Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Women, Girls and STEM Education

First Lady Michelle Obama recently announced a National Science Foundation​ initiative to encourage girls to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and provide flexibility to working parents in research fields.

 

This fact sheet takes a look at why bringing girls and women into STEM fields is so important—and what President Obama and his administration are doing to help.

Girls, Women and STEM Education

Google Global Science Fair for Teens

At Google, the only thing we love as much as science is science education. We want to celebrate young scientific talent and engage students who might not yet be engaged with science.

So, in partnership with CERN, the LEGO Group, National Geographic, and Scientific American we’ve created an exciting new global science competition, the Google Science Fair.

Students all over the world who are between the ages of 13 and 18 are eligible to enter this competition and compete for prizes including once-in-a-lifetime experiences, internships and scholarships.

 

We’ll be accepting submissions from 11 January to 4 April 2011. Students who make it to the finalist stage will be invited with a parent or guardian to our celebratory event at Google headquarters in California in July, where they’ll be able to showcase their project and meet some of the brightest minds in science today. We will select and announce our winner at this event.

The competition is open to students aged 13 to 18 from around the world working on their own or in a team of two or three. For more details, visit the Science Fair Rules page.

Here are some tips for getting started:

1. Direct students to the sign up page to register either as individuals or teams of up to three.
2. Discuss project requirements and entry process with students.
3. Get familiar with Google Sites so that your students are prepared to complete their project submission. Their Google Site will become their official project submission. The Materials section is full of resources for using Google products to help students illustrate their work.
4. Start immersing students in the scientific method using some tips from the table below and in our Science Resources section.
5. Assist students in developing their project and learn along with them!
6. Review the contest rules and FAQs with your students

via Google Science Fair

Blackawton Bees: Eight-Year-Olds Publish Bee Study in Respected UK Science Journal

Royal Society Publishing science journal Biology Letters is releasing a paper about the way bees use color and space to navigate between flowers. It was written by 25 co-authors, all of whom are between the ages of 8 and 10.

Really: The 25 kids, all from the Blackawton Primary School in Devon, England, designed the experiment from the ground up, and wrote every word in the paper.

The students who published the paper were participants in "i, scientist," a project set up to engage kids with science in a hands-on way. A very hands-on way.

I Scientist film from Storymakers TV on Vimeo.

With help from neuroscientist Beau Lotto (whose son is in the class), the 25-person team began by thinking about the way animals—in particular, bees—perceive the world. You can read more about the Blackawton Bees study and other projects by Lotto by clicking here. The Blackawton Bee paper is available here.

This is a briliant and hands on way to teach kids science. Instead of sitting in classroom and listening to a teacher, these kids are getting a hands on experience that makes science move from theory into actual practice and proves that anyone can do science.

via gawker.com

Weekly Wrap: Back to School with Twitter & Facebook, Gen Y Workaholic, Texting & Teen Health, Kodu, Tom Daley Defies Bullies

Back-to-school pitches go social with Facebook, Twitter Last year, cutting-edge back-to-school marketing for the pop culture-driven brand was all about luring young girls to the Candies.com website. This year, back-to-school marketing is all about driving discussion in online social-media "communities." [USA Today]

Don't Ignore the Least Common Denominator With the boom of smartphones and mobile applications, it's easy to dismiss SMS as soooo 2000 and late. But in this week's reblog, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures stresses the appeal, simplicity, and popularity of the SMS format and begs us to get our heads out of our apps. [MobileBehavior]

Memo to Gen Y: Your Touted Workaholism isn't a badge of Honor I’m getting a little tired of Gen Y bloggers proudly flouting their “workaholism” in post after post of how they love their jobs, don’t see a need for work/life balance anymore and question whether or not their relationships are holding them back. (Spot on Holly!) [Work Love Life]

Hey! Miley: Youth advice slinger Josh Shipp offers unsolicited advice to the Queen of Tween. Yep, he's talking to you Ms. Miley Cyrus. And if you're so inclined, you can also take the "Which Demi Lovato Song Are You" quiz. Although, if you're not a tween, please don't! [Hey Josh!] [LOL Quiz]

Night Texting Putting Teen Health at Risk What most don't know is that too much texting can actually be detrimental to their teens' health. That's because new technologies, such as cellphones and social networking sites, give teenagers easy access to their friends 24 hours a day. (I'm sure this is an issue, but I just hope that parents don't overreact.) [Miami Herald]

Teenage Tom Daley Defies Bullies Daley's success led to him being bullied at school. It got worse when he became more well known and he was eventually forced to change schools. At the time, his father, Rob, said: "In class they throw pens and pencils at him. Some have even threatened to break his legs. That was the last straw." [Guardian UK]

Tweet O' the Week: "The funny thing about the Internet is that we forget that we once thought TV would solve all of our problems too." (via @basler)

I Want My Wireless & Social TV Verizon has launched services that provide mobile application and social networking services on your television. The new service allows customers to access free widgets that connect to social networks Twitter and Facebook, or access a “fantasy football” service from ESPN. Given research showing that Gen Y want more social tv features, this move by Verizon could really pay off.

