Julialt's List: STEM Education

• Patty said something in the STEM Careers thread that has been niggling at me for a few days

  The Journal articles are excellent and they speak to the importance of science and engineering education for girls as well as boys. Many of the ideas reflect on introducing the concepts of design and engineering in middle school. Waiting until high school is too late to involve students in open inquiry in the design and building of various projects,
• I agree that waiting until high school is way too late. I am interested in what is happening around STEM if anything in the elementary schools across our nation?
• If the answer is nothing or very little, what should be happening?
• In Texas they have STEM programs for middle school and yet I also think that is way too late. A group of college professors from University of Texas, Engineering School got together years ago and produced a program called DESIGN.
• It is never too early to start. Kids love to build things when in elementary so why not start then?
• We are certainly agreed on the importance of introducing "engineering ' thinking in the early grades. I wonder if there are any current elementary teachers that might provide insight from their own classrooms??
• STEM at the elementary level is an absolute must! I am lucky to work in a district with great district level support of STEM for elementary students. We have just begun this year. Highlights include - a series of STEM clubs for 3rd - 5th grade students using LEGO kits - tams were given a challenge by our Director of Science - for example - build a working fishing pole with minimum dimensions of...that can cast a line at least .....and reel in a "fish" with a maximum weight of...
• We are re-allocating time in our science curriculum to include STEM based units such as a Rube Goldberg ball mover project in 3rd grade and our community garden in 5th.
   
   I'd love to hear more ideas from teachers out there!
• Two summers ago, I was lucky enough to work with the Boston Museum of Science and the Engineering is Elementary program, I was able to provide traing and kits to 24 elementary school teachers. It is an excellent.
   
   Classroon instruction in science comes first and then comes the engineering piece in four lessons. In the engineering component, students are challenged to use the science they just learned and apply it in a problem solving application.
   
   My goal in my currect position is to get at least one teacher trained in each elementary school in the state and as a result have the program implemented to some level in each of those schools. I would love to have the power to require science instruction in each classroom, but aha ...that is not to be...at least for me...
• I also agree that STEM needs to start in elementary school. In my former district, we created a STEM school. It was a partnership with the school district, the city, the university and the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame.
   
   The school started with fifth graders and added a grade each year. It will eventually have grades 5-8. All the teachers are focused on teaching STEM in an integrated curriculum. The hope is that these teachers and this school will be a source of professional development in STEM for other teachers throughout the district.
   
   Is anyone else involved in a STEM elementary / middle school?
• I was reviewing the draft of the Conceptual Framework of Science and Engineeering in anticipation of its final release next month.
   
   If our states accept the neew framework and hopefully adopt the Next generation Standards, we in elementary education are going to have to figure out how we are going to incorporate the design challenge/problem solving into the current science curriculums.
   
   What do others think about this?
• How schools go about addressing the engineering piece will be very interesting; even at the higher grades it is not taught in most classes outside of technology education. Teachers are going to need professional development and schools will need to invest in equipment. I have concerns that even if the standards are adopted that it will take quite a while until they are implemented. What are your thoughts?
• Patti you are right - professional development will be key to get these new concepts implemented in a meaningful way.
• There are many engineering design process lessons here in the Learning Center - many are from Science Scope but can be deconstructed a bit for elementary level students.
• Caryn--
   I took the PBS TeacherLine course Adah mentioned and it was great. I use two of the Boston Museum "Engineering is Elementary" texts in my classrooms (one with 2nd grade and one with 4th grade) and the course really helped me understand the DEVELOPMENT and potential of the EIE curriculum...[Kathy Renfrew mentioned the program in an earlier post in this thread.]
• For me, it was like seeing behind the curtain--understanding how an MEA is built makes my implementation of MEAs in my classroom more effective.
   If anyone is using the EIE curriculm in their classroom (or thinking of using it), I would recommend the course. The final project is to create your own MEA, which is very handy--you can take a project you already do with students and expand/tweak/enrich it so that it brings all thos higher level engineering and design ideas into it.
• No, I don't tell my kids "we are about to do a model eliciting activity," but I do HIGHLY recommend the Engineering is Elementary curriculm materials to any and all elementary teachers...it's a great way to integrate science and language arts.
• I agree. EiE is a wonderful program. I was able to provide a training for 24 elementary teachers here in Vermont. They were trained on two units and they were able to order one of the kits to use in their classrooms.
   
