Join our hosts the week of May 21 for a Virtual Roundtable discussion on STEM Education:
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Karen Harper |
Randy Guschl |
Addressing STEM education and the role it has in fostering next-generation innovators is one of the core challenges in our education agenda today. Galvanizing internal support, transforming the role of the teacher, and developing hands-on, inquiry-based curriculum are some of the conversations that must be addressed to encourage proliferation of STEM education.
Expand your knowledge and network! Join this week-long discussion to exchange topical ideas with your peers and our panel of guest experts and innovators.
23 Responses to Virtual Roundtable: Does STEM Education Create Critical Thinkers and Next-Generation Innovators?
STEM education creates critical thinkers and enables the next generation of innovators. Innovators who can lead us to the development of new products and process that will sustain our economy.
• How do we galvanize support in our organizations to foster STEM education?
• What are the elements needed to develop good hands-on inquiry based pedagogy?
• How can we support teachers to foster that linkage between STEM education and job opportunities?
I was particularly struck by your question of galvanizing support for STEM education in our own organizations. I think that is right, but I would also suggest that perhaps it goes beyond our own organizations. In fact, the question might be how do we galvanize our organizations to be leaders in securing support for STEM education more broadly – beyond the “usual suspects”; those already on board. How do we dispel myths that STEM is only for “the smart kids” or for future scientists and engineers, but rather core to literacy in the modern world?
The significant attention given to STEM provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to reimagine STEM education. While historically the teacher has been a primary point source for information and students were recipients, that is no longer an option in the information era. Technology and a wide array of partners outside the confines of the school day offer rich – and accessible – resource to both broaden and deepen access to information, experiences, and relationships that can be transformational for students. Despite the wealth of resources available we have few systems set up to take full advantage of them.
What could model partnerships look like that connect students and teachers with community, university, or industry partners in deep and systemic ways?
What might the teaching profession look like to enable them to be faciliators of student learning, as well as connectors to STEM outside the boundaries of the school staff?
What changes are we willing to make – and risks are we willing to take – to enable these kind of partnerships to form and for teachers and administrators to be supported in making those changes?
Carolyn those are beautiful questions as they frame the new era of education in context of our 21st century age of communication and technology innovation. Our ability to look at the inductive capacity available through the convergence of workforce readiness, critical thinking and the core building block subject matter fund in the Common Core State Standards will help to create a generation of students able to handle the demands of constant change.
For us at the Council partnerships take the form of stakeholders. We strive to create a relationship value chain that works to honor each stakeholder, working to improve not fix the situation. When we work to interface with school and university systems we start with respect and compassion. We recognize that our need for change is not at odds with our educators it is merely a symptom. Industry does have a different tool set to offer and our approach is to recognize that the first order of business is to assess where our motives and outcomes are in alignment; not that some of our tools don’t fit the legal and traditional models that are sometimes restrained by Federal assessment requirements not school system desire. We also understand that the rate of change inside the education environment is not the same rate of change experienced in the market place. Managing expectations between our corporate members and the education system is very a very important component to partnership success.
School reform is already in motion and from our perspective there needs to be greater emphasis on providing the necessary context for our teachers. We are working with school systems and University partners to provide teachers more hands on experience inside the walls of our member companies so they have a better understanding about what jobs are available and how they can impact student learning by giving real examples of how their education plan relates to the real world. Teachers need to be exposed to current technology tools and be able to apply them in their school settings. This cannot be accomplished simply by the school system purchasing product. Industry needs to work hand in hand to demonstrate what a “day in the life” looks like for a potential employee.
Finally we need to first promote within our respective industries what is at risk if we cannot radically change how we connect with our education partners. Our students are our assets. For us at the National Minority Technology Council we take education and STEM very seriously. There are over 65,000 minority technology companies with over 9,000 in our member database. Our ability to empower our urban community partners and facilitate education reform is not a casual affair. When 50% of African American boys are dropping out of school and our prisons are being filled with minorities at a disproportionate number education reform is not a passive desire but a critical link to our specific industry growth. I congratulate you on you enlightened perspective and remain faithful to our joint efforts in creating sustainable and cooperative change in the US and abroad.
Karl Cureton
Chairman
National Minority Technology Council
http://www.nmtcouncil.org
Karl, Thank you so much for the thoughtful and well-stated response. I was captivatethed by your description of the value and challenges of partnerships, and the particular nuances within the unique cultures of K12, higher education, and industry that must be tended for partnerships to be successful. And, no where is this work more important that in our communities of African American youth. Here at Washington STEM we recently hosted an event, We Are STEM, for STEM professionals of color from graduate students, to researchers, to industry leaders. We had over 150 attend and many are looking to get involved in partnership to support those very vulnerable populations. I wonder if you – or others reading – might weigh in with some examples of successful partnerships and how they were forged as well as how you provide opportunity for engagemeng with those 9000 members in your database. How have you channeled their talent and passion in effective and impactful ways?