Meanwhile, a new report by ABI Research states that television manufacturers will ship about 20 million wireless-networked TVs globally in 2011 and consumers will spend about $2.9 billion on video content that's streamed from the Internet to TVs in 2013, up from about $600 million this year. [GoMo News] [Video Business]

Virtual Worlds for Children: In America, nearly 10m children and teenagers visit virtual worlds regularly, estimates eMarketer, a market researcher—a number the firm expects to increase to 15m by 2013. Speaking of virtual worlds, this week Shidonni launched a Spanish-language version of its pet-populated virtual world, Tales 4 Tomorrow an eco-friendly virtual world for kids with a strong animal conservation message (via Premise Marketing on Twitter). [Economist] [Virtual World News]

Speed Round: Even more on teens and Twitter, a great list of Mobile Social Networks (MoSo's), in a bold youth play, Microsoft creates a new programming language called Kodu designed for kids and made specifically for creating games & also launches Microsoft Education Labs, turns out that parents share too much on the social web too & STFU, Parents is there to blog it in all it's horror (I love this), Japan to politicians: no Twitter for you, California teen to stand trial in slaying of gay classmate, and finally.....Yahoo! Music has put together a playlist of the Top 10 Songs About Robots! [Unit Structures] [GoMo News] [NextGreatThing] [STFU, Parents] [Inquisitr] [KTLA] [Yahoo! Music]

Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award

The Ypulse 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Award (sponsored by Dell) will honor a trailblazing teacher who has successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of technology, mobile technology, social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom.

The award is inspired by Ypulse founder Anastasia Goodstein’s book, Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online, and the challenges she observed around integrating technology into public school classrooms. We will recognize a teacher who has overcome these challenges and is inspiring both students and other educators.

The award-winner likely had to overcome challenges from parents and administrators in order to use the technology, but because they understand how students use social media outside of school, they persevered with their initiative and worked collaboratively with students, ultimately sharing their insight and knowledge with the larger teaching community.

Representatives from Ypulse and Dell will choose three finalists to interview by phone. The selected teacher will be honored in person at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup June 1-2 in San Francisco.

All three finalists will receive a IT solution from Dell to use in their respective schools. Teachers can nominate themselves. You can get all of the details about how to nominate a teacher (or if you're a teacher, how to nominate yourself!) over on Ypulse.

Related Links

• Dell > EDU4U
• Follow Dell Education on Twitter
• Totally Wired Teen Book
• Ypulse Interview: Josh Shipp, Advice Slinger, HeyJosh.com
• Video > Anastasia Goodstein on "Totally Wired" Teens
• Follow YPulse on Twitter

NASA is Developing MMO in Effort to Boost STEM Education

When it comes to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), American kids are falling behind other kids in countries. There are lots of organizations--from ExxonMobil to the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)--are working hard to reverse this trend and get more kids into a science education track.

For example, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has a STEM education initiative for teachers and they provide an array of professional development resources (many for free) for teachers over on their online Learning Center.

STEM education--for both students and teachers--is at the core of President Obama's educational reform package. These are all great programs and let's face it, when it comes to STEM education programs, the more the merrier.

View more presentations from ashwinl.

NASA, who has a vested interest in having a steady flow of qualified people to develop our national space programs, is ready to embark on a new and bold plan to get America's youth--from elementary school to higher education--interested in space exploration.

Their secret weapon? A virtual world build around a mission to Mars.

In an effort to encourage more kids to pursue science careers, NASA has created a Learning Technologies Project Office (LPTO) and partnered with three video game producers to create, Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond.

According to NASA:

The game will enable participants to learn and be tested on real skills through single-player and team-based missions based on real NASA technologies, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

In addition, players will interact with NASA digital assets, such as hyper-realistic digital renderings of Mars rovers and telescope images taken of and from space.

The level at which users participate in these missions will depend on age and education, among other factors. So, while the game promises to have a big impact on higher education, it will also be geared toward students as young as 13 who can participate at a level suited to their experience."

