Achieve
This amazing website is about convincing people-students elementary to high school, parents and grandparents- about the need for STEM education. Ads of all kinds from television to print media, as well as brochures are available through the web site. The available PowerPoint uses data to convince the audience of the changing paradigms of today's careers.
The Active Science Classroom: Learning Science Content Though Information, Technology, and Visual Literates
The goal of this 3-credit inservice course is to provide the elementary science teacher with the 21st century skills teachers need to integrate hands-on and minds-on learning in the science classroom. Participants will learning how to design inquiry-based instruction and develop competencies in web publishing, evaluation of digital content, and technology tools and applications. This course is taught by Sharon Grimes and Fran Glick as part of the Elementary Science Summer Institutes coordinated by David Copenhaver.
LSAMP: Kentucky – West Virginia Alliance for Minority Participation Project
The states of Kentucky and West Virginia are joining together to promote more minority participation in the STEM programs at ten of their colleges and universities and ensure that these students graduate and work in those fields. “The KY – WV LSAMP alliance is collaboration among ten academic institutions, the KY-NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), the WV-NSF EPSCoR, two state agencies, and the initial stage of a developing industrial support base.” They propose to increase their graduate numbers by 111% in STEM programs. Focus areas include recruitment and retention, research experiences, curriculum reform, role models. “The increase in skilled workforce has the potential to significantly stimulate the competitive position of the two states relative to that available with the current educational levels, and in doing so, attract new jobs which diversify the economic base.” The proposed 5 year budget request is $2,447,261. (cl)
National Science Foundation: Division of Human Resource Development
Excellent site for women, minorities and the disabled to see what careers are available to them in the STEM fields. Site demonstrates what NSF is doing to encourage diversity in employment to stimulate the employment force in America to make it globally competitive.
North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL) Technology Competencies Survey
Allows districts or schools to conduct online assessments of system wide educational
technology effectiveness. The enGauge Online Assessment is designed to provide a system wide view of a school's and/or district's use of technology for teaching and learning. The online assessment comprises surveys for nine different school community stakeholders. Once an en Gauge project has been set up and survey participants have taken the surveys, several types of reports or profiles are generated. Examples of surveys for specific audiences are as follows: Educator, District Administrator, Building Administrator, Building Technology Coordinator, District Technology Coordinator, Board Member, Community Member, Student, Parent.
Raggio Research Center for STEM Education
The Raggio Research Center for STEM Education is trying to enhance the practice of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education focused primarily on underrepresented groups. They will accomplish this mission through research, development, instruction, dissemination, leadership, and outreach. This site relates the ACT test and the STEM program together. It gives specific facts about students in these future careers. The site gives suggestions to educational leaders on what they should be doing for the students in the STEM program.
RE-SEED (Retirees Enhancing Science Education through Experiments and Demonstrations)
This is an exiting website (and idea) with an overview and specifics about a program matching retired scientists and engineers with schools and teachers. In its fifteen year tenure the Boston based experiment has grown from six volunteers to a current number of 500. These volunteers offer valuable support through their educational background to teachers whose background is often not in the the area of science, but in other areas.
Emily Stover DeRocco talks about her “Wired Initiative.” She talks about the need for connecting what students learn to the real world. Students need to see that Algebra and Calculus are the foundation for engineering and science jobs later. She speaks about education not being just K-12, but “K-Gray.” She proposes that the Delaware Valley be like Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle taking advantage of the universities and colleges in the area.
Stepping Up STEM Education
This is a publication in Michigan that is discussing the importance of STEM Education starting in Kindergarten. The site gives great statistics about the STEM program and why it is so important. The number of students interested in these areas have dropped tremendously.
UMBC - BCPS STEM Technology Survey
Instrument collaborative developed by UMBC and BCPS to assess the school technology accessibility and use.
Understanding by Design (Jay McTighe)
Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework for improving student achievement. Emphasizing the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning, UbD works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities. Developed by nationally recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Understanding Factors That Sustain Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Career Pathways
This research project investigates how individual student occupational career paths in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) were influenced by their participation or lack of participation in the high school STEM pathway. The research focuses on students in the state of Florida, using the Florida Dept. of Education’s tracking technology. The data has been analyzed based on the high school pathway of the student and on other sub-groupings. It helps to give insight into where high schools need to place emphasis in their programs in order to promote future success of all students.
Web-training Modules to Help Teachers Understand and Use Standardized Test Scores
Principal Investigator Rebecca Zwick of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School has just released the second handy and free web training module of the series “Instructional Tools in Educational Measurement and Statistics (ITEMS) for School Personnel.” This project, funded by a three-year, $478,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, provides engaging and informative animated lessons that will help school personnel use test results to make instructional decisions; test results to pinpoint schools, classes, or individuals that require additional instruction or resources; and, explain test results to students, parents, the school board, the press, and the general community.
STEM Planning Tools