   As we continue to work on STEM in elementary classrooms, I too, would recommend the Engineering is Elementary program out of the Boston Museum of Science.
  
• REPORT CALLS ON POLICYMAKERS TO RAISE SCIENCE EDUCATION TO SAME LEVEL OF IMPORTANCE AS MATH AND READING
• . "The goal isn't only to have a capable and competitive work force. We need to help all students become scientifically literate because citizens are increasingly facing decisions related to science and technology -- whether it's understanding a medical diagnosis or weighing competing claims about the environment."
• The report identifies key elements of high-quality STEM education to which policymakers could target improvements:
  
• coherent set of standards and curriculum
• Teachers with high capacity to teach in their discipline
• upportive system of assessment and accountability
• average amount of time spent on science instruction in elementary classrooms has decreased in recent years even as the time on mathematics instruction has increased.
  
• Adequate instructional time
• Equal access to high-quality STEM learning opportunities.
• School conditions and cultures that support learning
• I am very glad to see this topic in the discussion forums. Two years ago I was heavily involved with the roll-out of new STEM standards in my home district, in Tennessee. While in training sessions with elementary, middle, and secondary teachers - one thing came through loud and clear: science was not being taught at the elementary level in many TN classrooms. This was something middle level science teachers already knew but never really discussed with elementary teachers (we did what all good teachers do - we complained about it in the staff room and that was it.) ;)
• • Important! Reasons why science/STEM isn't included in classrooms, at least at elementary level
    1. Lack of subject matter knowledge
    2. Lack of time due to large chunks of time required for math/reading
    3. Lack of materials/resources
    4. Poor support from administrators who were focused on meeting NCLB mandates
• It sparked something in me. I saw elementary teachers who sincerely wanted to incorporate science in to their lessons but were unable to do so for several main reasons:
   1. Lack of subject matter knowledge
   2. Lack of time due to large chunks of time required for math/reading
   3. Lack of materials/resources
   4. Poor support from administrators who were focused on meeting NCLB mandates
• I couldn't do anything about their administrators or time management concerns or NCLB, but I did my best to provide as much support as I could with subject matter knowledge and materials. I often found myself delivering microscopes, models, and even cell cultures to local elementary classrooms (and sang the praises of NSTA every time). Several times I was fortunate enough to help with simple dissections and other projects in area elementary schools.
• WOW! This is a great discussion. Thank you to everyone who has posted links, ideas, and collections. I also agree that waiting until middle or high school to emphasize STEM is too late. Like Caryn, I have also used LEGOs while teaching STEM.
• Students not only begin learning the principles of design and engineering, but also program their creations to complete specific tasks. The language is completely pictorial, so even very young students are capable of writing programs. I've also use the NSTA Press book Activities Linking Math and Science, K-4. This book is full of great activities and ideas to teach elementary level students about STEM principles.
  
