STEM RESEARCH AND THE SAE ELECTRIC CAR PROJECT

At the completion of the first semester at Streamwood High School in Streamwood, Illinois I initiated a summative engineering-based challenge for my physical science students to accomplish.  Upon reflecting on NGSS and its renewed emphasis on engineering-based modeling in the science curriculum, I recommitted myself to utilizing the AWIM electric car challenge as a means to meet these new learning outcomes.  Using STEM research models and publications, I modified the electric car challenge into a comparative analysis of prototype models of the SAE electric car and student- designed models.  I wanted to provide students with the challenge of engineering-based problem solving, but with controls on variables and with a goal of achieving collaborative assessment of data.

I am thankful for the resources that AWIM provides, with respect to the classroom kits of electric cars and the ease in which to modify curriculum to meet students’ learning needs.  I was able employ the electric car project in three high school physical science classes with a combined enrollment of nearly 90 students. 

AWIM Website:
http://www.awim.org/

STEM research models can be tailored to the classroom environment and to the culture of learning in the school.  The future of engineering-modeled curriculum initiatives will rely upon educators of science at the K-6 and middle school levels to design learning models that stress problem solving attributes that need to be learned by students at all age levels.  If we want to keep pace with changes taking place in science education that are sweeping the globe, then we had better commit ourselves, as educators, to break the current curriculum mold and try new approaches to learning science.  These new learning environments will develop student creativity, critical thinking and ultimately create a sense that collaboratively students have the ability to solve real complex problems. 

The Changing Face of Education in the 21st Century

The Changing Face of Education in the 21st Century

Here is a quote from Jay McTighe education author and consultant written in part 4 of a 5 part series on Common Core Big Ideas and published recently in Edutopia:

“To design a 12-K curriculum backward from the goal of autonomous transfer requires a deliberate and transparent plan for helping the student rely less and less on teacher hand-holding and scaffolds. After all, transfer is about independent performance in context. You can only be said to have fully understood and applied your learning if you can do it without someone telling you what to do. In the real world, no teacher is there to direct and remind you about which lesson to plug in here or what strategy fits there; transfer is about intelligently and effectively drawing from your repertoire, independently, to handle new situations on your own. Accordingly, we should see an increase, by design, in problem- and project-based learning, small-group inquiries, Socratic Seminars, and independent studies as learners’ progress through the curriculum across the grades.

Our point here is straightforward: if a curriculum simply marches through lists of content knowledge and skills without attending to the concomitant goal of cultivating independent performance, high-schoolers will remain as dependent on teacher directions and step-by-step guidance as fourth graders currently are. The resulting graduates will be unprepared for the demands of college and the workplace.”

As educators we need to put more effort into reshaping our educational institutions so that they reflect a culture of learning helping to bring forth, in every student, understanding that is necessary to be productive and accountable citizens of our 21^st century democracy.

 

Education and Institutional Trust

Investment comes from the many not the few

Investment in public education is one of the marked achievements of a "Good Society". Another
fundamental component is trusted institutions that provide the means to address change within our society. A measure of the depth of trust we have is realized in how we associate with valued institutions dealing with schools, banks, housing, and the environment. Politics can weigh heavily upon this and dismantle the bonds of trust that were created over time. Most recently, schools have been targeted as ground zero with political attacks upon its institutions that weaken social bonds between teachers, parents and students. Trust is something that must continually be developed and nurtured by all stakeholders in education that work for the success in the lives of our children.

Our educational institutions evolve with changes in our society and it is important to maintain open lines of communication that invite dialogue on important issues that now challenge the very premise of how we define learning in the 21st century classroom. Informed and thoughtful insights to address these new challenges can only arise from public investment into the debate over the pathways to learning. It can not be dictated to people, it must come from the people with a proliferation of ideas and solutions. Intelligence and critical thinking are aspects of humankind that can be unleashed most dramatically in the 21st century through amazing arrays of dialogue now available on the Internet. The important idea to gather here is the need for the strength of the minds of many to deliver the solutions needed to bridge the achievement gaps we face in the classroom.

SAE 2010 Engineering Convention in Chicago

Getting ready for a new school year

August 23rd will mark the beginning of another school year at Streamwood High School. On August 25th all students will return to the classrooms and start a learning adventure that will take them into the summer of the new year 2011.

I am the eternal optimist when it comes to learning taking place in the classroom and my ability to connect effectively with students learning science. I have plans for some extraordinary inquiry-based investigations that my students will capitalize upon and greatly increase their understanding of the world that they live in.

I am moving forward this year on a cross-disciplinary science project called The Climate Change Project. It will encompass and utilize all of my most recent projects on sustainable living, alternative energy and energy conservation. It will be a more focused attempt to document the effects of climate change upon our environment, which resonates from the effects of global warming and increased carbon dioxide gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

A New School Year Begins

Hello Fellow Science Educators!

It is the beginning of an new and exciting school year. I hope you are all getting psyched up for another great experience with all of your students.

I am working this year on a new science project funded by a BP A+ Energy Grant. my students and i along with five other teachers and their students are going to research, study and grow worms while processing the biomass they produce into energy.

I will keep you all posted as to the level of success we achieve during this project in terms of increasing the learning going on in the classroom.