The presidential election last week surprised everyone, delighted some, and confounded quite a few.

Wherever you landed on this spectrum post-election day, as teachers, there is one thing that we can all agree on: that we must work even harder now to ensure that our students—all students—have the necessary tools and the opportunities to develop critical thinking skills so they can make informed decisions.

We know that what you do will probably get a lot harder in the years ahead, with expected challenges to standards and key science concepts such as climate science and evolution. Working together, we must make it clear that we are teaching a nation of citizens how to think like scientists to solve problems and understand how the natural world works. We need to make sure all students have the tools to assess what is reported on the news, to process medical information, and to understand the challenges ahead.

Effective STEM education will also prepare students for the jobs President-Elect Trump has talked so much about. In your classroom right now sits the future workforce and the next generation of engineers who will improve our standard of living in the years ahead and ensure our national security with technologies we cannot even begin to imagine.

But for this to happen, the federal government must continue to make strategic investments in the K–12 STEM education critical to the foundation of our future workforce, our national security, and our science- and technology-literate society.

Several months ago at the STEM Forum in Denver, teachers and teacher leaders told us what they would like to see in the new Administration. With this information in hand, I brought together the executive directors of nine education organizations to craft this transition document for STEM education, which was recently sent to the Trump transition team. Take a minute to read this document and tell us what you think.

Science teachers, it’s time to put on our capes and get to work. NSTA will be with you, every step of the way.

Dr. David L. Evans is the Executive Director of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Reach him via e-mail at devans@nsta.org or via Twitter @devans_NSTA.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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