Of the 50 states, Maine ranks at a mere 47th in the per capita production of engineers.

This saddening statistic is a major reason for Maine’s current dire state of affairs. With a slow economy and aging population, more engineering talent must come from the state in order to find ways to better utilize Maine’s resources and bring the state to a more median ranking.

Maine is not alone in facing these issues. In fact, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology are behind a nationwide push to produce more engineers and start teaching the necessary material earlier in students’ academic careers. To help with figuring out this problem, a group of 26 states have come together to form the Next Generation Science Standards committee with the intention of integrating more project-based engineering education into K-12 classrooms.

Mohamad Musavi is the associate dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Maine, and he is fully on board with integration at the K-12 level.

“STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Musavi said. “When I became the associate dean two years ago, I looked at those four letters, and with my glasses on, I [didn’t] see any ‘T’ and ‘E’ in high schools,” Musavi said. “That was my motivation to get involved.”

To help achieve these standards, the University of Maine has been awarded a grant for over $735,000 from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research for a research project that will involve students in several high schools collecting water from rivers to measure the effects of storm water on the river’s makeup. The program is called “Engineering Innovative Solutions to Storm Water Problems through Diverse Community Participation.”

The goal of this program is twofold: Firstly, it allows students at a high school level to get hands-on experience with science and engineering technologies through project-based research. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for certain minorities who do not usually participate in engineering to get involved through water quality research, a subject that could interest them more due to its emphasis on human resources.

“Water is the most significant [substance] on Earth. Without it we can’t live. [Water quality] is a topic that is of interest to females and minorities,” Musavi said. “Right now in the engineering and technology workforce, only 18 percent of our students are female, which is not sufficient.”

The three-year project will begin in January 2014 and will involve 180 students and 45 teachers from several high schools in Maine. First, the participants will attend a five-day Storm Water Institute at the university to learn about the environmental problems caused by stormwater as well as the possible engineering methods that could be used to solve them.

These teachers will then be provided with highly advanced stationary water sensors that will wirelessly transmit water quality data in real time to the university. Students will also go out and take samples from the various rivers near their respective high schools to measure the contents as well as factors that the sensors cannot measure. All of this data can then be placed on Google Maps to give people an insight into how clean certain rivers in Maine are.

“In this project, not only do we have the teachers and students involved, but we also have government agencies like the city of Bangor and agencies involved in environmental causes,” Musavi said. “Our plan is involvement of the students in Bangor, the Portland area and the Lewiston/Auburn area.”

“Other states can do this. It is sustainable,” Musavi said.

One high school that is perhaps the closest thing to a perfect STEM model in Maine is Bangor High School. Bangor’s science program has benefitted immensely from being in such close proximity to UMaine and with an articulation agreement similar to UMaine’s agreement with Thornton Academy, Bangor’s pedigree will soon be top-notch within the state.

What sets Bangor apart from other high schools is its Transformative Apprentice Research program in which students get paired with an engineering or science professional to conduct research in a university or laboratory setting, depending on the goals and interests of the particular student.

Cary James, Bangor High School’s director of science, is extremely proud of the program, which is now in its second official year.

“There [are] three ways of teaching: There’s the lecture where someone stands in front of you and tells you everything from the book. Then there’s what I call the electrician’s model — you go and you work with someone in the field. The electrician is your mentor and you’re the apprentice. […] The third one is complete chaos where it’s just completely open, unguided exploration,” James said. “That middle model is what we do.”

Bangor is the only school in the state with this sort of program. Although James had been helping students get apprenticeships before, it wasn’t until Musavi jumped on board that the TAR STEM program was made official.

“Previously, on a big year it would be five kids. Now we’ve got 40,” James said. “The kids that are in the [TAR STEM] program … stand out like sore thumbs now. They’re seeing what can be done and now they’ll make the next logical step: Go to school, get a great education and a job in a STEM-related field.”

“Other high schools have been in contact with Bangor High School to follow their models,” Musavi said. “There is a great interest. [UMaine] will work with [schools] to tell them what an ideal STEM academy looks like.”