Ensuring that every student can thrive in the regional STEM economy
Our work revolves around four pillars of STEM education:
Integrating Business and Education
to provide authentic STEM experiences for students and teachers
Registration for Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Is Open
Registration is now open for the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition, launching the 28th year of the world's largest K-12 science competition! Student participants will have a chance to win a number of great prizes, including $10,000 U.S. Series EE Saving Bonds (at maturity). Learn more and register by February 10, 2020.
www.nsta.org/about/pressroom.aspx?id=60394&utm_source=realmagnet&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Name%2...
stemteachingtools.org/brief/35
How can I foster curiosity and learning in my classroom? Through talk! : StemTeachingTools
Learning happens through talking. And yet, student talk typically makes up less than 20% of the time spent in science class, and of that small amount of time, very little is focused on student sensemaking. However, specific instructional approaches—or ‘talk activities’—can be used to support...GIS users group
The MiCAMP conference just ended yesterday. This conference was focused on geospatial information systems and how it is used in government, business and industry. We were recruiting organizations to support our GIS students through paid internships.
STEM Career Awareness Podcasts
STEM career awareness is important for students. A number of teachers told us they use podcasts in their classrooms. We started Superheroes of Science, a podcast intended to highlight careers in STEM fields. Particularly, careers of current researching scientists. Find links to the podcast below. Please let us know how you use podcasts, and if the direction of this podcast would meet the needs of your STEM classroom.
iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/superheroes-of-science/id1478159887
Google Play: play.google.com/music/m/I5fqneaqydthqpmd27krmkcbuem?t=Superheroes_of_Science
Steven Smith
K-12 Outreach Coordinator
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Purdue University
550 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907
www.eaps.purdue.edu/outreach
Superheroes of Science on Apple Podcasts
Education · 2019No More Science Kits or Texts in Isolation: Teaching Science and Literacy Together
It is common to engage students in the process of science, using mostly hands-on activities, and equally common to provide students with only science knowledge through mostly text-based experiences. Neither of these approaches is authentic to how scientists make sense of the world. Both fail to connect those experiences to the larger purpose of science.
This book may be useful:
www.amazon.com/More-Science-Kits-Texts-Isolation/dp/0325112320/ref=sr_1_2?crid=IVUPP575JCOE&keywo...
In this book Jacquey and Gina show you why, and how integrating science and literacy instruction supports students' understanding of and engagement in both.
Using research as their guide, Jacquey and Gina show you how to integrate science and literacy learning in a way that reflects the authentic ways scientists work. The authors have identified three key principles supporting this integration:
Principle #1: Frame student investigations with a scientific purpose.
Principle #2: Integrate "hands-on" science with literacy to support science learning.
Principle #3: Help students engage with text in science.
Throughout the book, they describe research that supports each principle and share examples of effective integration in the classroom that enhance students' science learning, reading and writing growth, and motivation.
To avoid the trap of textbook-only science or inquiry-only science, we need to aim for synergy - engaging students in using firsthand experiences and text-based experiences as connected parts of investigating questions about the natural world
No More Science Kits or Texts in Isolation: Teaching Science and Literacy Together
It is common to engage students in the process of science, using mostly hands-on activities, and equally common to provide students with only science knowledge through mostly text-based experiences. Neither of these approaches is authentic to how scientists make sense of the world. Both fail to c...How do you improve your students literacy proficiency?
Teach Science and Social Studies
youtu.be/LAWO2lvAnjI
Important: Artificial Intelligence Professional Learning
Artificial Intelligence will be a definite part of our student's lives and career options. This professional learning opportunity will help you bring it to your students.
This may be the only time we will be able to offer this support this year. The PL provider is located out of state and funding may not be available to subsidize this learning in the future.
Date: October 8
Time: 8:30am–2:30pm
Cost: $10
Especially for: 3rd–8th grade
teachers and leaders
(especially with interest in family
engagement or STEM clubs,
leadership, etc.)
Registration:
www.solutionwhere.com/ww/Aspx/Public/Search/ShowCourse.aspx?courseNum=5589&cId=78&pcId=0
What do you think?
Article: Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong
In the early grades, U.S. schools value reading-comprehension skills over knowledge. The results are devastating, especially for poor kids.
What if the medicine we have been prescribing is only making matters worse, particularly for poor children? What if the best way to boost reading comprehension is not to drill kids on discrete skills but to teach them, as early as possible, the very things we’ve marginalized—including history, science, and other content that could build the knowledge and vocabulary they need to understand both written texts and the world around them?
...in a small number of American schools, things are beginning to change. A few years ago, there was no such thing as an elementary literacy curriculum that focused on building knowledge. Now there are several, including a few available online at no cost. Some have been adopted by entire school districts—including... Detroit—
... And yet, there is evidence—on a large scale—that this kind of elementary curriculum can reduce inequality, thanks to an unintentional experiment conducted in France. As E. D. Hirsch Jr. explains in his book Why Knowledge Matters, until 1989, all French schools were required to adhere to a detailed, content-focused national curriculum. If a child from a low-income family started public preschool at age 2, by age 10, she would have almost caught up to a highly advantaged child who had started at age 4. Then a new law encouraged elementary schools to adopt the American approach, foregrounding skills such as “critical thinking” and “learning to learn.” The results were dramatic. Over the next 20 years, achievement levels decreased sharply for all students—and the drop was greatest among the neediest.
amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/592765/
Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong
In the early grades, U.S. schools value reading-comprehension skills over knowledge. The results are devastating, especially for poor kids.Blakes cider mill in Michigan has a production facility that hires stem professionals.
STEM support for local businesses
It’s Fall in Michigan and many people are heading out to the Cidermill’s. Are there stem jobs involved?
Blakes cider mill has a host of stem careers that hire our local talent. They have a production facility that produces hard cider and ships it out to 19 different states. There are many stem opportunities for local talent.
What STEM disciplines might be involved in a production facility like this one in our tri-county area? Agri-Science? Agricultural Engineers? Mechanical Engineers? Industrial Engineers? What about production technicians? Maintenance? There are even wind turbines on the property... others?