• Science Scope has a great column called Everyday Engineering that features engineering labs build around common objects such as pop-up turkey timers and whatmakes a squirt gun work. Looks like a good, inexpensive---and fun---- resource for introducing engineering principles.
• Everyone seems to agree that STEM in elementary school seems to be a great idea!!!! However, I am seeing most of the conversations are dealing with 3rd grade and higher. What about PreK, Kinders, and First grade? I
• One that I think is fundamental to STEM in elementary schools is just getting science taught. I have polled some elementary teachers interested in teaching science, the fundamental component to STEM, and is hindered by the time allocated to science. Believe it or not but some students in third to fifth grades only have the opportunity to study science for 45 minutes per week!! I think that we need advocates for science in the elementary schools. TIME is certainly a priority factor.
• Secondly, teachers who are not certified in science do not feel empowered to integrate science into reading and writing assignments. Solid inquiry in science that titilates the minds of students and begins to build foundations for future learning does not necessarily take a lot of time. Ten to twenty minutes may be sufficient to encourage students to write a prediction of what they think, make a quick observation or gather some data, analyze it and then write what they observed and now what they think. Writing across the curriculum to include a bit of inquiry science may be an avenue into getting more science into students lives.
• STEM education is based on solid inquiry and then making applications, which is where the engineering part comes into play and as Kathy and other mention --the application process is a big element in the new standards.
• The limited amount of time that is spent on science education at the elementary school level
• he teachers, who are not certified in science, who do not feel empowered to incorporate science into other curricular areas
• Integrating curriculums is an excellent tool, but it does take a lot of work. I think to see successful curricular integration in our school systems, we need to begin teaching curriculum integration techniques in teacher preparation programs, provide PD opportunities for current teachers to learn curriculum integration techniques, work with curriculum developers to integrate curriculums, and conduct research to evaluate the educational benefits of integrating curriculums at the elementary school level.
• The Making STEM Come Alive for Elementary Students has several activities and links directed at engaging elementary level students in STEM activities.
• Another question is, what administrative support is most helpful for integrating science into reading and mathematics curriculum in districts where science is not a focus?
• . We have been facing the question of classroom certified (non-science certification) teachers and questioning how best to support them. It is you who becomes the model for how to incorporate science 'across the curriculum.'
• The idea of STEM in the early years is something that has intrigued me. I have worked with students from a magnet elementary school that prides itself in including STEM education. I was amazed with how much these students know and how exited they were about science. They do not on the other hand struggle in reading or writing. The teachers have found a way to engage the students in the activities and surround them with science and technology.
• With being a small school they are able to give a lot of personalized opportunities to their students. In places that are not so fortunate I wonder how we can encourage STEM education and get them just as excited about STEM education.
• I am doing my student internship at an elementary school that is focused on STEM. The school recognizes that waiting until middle school is too late.
• On the first day of school the teacher had the students work on building towers with various "building" materials as part of a team building exercise. They were given the freedom to choose which supplies they wanted. The other STEM activity they've done was to invent a phone of the future.
• part of a social studies lesson in which they were learning about inventors. The students had to build a phone, write up a description of it, and present it to the class. So there was an integration of multiple subjects in one activity.
• cience is not taught all year long. The content period rotates between social studies, science, and health. I'm sure most teachers recognize the drawbacks of this, but it doesn't seem like there is enough time in the day to teach everything that needs to be taught. I suppose a solution is to try to integrate multiple subjects as much as possible.
• Here is a link to information on the course: PBS Teacherline STEM 420. Has anyone taken this course? Also, I'm wondering how other teachers take advantage of online PD opportunities similar to this one? Do most school districts accept classes like this as PD or CE credit?

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• need for expanded scientific and technical education with the revival of manufacturing employment in the U.S.
• how to ramp up the E (engineering) in STEM education. If the US does not have enough engineers, then it certainly does not have enough K-12 teachers able to teach engineering

  • lack of qualified k-12 engineering teachers
    
    the problem here is probably twofold:
    1. not enough people studying engineering
    2. not many of those people willing to work for teachers' pay
• provided that we finally adopt (voluntary) common core science standards and assessments, we are also going to need new integrated, coherent K-12 STEM curriculum materials

  • need for standards/clear goals and assessments
• video examples of how to teach integrated STEM

  • technology use: videos for teachers for them to help learn how to use stem
• stimulate local communities to come together to develop innovative variations that match their settings and the needs of their children

  • need to adapt locally
• community partnerships

  • partnerships are big part of stem edu
• more skilled workers in the science and technology industry and announced a national commitment to training 2 million Americans in these and other areas

  • training for workers by companies/corporations themselves
• 600k new science jobs with new clean energy sources that will reduce our dependency on foreign oil

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• Despite studying science, technology, engineering or math, many students avoid STEM careers. Higher salaries, improved status and apprenticeships would change that.

  • why students avoid stem:
    - salary
    - status
    - difficulty
• American employers say they are having trouble finding candidates to fill STEM jobs
• people with STEM degrees are choosing jobs in other fields that pay more or have higher perceived status, according to Nicole Smith, senior economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "Biology students become doctors; math majors go into finance,"
• Smith says several steps could make STEM jobs more attractive to students
• Raising salaries

  • money, pay, economics
• Making science jobs appear more exciting

  • public perception, publicity
• finding ways to get society to hold STEM professions in higher regard
• corporations would hire graduates for placement into apprentice-style programs where the new employees would receive custom training

  • companies training workers, corporate partnerships

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• cientific American staffers recently flew out to Mountain View, Calif. for the culmination of Google’s first annual science fair.
• We couldn’t help wondering: what first drew these impressive teens to math, engineering, medical research and the many other subjects in which they immersed themselves for this competition?
• Reporter Francie Diep interviewed 14 out of the 15 finalists to find out
• What stands out
• ven the most casual early exposures to science –trips to a botanical garden or zoo, fun math problems tossed out during a car ride, a chance to punch tickets at a train station
• Of the 14 finalists I spoke with, only 5 had two non-scientists for parents; 5 had one scientist parent and 4 had two scientists for parents.

