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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.

Why STEM literacy is critical for our students

Providing an engaging and equitable STEM education is an important step in helping to develop more scientists and engineers while increasing race and gender diversity in the field–both of which are much needed in today’s world. Education in STEM can also help develop a STEM-literate citizenry. 

While there are many nuanced definitions for STEM literacy, the basis is that STEM-literate individuals are able to apply STEM concepts to identify, understand, and solve problems in the world around them, whether or not these problems are scientific in nature. STEM-literate individuals are able to think in a scientific-minded way about issues that impact their life and the community as a whole.

As educators, helping students understand the importance and benefits of STEM literacy – and how science impacts so many facets of their everyday lives – is an important responsibility.…Read More

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5 simple ways to integrate STEAM education into elementary classrooms

As educators, our goal is to shape our students’ lives by teaching them in ways that produce well rounded individuals. Whether STEAM education is new to you or you’re already familiar with it, it’s a great way to excite students about learning.

Some people like to debate STEM vs. STEAM. In case you’re unfamiliar with these terms I’ll tell you what they mean. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math. STEAM is all of those, plus the A for Arts. I once had an actual rocket scientist (he’s a genius & a truly brilliant man) debate STEM vs. STEAM with me. He said there is no place for art in STEM education. Well, I disagree!

When you look at a beautiful building or a breathtaking bridge, do you not see the artistic value? When engineers design something, I have to think that they take the aesthetics of their design into account to produce something unique and beautiful!…Read More

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Stem based PE for students at home

STEM Sports, a Phoenix-based supplemental curriculum company, is offering free lessons for parents and caregivers to use at home to keep students in grades 3-8 engaged and active. The STEM lessons provided are family-friendly and require simple sports equipment so both parents and students may be involved in the STEM learning process while students stay home during this isolation period.

To access the STEM education resources, visit the organization’s website at https://stemsports.com/Samples/ and fill out a brief form. The free lessons will be emailed to the user for PDF download with Google Drive. Additionally, a free, non-sport specific lesson called Playing with Precision will be offered.

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10 trends and predictions for STEM education in 2020

It’s clear to anyone listening that the United States needs more highly-skilled STEM workers to remain globally competitive. And STEM education–including trained STEM teachers–is critical to that goal.

The organization 100Kin10 is working to recruit 100,000 excellent STEM teachers into classrooms across the nation by 2021. 100Kin10 talks to partners and teachers and reviews research and data to understand the challenges and opportunities facing STEM education.

At the end of each year, 100Kin10 boils down its most important data and insights into a list of trends from the past year and predictions for the new year to help inform STEM education moving forward.…Read More

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How this school designed a robotics program from the ground up

As a former computer engineer with a background in applied math, I’m a firm proponent of STEM education. As a math teacher with 14 years of experience facilitating robotics clubs for students, I’m also an ardent supporter of programming and robotics as a vehicle for STEM ed, so when I had the opportunity to build a K–5 robotics program from the lab up, I leapt at the opportunity.

Our school is a brand-new Title 1 campus. We’re in our first year and just opened in August, so we’re still tweaking and learning as we go, but we’ve developed a solid foundation for introducing students—even those who are very young—to a range of STEM and other concepts in an environment that feels more like fun than work. Here’s how we did it.

Kindergarten & 1st grade

When I was designing the robotics program, I wanted to make sure we were building a bridge from kindergarten all the way to 5th grade and beyond, so our program is designed to be progressive throughout the six years students are with us and to set them up for more advanced robotics in middle and high school, should they choose to pursue it.…Read More

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The 2 stages of successful early STEM education revisited

I have been in education for 18 years and my strongest belief is that all children deserve a fresh start when they begin each school year. My classroom is a safe environment where students feel it’s acceptable to try, even if they’re not going to be successful the first time–and that certainly applies to STEM education.

Since the spring of 2014, I’ve worked with Stow-Munroe Falls City Schools in technology integration. The purpose of my position as an Academic Technology Specialist is to help teachers feel comfortable embedding new technology into their classrooms.

Working alongside teachers and helping their students with rapidly evolving technology is an incredible experience. Each year has been slightly different because students and teachers are, of course, different, and each year we move at the pace they need while building upon the skills from the previous year.…Read More

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What motivates girls to pursue STEM?

It’s a persistent and troubling problem: Why are girls so underrepresented in STEM clubs and subjects in K-12 through college, and why are there so many more men than women in STEM fields?

The call for equal representation is becoming louder, and society is striving to solve glaring gender gaps in STEM graduates and STEM fields across the country. The numbers tell an alarming story about female representation in STEM education and fields.

According to Girls Who Code, fewer than 20 percent of computer science graduates are women. Today, only 24 percent of computer scientists are women, and by 2027, just 22 percent of women will be represented in the field.…Read More

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The 2 stages of successful early STEM education

I have been in education for 18 years and my strongest belief is that all children deserve a fresh start when they begin each school year. My classroom is a safe environment where students feel it’s acceptable to try, even if they’re not going to be successful the first time–and that certainly applies to STEM education.

Since the spring of 2014, I’ve worked with Stow-Munroe Falls City Schools in technology integration. The purpose of my position as an Academic Technology Specialist is to help teachers feel comfortable embedding new technology into their classrooms.

Working alongside teachers and helping their students with rapidly evolving technology is an incredible experience. Each year has been slightly different because students and teachers are, of course, different, and each year we move at the pace they need while building upon the skills from the previous year.…Read More

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Marketplace trend update: 5 new ed-tech developments

Remaining a tech-savvy educator means keeping on top of the myriad changes and trends in education, how technology can support those trends, and how teaching and learning can best benefit from near-constant change.

For instance, a new report highlights the link between arts-based learning and STEM education; a new challenge asks participants to explore and report on local folklore traditions; tutoring gets a social treatment; and more.

Below, we’ve gathered some of the latest and most relevant marketplace news to keep you up-to-date on product developments, teaching and learning initiatives, and new trends in education.…Read More

6 ways to support computer science education

New report offers policy recommendations to sustain momentum for computer science education

U.S. schools should make every effort to expand computer science education to keep up with workforce demands, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

And though interest in computer science education, and access to it, is growing, the report found that not enough students are taking high-quality computer science classes at the high school and university levels.

The report found that just half of U.S. states actually count computer science as a math or science credit rather than an elective, and 29 states lack computer science teacher certification programs.…Read More