By Maggie O’Brien
Each month, we list articles on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and project-based learning (PBL) that we find exceptionally inspiring and educational. Topics range from research reports to feature stories about new STEM and PBL initiatives in schools. These articles support Defined STEM’s mission of empowering students to build future-ready skills through authentic project-based learning.
Here’s what we liked this month:
Having Once Found Science Dull as a Student, this New York City Teacher Now Strives for a More Engaging Approach
Chalkbeat
When Seth Guiñals-Kupperman was a student at New York City’s Bronx High School of Science more than 20 years ago, he remembers not being impressed with his teachers, despite the school’s elite reputation.
His science classes were “relatively dry” experiences where teachers wrote facts on a blackboard — sometimes with a joke or anecdote about a dead white man — all for regurgitation during an exam. The teaching didn’t seem much more inspired at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Guiñals-Kupperman studied physics, linguistics and philosophy. Read more…
Making STEM Accessible to All
edutopia
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education plays a critical role in preparing our youth for the future and their roles in our economy. Through STEM, they engage in experiences in which they learn from and with other people, and because of that, are encouraged to think critically, innovatively, and creatively. As we continue to work to meet the demands of a technology-driven society, STEM is essential to our everyday lives as it fuels the advancement of the U.S. economy.
As an elementary school principal and champion of STEM education, I am so grateful for our hands-on, real-world-enriched curriculum at 186th Street School in Gardena, California. By exposing students to STEM and giving them opportunities to explore the field in a fun and engaging way, we help them achieve higher math and reading scores. Read more…
Modern Classrooms Energize Students and Teachers
EdTech Magazine
Looking for that nudge toward making your classroom more collaborative and creative? A modern learning environment,which allows teachers to manipulate the classroom for any need and think beyond just “typical chairs in rows,” could be the key to making any space the right space for innovative thinking, says David Andrade, a K–12 education strategist at CDW-G.
“Once you’ve changed what’s in the classroom itself, you can change what you’re doing with the students and really provide them with wonderful experiences — creative, explorative and collaborative,” says Andrade. Read more…
Teachers Share Tips on Making Makerspaces Accessible to All
The Hechinger Report
CHICAGO – Laser cutters, robots, 3D printers: when people talk about educational makerspaces, images of expensive, high-tech gadgetry comes to mind. In Colleen Graves’ library, they make use of a much cheaper resource.
“It’s trash,” she said. “But don’t call it that.”
The school librarian from Leander, Texas, was speaking on a panel about how to make makerspaces affordable and accessible in low-income and rural schools. To get her kids interested in building and engineering, Graves uses lots of recycled goods or material found in nature. While she does have access to some gadgets, any invention her students make starts off with a prototype made from cardboard. Read more…
5 Steps to Guarantee your PD for PBL is on Point
eSchool News
What kind of professional development (PD) is needed in order for project-based learning (PBL) to be done well, spread throughout a school, and stick?
Short answer: a lot.
Long answer: participant-driven, interactive, ongoing, job-embedded, and… a lot.
And by PD I don’t just mean traditional training workshops, and I don’t mean only for teachers. Here are 5 points I’d offer about PD for PBL, based on what the Buck Institute for Education has learned by working with more than 80,000 teachers and school leaders:Read more…
