Few Americans may know about the Grand Challenges for Engineering--from making solar energy affordable to ensuring access to clean water--but the students at a new school on the campus of North Carolina State University are getting to know them firsthand. The set of 21st-century challenges, devised by the National Academy of Engineering, serves as a frame and inspiration for the curriculum at this school, one of a relatively small but rapidly growing number of STEM-focused schools cropping up across the country. At a time of heightened national attention to improving education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the development of such schools has gained momentum as a strategy to boost knowledge and interest in the subjects. While STEM schools historically have tended to target the top math and science students in a state or district, the new wave appears to have a broader reach, with many of the schools aimed especially at serving groups underrepresented in the STEM fields, such as African-American, Hispanic, female, and low-income students. Just this academic year, new STEM schools have opened in a number of states, including Arizona, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee. These highly selective schools are casting a wider net to develop the talent of girls, minorities, and disadvantaged students.