STEM+ [Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics] +PLUS+

Do engineering toys really help kids learn?

In my opinion, robotics is an excellent way to provide hands-on STEM education that engages kids. But to the class of 2025 I offer a warning: enjoy the cool toys, but don't forget to do some finger painting along the way.

One district is getting students more active and analytical with data-collection tools, like probeware

Today’s students, being technology natives, expect the same kinds of engagement in the classroom as they seek out online. STEM classes in particular have a natural potential to be both tech-rich and inquiry-based, especially hands-on lab activities. The recent addition of probeware—sensory-based handheld devices for measuring things like water quality, light, and temperature—has allowed us to bring students out into nature and introduce them to the world of data collection and analysis. Here are 7 ways technology is enhancing and expanding STEM education in our school district.

The BBC has unveiled the BBC micro:bit, a pocket-sized codeable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, which is to be given free to every child in year 7 or equivalent across the UK.

A collaboration between 29 partners, the micro:bit is the BBC's most ambitious education initiative in 30 years, with an ambition to inspire digital creativity and develop a new generation of tech pioneers.

The UK currently faces a critical skills shortage in the technology sector and the BBC and partners aim to help change that.

At The Mind Lab by Unitec, in Wellington New Zealand, we recently ran an after school robotics programme for 6 weeks. During the programme, students learnt how to build and program robots using Arduino microcontrollers, 3D printers and various electronic and mechanical components.

There were 8 students in the group aged between 7 & 9 yrs. For 1.5 hours a week, the students attended the lab and by the end of the programme they had successfully designed, created and coded their own custom robots. They are controlled via an infrared remote and have ultrasonic sensors (eyes) for autopilot mode. With this robotics programme, we wanted to take learning with robotics to the next level and teach kids how to actually make their own programmable robots from scratch. We wanted the students to learn design and computational thinking skills in a fun, creative and personalised project. 

This site provides a forum for teachers of Physics to find, share and comment on Physics teaching resources and approaches. It is aimed at teachers at primary, secondary and introductory tertiary levels, and we hope that the emerging community of scholars will become a "useful place" which facilitates learning and teaching in Physics.
There are two main parts of the site: Teaching Resources and a Forum to discuss the resources and Physics teaching in general. The initial content derives from a National Teaching Fellowship from the Australian Government's Office for Learning and Teaching. Ongoing development of the site and Forum is supported by the Australian Institute of Physics, Physics Education Group.

Computer science has been embraced by 6 countries, 17 states, 100 cities, and over 20,000 teachers. 2015 was an incredible year for computer science and Code.org

Supporting Transfers in Reaching Educational Aspirations in Math and Science, STREAMS, will help community college students earn a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, at Fresno Pacific.

The program is open to all students in the State Center Community College District who have earned or are completing an associate degree. It is especially designed for students from low-income and/or under represented backgrounds who are the first in their families to attend a college or university.

It doesn't look like much, but a 1.7 kilogram rock discovered by a team from Curtin University on New Year's Eve could help solve the mystery of how the solar system was created.

The meteorite, estimated to be 4.5 billion years old, is older than earth itself and one of just 20 in the world recovered after being tracked entering the earth's orbit.

It was found buried half a metre in the ground at Lake Eyre in South Australia by a team from Curtin University's Desert Fireball Network, which spent an exhausting three days trekking through the remote lake's mud looking for it.

ACCORDING TO AYAH Bdeir, technology is the language of our time. The 33-year-old founder and CEO of littleBits likes to compare the engineers of today to the clergy of the Middle Ages, who controlled access to knowledge and power via their monopoly over the use and understanding of the written word. Today’s engineers have a special kind of social and technological influence, which derives from their understanding of the stuff that makes our everyday gadgets work. If our lives today depend on technology, then those who truly understand it have an outsized influence over the rest of us. In Bdeir’s view, littleBits—a range of Lego-like electronic circuits that can be used by virtually anyone to innovate their own gadgets—isn’t just a plaything, it’s an aid to achieving widespread tech literacy. You might even think of littleBits as a democratizing project.

Millennials grew up in a unique era of transition as the Internet began to flourish and social networking was born. They were the first generation to have seemingly unlimited resources to learn from, which altered the way they learn, think about and feel about knowledge. The result is a world of visual learners craving digital content. With this unique disposition, millennials don’t learn the same way baby boomers did, so our education techniques must grow and change accordingly. Educators have the opportunity to utilize a plethora of new technologies in order to increase student engagement, and encourage what is known as a participatory culture. For STEM education, this type of culture optimizes results.

Lydia Withrow uses a CSI-themed project, creating a mock crime scene to incorporate STEM into her English curriculum

Not many people would think to compare STEM and English to cops and robbers. Most see the two roles as total opposites in personality, goals, and demeanor, but without the “bad guys,” where would the cops fit in? In a way, the same can be said for STEM and ELA. While most teachers know the subjects as poles apart, when they are combined, their differences create a balanced learning environment that is not only educational but fun—what we like to call “organized chaos.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella welcomed a group of teachers to the company’s Redmond, Wash., campus on Monday morning, talking to them about the ways Microsoft products can be used in the classroom.

As a father of two daughters, Nadella said he’s particularly sensitive to the challenges teachers face in trying to get female students involved in computer science programs. He said there are all sorts of cultural biases that keep certain groups away, but there are ways to change that.

“It requires us to think differently in terms of what programs, what kind of assignments, even, will attract a more diverse population into computer science,” Nadella said, adding that Minecraft is one such tool.

Women comprise more than half of science PhD graduates and early career researchers, but just 17% of senior academics in Australian universities and research institutes. In between, women scientists are squeezed out of science careers by systemic and inherently inequitable structural barriers.

The loss of so many women scientists is a significant waste of expertise, talent and investment, and this impacts our nation’s scientific performance and productivity.