>> hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you're in "the stream." is diversity the key to keeping america competitive in science and engineering? our digital producer is here, and he's bringing all of your live feedback into the program. america was the first and only country to put a machine on the moon, and now people are concerned we're behind in technology. >> we have given america the cronut.

alejandro says: christina gave us a different stat. viewers at home, you are the third hosts of the show, and all of your comments shape and drive this discussion. so give us a comment and we'll try our best to get it on the air. >> science and technology drives the global marketplace, but is america prepared to meet that and stay competitive? countries like china are catching up, in as soon as and technology and math. and you'll hear that a lot in the show tonight. in the

u.s., 38% of young adults who start off majoring in fields graduate with something completely different, and those who do for tend to be white and mail. women account for 18% of the field. and blacks and latinos make up only 12%. so has the u.s. lost it's passion for science and technology or do we need a more innovative way to reach people? joining us is jonathan brack, and kent campbell joining us, he runs science 2.0. and jonathan joins us, an organization that is working to eliminate the barriers. shelly caine is an at have cat for women in technology, and the

founder of code montage, a program designed to help people, particularly girls, improve their software skills. and i want to start with you. let's talk about young people in math, the numbers are going down, and we don't know why. kids spend mott of their waking hours in school, and is there something across the board in k through 12 across the board that's not working or missing? >> one of them is engagement. and the barriers in academic and social and psychological structure barriers. in pursuing°, and the other is access. >> how does that change? we watchedort number at the top of the show, and the numbers for girls, for instance, it's going down, and why are we losing ground? >>

the academy, in the summer, we take three years to prepare so they are ready to get a degree, and we have the daily support our success today. so i think its preparation, aspiration, and some of the barriers that they face around race identity and technology, and mentors, and things of that nature. they're not pursuing these degrees because they don't see themselves represented in the community, nor anyone in the family from working in this area. >> when we're talking about kids pursuing° in stem areas, are we investing in the right things early on in education to make that happen? >> we are, and we have to keep some of those numbers in context. we see one part of stem that

has had a slight drop, but overall, there are three components of stem, and that's engineering, math and science, and the numbers across the board for both minorities and for women are way up in jobs, women and minorities are overrepresented when they apply for the jobs. we still have a gap. there's an interest gap that's going to stay for a while. if they want to be a doctor, it's hard to get them to be a scientist or an engineer, and maybe we shouldn't do this. >> vanessa, boys and girls and men and women, they all learn and think differently, are we taking a one size fits all approach to this? >> i think one of our core problems is that computer science courses, when they are offered in k-12 schools, they're offered for credit, and at that

level, computer science is an option, but the truth is, in this economy, we need to fight to get those courses to merritt academic credit in schools, and that's what the team is working hard on. and another problem that we have that jarvis spoke to, the result ral misinterpretation of what it means to be a technologist. and we have a lot of work there, but i can speak specifically to wanting to be a doctor. once i learned the power of cure programming i realized all of the ways that i could help people in medicine, and computing power and computing talent, not just the lack of doctors. >> computing is a good point. can i jump in on this? >> yeah, go ahead. >> the physical sciences and math and things like that, there used to be really a much bigger gap.

and social sciences have found this unique way of finding the answers, and that's when i asked young people, why didn't you want to do something else? they wanted to help people, and they regarded physical science as a not helping people field. you are working on a fruit fly or a physics thing, and not understanding the physics of it. and that's a great point. when you show how much technology is doing to advance people, you do get a of broader base of interest from young people. >> hanks, speaking of that, we need better ways to finance schools, and veronica says.

, here's a stat: by 2018, 82% of the jobs will be -- >> suppose we bring in coding to help in the minority neighborhoods, how does that translate into them getting better jobs if these communities? >> i think that there are several things to preparing college students that way. and that's one of the things that we have been working on. the hard skills that they're learn missing their courses, but influences in social and professional networks, so for example, less than 1% of the firms in the technical industry are founded by a black person. so what that means, lack of role models that blacks and latinos can see coming up is extremely

small, so it also is indicative to have access, and pursuing the pursuits. >> you touched on it briefly, but yo i wanted to get to it more. are there stereotypes that girls think of in science and math that are a barrier to them pursuing it in it. >> absolutely. the stereotype, there's a problem with stereotype that's well documented and especially affects -- i can speak to girls, it affects girls mostly around math and science testing. and that's the fact that women have a reputation of not being good at math, and it causes them to not perform as well on formal math tests. and it's not representative of their skills when they're not in really high pressure environments in places where they're thinking about the stereotypes and images. so the messages that we're

sending to youth have a high impact on them, and we don't see very many role models for technical women making a distance, even though they do exist. so that's one of the big charges that we have to change things and make america more competitive, is to share the stories of women building incredible software and helping through their coding work and it's happening every day, but sega. >> amy says: >> all right, when we come back, tech culture, who is and what isn't. and is there a bare we are to minorities trying to break in? [[voiceover]] every day, events

sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours.

>> hi, i'm phil torrez. coming up this week on techknow: >> it's going to get bumpy over here it looks like. >> we drop like a rock, and then you experience zero g's. >> this is a modified dc8 with about 28 different instruments on the outside. >> it's one wild ride. we're flying at 300 feet over the gulf of mexico. come aboard nasa's laboratory in the sky.

