ANS hosts an overview of its STEM resources

The American Nuclear Society recently hosted a webinar charting the programs and resources that the Society can provide to students, educators, and the public regarding nuclear science and technology education-with a particular focus on the K-12 space. The webinar, led by ANS senior manager of STEM programs Uchenna Ezibe, also provided updates on the progress and future of ANS STEM efforts.

Click here to watch the full webinar.

The problem: After a brief introduction, Ezibe kicked off the webinar by covering the three high-level goals of ANS STEM programs:

• Clarify common misconceptions surrounding nuclear science, explore its current and future role in technological applications, and ensure that students are supplied with a fact-based understanding of nuclear.
• Build understanding of and create value for nuclear science and technology through standards-aligned content to be used in formal and informal educational settings.
• Inspire future careers in the nuclear field as well as the pursuit of training, certification, and further formal education.

Zooming further out, Ezibe explained that ANS's STEM efforts slot into an educational system that does not prioritize strong scientific education. "During the Covid pandemic, science became a lower priority in most districts," he said.

As the nation departed the pandemic, only about one in four districts in California saw science as a high recovery priority-a trend that was repeated across the country. "This is particularly troubling because American scientific education standards were already falling for many years before the pandemic," he said. Combining this troubling landscape with a concentrated shortage in physics teachers means that need for science outreach through organizations like ANS is clear.

An overview: With the issues at play and the basic goals of ANS addressed, the webinar then moved to an overview of five core ANS STEM programs, as well as one newer offering:

• Navigating Nuclear, a Next Generation Science Standards-aligned nuclear science curriculum for students in grades 3 through 12 that has been accessed by 1.8 million students to date.
• Educator Training, a series of professional development webinars and workshops on nuclear science concepts and teaching strategies. As of 2024, these webinars have reached an average of 357 students.
• Pathways To Nuclear, a project to showcase career opportunities and inspire students to pursue roles in nuclear science and technology. To date, seven in-depth profiles have been created.
• Nuclear Ambassadors, a program to train nuclear professionals to do nuclear outreach and subsequently deploy them to classrooms and informal learning programs. More than 240 ambassadors have been trained so far.
• Accelerators Program, ANS's newest core program, which Ezibe described as "essentially a nuclear science high school club." The program is aimed at students who have started to develop a strong grasp on nuclear and want to take their learning farther. The national, overarching program is also comprised of local chapters that host regular in-person meetings.
• Mentor Match is ANS's recently launched mentorship program, offering personalized matching and year-round mentorship to the next generation of the nuclear workforce.

Go deeper: For a deep dive on each STEM program that ANS offers, and to learn more about the future of ANS's work in the space, watch the full webinar at the above link.