We need to start reaching children early. Aiming to give children tools and experiences in as many areas of engineering as possible will allow them to get a taste of all areas. A hands-on engineering and STEM focus will give students a technological and critical-thinking advantage when they move forward in education.
STEM education keeps students engaged in the learning process while the relevance of what they are learning helps them relate it to various situations,and they have the ability to accomplish this all through a
cooperative learning experience. The key is how this program models real-world experiences while meeting students where they are mathematically and then developing their skills and knowledge.
No doubt STEM experiences can and should begin at an early age. This is a particularly timely question in our current policy landscape. While there is much debate, many claim that accountability in math and reading have lead to a “shrunken” curriculum that leaves little room for science instruction, let alone exploring how engineering and technology fit into that schema. An unfortunate and unintended consequence of emerging STEM efforts is a polarazation from the reading and arts community. There is a sense that if you are supporting STEM, you are not supporting arts, or reading…or whatever else is perceive as separate from “STEM”. I wonder what messages could be communicated to dispel this notion? I also wonder what tools and supports teachers really need to enact a curriculum that leverages science, engineering and technology while also building their skills across other domains? What promising models exist that we can learn from? What evidence is there to support their impact and effectiveness?
Across the country, there are educators pioneering great things just waiting to be discovered and shared. At Washington STEM through our Entrepreneur Investments, we’re supporting support educators to explore, take risks, pilot new ideas, and generate solutions that can spread statewide. This question of starting early reminded me of two investments we have made. One is building engineering ideas for preschool students who feed into Seattle Public Schools (http://www.washingtonstem.org/grantee-profiles.asp?gdx=23. The other integrates robotics into an open concept classroom for fifth graders (http://www.washingtonstem.org/grantee-profiles.asp?gdx=7). Check out their profiles and their blogs to learn more.
Since STEM the main conduit by which knowledge enters the workforce, how can STEM education be leveraged in a way that levels the playing field on both a micro (district) and macro (global) scale?
Mitch, you’ve piqued my curiousity with your question. But, can you say a bit more about what you mean by leveling the playing field? What are the areas that you think are most out of balance?
Whether compared across neighborhoods in a major metro area or between first- and third-world education, there is a well documented and discussed “technology gap”. Is it safe to assume that this gap results in a less enriching STEM education? If so, how can leaders ensure students in those situations are prepared to enter an increasingly knowledge-based work force?
Great questions, Mitch. I’m hoping others more familiar with the research on impacts of technology will weigh in here. My hunch is that yes, the technology gap is a barrier to effective STEM education. That said, the question is how significant is that barrier relative to others. Experiments with just providing technology to schools and classrooms have been consistently underwhelming. There is more to the technology gap than just the tools which I suspect is tied with teacher knowledge and comfort in using those tools, as well as the extent to which existing instructional resources demonstrate clear and meaningful applications of that technology in support of learning.
Reducing the technology barrier is a worthy endeavor, but when we look to gaps in performance between affluent and impoverished communities, all too often these gaps stem from low expectations of students, a culture that does not believe all students can achieve, underprepared teachers and high turnover. Technology will not solve those cultural barries. I would encourage you to take a look at the remarkable gains made at a small school district in Neah Bay in the heart of the Makah Reservation, for an amazing example of how high expectations, effective instruction and leadership – and appropriate use of technology – created a success story that is truly a model for the nation. (http://www.washingtonstem.org/grantee-profiles.asp?gdx=12)
I’ll jump in and simply answer the second question. After years of many good people doing many good things to help improve STEM education, we all gravitated to hands on inquiry based STEM education taught be teachers who have learned from the same tools. After decades of supporting many programs, Dupont focused on this and went with the NSRC ( National Science Resource Center) which has a five point program to do this with proven tools, teacher training in the center and a commitment to systemic reform of the whole district. It worked in Delaware and other variations at other sites where we worked with NSRC to deliver the model. Carolyn, isn’t this part of Washington as well?
Randy: What criteria did you use to decide on NSRC? How long have you implemented and what type of outcomes have you seen so far?
STEM education is best implemented when it is integrated. Seymour Papert in 1991 wrote much about the benefits of inter-disciplinary project work to create a better understanding — and interest – of concepts. In 2010 Steve Jobs displayed a sign post at one of his Apple keynote addresses where he placed Liberal Arts at the centre of everything Apple does.
How is STEM education in USA ensuring that an integrative – constructionist – approach is implemented please?
Kind regards,
Michael Vallance,
Information Science educator, Japan.
Michael, Agreed. Curricular integration is so critical
From the National Policy side of things, the K-12 Common Core State Standards are a good example of applying this integrated approach on the aggregate in the US. These standards in Math and English endeavor to increase integration by embracing higher order skills – which tend to involve the application of knowledge from diverse subject areas. Additionally, CCSS hold the potential of (and already have in some cases) increasing post-secondary and industry participation through alignment with skills desired competencies in those contexts.
