STEM DIY?

Considering my less than stellar academic background, I'm probably close to the bottom of the list of folks whom one would envision to be an ardent STEM supporter. This is especially true considering my choice of academic pursuits. I don't think I regret the study of history and languages, as both are important in helping one understand the world and to interact with it, but quite honestly don't do much for one's career... or pocketbook! In fact, apart from a brief foray into pre-digital (silver-based) photographic technology, I had done everything in my power to avoid STEM-related education for myself.

Once again, its time for me to take a step back and talk briefly about STEM. STEM is an acronym which stands for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. It seems that here in the United States, we are sorely lacking in preparing college bound students for college-level math and science. According to the National Math + Science Initiative, 54% of high school graduates are not ready for college level mathematics, and 69% are not ready for college level science (for what its worth, I am also not a huge fan of the massive government-educational complex).

So, today's topic is addressing the person one sees in the mirror every morning- how to make the world a bit more educated in STEM by doing a bit to educate the person in the mirror. Where to start? Being very frugal, I'll start with the best place there is: free. I'm posting a couple of free educational resources right now that may help someone (or help someone to help someone else) to get some free skills training in Technology- specifically, computer programming. As time and space permit, I will add more in future blog entries.

One of my very favorite programming sites is W3 Schools. W3 Schools online tutorials are very web-centric, with coursework in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, PHP and JQuery. These are mostly webcentric languages, but the way W3 Schools is set up, the student starts writing code almost immediately, and can instantly see the results of their efforts. The site has a code window on the left (where code is entered) and a website preview window on the right (at least the HTML/HTML5 lessons are set up this way- I have not explored the others). And it couldn't be simpler: write the code, click the "Submit code" button, and the preview updates with the new code. Cool!   

Interested in developing for Microsoft-based applications? Well, there's a website for you- check out Visual Studio Express! Here you can download the latest (lite) versions of some of Microsoft's most popular dev products, and then get up close and personal with them. While I'm on the topic of Microsoft, they offer very many free training opportunities... I suppose it behooves them to do so, because then they can sell more! Another Microsoft free site is the Microsoft Virtual Academy. I have not explored this site, but it looks promising.

That's all I've got for now. I'm still accumulating data, but not doing much with it (this week at work, I logged six days + overtime!)

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.