David Jackson

USA TODAY

Gadgets and experiments take center stage Tuesday as President Obama hosts the annual White House Science Fair.

The event honors the winners of competitions devoted to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

"The president will also announce new steps as part of his Educate to Innovate campaign, an all-hands-on-deck effort to get more girls and boys inspired to excel and to provide the support they need to succeed in these vital subjects," says the White House schedule.

Obama is expected to announce a new Education Department program in which school districts would compete for $35 million in STEM teacher training programs. The administration's goal is to train 100,000 educators in science technology, engineering and math.

Officials are also expanding the AmeriCorps program to help teach STEM subjects to 18,000 low-income students. A STEM mentoring project will be undertaken in seven communities: Chicago; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Allentown, Pa.; Indianapolis; the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina; and Wichita, Kan.

The president will review the winning science projects during a late morning event in the East Room.

Among them: A "concussion cushion" for football players, and a new car alarm that goes off when vehicles become too hot for people or animals.

In the afternoon, Obama will meet with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The conference with Hagel takes place a day before Obama delivers a major foreign policy address during commencement at the U.S. Military Academy.

One potential topic of that speech is the size of a small residual force in Afghanistan after U.S. combat operations end later there this year. Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan over the Memorial Day weekend.