Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition

1. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Shirley M. Malcom, Ph.D.

2. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Challenges • The needs of a knowledge-based economy • The shifting demographics • Explosion of science/knowledge • Next generation standards in science (three dimensions) • Incorporation of engineering into the standards • Common core (English –language arts and mathematics)

3. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Challenges • Emergence of technology in education • Informal education (since there are not enough hours in the school day and year) • Learning sciences • Political “interest”

4. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition What Does it Mean to Be Literate? Different Times, Different Answers Bessie EstellFunderburg (1886-1980) Born: Talladega County, AL

5. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Changing Notions of Literacy—A 21st Century Viewpoint • Critical thinking skills • Comfort with technology • Being able to learn for a lifetime

6. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Then and Now • Grandmother: Take science and math if you’re going to college vs. STEM for all • Where you pursue a “women’s field vs. expanding opportunity, reducing stereotyping and occupational segregation”

7. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Population shifts: The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be -- Yogi Berra On July 1, 2011 over half of the population under the age of 1 was minority. Photo Credit: Mel Yates/Getty Images

8. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition The Knowledge Explosion and The Knowledge Divide • Too much to know • The “tentative” nature of what we know and what we teach • Distinguishing between facts and opinion • Providing tools for discernment

9. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Yogi’s Wisdom If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up some place else.

10. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Next Generation Science Standards: A Symphony in Three Movements • Disciplinary knowledge, science practices, cross-cutting themes • Engineering • Relationship to the Common Core • Learning beyond the school

11. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition

12. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition The Reality of Implementation In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. -- Yogi Berra

13. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition The Challenges of Implementation MATHEMATICS • Who’s In? – 45 states, District of Columbia and 5 territories • Who’s Not? – Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, Virginia, Minnesota*, Puerto Rico SCIENCE • 26 partner states • To date, only Rhode Island has adopted *Minnesota: in for ELA, out for mathematics

14. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition The Challenges of Implementation • Teacher education • Teacher professional development • Principal training • Public buy-in • Managing the politics • ASSESSMENT !!! • Curriculum • Textbooks

15. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition A Note of Caution

16. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Yogi’s Wisdom It’s like deja-vu, all over again. What’s different THIS time?

17. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition New Tools, New Knowledge and Learning from History • Understanding what didn’t work last time • More understanding of how children (and teachers) learn • Greater “capacity” in the system • Powerful new technologies that are more accessible and provide learning options • Support of business community • “Incentivizing” transformation • Helping parents understand the consequences of inaction

18. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition From Digital Divide to Digital Bridge • Who has what technology? • Extending learning beyond the school • Creating links between school and informal • Supporting “science practices” • Supporting common core • Enhancing student interest and motivation • Increasing teacher options

19. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Technology in Teaching and Learning Science and Mathematics • “The wild, wild web” • “Finding the best; leaving the rest” • Building community • Another classroom for teachers and students

20. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Active Explorer: Bridging the Opportunities to Learn

21. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Active Explorer: Bridging the Opportunities to Learn

22. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Learning from the Learning Sciences • From “no pain no gain” to making learning fun • A role for “rote” • The foreign language called “science” • Context and the next generation of learners

23. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition The “Politics” of Education • STEM cells, evolution, climate change—when content becomes “political” • Theory and “just a theory” • The pressure to conform • Next generation assessment: The Sword of Damocles

24. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition The Age of Transition • You can observe a lot by just watching…Yogi Berra—Relating to experienced colleagues • Students as teachers • Parents as partners (We often fear that which we do no understand) • A role for scientists and engineers in schools

25. Not Your Grandmother’s Class: STEM Education in an Age of Transition Yogi’s Wisdom—John Gardner’s Optimism When you come to a fork in the road, take it. Yogi Berra We are all faced with a series of great opportunities– brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. John W. Gardner