  • exposure to science and scientists as precursor to pursuit/success in stem
• Naomi Shah, a winner in the 15-to-16 age category, recalls visiting Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science and Industry every few weeks with her family when she was little. She liked the experience so much that she now volunteers there. “In the chemistry lab, they let me light my hand on fire,”
• “My mom would casually toss me math problems on the way to Tae Kwon Do class or while accompanying her on errands, and my dad would do the same on car rides to school,”
• Volunteer opportunities can help build confidence and deepen knowledge, even at a very young age. Daniel Arnold got interested in trains when he started volunteering at a local tourist railroad when he was just five years old
• TV and movies can also inspire an interest in the sciences.
• Star Wars, Iron Man and I, Robot.
• Bill Nye.
• So it seems that having fun—whether out at a botanical garden or at home, while watching TV—is the way to nurture an interest in science in kids. It may even lead to a career in science. Nearly all of the finalists I talked to want to major in science or engineering in college, and to research, program or build devices for a job.

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• Maintaining a citizenry that is well versed in the STEM fields is a key portion of the public education agenda of the United States. Substantial lobbying is underway in Washington, DC to raise awareness of STEM education issues.
• In 2006, the United States National Academies expressed their concern about the declining state of STEM education in the United States. Its Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy developed a list of 10 actions federal policy makers could take to advance STEM education in the United States to compete successfully in the 21st century. Their top three recommendations were to:
• • increase America’s talent pool by improving K-12 science and mathematics education;
   
  • strengthen the skills of teachers through additional training in science, math and technology; and
   
  • enlarge the pipeline of students prepared to enter college and graduate with STEM degrees.
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also has implemented programs and curricula to advance STEM education
• NASA Means Business competition, sponsored by the Texas Space Grant Consortium, furthers that goal. College students compete to develop promotional plans to encourage students in middle and high school to study STEM subjects

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• Thursday, December 1, 2011
• Chevron and six other partners are giving the Carnegie Science Center $1 million to create a new center to improve science, technology and math education in the region,
• The Chevron Center will manage many of the Science Center's existing programs for students from preschool through high school. These programs include SciTech Days, ChemFest, Science on the Road, mentoring, the Pennsylvania Regional Science and Engineering Fair and the Future City Competition.
• 
  On your mobile

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• Published: October 4, 2010
• the odious and increasingly pervasive term “STEM education,”
• For readers who heretofore have been spared exposure to this little concatenation of capital letters, or who have, quite understandably, misconstrued its meaning, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, supposedly the major food groups of a comprehensive science education.
• A new report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology offers many worthy ideas for improving science education, like creating a “master corps” of the nation’s finest science teachers who would in turn train others;
• I thought, stem education? What about flower education?
• People hear about STEM education, and they think some harm has come to an embryo in the process
• term also sounds didactic and jargony
• But is it a brand worth pitching? Some critics argue that the term is unnecessary and potentially self-defeating. What’s wrong with a simple science education, or if need be, science and math education? What’s with all the discipline call-outs that demanded the invention of an acronym?
• “A program officer from a foundation recently asked me, ‘Is the work you’re doing STEM education or science education?’ ”
• “I drew him a Venn diagram, showing him what’s central about science and how that overlaps with technology, engineering and math.”
• Dr. Stage, a mathematician by training, thinks it’s a “false distinction” to “silo out” the different disciplines, and would much prefer to focus on what the fields have in common, like problem-solving, arguing from evidence and reconciling conflicting views.
• government has turned ever more avidly to industry to help pay for expensive improvements in the science classroom, the need to emphasize the link between a well-rounded science education and tomorrow’s techie work force has grown accordingly
• Dr. Lander argues that that there is a basic rightness to the itemizing spirit behind STEM. “Science is discovering the laws of the natural world, and mathematics isn’t that, it’s logical, deductive truth, and its experiments don’t have error bars,”
• when you get to technology and engineering, it’s the constructed world, and that’s different than the discovered one.”
• Yet others don’t frame the word “science” so narrowly, as the province of the given rather than of the forged. Science has always encompassed the applied and the basic, and the impulses to explore and to invent have always been linked.

