Al Gore to Host "Global Town Hall" on STEM Education

November 12, 2010 

On November 17, 2010, former Vice President Al Gore is taking on another campaign: to spur greater interest in STEM education.

Gore will host a "global online town hall," an interactive event organized by Time Warner Cable’s "Connect a Million Minds" program. "America cannot afford to continue to fall behind the world in the very subjects that are going to drive economic growth and development in the coming decades," Gore said. 

The event will link 1,000 U.S. students at 16 locations with counterparts from around the world. Inventor Dean Kamen, astronaut Sally Ride, and "MythBusters" Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman will be on hand to join in the discussion exploring youth attitudes on STEM. 

The Raleigh area gathering, for example, will comprise 200 students and professionals with backgrounds in STEM: Sam Houston, president of the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center; Laura Bottomley, Director of Women in Engineering and K-12 Outreach at N.C. State University; and Jerry Heneghan, of Virtual Heroes. 

“We want to put a human face on a very sobering statistic—the U.S. ranks 35th in math and 29th in science worldwide—to spark a new level of interest among our kids so they are prepared for what lies ahead,” said Christine Whitaker, Time Warner Cable’s vice president of operations for the Raleigh, N.C., area. 

“As parents, educators, elected officials and business leaders, we need to do all we can to encourage our youth to take an active, enthusiastic interest in STEM and connect them to opportunities that stoke this passion,” she added. 

Connect a Million Minds: Town Hall 

Source: Local Tech Wire (November 4, 2010)