Earlier this month, Bayer Corporation presented a $100,000 two-year grant from the Bayer USA Foundation to Students 2 Science (S2S), Inc., an innovative STEM education organization that introduces elementary, middle, and high school students from Northern and Central New Jersey to real-world science and scientists at its professional laboratory in East Hanover and through its virtual lab program.

 

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dr. Mae C. Jemison, Bayer’s national Making Science Make Sense spokesperson, were on hand as Philip Blake, president of Bayer Corporation, presented the donation to Dr. Paul A. Winslow, president and cofounder, S2S. Sen. Booker, Dr. Jemison and Blake then joined eighth graders from Newark’s Link Community Charter School as they donned lab coats and safety glasses to perform four challenging experiments focused on the periodic table.

 

The new Bayer grant will underwrite all visits by middle and high school students to S2S’s laboratory and its virtual labs during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. In 2014-2015, with 86 planned school visits, Bayer will sponsor more than 3,000 students and some 4,000 the following year when 100 school visits are scheduled. Together with the virtual labs, Bayer will reach more than 10,000 students. Nearly two-thirds of these students attend schools in the 31 districts that are part of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA), formerly known as Abbott districts.

 

During today’s announcement, Bayer called on additional companies located in the Garden State to support Students 2 Science’s mission.

 

“One year ago, Bayer celebrated the opening of its state-of-art U.S. facilities in Whippany. Today’s grant to Students 2 Science continues deepening those roots in communities where Bayer’s employees live and work by reaffirming the company’s commitment to improving STEM education and building a more diverse STEM pipeline and workforce,” Blake says. “Students 2 Science plays an invaluable role in STEM education here and offers STEM companies thro the region unique volunteer opportunities for their scientists and engineers. We, at Bayer, urge them to get involved.”

 

The Making Science Make Sense program is Bayer’s companywide initiative that advances science literacy nationwide through hands-on, inquiry-based science learning, employee volunteerism, and a public education campaign led by Dr. Jemison — astronaut, scientist, and educator.

 

The 2013 Bayer Facts of Science Education survey revealed that only half of the nation’s Fortune 1000 employers were able to find enough qualified two- and four-year STEM degree holders for open, unfilled jobs and very few employers – only 16% – said they were seeing what they consider adequate numbers of female, African-American, Hispanic, and American Indian job candidates who have two- and four-year STEM degrees.

 

New Jersey business leaders confirm they cannot find the STEM talent they need to stay competitive, according to Change the Equation’s Vital Signs report. While Vital Signs credits the state with stretching its math and science education dollars farther than other states do, it says no state has been able to close persistent student achievement gaps among racial and ethnic groups. In 2011, only 9% of New Jersey’s African-American eighth graders and 12% of Hispanic eighth graders scored at or above proficient in science.