Category Archives: K-12

About or related to primary (k-12) science and engineering education. Likely of interest to teachers and administrators. Teachers may also find many of the posts we feel are of interests to students interested in science and engineering useful.

Robots Wrestling, Students Learning

Robots Wrestling, Students Learning by Jessica Marks:

Building motorized robots and making them sumo wrestle is more than just fun – it’s also a way for high school and college students to get interested in engineering, and David Martinez, engineering department chair at College of the Canyons in Valencia, is dedicated to doing just that.
…
And it has been exciting for many of the students who took Martinez’s class over the summer – a class that was designed to give students an introduction to robotics and engineering.

These students spent a majority of their 9-week class building a “Boe-bot” – a small “brain with wheels,” which the students modified – putting light sensors on them to detect shadows and “whiskers” to detect hard objects – so they could perform tasks, most of which were pretty complex.

One group of students filed down part of the aluminum legs and made the Boe-bot creep around like a spider. It was able to climb the steep dirt embankment outside the class.
…
And while the students were having fun, they were actually learning high-end scientific and mathematical concepts.

College of the Canyons is part of the California Regional Consortium for Engineering Advances in Technological Education (CREATE) project is a joint effort between seven community colleges and over 30 large high tech engineering/technology employers.

USA Governors Promote the Value of Science Education

National Governors Association – Science Education. On their web site the associates pledges to:

  • host regional learning labs and workshops to help states improve education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math; and
  • create new science and math academies to improve student achievement and grow a workforce in emerging occupations.

This is a very small step but at least they are discussing the topic. And some action is being taken, for example: Excellence in K-12 Mathematics and Science Teaching – Texas Invests in Science Higher Education – R&D Spending in USA Universities. More, could, and should, be done.

Math and Science Challenges for the USA

Panel says U.S. is losing ground in math, science by Bruce Lieberman

The United States may dominate many sectors of science and technology, but other countries are moving rapidly to take its place, said Griffin and other national leaders during the West Coast Competitiveness Summit at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

The summit was the latest of several meetings designed to explore how the United States can recommit to building an economic future based on scientific and technological innovation.

Numerous studies since the mid-1980s have reported on threats to the nation’s stature in science and technology, and many of them focused on improving education as a key challenge.

Engineering Projects in Community Service

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) at Purdue University provides students the opportunity to apply engineering to provide real world solutions in the community (since 1995). Over 25 projects are underway including:

  • Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology – to design new software and hardware to spark the interest of girls in technology. Projects include: multimedia computer games; interactive and intelligent toys – the link includes downloadable games
  • Columbian Park Zoo – to design, build, deliver, and maintain engineering projects that will aid the Columbian Park Zoo in inspiring the community with an appreciation for the world’s animals.
  • Discovering Engineering Careers – to Develop portable, hands-on demonstrations of engineering principles and practice and web-based games that will spark interest in engineering careers among elementary, middle, and junior high school students and teachers.
  • Klondike Elementary School – to design custom educational products involving both hardware and software.

Continue reading →

Excellence in K-12 Mathematics and Science Teaching

Going to School with Samuel Wheeler (NSF does not provide a way to link directly so you have to look down the page to find this interview of teacher Samuel Wheeler).

NSF: What is your most successful tool to inspire students to study science?
Wheeler: I craft my science courses in such a way that the students themselves become the investigator and principal learner, and I become a guide or facilitator. If they are allowed to explore the material from their own interests with the proper springboard, then it is easier to inspire them.

Samuel Wheeler received the, Presidential Awardees for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching – USA.
Continue reading →

Engineering Resources for K-12 Teachers

Teach Engineering, funded by NSF, provides k-12 teachers “teacher-tested, standards-based engineering content” to “enhance learning, excite students and stimulate interest in science and math through the use of hands-on engineering.”

The TeachEngineering digital library provides teacher-tested, standards-based engineering content for K-12 teachers to use in science and math classrooms. Engineering lessons connect real-world experiences with curricular content already taught in K-12 classrooms. Mapped to educational content standards, TeachEngineering’s comprehensive curricula are hands-on, inexpensive, and relevant to children’s daily lives.

Available modules include: Engineering and the Human Body, Exploring Solar Power, Engineering: Simple Machines and Environmental Engineering.

Primary Science Education in China and the USA

Should the US Take a Page Out of China’s Schoolbook?

China consistently performs well on international benchmarks despite having to serve 20% of the world’s students with only 2% of its educational resources.

Pretty impressive.

But mimicking China’s system is by no means a blanket solution for American education woes.

Mimicking is almost never a successful strategy. What can be successful is learning from what others do well and adopting the good ideas in ways that makes sense in your system.
Continue reading →

Berkeley and MIT courses online

Huge amount of University of California Berkely webcasts of course lectures. Subscribe to RSS feeds and listen to podcasts or listen online.

Courses include: General Biology, Solid State Devices and Introductory Physics. Course websites include handouts for the lectures.

A great open access resource.

I can’t believe I have mentioned MIT open courseware before but a search didn’t find anything. MIT’s effort is an excellent resource, many on science and engineering: Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering, etc..

MIT also includes the excellent: Visualizing Cultures – a gateway to seeing history through images that once had wide circulation among peoples of different times and places by John Dower (author of National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II) and Shigeru Miyagawa.

New Engineering School for England

Plans were announced to create a new kind of school, funded equally by Inventor James Dyson and the English Government. In the words of James Dyson, (Dyson school ‘to boost engineers’):

“Our choice now is either to see Britain’s jobs of tomorrow vanish to Mumbai or Shanghai or to educate the next generation in the skills of invention and business-building.”

The Dyson School of Innovation and Design will open in Bath in 2008.

The 14 to 16-year-olds at the school, due to open in 2008, would attend one day a week while those aged 16 to 18 would attend full-time.

Continue reading →