ghter. frontline plus. vet recommended flea and tick killer. good sunday morning. welcome to "viewpoint." i'm pat lawson muse. are your children studying science, technology, engineering, and math? do they love it? technology is change our lives and it's redefining the economic landscape. children and workers with a strong interest and experience will find themselves at the center of our new economy. joining us this morning to talk about stem, our guests are meeta sharma-holt. she is washington, d.c. executive director of tech bridge. marc schulman is executive director of usa science and engineering, the festival. and stephanie hill is vice president and general manager of lockheed martin's ship and aviation systems line of business

training. not a mouthful. just a little bit. welcome to all of you to "viewpoint." >> thank you. >> there is a big science and engineering festival coming up later this month at the convention center. tell us about it. >> it's the usa science and engineering festival. hosted by lockheed martin. it is our -- it is the largest k through 12 stem education and work force development event in the country. it is at the washington, d.c. event center, it's absolutely free to attend, and it's about two million square feet with about a thousand exhibiters, and about 3,000 hands-on exhibits. >> so here's some video of kids at the festival. stephanie, you said you took your kids recently last year, in fact. what are the kids going to be doing? >> so at our lockheed martin booth, we have a theme called this sign isn't fiction. when the kids come through, they'll get to see a

things around space. one is called the insight lander. the insight lander is a real program that lockheed martin is working on with nasa, and that's why we say this science isn't fiction. and what the students will be able to do, it simulates the surface of mars, and the students will be able to participate in a virtual reality session with their smart phones exploring the surface of mars. they'll also get to take a ride in the f-35 fighter jet. they'll get to fly the fighter jet, the newest generation fighter jet. we have all kinds of exciting things for our young people to do. and some of not our own people to do. >> meeta? >> yes, we are excited to be featured at the chevron stem zone, another very large exhibit. we are going to be helping kids think about chemical engineering by making lip balm. we're going to be thinking about electrical engineering careers, by making beautiful l.e.d. lights, and thisou

festival. we're very excited to be there. >> it sounds very exciting. jobs in science and technology, engineering, and math are expected to grow by more than 20%, by 2018. that's twice the rate of the country's overall labor force. so companies like yours are going to need all of those things. all vested in. the question is, are companies going to find enough workers to do all the jobs? >> well, i think that's one of the most important things of this science and engineering festival, and lockheed martin is so committed to it, because we have 66,000 scientist and engineers, and we know the talent they bring in helps us to deliver the great solutions to our customers, so we are very invested in helping stem come alive for young people, so we can make sure that we are building a very significant pipeline. now, there is, to your point, a global shortage, so it takes all of us through partnership working with the school systems, working with noof

corporations like ours to invest. lockheed martin invested over $57 million over the last five years into science, technology, and engineering and math. >> statistics show there's more than half a million manufacturing jobs going unsold right now? >> there are, that's right. there are many manufacturing jobs going unfilled. manufacturing is very technologically advanced, but one of the biggest areas of demand that we have across our industry is in cyber security professionals and data scientists, becoming a very significant field. >> meeta, those are some of the big jobs of the future. >> those are. and what we find, and tech bridge singularly has had its focus on not only helping to bring young people into that stem pipeline, but in particular girls from diverse backgrounds. while we know that there's a shortage, absolutely, we know there's even fewer folks of color, and especially women and

and that's an issue for all of us. when you build something, you create an engineering solution to a problem. you want a very diverse set of folks thinking about how to do things. >> may i answer that? >> you can, right after this break. we're going to talk about the big festival coming to the washington convention center. stay with us. ♪ the sun'll come out tomorrow... ♪ for people with heart failure, tomorrow is not a given. but entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ i love ya, tomorrow in the largest heart failure study ever. entresto helped more people stay alive and

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welcome back. we're talking about the big science and engineering festival coming up at the convention center april 16th and 17th. and we've been talking about stem education, and i want to touch a little on the gender gaps that we know exist.

