Archive for Education Innovation

US2020 Initiative Launched

April 24, 2013 shannon Education Innovation, STEM Careers, STEM Education

The Boston-based non-profit Citizen Schools has long been working with corporate partners to bring exciting STEM experiences into the classroom and give students access to STEM professionals.  Now, Citizen Schools will working with corporations on the US2020 project with the goal of having 1 million STEM professionals mentoring K12, college, and graduate students throughout their careers by the year 2020.  In addition to changing the landscape of STEM education by giving students these opportunities, they also hope to change the workplace for those in STEM careers by making volunteering a common occurrence. Citizen Schools will be incubating this project until June 2014.  Cisco, Cognizant, and SanDisk are the founding corporate partners.

~Shannon Morey

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Project Based Learning: The Fifth Academic Class

April 18, 2013 editor Education Innovation

MSSEF received notification of an opportunity through the UMass STEM Ed Institute that we thought we’d share with “Inquiry First” readers.  Mohawk Trail High School has been a long-time participant in the Massachusetts State Science Fair program.

The UMass STEM Ed Institute Tuesday Seminar Series presents:
Wayne Kermenski
Science Teacher, Mohawk Trail Regional School District
Project Based Learning, the Fifth Academic Class

A few years back, Mohawk Trail Regional Middle School created a course entitled, Project Based Learning or PBL.  It became one of five academic classes for middle school students.  The goals for this course included inquiry-based projects that enforced skills students learned in their other courses.  In addition, the course was responsible for implementing social curriculum, math and reading literacy remediation, and authentic learning opportunities.  The benefits from this course included an increase in student attendance, a well-rounded education for our students, and a letter of acknowledgement from the Governor for our achievement in our MCAS math scores.  Come find out about this dynamic course and learn what has been
successful for us.

STEM seminars are held at 4PM on the first and third Tuesdays of each month during the academic year in Hasbrouck 138. Everyone is welcome; no reservations are needed, and there is no charge. Parking is available in the Campus Center Garage.

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MIT Hosts Education Design-a-Thon

March 15, 2013 shannon Creativity and Innovation, Education Innovation, Engineering

On March 9th and 10th, MIT Mechanical Engineering Professor David Wallace and the MIT Office of Digital Learning hosted the Education Design-a-thon, an education hacking event for MIT students and anyone interested in education.  Organizations posed challenges and attendees chose one project to work on throughout the 32-hour event.

Projects ranged from the purely virtual — video games teaching computer program cell phone apps to help dropouts resume their education — to the extremely tactile: robotic drawing arms and hands-on tools to help teachers design curriculum.

~Shannon Morey

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A Million More STEM Grads Needed Over Next Decade, White House Says

December 19, 2012 editor Education Innovation, Girls, Women, and Minorities in STEM, STEM Education

We already knew that the demand for STEM graduates was on the rise to meet the demands of a changing economy, but recently the White House put a big number on how critical the demand really is.

Last week, the Obama Administration designated the effort to increase the number of undergrads with degrees in STEM fields as a Cross-Agency Priority goal.  According to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, this means that the effort is, “one of a limited number of such articulated goals designed to focus cross-agency coordination and encourage sharing of best practices among agencies with complementary missions.”

Initially, at least, the CAP goal to increase STEM graduates will focus on five “areas of opportunity”:

  • improving STEM teaching and attracting students to STEM courses;
  • offering meaningful opportunities for students to engage in STEM research early in their college careers;
  • improving mathematics preparation so that students enter college with adequate math skill to tackle science classes;
  • supporting women and minorities in STEM education;
  • identifying and supporting educational innovation.

See on www.whitehouse.gov

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Somerville High School Physics Teacher Michael Maloney Wins Cubist Educator of the Week!

October 3, 2012 editor Education Innovation

Michael Maloney, Assistant Director of the Massachusetts Region IV Science Fair, received “Educator of the Week” honors at the Sunday, September 30 Patriots football game through Cubist Pharmaceuticals’ Science Education Leadership Award program.

According to Somerville High School Assistant Principal Sebastian LaGambina, who nominated Mike for the honor, “Michael is an absolutely fabulous physics teacher… probably the best educator I’ve seen in almost 30 years of education.”

Mike’s recent accomplishments include:

  • Developing an ePortfolio template that will be implemented school-wide, in which all 1,300 students will have an electronic portfolio for displaying their best work.
  • Spending many hours of his own time developing a resource page to assist teachers and students with their ePortfolios.
  • Developing an honors-level Engineering course that has more than 40 students enrolled.
  • Serving as advisor to both the Science League Advisor and the Yearbook Advisor.
  • Mentoring physics interns from Tufts University.