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• The stereotypical outcome for girls like Ebony, an eighth-grader at Frick Middle School in a rough part of East Oakland, isn’t necessarily a high-paying job in science, math, engineering or technology.
• Ebony enrolled herself in Techbridge, an after-school science and math program geared specifically to girls.
• Although women make up half the country’s work force, they comprise less than 25 percent ofSTEM-related jobs, according to a Department of Commerce report from last year.
• Apart from the overall problem of cutting out hands-on science projects and tinkering in schools, the issue is even more pointed when it comes to girls
• One thing research consistently shows is the impact that one-on-one relationships and role models can have in influencing kids. And that’s one of the defined goals of the Techbridge program.
• Techbridge field trips, taking girls to companies like Google and Yahoo for site visits so they see for themselves the possibility of a life that’s different than what they’ve lived so far.

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• According to Career Builder, the most promising majors will be related to cyber-security specialists, mobile application developers, social media managers, stem cell researchers, robotics technicians and simulation engineers.

• Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn't even there yet. NASA didn't exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. 

   This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the Space Race. (emphasis mine)
• new education technology agency: ARPA-ED
• The Looming STEM Shortfall
• After healthcare, STEM is the fastest growing sector of the economy, and an estimated 1 in 20 jobs by 2018 will be in the STEM field. There's concern that the U.S. will not be able to provide the skilled workforce to fill these job
• predicted shortages of STEM-trained workers
• STEM skills are likely to permeate all jobs -- we don't simply need more scientists and engineers; we all need to become technologists.
• STEM fields continue to struggle to attract and retain students. It isn't simply a matter of preparing students adequately for these fields either.
• Some 40% of students that enter college planning STEM majors end up switching to other fields or failing to get a degree at all.
• waiting until college to introduce or promote STEM careers is far too late. 4 out of 5 students majoring in STEM in college say that they decided to study STEM in high school or earlier. 1 in 5 said they decided in middle school or earlier.
• MIT's Scratch continued to be a popular choice for introducing young students to programming and computational thinking.
• But it wasn't just K-12 or even college students that were exploring STEM education this year. A number of education/technology startups launched in 2011 aiming to help anyone learn to program: Treehouse, Codecademy, Code Academy, and General Assembly, to name a few.
• There's a thriving Maker Movement, which as my buddy Tim Carmody noted in Wired, went big in 2011.
• idea of "citizen science" gained more widespread recognition, offering people more opportunities to hack, research and explore STEM outside official majors and careers. Because while yes, it's important to get kids interested in science, technology, engineering and math, it's just as important for keeping adults engaged in scientific and technological work -- even if they don't opt for STEM careers.

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• Computer science is not widely taught, even though programming may be one of the most important skills of the 21st century.
• very few states offer K-12 computer science education at all.
• Just nine states allow CS courses to count towards graduation requirements for math or science. And no states require computer science for graduation.
• Why the absence of CS courses from elementary and secondary schools?
• questions about teacher certification, debates about what a CS curriculum should contain, and concerns about where CS fits into the curriculum and/or the schedule. Is computer science math? Is it science? Does it replace another course?
• There are, no doubt, increasing opportunities for kids to learn programming. But these often occur as after-school projects (things like the First Lego League) or as self-directed programs (such as learning to code with online materials like Hackety Hack).
• do little to expose the general student population to computer science.
• Studies have repeatedly shown that early exposure to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects is important in convincing students to think about STEM careers.
• students pointed to the influence of a particular teacher or a particular class as sparking their interest — notably, almost 70% of girls said this was what made them decide to study STEM (versus just 51% of boys).
• just one in five of these college students said that their K-12 education helped prepare them extremely well for their college courses.
• The challenge: finding the support among administrators and teachers to make learning computer science the way in which students gain these skills.

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• prevailing narratives in education technology. (I can't help it; it's my literature and folklore background). "Sputnik moments." Failing schools and falling test scores.
• But today at Lego Education's STEM Summit, I heard a strong counter-narrative to the one that says more testing is more better.
• Pitsco's Harvey Dean who pointed to the rise of standardized testing leading to a decline in tech programs. "Teachers don't have the time" to incorporate hands-on learning and scientific experimentation in their classes, he argued, "and that's a crime."
• push here is for hands-on learning as the key to improving students' STEM competencies
• working in FIRST Robotics and Lego competitions drives students to become learners, and just as importantly arguably, it drives the teachers to learn more -- so that teachers can stay ahead of their students, sure, but also so that students and teachers can learn together.

