Choosing the path of least resistance has made Andy Zerr's journey much harder.

The Lindenwood University biology student did not know what career he wanted to pursue when he graduated from high school in 1995. He had taken only basic math and science classes, the minimum necessary for a diploma.

"In high school, I was not looking at the big picture," said Zerr, 34.

The picture quickly became clear in college after Zerr decided to pursue a biology degree. Those basic high school classes had not prepared him for college coursework.

"It put me behind the other students who had taken the advanced classes in high school," he said. "For them, the college classes were just a refresher. But I was learning it for the first time. I had to work harder."

Zerr found himself in over his head. Burned out, he quit college before finishing his degree. Zerr abandoned science and entered the construction industry. He got married and had two children.

Two years ago, Zerr began to reconsider his career path. The economy took a bite out of the construction business. Zerr saw his hours diminishing. At his wife's urging, he quit his job and returned to school. He has two more semesters to complete before receiving his bachelor's degree in biology.

Zerr said one of the reasons he hesitated to take advanced classes in high school was that he feared the more challenging coursework would hurt his grades, lowering his grade point average.

Erin Pugh, 21, had the same concerns as a Francis Howell Central High School student. She took only basic science classes, thinking she could ace them and preserve her high GPA. She already knew she wanted a science career, but graduated from Central in 2007 without taking any of the classes necessary to prepare her.

Now Pugh is pursuing a bachelor's degree in biology at Lindenwood. Because she did not take advanced classes earlier, she is one year behind in meeting her prerequisites. Because she lacked a solid foundation in high school math and science, she has found the college courses all the more difficult, she said.

"I didn't know how much science classes build on each other until I got here," Pugh said.

Educators are trying to make sure high school students get the message — slacking off on math and science now will only make it harder on themselves later.

Travis Bracht, curriculum director for the Francis Howell School District, said the message can be a tough sell.

Though Francis Howell offers advanced math and science courses throughout high school, students usually take them in their junior and senior years, he said. One year after graduation, the district follows up with students to find out how they are doing and survey what they thought about their high school experience.

"It always comes back that they wish they had taken more challenging math and science courses," Bracht said. "Hindsight is 20/20. You can never go wrong by taking harder coursework. We need to help them understand that they still have the power to make those decisions as juniors and seniors."

When it is time to sign up for classes, guidance counselors try to convince students of the benefits of taking more rigorous courses, Bracht said. The district distributes information that teachers can use to persuade students, he said.

"If you choose harder courses in high school, you will not have to pay to take remedial courses in college," he said.

Partners for Progress, a coalition of St. Charles County business and community leaders, has established a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiative to encourage more students to pursue math and science careers.

The group is working with Lindenwood to launch a public awareness campaign promoting the need for students to take math and science classes throughout all four years of high school.

The campaign will launch in March 2012. In 2009, the Missouri Legislature designated the first week of March as STEM Week.

Randy Schilling, president of the St. Charles-based technology firm Candlestiq, chairs the Partners for Progress education committee. Schilling said the United States has to change the culture of education if it hopes to compete with countries like India and China in the 21st century global economy.

"We focus on football and basketball and athletics," Schilling said. "In India, they celebrate kids who are doing well in science and mathematics. They take academic competition very seriously."

The 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment, released in December 2010, compared math, science and reading performance among 15-year-old students in 34 countries. The United States ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading, behind countries like China, South Korea and Singapore.

Schilling said he has seen firsthand how the United States' lack of emphasis on math and science has made college graduates less competitive in the workplace.

In 1992, Schilling founded Quilogy, an IT consulting company. He sold it two years ago to Aspect. At its peak, Quilogy employed 520 people in 18 offices. As the company grew, it became harder to find software developers and programmers, Schilling said.

"As time progressed, more and more of them came from India," he said. "They would get their undergraduate degree in India and come here to get their master's. We became more of a global workforce, hiring international students from Nepal and Russia."

When the dot-com bubble burst in 1999, some U.S. students might have felt hesitant to enter the computer field, Schilling said. Today, parents might be contributing to students' trepidation toward STEM education, he said.

"Maybe these kids' parents are not comfortable with math and science," Schilling said. "Maybe they are not capable or comfortable helping their kids when they have trouble with homework."

Counteracting the cultural resistance, Partners for Progress is supporting several STEM initiatives in area schools, including FIRST Robotics teams, Singapore Math in the Wentzville and Orchard Farm school districts, the Transforming Teaching Through Technology (T3) program in the Francis Howell district, and the Education Foundation in the Fort Zumwalt district.

Another program is Project Lead the Way, an engineering and science education initiative that began in New York and spread to school districts across the country, including the Wentzville School District.

Vince Redman teaches the Project Lead the Way curriculum at Wentzville Holt High School, where he is also the FIRST Robotics coach. Redman said Wentzville four years ago became the first district in St. Charles County to be nationally certified to teach the Project Lead the Way curriculum, offering high school students college credit courses in science and engineering.

"A lot of kids hear the word 'engineering' and get intimidated," Redman said. "We show kids that they can do it, too. We build their confidence and show them how fun learning can be."

Redman's students use scientific methods to solve complex engineering problems, such as building a machine that uses light sensors to automatically sort different colored marbles and place them in assigned containers.

The students work in small groups during the regular daily class period. Last week, Redman's students assembled test beds to learn how to operate various sensors and switches. They will use this knowledge to solve assigned problems, such as building a machine to sort trash. The students must first understand how the sensors detect weight, density and other factors.

Junior Drake Mossengren, 17, worked with senior Curtis Wilder, 17, to construct a test bed. They will build a machine, then use a software program to teach it how to perform functions.

Both Drake and Curtis are taking advanced placement science and math classes. Drake said his parents drive him to take more challenging classes.

"I was taking algebra in eighth grade when other kids were taking basic math," Drake said. "In elementary school, it was usual for me to be with the smarter kids. That's how I grew up."

Curtis said he took a test in sixth grade that placed him in advanced math classes.

"As you get to the higher levels, kids get weeded out for ambition and intelligence," he said. "I've never shied away from harder classes. The harder it gets, the more challenging it is."