Today's kids are savvy and have lots of choices when it comes to virtual worlds. If the Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond doesn't feel authentic, they won't use it. So it's really great to see that NASA had the foresight to consult and collaborate with experts from the MMO/virtual world community to develop this project.

Given how much Gen Y love video games and virtual worlds, this type of hands-on, project based learning activity might just be the thing to get more kids interested in science.

Related Resources

• Introducing NASA's Virtual Universe "Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond"
• Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Act of 2008
• Dale Basler, Science Guru
• Project Tomorrow: STEM Education & Technology Use in K 12 Schools
• Twitter & NASA: Meet the Martians

Project Tomorrow: STEM Education & Technology Use in K-12 Schools

Project Tomorrow has released the results of a study conducted in July 2008 to assess students’ views of STEM education and use of technology in K-12 schools. Project Tomorrow surveyed more than 319,223 in all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, American Department of Defense Schools, Canada, Mexico, and Australia.

In the report, Inspiring the Next Generation of Innovators: Students, Parents, and Educators Speak Up about Science Education (pdf), students’ report that their ability to use technology in schools helps balance who is involved in our conversations about academic improvement.

View more presentations from ashwinl. (tags: geny generation)

Project Tomorrow also concluded that learning is something students do (encouraged and assisted by adults), rather than something adults do—or “deliver”—to students. Their motivation ought to be our central focus.

President Obama has proposed an $18 billion increase in spending for all federal education programs with a focus on enhancing science education as a key component of his education reform package.

During the campaign, he outlined several initiatives geared towards improving science and technology literacy for both students' and teachers. Among his proposals:

• Increasing the number of graduates and undergraduates pursuing degrees in STEM fields.

• Establishing a Teaching Service Scholarship program for recruiting math, science and technology degree graduates.

• Expanding access to computers and broadband connections in public schools.

• Investing in science education R&D to determine what types of curriculum and instruction work best practices.

Here are some of the highlights from the Project Tomorrow Report:

• Fifty-seven percent of K-12 school administrators gave a passing grade to their school for preparing students for jobs of the future, but only 47 percent of teachers and 43 percent of parents agreed.

• Among middle and high school students who assessed themselves as advanced tech-users, only 23 percent indicated that their schools were preparing them well.

• While inquiry-based curricula are seen as one means for students to achieve scientific literacy, in 2007 only 25 percent of science teachers used such curricula in their classrooms.

• Today’s students will be expected to collectively tackle 21^st century problems, yet only 16 percent of teachers reported they are assigning projects that help students develop problem-solving skills.

• Students report that their especially fun or interesting learning experiences using science and math have been hands-on and group-oriented.

• When asked about the essential features of their imagined ultimate science classroom, the leading answer for students in grades K-2 and in grades 9-12 was “teachers excited about science”. Students in grades 3-5 were more interested in “fun experiments” (69 percent).

• Other highly essential features for students in grades 3-12 were “real tools” (standard lab and technology-based tools) and being able to do “real research,” including online research on computers.

• Teachers reported that the 21^st century tools having the greatest potential to increase student achievement in science specifically are: (1) animations to help students visualize difficult concepts; (2) interactive simulations to practice scientific expertise; (3) standard lab tools and apparatus (such as microscopes and Bunsen burners).

• If they were to consider integrating the tools into their science instruction, the factors most influencing them would be available funding and the cost of the tools. After funding, best practices most influence school leaders to improve science education.

• Most students who participated in the Project Tomorrow Speak Up 2007 survey are open to pursuing a job or career in a STEM field. Thirty-two percent of middle school students and 38 percent of high school students reported they are somewhat or very interested in STEM jobs or careers.

• Twenty-one percent more students in grades 6-12 indicated “maybe” they are interested in a STEM career. College scholarships, conversational interactions with professionals, visits to STEM companies, using tools professionals use, and hand-on learning opportunities have potential to further students’ interest.

Related Resources

• Dale Basler, Science Guru
• Communities of Practice
• NASA Developing Virtual World to Boost STEM
• Technology Encourages Active Learning
• NASA's Gen Y Speaks Out
• Online Learning Design That Fosters Student Support, Self-Regulation, And Retention

Twitter & NASA: Meet the Martians

This has been a big week for Twitter. And no, I'm not talking about this weeks multiple outages stemming from its stratospheric growth spurt. I'm talking about the NASA Phoenix Lander and its Tweets from the Red Planet. NASA, using the Twitter handle Mars Phoenix, has been sending updates and findings from the Mars mission.

According to a NYT article, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is using Twitter along with other Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook, blogging and YouTube as a way to get Americans interested in science and space exploration.