interested in and excel at stem classes. and that hispanic and african-americans are under-represented and under-served. you want to tackle that, mark? >> well, i think probably stephanie and meeta would be best to tackle overall. the festival itself we do a lot to work with underserved communities, underserved groups with groups that have specific demographics that they're targeting. like the america's association of black engineers, folks like that that are really in the trenches, if you will, of trying to increase their ranks. we do a lot with them, even throughout the year with other speaking opportunities where we give them -- you know, it's like our founder said, we are what we celebrate. and role models are important. and frankly, the color and flavor of those role models are incredibly important. >> as role models are important. is that part of the problem? >> that's what i was going

sharing. i started off as an engineer. when i was back then in school, nobody knew stem. now people talk about stem all the time. but our women and our underserved minorities, hispanics and african-americans, might see that stem is a really viable career, but they might not see that it's a viable career for them because of not that many role models in their communities, which is why the science and engineering festival is so important. it's also why it's important for businesses like lockheed martin to go out into the school systems, to be present, to bring stem alive with people that look like the people in the community. >> meeta, tell us how you're working to change that. >> tech bridge is singularly focused with the population and with this work. we realized early on that it really does take a variety of partners to come together, and that girls learn terrifically in our setting. they do very, very hands-on activities. but that's not enough. we have a very serious focus on career exploration, and that

so we actually partner with companies like lockheed martin and others to take them to stem fields, to workplaces and see firsthand what work might look like. we also talk about role models, believe that as well, and bring that into our classrooms. women who often represent the girls and so the girls can really see this is somebody that i might want to emulate one day. the other thing that we realized early on is just putting an adult in front of young people, however knowledgeable, may not resonate well. adults aren't necessarily trained to work with young people. so tech bridge has a unique training exclusively for role models. >> it's good that there are a lot of partner shipshipartnersh. >> we're fortunate to pair with girls inc. we pair with girls 9-12 and give them hands-on

we teach teachers to teach stem. light right here in d.c., able to partner and give a million dollars to the d.c. public school to serve this urban selective school. >> and we call it an ecosystem. we've actually written a white paper that's going to be released with the festival on the 14th, and it has all of these concepts. really says that you've got to bring together policymakers and parents and businesses, and educators to really make sure that if a girl or any child is inspired initially, that they stay inspired all the way through to actual workplace. >> the president has said that one of the issues is also the lack of teachers. the lack of qualified teachers and, of course, the lack of the numbers, the problem being the teacher shortage for stem education. those kinds of programs are gr

are not only inspiring to children, but i assume to teachers as well, and to adults who might be considering careers and encouraging college students to study this in school. there are a lot of students in high school that have lost interest by the time they graduate. >> yes, and that's true. and it's nice. the way the festival is set up, ultimately we are a k through 12 education event. but it really is, if you build it, they will come. almost 50% of the audience is 18 and above. so you could either say that's a parent/child ratio or what that may be, but ultimately, in 2014, we had 325,000 people pass through our doors in three days. and so 50% of those folks are 18 and above. and even on sneak peek friday, which is the field trip day for the kids, where we're only open for schools and military families,

a chaperon, which is assumed to be a teacher. so we have over 40,000 students registered for friday alone. so there's 4,000 teachers that are in my building. that are hopefully being inspired, and they get to see all the resources that are out there, too, because my thsand or so exhibiters are definitely companies like lockheed martin and chevron, and those groups. but there's also plenty of community organizations and words that offer the resources that those teachers can accept and utilize in the classroom. so sometimes it's about just seeing what's out there. and luckily, i have two million square feet of stuff left to see. >> you can't see it all in one day. >> it's hard to do. >> the festival stretches over a couple days. we'll be back to talk more about stem and the festival right after this.

welcome back. we're talking about stem this morning, and stephanie, i want to ask you about children. the thing about kids is if you start them out with something, then it's much easier to get them and keep them interested in that as they grow older. and how well would you say schools are doing at stimulating the interest in stem in the very early years? >> i think we've come a long way, and we've come a long way with the school system largely through partnerships. there was a time when companies, like lockheed martin would partner with high school for stem. and now we recognize we have to start far earlier, and so we are in the elementary schools working with them, and i'm going to tell you those little people are interested in stem, they're interested in space. they've grown up on "star wars" and "star ek

them understanding, these are the kind of cool things we do. i think it's why a lot of young people don't major in these things, they don't know how exciting it is when you choose a stem career. >> how well are schools in the washington, d.c. area doing teaching stem? we know about the reputation of schools such as thomas jefferson and mckinley tech. there are many schools with great stem curricula. but how well would you say this region is doing in terms of pushing this as the wave of the future? >> i will tell you that there has been great movement, and lots of great change, and i think a lot of folks really embracing stem and equipping their schools to be able to offer a variety of things. i don't know, however, that that sort of -- those sort of resources are available for every child yet in our region. when we talk about our regi

versus wards seven and eight in the district. but it's sort of a really fast, vastly growing field. the other thing schools are starting to embrace is the idea that science and math don't have to be something exclusive in a class all by themselves. that frankly, math and science are really part of every subject. and so i see schools more and more thinking about how to integrate a variety of subjects so that children see the application of those concepts in everything that they do. >> yeah, and just thinking as you're talking about whether you need science, technology, engineering and math, or some concept of those subjects for whatever you choose to do in life. whether you do want to be an artist or a singer, a lawyer. you still need to have some