>> welcome back. before the break, we mentioned bro grammars, and tech culture and asked if they are creating barriers to women and minorities. >> a lot of leaders responded. serene said:

>> chandley, when we talk about tech culture, one term that keeps coming up is bro grammar, and can you explain what that is? >> in bro gramming, we see the imagining or rebuilding of the traditional geek stereotype, a much more aggressive and traditionally masculine version of nerd and geek culture, and it blends well with job kurt. traditionally, the geek being shy and socially awkward, unattractive, and having difficulty picking up women. and while this was inaccurate, it was rampant in the geek culture. so now with bro gramming, we see masculinity that was lost in early version stereotypes with the rise of this white nerd and boy king construct,

more hyper masculine, and boy bonding and individualism. with open sexism and objectification of women. >> why don't we see more women coming forward to complain about this? >> women who come forward and talk about sexition and misogyny can expect to get harassed and have trouble if their workplaces to be seen as a liability by their employers, and there's a massive. >> silicon valley is the workplace culture, is it of putting to women and minorities? >> anything that shannon is explaining right now would be cause for immediate termination in any company. but she does make a good point.

there's a liability that might bring that icy chill that we talk about. when people are less inclined to bring something else. i know that the pioneers don't want to get it in the back and take the fall. but somebody has to stand up for that kind of conduct. these are competitive, and these are not the most socially adept people in all cases, so they can rub each other the wrong way. when you have clearly gone over the line and you're talking about destructive dialogue, you have to be fired. > fired. >> one of the reasons why it's important to have women of minorities represented in tech

fields and for tech companies to understand this, it's not just because it makes it competitive in a global market, but because here in the united states, there's a massive demographic shift. and the majority of the consumers are going to be women and minorities and companies need to be cognitive. >> shandley, women make up 48% of workers in all occupations, and diversity doesn't matter and you should not include women or racial minorities and go for whoever is best at the job, and what's the response to that? >> the response at silicon valley is an incredibly dangerous belief because it covered these well documented patterns of attrition and discrimination in the workplace.

companies in silicon valley have the lowest unemployment rate african-americans and women. and women will drop out because of claiming lack of advancement tubes and low pay and not feeling welcome in the workplace. so white men use the word me meritocracy to justify themselves. >> you hit on a lot of key issues, and i agree that there's an amount of sexism and racism that's in play here, and we need to understand that some of that is implicit and kind of built into the culture, so the idea that it's a meritocracy to an extent, but only true to a network to which people are

allowed access to, and hoping for diversity of opinions and experiences and background, which does lead to more innovation, and it does drive invasion, and we invasion -- innovation, and it makes economic sense, and it makes sense in equity and social justice as well. user based, it's a growing number people of color. the people of color will be the majority in the united states. that means that the majority of consumers of these products are not being developed by people -- >> i want to shift the conversation here, we talked about barriers in the workplace, and let's talk about barriers in education. to what do you tribute the drop in graduate and undergraduate degrees? >> it's

related to students with background -- i mean, young men coming out of college in a degree with engineering, offered a job for $80,000, or go to grad school and be 15, $20,000 as a stipend. and you have a family to support back home. i was a ph.d at cornell in engineering, and i had no support and no loans, and second, i had a mentor. as a way to being a professor. but a lot of my friends, even though they had the ability and the potential, decided to be with their families. has one of the reasons, economic, and the other reasons, opportunities for young people. but very few of us are pursuing°. >> we just talked about racism and sexism. and is there some of that in

play to get them to back out? >> even in the first year is a significant drove. aspirations, they're about the same entering college, but there's a significant drop after the first year, and some of its related to one, the lack of preparation that some of the students have, ap classes, and you are competing with students who have had ap calculus, and you were just offered precalculus, so you don't have the access. and then if you do make it, you're so isolated being the only one in your class, and part of the challenge is, to get into study groups, and why would i spend another four years in grad school, and it's no better. >> jarvis, vanessa, i'll get you in in one second. but you mentioned role models,

and trisha says: christine: vanessa, i know when to chime in, and go for it. >> the notion of technology being a meritocracy. and it speaks for itself. we don't necessarily have to require that everyone have a ph.d in science to build something great in technology. and one of the things that i think we're missing across the industry is objective ways to measure what people are doing that don't rely on the proxies of 8 year degree programs. the truth is that mark zuckerberg dropped out of

college, and i don't necessarily condone that for everyone, but the truth is that technology opens up maces for everyone without a formal education. >> we're going to hit a break, and we'll be right back. that's all i have an real money. victoria azarenko

on august 20th, al jazeera america introduced

>> welcome back, we have been talking about young american's declining interest in science and technology in math in the 21st century. and jonathan, change often comes from the inside, and is there something that is working in tech or any of the other fields frankly should be doing that? >> yeah, i do, i think there are a number of ways that companies can get involved. we have over 60 companies that have partnered with us, and it shows a great willingness to bring it on. i think there are more things that companies can do, and one

is the recruiting efforts. and one is for universities. out in the country, we're out doing recruitment, and there's a lot of talent and a lot of talent of color that some companies are overlook being, and i think it's about time practices, and a programmer culture, or whatever that company culture is often gets worked into how people are vaulted for hire. and sometimes there's something that needs to be exam indi. so sometimes for hiring is one way to get around that. >> mimi, a loyal streamer says:

is seeing other people by themselves there. so as one thing companies can do is be more transparent where they are as. at. necrecognizing that -- until tht show we'll see you on-line. ♪

♪ celebrations in lebanon asininasnine hostages held captr over a year are freed. and welcome i'm steven cole this is al jazeera in doha. coming up in the next half hour. firefighters continue to battle bush fires in southwest australia. despite easing temperatures an winds. it's almost 2 million years old. it's a skull that is helping to rewrite