysis, 

problem solving, computational abilities, collaboration, and creativity. The 

single best way to achieve this objective is to capture the imagination of 

students on the ‘‘big dreams’’ of our time—similar to the space program of 

the 1960s and 70s. 

3. The federal government should concentrate on stimulating private sector 

innovation in STEM learning. The federal role in encouraging R&D is essential to sort out the conditions lll1der which STEM education will be 

most powerful, especially for underserved students. 

a. For instance, federal agencies can incent public-private partnerships 

such as those supported by the Small Business Innovative Research 

(SBIR) grant competitions that are already lll1derway. These competitions can create enticement for small companies to develop digital 

games, mobile applications and other technology enabled innovation to 

support STEM learning. In some cases, federal funding in these areas 

could be tied to relaxing state regulatory requirements for teaching certificates for professionals with proven expertise in areas both interesting to students and valuable to our country. 

4. Finally, coordinating national funding priorities for STEM across agencies 

should not be overlooked by the federal government. Education is not just 

K–12; it extends to professional development, job skill training, and career 

retooling. With this in mind, millions of dollars are being spent by agencies 

on direct training and human capital development programs at the U.S. 

Department of Education, SBA, NASA, and the Department of Defense that 

could be coherently prioritized and coordinated for the benefit of students, 

teachers, and product designers. 

Q2. What do we know about how students and the general public learn from digital 

learning environment? What don’t we know? How can we effectively evaluate 

this type of learning environment? 

A2. There have been numerous recent analyses and planning reports on the use of 

digital learning to advance national educational and technology infrastructure priorities. In recent years, there have been four federally supported analyses: 

1. The National Education Technology Plan issued by the U.S. Department of 

Education in 2010 concluded that our schools are in fundamental need of 

modernization—from new technology infrastructure to a complete ‘‘reconceptualization of professional development,’’ which relies far more heavily on networked communications technologies. 
86 

a. A prime example of this modernization is Quest to Learn, a New York 

City public school grounded in principles of game design, the first of its 

kind. The New York Times recently described the philosophy of Quest 

to Learn and Katie Salen, its founder, ‘‘at its best, game design can be 

an interdisciplinary exercise involving math, writing, art, computer programming, deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills.’’ (http:// 

wvvw.nytimes.coml20 1 0/09119/magazine/ 19video-t.html) 

2. The role of games and simulations in science education was the subject of 

an independent scholarly review by the National Academy of Sciences in 

2010. The NAS found promising evidence that digital simulations can significantly advance children’s science learning. (http://ebookee.orgfLeamingScience-Through-Computer-Games-andSimulations1223289.html) 

3. A review of educational technology-enabled curriculum programs issued in 

2009 by the GAO for the U.S. Department of Education found only limited 

evidence that a randomized control design of student learning on standardized measurements was advanced by technology-oriented curricula. (http:// 

www2.ed.gov /aboutl officesllistl opepd/ppss/reports.html#edtech) 

4. An independent review of evidence and a research plan by the National 

Science Foundation on cyberlearning in 2008 (http://www.nsf.gov/ 

pubsI2008/nsf08204/index.isp) found digital advances have the potential to 

transform STEM learning in the decade ahead. The research states, 

‘‘Cyberlearning offers new learning and educational approaches and the 

possibility of redistributing learning experiences over time and space, beyond the classroom and throughout a lifetime.’’ However, without deliberate 

efforts to coordinate cyberlearning approaches, we will miss the opportunity 

to provide effective support for the convergence of learning and technology. 

Taken together, these reports indicate the promise of digital tools and new approaches to embedding digital learning in U.S. classrooms has not yet been fulfilled, 

and that further experimentation is an urgent national priority. The federal government (both Congress and the Executive Branch) should help raise the profile and 

importance of the 21 st Century cluster of skills outlined above. This emphasis 

would help drive research dollars, new modes of assessment, and public-private 

partnerships toward more innovative products and services in digital learning. 

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