Great Moonbuggy Race – Huntsville Center for Technology High School and Pittsburg State University win their divisions.
More from the NASA education site
Previous posts about science fairs, engineering challenges, science competitions, etc.
Why Schools Don’t Educate by John Taylor Gatto (speech by John Taylor Gatto accepting the New York City Teacher of the Year Award on January 31, 1990):
Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the Tools of Science to Teach Science podcast by Dr. Carl Wieman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. Also received the first NSF Distinguished teaching Scholars award (NSF’s “highest honor for excellence in both teaching and research”) and the National Professor Of The Year (CASE and Carnegie Foundation).
However, research is also providing insights on how to do much better. The combination of this research with modern information technology is setting the stage for a new more effective approach to science education based on using the tools of science. This can provide a relevant and effective science education to all students.
Podcast recording 21 Nov 2005 at the University of British Columbia.
Text of March 15, 2006 Dr. Wieman testimony to the US House of Representatives Science Committee.
The Mrs. Frizzle is an wonderful blog following the adventures of a science teacher in a small public middle school in the Bronx.
Her recent post, 250,000 liters, is an enjoyable read:
Great reading.
See our science education blog directory for more related blogs.
NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education
To apply you must submit a letter of intent by 5 May 2006. Full Proposal Deadline: 19 June 19 2006. NSF estimates 25 awards will be given.
New awards (5 years/$600,000 per year) and continuing awards (3 years/$600,000 per year – to those projects that have received initial funding) are available.
This program provides funding to graduate students in NSF- supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to acquire additional skills that will broadly prepare them for professional and scientific careers in the 21st century. Through interactions with teachers in K-12 schools, graduate students can improve communication and teaching skills while enriching STEM instruction in K-12 schools.
Through this experience graduate students can gain a deeper understanding of their own scientific research. In addition, the GK-12 program provides institutions of higher education with an opportunity to make a permanent change in their graduate programs by incorporating GK-12 like activities in the training of their STEM graduate students.
Expected outcomes include improved communication, teaching and team building skills for the fellows; professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers; enriched learning for K-12 students; and strengthened partnerships between institutions of higher education and local school districts.
Through the GK-12 program, institutions of higher education have an opportunity to make a permanent change in STEM graduate education programs and to create strong and enduring partnerships with K-12 schools.
In essence, fellows will bring their scientific research experience to the schools, so that teachers and K-12 students are exposed to what science is all about, how science is done, how discoveries happen and what scientists do.
The GK-12 program is an opportunity to bring the excitement and the results of science to schools and to create cultural changes both in K-12 schools and in institutions of higher education. It is also an opportunity for fellows to acquire skills that normally are not emphasized in a more traditional STEM graduate program so that they can have additional career options as professional scientists and engineers.
Read more about the opportunity and more details on how to apply.
Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics (EYH)
EYH facilitates conferences for middle school and high school girls on science and math and information on careers involving math and science.
A typical conference takes place on a Saturday at a local college or university and is attended by 200-500 young women from nearby middle schools and high schools. The schedule includes a keynote address encouraging girls to persist in mathematics and science courses, and two varieties of workshops.
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In most of the workshops, young women participate in hands-on learning experiences led by women scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. In other workshops, role models share career awareness information and discuss job satisfaction, necessary education, and descriptions of a typical day on the job.
List of conferences with contact information
Related Posts: Wow! That’s Engineering? – Science Camps Prep Girls – Inspire Students to Study Math and Science – Engineering is Elementary – The Future is Plastics – Intel Science Talent Search Results – Math in the “Real World”
A LOT OF FUN!
At an EYH conference, you will attend talks, participate in hands-on workshops, and meet with women scientists and engineers. You will also spend time with other girls who are thinking about their futures. Through these activities you will:
Light a fire under students for math, science programs by Lisa Burdette – a student at Horseheads High School:
However, interest in science truly begins at the elementary level. A key component of improving the number of American scientists and engineers is igniting interest at a young age and nurturing that interest throughout a child’s education.
Educational television can help to interest a child in a subject. When I was young, I watched “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and “Magic School Bus,” and I learned much from those shows that I remember and utilize today. High school science teachers often use “Bill Nye the Science Guy” in their classrooms because it is such an excellent resource.
She does an excellent job presenting her position. And you have to love statement like “when I was young” from a high school student.
Related posts:
Lessons in Innovation by Shannon Mullen (site removed content – poor usability)
Instructor encourages students to put scientific principles to use … one LEGO brick at a time.
The mission of the Stevens Institute Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science is to catalyze and support excellence in teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and other core subjects through innovative, research-based instructional strategies and use of novel technologies.
The Laboratory for Innovative Technology and Engineering Education (LITEE) at Auburn University is funded by the NSF: National Dissemination of MultiMedia Case Studies that Bring Real-World Issues Into Engineering Classrooms.
The mission statement is: Develop and disseminate innovative instructional materials that bring real-world issues into classrooms, using multi-media information technologies and cross-disciplinary teams.
One of the results of their efforts is the Journal of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education (STEM).
The mission seems like a worthy goal. Like other such NSF funded efforts though I wish the web sites offered much more for students and teachers. I think NSF (or others interested in funding such efforts) needs to look at the gap between the potential to use the internet to meet such goals and what has been done to date. I think there is a huge gap between what could be done effectively, and for a reasonable price (for NSF or whoever funds the creation of the material), and what I have been able to find online.
To me these materials should be available for download online without a fee and targeted for teachers and students. That is a feasible goal and a method that most completely meets the mission.
The NSF is funding many excellent concepts with good results (see examples below). Still the opportunity is there for these efforts to be much more effective with a better use of the internet in my opinion. I think there would be great benefit to funding several grants that would then serve as advisers and provide technical support to creating a much richer result for teachers and students. There are obviously challenges with how to do this and how to coordinate the efforts but the potential benefits are huge.
If I were allocating funds I would set this up in a way that the primary grants (projects like LITTE and those listed below) included funds that was to be used for services from these “technical support and advisers.” Then those getting the primary grants could chose which of the providers they wanted to use to provide the service (they should essentially work for those getting the primary grants). In order to use those funds in any other way they would have to demonstrate they were effectively using the internet already (and the expectations would be for a much better use than any I have seen thus far for this NSF grants).
Previous posts about similar NSF funded efforts:
Bechtel $1 million grant for k-12 engineering education programs at Purdue
The $1 million grant from Stephen D. Bechtel Jr is renewable for up to four additional years and will expand Purdue university’s educational research efforts to foster an interest in science and engineering in K-12 classrooms.
The grant will support research and program development in Purdue’s Department of Engineering Education.
Earlier the department received $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to launch the Multidisciplinary Engineering program.