Good problem solvers recognize three realities:
Category: STEM
On Industrial Arts
This post is in response to a recent tweet (and toot): Makerspaces are fine, but they are really a poor substitute for the "indistrial arts" and "home economics" shops and kitchens and well-supplied art studios we had in the 1970's and 1980's. Yes, I realize this post can be labled "back in my day things Read More
edtech for IT: What They Teach- Coding
Coding, of course, refers to teaching students how to program. Coding can be it’s own subject in school (such as high schools participating the Advanced Placement Computer Science courses), it can be incorporated into other lessons (such as middle school math students coding with Scratch in mathematics courses), or it can be the focus of Read More
Gregor Mendel- Lessons on Politics and Science
Science is a valuable endeavor for humans. It is through these efforts to understand how nature works that we fulfil our curiosity, contemplate our place in the universe, improve the health of humans, and otherwise affect our environments. Of course, when scientific discoveries are used to create technological “solutions,” things get far more complicated. In Read More
Science Projects that Model Science
Cleaning out a folder with old files, I discovered a proposal for an alternative to the traditional science project in which students all investigate a different question. I believed (10 years ago, and I still do) that it would be interesting and instructional to have all students devise their own methods for doing the investigation.
How I Create Curriculum
Some former students appeared in my Twitter followers last week. One reached out with a very complimentary direct message in which he described how he attributed my course to his success and the success of several friends. For context, they we my students in a range of “computer” course while they were in high school. Read More
On Research
In cleanout out some files, I found a document containing the “working definition” of research the I presented to a group of science teachers who were refreshing the roles of lab activities, science fairs, and similar activities in their school. Although written in 2014, it still seems accurate: This working definition assumes: Research seeks to Read More
Education and Science Are Political… and That is A Good Thing
My social media feeds recently have been filled with calls that “you” not be political. I am included in the “you” because I am an educator (retired from almost 30 years in K-12 and continuing to teach and support teachers in community colleges). I am also included in the “you” as I have a background Read More
Students’ Experiences Matter
Teaching is an inherently wicked problem. (This idea has been addressed multiple times in this blog– search for “wicked.”) In 1973, scholars Rittel and Webber defined wicked problems as those that are ill-defined and that are judged only from the perspective of the individual who experienced the solution. A defining characteristic of wicked problems is Read More
OpenMiddle: Challenging math problems worth solving
In my explorations of math education this fall, I have been encountering a wide range of resources for math teachers. Many list such a wide range of problems, resources, and tools that even a good search strategy is not helpful in finding the items that are unique to the site. Open Middle is a site Read More