STEM

The first full week of May is Public Service Recognition Week—a time to honor the dedicated people who serve our country every day. USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area is home to more than 8,500 public servants, who are some of the best and brightest mind in agriculture...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) celebrates engineers and their significant role in agricultural research, land conservation, and the preservation of our forests, lakes, and grasslands during Engineers Week (February 19-25). Engineers and engineering technicians of all disciplines work with...

Military-connected youth have an exciting opportunity to join other members of the military family this summer. These residential and day camps will develop skills and teach the campers new techniques that will help prepare them to be productive citizens.

“It felt a little buzzy,” said Lily Meritt, 7, a Daisy Girl Scout from Montgomery County, Maryland. She watched hungry mosquitoes through a plexiglass container as a USDA research scientist talked about pests that love to bug people. Lily and other D.C.-area Girl Scouts visited USDA headquarters to...

Many kids gaze up into the night’s sky and dream of touching the stars. Peggy Whitson, NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station, turned that dream into reality. Whitson grew up in the small town of Beaconsfield, Iowa, completing standard chores like mowing the lawn and caring...

National 4-H Week happens each October, a time when nearly six million youth celebrate their participation in 4-H. Every year, clubs around the country showcase the great things that 4-H offers young people and highlight the incredible things they do to make a positive impact in their communities...

We are entering a new era of information openness and transparency. Open data has the potential to spur economic innovation and social transformation. Focusing just on economic impacts, in 2013, for example, the consulting firm McKinsey estimated the possible global value of open data to be over $3...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. If America is to maintain its role as a global leader, it needs to develop more world-class talent in science, technology...

Gracie Valdez explains how traveling around the world helped her to want to pursue a career in international agricultural development and trade. Growing up, the question of the day often started with “why” or “how” because I loved discovering things. Though my specific interests morphed from...

The link between agriculture, science, and engineering is quite simple. Whether you live in a rural or urban setting, those three components work together to make a more sustainable environment. Thousands of students had the chance to learn about that and more, April 15-17 at the 4 th Annual Science...