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• Juan Hernandez has had a life-changing summer. The 14-year-old math and science whiz got to geek out with like-minded kids for five weeks on the lush Stanford campus, learning about everything from computer programming to the infection rate of HIV.
• 80 low-income, high-achieving students of color who are psyched about STEM and were chosen to participate in the SMASH program. SMASH stands for Summer Math and Science Honors Academy

• A new gaming site aimed at helping build teens' programming and STEM skills has its official launch today. NoNameSite.com is a project run by the coding contest community TopCoder with the support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• encourage students to pursue STEM and CS careers, to expand the talent pool of those working in those fields, and to help maintain the U.S.'s "technological superiority"
• You can opt to simply play the games on the site -- games like Alice in BooleanLand or Brando the Egg Hunter, for example -- or you can enter the gaming challenges.

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• praised Microsoft for its commitment to STEM education with its hosting of the global student technology competition
• projects submitted to the Imagine Cup must tackle the UN’s Millennium Goals – poverty, hunger, disease, infant mortality, environmental destruction, and so on
• Microsoft is not the only corporation involved in promoting STEM education
• Google announced the winners of its first online global science fair
• Corporate sponsorship and funding is seen as necessary to help boost the programs that oftentimes schools can’t afford. That seems to be particularly true when it comes to student competitions and science fairs,
• hat are the implications of having students engaged in corporate-sponsored science
• In the case of both the Imagine Cup and the Google Science Fair, participating students were required to use Microsoft and Google products respectively in their projects.
• Technology corporations do have a vested interest in helping support STEM education as it means a good supply of skilled workers in the future. But it’s easy to see companies’ involvement as marketing efforts — producing future customers, not just future employees.
• How then do schools distinguish STEM-as-marketing from STEM-as education? And do they need to?
• What are our alternatives?
• One may be the “maker movement,” as exemplified by Make magazine and the Maker Faire. The DIY, hands-on exploration encouraged by the maker movement may be just the thing to get kids encouraged in science and technology.

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• Maker Faire, one of the most amazing -- and I'd say most important -- education/technology events I've ever attended.
• we fail to do our parts if we don't prepare children to build and tinker and make.
• projects and crafts and hacks

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• ecent University of Massachusetts Amherst study found having academic contact with female professionals in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can have positive influences on students
• when it comes to attracting more minorities to study and pursue careers in STEM, the same formula works equally well
• simply announcing the existence of such opportunities to new audiences is a very small piece of the solution. How such opportunities are marketed to members of under-represented audiences matters just as much and—I have found—for some people it matters more.

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• With so much rich information for learners available and accessible on the Internet — everything from how to play the guitar to applications of the Pythagorean Theorem — how can the formal education system leverage all this within schools?
• shortage of high-quality K-12 STEM teachers
• tremendous obstacles
• inequalities in tech-enhanced opportunities
• dwindling interest on the part of learners
• fragmented research-and-development community
• Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning at the the Cyberlearning Tools for STEM Education conference
• cultural shift brought about by the Internet and Web 2.0 ethos — participatory culture, wikis, blogs, podcasts, virtual worlds, and new values around harnessing collective information
• It’s all part of the engagement question. How do you engage learners best? It shouldn’t just be about bright lights and activity; it should have a clear learning purpose

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• teachers at the high school and undergraduate university level aren’t giving students a broad enough understanding of how scientists go about their research
• general public is relatively ignorant about the process of scientific inquiry and the nature of science
• Too often, school instructors describe the scientific process as linear and conclusive, said many of the panelists, when in fact scientific inquiry is open-ended.
• typical high school curricula, teachers present the scientific method as consisting of a sequence of steps. For example: Step 1, develop a hypothesis; Step 2, test it; Step 3, draw a conclusion.
• "We are teaching the scientific method too simplistically," says Judy Scotchmoor, of the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley
• develops tools for training STEM teachers.
• To replace the linear approach to teaching the scientific method, Scotchmoor designed a flow chart
• White House also has recently embraced a more broad-based approach to improving middle school students’ STEM performance as part of its Educate to Innovate program
• effectiveness of science fairs in general. "They have a relatively small effect," said Jon D. Miller, a scientific literacy and education expert at Michigan State University. "They help people with a strong interest in science, so they’re not a conversion process but a reinforcement process."

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