that background. >> if you think about how we live today, we all have two or three devices, almost no matter how old you are, you've got some piece of technology that gives you access to information that helps you be able to create things. so technology is in everything that we do. >> and there's a whole lot of that planned for for the festival. tell us about some of the performers that you'll have there. >> yeah, so we try and approach inspiring kids in a lot of different directions, and one of them is by creating persons, places, and things for them to see. you know, not only does the festival have over 3,000 exhibits, but we also have about 50 stage shows, and they might be giants, the grammy award-winning band is going to be playing. they played at the 2014 festival. will wheaton from "the big bang theory" and "star trek" is going to be out. there's any number of others. steve

fun. what we call edu-tainment, which is a coined word. there's a lot of stuff to see. lockheed martin and chevron have great exhibits. the department of defense, we have about 120 government agencies there. you know, you're going to see the air force is bringing in an f-16 airplane that they're going to park inside the event. homeland security is bringing in a fire truck and they'll be talking about wearable technologies and things that they're doing. the state department is bringing in an armored limo and bringing in engineers to tell people how they make a vehicle ballistically resistant. it's not like a trade show and it's not like anything -- these kids are going to see things this they probably would never have an opportunity to see and it's all under one roof and it's all free. >> that speaks to what you just spoke of a few moments ago, seeing it, imagining yourself doing it, seeing someone who looks like you doing it. >> i've been fortunate to go for every year that we've had, that we've been partnered too

and there is no other place where you see the faces of all of the children and the parents and the teachers light up with excitement. you almost feel like you're running from one exhibit to the next, because they don't want to miss out on anything. it can really change the mind of a young person. >> all right. we'll talk a little more about stem and the festival when we continue. we've got to take a break. we'll be right back.

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only fios can. welcome back. stephanie, what are some of the big jobs that kids can get right now when they come out of school, and what kind of salary can you look forward to if your background is in stem? >> so, we're always hiring students who have a background in computer science and electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, cyber security, and data science

and the salary ranges, but i would say with a four-year degree, anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000, get your masters degree, you can command even more. but that depends on the region. >> you'll pass that on to your students, right? >> i am. i also want to mention that we have been working with students, upwards of 6,000 over the time we've been around. we started in the san francisco bay area expressly because that's where there's such a ground swell of possibilities. and we've just launched, and that's really what i do, i run the very first east coast operation here in the district. so tech bridge is in seven different district schools. expressly because we feel as though the district is now -- in the valley, there are just so many opportunities here to have jobs in a variety of careers that stephanie mentioned. >> that's what makes washington, d.c. ground zero for your

i mean, it's all exciting. but one of the most exciting things i've heard you say is the phone call that you're going to be making during the festival. >> yeah, kasis and nasa have gotten together and helped us to put a phone call in to the international space station, so if you're around on saturday at the festival around noon, it's never perfect timing when you're calling the outer space, but we're going to give it a shot. around noon, we're going to talk to a couple astronauts presently up in the iss. >> that's absolutely mind blowing. >> yeah, it's really cool. >> i can imagine you'll have a long line of youngsters waiting to get on the phone. how long will the call last? >> well, i'm not sure how long the call lasts, but we'll collect some questions, some folks who can go to our facebook page and social media sites and put in some questions. we'll see if we can get some people up there to ask those questions. but it should be a good time. >> yeah, sounds like a great time. it's the usa science and

a partner of yours. stephanie, with lockheed martin, and you're one of the partners. meeta sharma-holt with tech bridge. marc schulman. thank you all so much. we're looking forward to this festival at the convention center april 16th and 17th, saturday and sunday. >> absolutely free to attend. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and thank you for joining us. that's "viewpoint." i'm pat lawson muse. and we should also tell you the festival is free. hope you'll go on down and have a great time. thanks for joining us with "viewpoint." stay with us for "news4 today."

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right now on news 4 today, a bitter cold start to sunday morning. temps are come down to the 20s 30s, but the end is in sight. hope you're having a good start to your sunday. i'm adam tuss. >> and i'm angie goff. good to have you back. you might want to have the winter coat if you're headed out to errands or perhaps church. and look who we brought into bring us the good news about a warm-up on the way hopefully. chuck bell, how you doing? >> i'm doing great. good morning, everybody. it's lonely out here with my buddy melissa mollett around, but i'll be