"Most twitterers use the service to send up-to-the-second news about the minutiae of their lives to friends, but Rhea Borja, a member of Ms. McGregor’s team, sees it as a way to spread NASA news to twentysomethings. “To reach a new generation of folks,” said Ms. Borja, a thirtysomething." (via NYT)

Utilizing technologies that appeal to Gen Y students is a great way to introduce them to STEM careers and tap into their digital learning styles. The MarsPhoenix "tweets" are fascinating, humorous and thrilling.

All the tweeting aside, if you stop and think about the technology behind this mission and how far away Mars really is ---it's just downright mind blowing.

Related Resources

• Google Maps > Mars
• What Web Strategists Should Know About Twitter
• Microsoft World Wide Telescope

Across the Universe: Microsoft & WorldWide Telescope

Earlier this week Microsoft Research Labs released "WorldWide Telescope (WWT) -- a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes all over the world and the heavens, and builds a comprehensive view of our universe (via)."

You can get a peek at the WorldWide Telescope in this video demo from TED. You can download WWT here and get busy touring the starry, starry skies above us. This is a great digital astronomy resource for science teachers and students alike and one that will get them engaged in science.

Related Resources

• WorldWide Telescope
• Watch Kids React to WWT
• What is WWT?
• WWT Tour

Yale University: Embracing Open Education

Yale University has joined the OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement and is now offering free courses through Open Yale Courses that anyone in the world is free to participate.

Seven departments (astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology and religious studies) at Yale are among the first at the university to offer classes via the Open Yale Courses program.

The Open Yale site describes the program as follows:

"Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.

Open Yale Courses reflects the values of a liberal arts education. Yale's philosophy of teaching and learning begins with the aim of training a broadly based, highly disciplined intellect without specifying in advance how that intellect will be used.

This approach goes beyond the acquisition of facts and concepts to cultivate skills and habits of rigorous, independent thought: the ability to analyze, to ask the next question, and to begin the search for an answer.

We hope these courses will be a resource for critical thinking, creative imagination, and intellectual exploration."

The Open Yale Courses have been funded and supported through grants from the William and Flora Hewitt Foundation, as well as the Yale Center for Media and Instruction. Open Yale Courses have also integrated Creative Commons licensing into their course materials.

Additional Resources

• Open Yale Courses
• Didactics World > Bridging the Digital Content Divide
• Creative Commons > Education
• Education Guardian Weekly > Reading Poetry at Yale...
• Didactics World > Open Content Provision Through ccLearn

Dale Basler, Science Guru

Dale Basler has been a teacher of science in Appleton, Wisconsin since 1998. He currently teaches physics and physical science at Appleton East High School.

In 2004, Dale was elected President-Elect of Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers (WSST) and served for four years on the WSST Board of Directors. For two of those years, Dale served as President of WSST.

Q: What types of digital tools or social media are you using in your classroom?

A: Nothing affects my classroom more than RSS feeds. I follow a variety of sites and podcasts that I share with my students. My news reader allows me to share information with the class and keep up with current topics without spending valuable time searching for it– the news comes to us.

I’ve also been trying to get my students to create more videos. I just cannot see a future where my students won’t be asked to create multimedia presentations in their careers. I want to push their creativity and help them become comfortable using new tools– all while learning physics too!

Creativity requires feedback and encouragement. I’ve had my students post their projects to a variety of online video sharing communities. The teacher can comment on a student’s work but nothing motivates students more than feedback from their peers.

I require my students to comment on their classmates’ work. Students learn from both the comments their video receives and through the process of critiquing others.

Last, but not least, is Twitter. This seems to be the perfect tool for a teacher. It’s quick and easy to use. I’ve used it to network with other teachers and as a way for my students to journal (via their cellphone) during a field trip back to the students in the classroom who couldn’t join us. Now that I’ve convinced my school district to stop filtering it, I plan to use Twitter even more with my students.

Q: How have your students responded to the integration of technology into your curriculum?

A: Over the past two years I have been doing a podcast for my students as a way for them to review and reinforce what we’ve been learning in the classroom. However, not a lot of my students are big podcast listeners. This was new to them. I started putting tips for quizzes in the podcasts to get them into it. The reaction has gone from, “What are you doing?” to kids coming in on Monday and asking, “Hey, where’s the podcast?”

Q: Why is Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) important?

A: There are many reasons to promote and encourage STEM education. We can talk about the future competitiveness of our country if we slip behind in STEM fields. Yet, I argue that STEM education is important for all students– not just the ones who are heading toward a career in this field.