Standards are important, however, in practice, successful curricular integration will largely depend on what happens at the micro level: in the classroom and at the district level. Critical in this area:
1) Innovative curriculum and adequate resources for schools.
2) Strong Pedagogical and content area training for teachers.
3) Financial and Political Support for and programs that engage students out of school time in STEM so that students are engaged beyond the school day.
Michael, thank you for your comment. Hope this is of use to you and all and welcome feedback or additions.
Ted’s made some great points about integration. The new standards are on the right track with creating more connections and leading toward integrated approaches. But as Ted said, the devil is in the details. We are investing in standards, and we are investing in assessments to measure progress toward those standards. It remains unclear how resources will be allocated to provide the support systems to be successful in enacting those standards. Few if any existing instructional materials support an integrative approach. One also has to ask about the design and nature of typical course offerings and how well-suited our typical discipline departments are to take an integrated approach.
At the end of the day, the real work happens at the interface between students and teachers. Whether one advocates for integration or not, the challenges we face in preparing, actively supporting, and retaining a strong teacher corps remain. Few teachers experienced that kind of instruction required by common core as students themselves, or through teacher preparation or professional development. So, there is a big pedagogical shift to support, in addition to the content knowledge demands. Our education system values teacher time when they are engaged with students, but undervalues time spent engaging with peers or forging partnerships with resources outside the school setting. As a consequence teachers have little time to plan, reflect, connect, or learn. The current wave of policies will undoubtedly need to be followed with a second wave to create enabling conditions that will foster success at the classroom level.
There are models of promising practices emerging across the country to demonstrate what such an integrated and constructivist approach could look like. Here in Washington state we are investing in a couple of school-based efforts. One is the TAF Academy, a 6th-12th grade STEM-focused small school model formed in partnership with public school districts to prepare students for college and careers. TAF uses a project-based curriculum focused on college readiness, STEM and civic engagement. (http://www.washingtonstem.org/grantee-profiles.asp?gdx=5). We are also investing in Sammamish High School, a large, comprehensive high school. Sammamish aims to deploy a project-based pedagogy and infuse STEM across the curriculum to increase graduates’ readiness to compete in a global workforce. (http://www.washingtonstem.org/grantee-profiles.asp?gdx=2). We’ll be following these investments, and other efforts around the country, to see what we can learn and share with the field.
Hi everyone!
My name is Oscar Pedroso, entrepreneur and founder of a fun startup called GradFly. We are based out of Rochester, NY and we recently took 3rd place at Startup Weekend a few weeks ago and have agreed to continue pursuing the idea. The idea addresses a few challenges in the STEM world and we’d love to learn as much as we can about bridging the gap between students, communities, universities, and employers – everything STEM of course!
We were hoping we could meet or chat with someone who could hear our idea out and see whether there are ways we can work together.
In a nutshell, GradFly will help high school STEM students research college programs by pooling social media streams from various STEM programs in one place. So for example, instead of researching a biomedical engineering program at the University of Rochester on sites like Facebook, youtube, twitter, and tumblr, users will have access to these feeds on our site, in one place in real time. Over time, we hope to expand this platform by becoming a resource for colleges and employers and create all types of opportunities to fill STEM positions. I was wondering whether anyone would be open to chatting with us about our idea and leveraging what we’re trying to do to fulfill a need. In general, we love ideas so we’re always looking for ways to think outside the box. We’re also new at this and we are happy to start somewhere!
I’ve been reading the conversations over the last few days and I can tell there’s so much going on out there and we are excited to build something that will change the way people view STEM. If anyone could point us in a direction, we’d be grateful.
Thanks everyone!
Oscar
Oscar- great idea and congrats on your success at Startup Weekend. I work with STEMconnector and we have lots of social media links already compiled for organizations in our Directory at STEMconnector.Org. I think my email is public on here- so shoot me an email and we’d love to hear more about your idea.
I think the third question is quite important right now. Creating a clear linkage to studied materials and careers and promoting STEM careers as a pathway to realizing the American Dream is a critical message our education system’s front line must instill in students. Other than site visits and externships, what are some ideas for keeping teachers tied into what is happening in the hiring world so that they have a clear and sustainable tie to workforce trends and skill shifts?
Thoughts?
Our goal is to create systematic change in how urban school systems relate to STEM workforce readiness, parent engagement and community economic empowerment. The Council has impacted the Capital City Program at Success Schools serving the students of Richmond Public Schools, proving that mutual respect coupled with input from the Minority Technology Industry enables a transformative spirit of cooperation and creativity. The Council’s Richmond District Leadership is teaming with Educational Leaders to facilitate measurable growth in STEM education. The Council’s ability to inspire and empower has led one Principal to create a 9th Grade Coed STEM Academy starting next fall. We have already brought two member companies to this particular school. Both are working to bring jobs to parents and the Hub Zone community surrounding the school. Here is a link to a recent newsletter from the school.
Carolyn
This was in response to your question above. Sorry it was not inserted in the thread.