More than 50 participants on six FIRST teams brought robots to the Minnesota State Capitol building on Monday, February 26th to meet with senators and representatives during the annual STEM Advocacy Day. The recently-renamed event was previously called the Minnesota Advocacy Conference, which Team 1816-The Green Machine founded to teach more Minnesota Teams to advocate for FIRST and STEM to their elected officials.
1816 is an active advocate for after-school, mentor-based STEM activities like FIRST Robotics. The Team has developed relationships with Senator Melisa Franzen (DFL-49) and Representatives Dario Anselmo (R-49A) and Paul Rosenthal (DFL-49B)in order to advance this issue in the MN House and Senate.
At the Capitol during STEM Advocacy Day, Senator Franzen announced that she would be introducing a bill to the MN Senate, which will define STEM in the state of Minnesota, making it easier to allocate funds to STEM activities. At present, there is no MN legislative agreement on the definition of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
The MN Education Committee Chair, Jenifer Loon (R-48B), stopped by the meeting to announce that she is in full support of the bill, saying that “STEM is the future,” while Senate E-12 Finance Chair, Carla Nelson (R-36) added that “this bill will be getting a hearing.”
The Green Machine believes that the introduction of this bill will further the conversation about the definition about STEM in Minnesota. We are excited to partner with Senator Franzen and Representatives Anselmo and Rosenthal.