EXCHANGE: Businesses use programs to draw youth to tech

Develop a pool of talented kids who are interested in science, technology, engineering and math to fill the growing number of jobs for which such skills are necessary.

The students have done some impressive work there since the program formed in 1961, namely contribute a fiber-optics project that launched on Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

Today, McCain is helping the explorers learn programming and electronic circuit design with Arduino boards, which can be coded to make robots, talking clocks, garage door controllers and seemingly endless electronics.

Indiana employers say they have struggled to find enough qualified workers across the state to fill their jobs, which means they're often recruiting employees from other states or even other countries.

[...] a new push for STEM education_an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering and math_has sparked new interest in programs like Boy Scouts Exploring.

Many of Indianapolis' private and not-for-profit companies_big names that include Eli Lilly and Co. and Riley Hospital for Children_run Exploring posts to help high school students get a taste of careers in health care, computer science, architecture, pharmacy and dozens of other options.

The company is part of Change the Equation, a national coalition of Fortune 500 companies dedicated to increasing the number of qualified STEM majors and teachers that formed in response to a call in 2010 from President Barack Obama.

Obama asked the nation's educators and employers to develop and retain 100,000 STEM teachers and graduate an additional 1 million students with STEM majors over the next decade to help address what the U.S. Department of Education calls an "inadequate pipeline."

Officials at other companies, including Eli Lilly, say they believe an equally important goal of early STEM programs is providing exposure to help students make more informed decisions.

On a recent weeknight at Eli Lilly's high school engineering program, students were given a fictional budget of $100 to buy supplies to build a car that would be safe enough to transport an egg down a ramp without breaking it.