Alumnus Chris Anderson’02 was asked by producers from the Steve Adubato Show,Caucus NJ if he’d like to be considered to participate in the first taping of a new series called “Conversations with Christie: A Citizens Focus Group.” They explained the premise would be to have regular citizens (as opposed to media personalities, heads of special interest groups or large corporations) meet Governor Christie for the first time and have candid discussions about whatever issues were on their minds.
When it came time for the taping, Anderson was well prepared. He asked the Governor if he valued the “T&E” in STEM as a relevant context for learning to apply the “M&S”, and if he valued related K-12 and higher education programs in Technology and Engineering as a way to attract the students and private sector STEM companies to one another, stopping the NJ “brain drain” and bolstering the NJ economy.
Christie responded by making a connection between his third grader at home and STEM education. He said that he realizes that integrated STEM courses driven by the T&E are what give kids a context for a lot of other learning and that his daughter needs such a class – so that she will stop asking him why she needs to know her arithmetic tables. He went on to state that while these types of courses are imperative, he would not ask for sweeping mandates for them through the NJDOE, but rather, good schools that already have good programs could be modeled by other schools and taxpayers should have the choice to send their students to those high performing schools.
After the interview Anderson stated “While I was never asked any questions about the slew of information I had studied for in preparation, I did get to raise awareness and discuss one or two issues in integrated STEM education. It was a pleasure to interact with Governor Christie, Steve Adubato and the other panelists, and I was humbled for being selected and afforded the opportunity to represent Gateway Regional High School and The College of New Jersey.”
Anderson has been teaching in the integrated STEM Field for the last nine years and his background is rooted in project-based learning and the design/engineering process. In the evening, he is an adjunct at The College of New Jersey where he teaches pedagogy, design and classroom management, as they relate to Integrated-STEM classrooms.