A solid STEM education helps all students become better citizens. It helps us become more aware of our surroundings, what our political leaders are saying and what our stores are selling. I shriek when I overhear customers at big box stores being bamboozled by the store clerk because they are not technologically literate. Or when they’re duped by fuzzy mathematics at checkout time.

What really gets me is when science is misused and misrepresented. Magnetic bracelets, crystal therapy and all sorts of other quackery take advantage of people daily. We need to improve STEM education for all of our students so they cannot fall victim to such dubious claims.

Q: You and your colleague Brian Bartel co-host NSTA’s Lab Out Loud, a bi-weekly podcast on science education, news and technology. Who has been your favorite guest so far and why?

Lab Out Loud has been an absolute blast. We’ve had so many wonderful guests. One of my colleagues put it best, “Even if nobody listens, you’ve gotten to talk to some extraordinary people in science.” Fortunately people are listening too.

If I had to pick a favorite, it would be our most recent interview with Phil Plait, otherwise known as The Bad Astronomer. Plait’s website, badastronomy.com, often discuss topics that are close to my content area so it was easy for me to make a connection to what he was saying. He pointed out the need for us to teach our students to be skeptical– a point I also agree with tremendously. Plait was also quite funny which makes our job as interviewers a breeze.

Q: Dark chocolate or milk?

A: As a proud resident of “The Dairy State” I have to say milk.

Q: Favorite Quote?

A: “There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.” -Richard Feynman

Thanks Dale!

Related Resources

• National Science Teacher Association (NSTA)
• LabOutLoud @ NSTA Conference 2008
• WIRED Science on PBS

PBS & WIRED Science Student Video Contest

WIRED Science and PBS are sponsoring a "WIRED Science Student Video Contest" that is open to all students in grades 9-12 (contest is also open to home school students).

This is an opportunity for students to work with their teachers to create a video explaining a science concept, ideas on the future of science, or--well, anything else you think will help you snag the prize. Yes, there are prizes.

You can learn more about the contest, find the application form, along with all the details over on the WIRED Science Education page.

Don't forget that Jumpcut has free, easy-to-use video editing tools. And if you need a refresher on copyright, be sure to check out CreativeCommons or the Microsoft MyBytes for more information.

But hurry. Application and videos are due by April 1st, 2008. So hurry--get those creative juices flowing!

Related Resources

• WIRED Science Contest > Gallery
• Science Commons
• Twitter > WIRED Science

Encyclopedia of Life

Released last week to much fanfare, the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a "comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing...ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world."

While anyone will be able to contribute and share their knowledge with the EOL community, each species has it's own "curator" (knowledge expert or authenticator) who will validate the information contained on that species page. Most of the content in the EOL is available for re-use under a Creative Commons license.

The EOL is an incredible resource for students, teachers and educators. You can join the EOL project by volunteering to be a species curator, contributing species-related content (photos, drawings, text, video, etc.), or supporting the EOL as a financial contributor.

Related Resources

• Encyclopedia of Life
• EOL > Nicrophorus americanus > American Burying Beetle
• NSDL > Beyond Polar Bears & Penguins
• Creative Commons Video: Wanna Work Together?
• Flickr + Creative Commons

Beyond Polar Bears & Penguins

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is a new online professional development resource for elementary teachers which focuses on preparing teachers to teach polar science concepts by integrating inquiry-based science with literacy teaching.

Research has shown that this integrated approach can increase students' science knowledge,academic language, reading comprehension, and written and oral discourse abilities.

This program is funded by the National Science Foundation Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL). Kimberly Lightle, Principal Investigator for the NSDL Middle School Portal, is the lead specialist on the project and is adapting and contextualizing existing content from the NSDL repository.

Related Links

• Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears
• National Digital Science Library
• Center for Science Education (CSE)
• Encyclopedia of Life
  

Net Day 2006: Speak Up on Schools & Technology

"Now in its fourth year, NetDay Speak Up is an annual national research project that collects the voices and views of key stakeholders in education on topics such as educational technology, science, math, and 21st workforce skills.

Over the past three years the project has collected the viewpoints of over 562,000 K-12 students from all 50 states, as well as 26,000 teachers. For the first time this year we've also added Speak Up for Parents!

The results of the surveys are shared with participating schools and districts so that they can use the data for planning and community discussion. In addition, the findings and data are used by local, state, and national organizations and government agencies to inform new programs and polices."

Net Day Resources

• Speak Up 2006
• Speak Up 100
• 2005 National Speak Up Report: "Our Voices, Our Future" (pdf)