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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

West Sound STEM Network Expands Partnership with Slooh to Engage More Students in Space Exploration

Washington Depot, Connecticut, October 29, 2021 – Slooh, the only organization offering live online telescope feeds of amazing astronomical events to students, and the West Sound STEM Network recently expanded their partnership to help more teachers and students throughout northwest Washington State engage in space exploration that is aligned with state and national standards. After successfully providing a number of Network member schools with access to Slooh’s robotic telescopes and patented Mission Interface last year, West Sound STEM Network is now expanding the program to reach 250 teachers and 10,000 students. This comes as Slooh works toward its goal of helping one million students nationwide experience the wonder of space from their classroom and home computers.

“Our partnership with Slooh is – and has been – highly inspirational for our teachers and students,” said Dr. Kareen Borders, executive director of the West Sound STEM Network. “Our schools are actively exploring the moon, Mars, and beyond in real time!”

Serving the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, the West Sound STEM Network is a public-private regional network committed to building PreK-career pathways to postsecondary credentials and a stronger STEM workforce. The cross-sector network of businesses, school districts, education agencies, higher education institutions, Career and Technical Education (CTE) practitioners and providers, government, military, community, Tribes, library systems, nonprofits, out-of-school providers, and workforce development agencies introduce and link students, teachers, and the community to high-quality STEM resources, such as Slooh.  …Read More

How we developed a personalized PBL model for STEM

How can schools and districts prepare students for college and careers in STEM? Is it by asking them to passively read a textbook or listen to a teacher lecture? Or is it by challenging them to actively engage in projects that attempt to solve real-world problems?

In Harmony Public Schools in Texas, we want students to become active learners, problem solvers, and STEM advocates. We want to increase their knowledge, skills, and interest in STEM, and balance student-centered teaching with state and national standards. To do this, we developed a personalized project based learning (PBL) model called STEM Students on the Stage (SOS)™.

STEM SOS, which was developed with a $30 million Race to the Top grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is a rigorous, interdisciplinary, standards-focused method of STEM education that encourages students to develop and share their STEM knowledge and investigations. We now incorporate this personalized PBL model into all of our STEM courses.…Read More

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Opinion: National standards won’t help, won’t work

Despite my many bets to the contrary, the movement for national learning standards still lives, says Jay Matthews, education columnist and blogger for the Washington Post. More than 40 states (including Maryland, but not Virginia) plus the District have enlisted. They are executing plans for instruction in all grades and, eventually, common assessments in math and English language arts. It sounds great. But it won’t help and won’t work. Such specific standards stifle creativity and conflict with a two-century American preference for local decision-making about schools…

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Kentucky to be first to endorse national education standards

Kentucky schoolchildren in grades K-12 will see new standards for math and English next year, as part of a collaborative effort among 48 states to more clearly specify what knowledge and skills students need to succeed in college and in the workforce, reports the Courier-Journal. On Wednesday, the state will become the first in the nation to endorse the so-called “Common Core State Standards Initiative,” during a meeting of officials from the state Department of Education; the Council on Postsecondary Education, which coordinates the state’s higher education system; and the state’s Education Professional Standards Board, which certifies that state’s teachers and school administrators.

The idea is to align coursework and materials in every state, and to establish clear, consistent expectations of what students have to learn at each grade level in preparation for college and the workforce. As part of the effort, new tests will be developed, based on the common standards, which will eventually allow state-by-state comparisons…

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