Throughout the Patriots football season, a “Teacher of the Week” will be recognized and have his/her name read on-air during the New England Patriots radio broadcast. At the end of the season, one of these teachers will be selected as the recipient of the Cubist Science Education Leadership Award and win $5,000 for the teacher’s school science department.

Congratulations, Mike on this well-deserved honor!

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To Strengthen Science, Bring Back Grammar

August 29, 2012 editor Education Innovation, Science Fairs

Randolph-Macon College English Professor Thomas Peyser makes an interesting case for the importance of STEM students having a strong foundation in grammar in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.  “…we can be confident that the abandonment of instruction in grammar is robbing us not just of future writers but of future scientists, physicians and engineers as well,” he writes.

With more and more emphasis on STEM education and less and less on grammar, the gap seems to be widening dangerously.  Scientists use words, sentences, and paragraphs to communicate, just as writers do.  Furthermore, STEM studies require students to distill complex sentences for comprehension.  Without an ample grasp on the fundamentals of grammar, students find themselves at a disadvantage on both the expressive and receptive sides of the communication equation.

One of the key benefits of science fairs is the opportunity they provide for multi-disciplinary learning. A student’s skills as writer, designer, and speaker all come in to play during the science fair process — excellent practice for real-world science.  “Engineers and scientists must be competent readers, writers and speakers of syntactically complex sentences,” Peyser points out. “That is why the English classroom is an important stop on the road to the lab, the clinic and the drafting table. Good grammar isn’t rocket science, but students can’t become rocket scientists without it.”
See on www2.timesdispatch.com

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Awards Available for Innovations in Game-Based Learning

August 8, 2012 editor Education Innovation

As games gain popularity among students as an education delivery method, the Department of Education has jumped on board with awards that focus on game-based learning education technology products.  The Institute of Education Sciences — the research arm of the Department of Education — announced a new round of awards, many of which focus on game-based learning products.  Phase I awards provide support to the tune of up to $150K for prototype development.  Phase II awards will kick in next year in amounts reaching $900K over two years.

Education gaming experts say that well-designed games are motivating for students and by presenting discovery-based tasks, encourage critical thinking skills.  One project currently in the funding cycle is Game-enhanced Interactive Life Science — a suite of five life-science games.  Their purpose is to boost understanding  of the scientific inquiry process among middle school students and students with disabilities.
See on www.ed.gov

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Merging Arts and Science Education

August 2, 2012 editor Education Innovation

Integrating the arts into STEM education can have powerful effects on student performance. According to the National Endowment for the Arts in its 2012 report, “The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth,” “Eighth graders who had high levels of arts engagement from kindergarten through elementary school showed higher test scores in science and writing than did students who had lower levels of arts engagement over the same period.” Wolf Trap’s Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts in Vienna, Virginia, is going full STEAM ahead with a full slate of programs designed to infuse art into the curriculum. Wolf Trap’s senior director of education, Akua Kouyate, is leading the organization’s charge into the classroom. “If we think historically about how that has always been a part of learning, why would we stop it?” she said. “Why would we deny our children that which will allow them to really contribute significantly in the future?” Here’s more about Wolf Trap’s Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts:

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Food for Thought: Teaching Teachers About the Brain

July 30, 2012 editor Creativity and Innovation, Education Innovation

How’s this for a useful application of science: An interesting post by Dr. Judy Willis in Edutopia makes the case for teachers having a foundation in neuroscience.  A neurologist herself, as well as a teacher, Dr. Willis says, “Teachers who are prepared with knowledge of the workings of the brain will have the optimism, incentive and motivation to follow the ongoing research, and to apply their findings to the classroom.”  She goes on to say, “These teachers can help all children build their brain potential — regardless of past performance — bridge the achievement gap, and reach their highest 21st century potential starting now.”  Dr. Willis’s argument makes good sense.  As she points out, if teachers understood the impact of stress on a student’s classroom performance, or knew more about how the brain processes and stores information, wouldn’t such knowledge have great potential to result in a better classroom experience for all students?
See on www.edutopia.org

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Obama Proposes STEM Master Teacher Corps

July 19, 2012 editor Education Innovation, STEM Education

A $1 billion plan announced by President Obama yesterday would provide for the creation of a corps of exemplary “master teachers” in STEM subjects who would lend their expertise to mentoring other teachers in all 50 states. In exchange, each teacher would receive a salary boost of $20,000 annually. The program would begin with 50 master teachers, building up to 10,000 in four years. Master teachers, who would be identified and selected through a competitive process, would need to demonstrate superior content knowledge and proven effectiveness in teaching STEM subjects, among other criteria.  “We need to be sure that we’re identifying the master teachers on the basis of demonstrable results rather than experience or credentials,” said Thomas Kane, professor of education and economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
See on www.csmonitor.com

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