STEM

STEM

 

 Following last week’s blog regarding the “The Common Core” curriculum and the United States need to improve our state of education, I decided to do this week’s blog on how we as parents and teachers can help our children get excited about STEM. For those of you who might not know, STEM, stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and is one of the areas in which the United States ranks lower than competing countries.

The following is a list I have compiled of ways we can help our children in this area:

1  1.    Understand your children’s/student’s interests, strengths and weakness. By doing this you will be able to find activities they will enjoy and prevent them from becoming frustrated.

    2.   Make sure your children/students are physically and emotionally healthy before expecting them to participate or learn from your lesson. If they are hungry, hurt, or irritated they won’t be giving you their full attention.

3  3. Teach your children/students how science and technology provide value. Emphasize their interests like the internet, cell phones, video games, and cures for diseases.

    4.  Create a STEM environment. Watch science related television programs or movies and have discussions about them. Do fun experiments that meet their age and interest levels, such as: making bubbles, “rain in a bag”, float or sink, mentos geysers, composting, weather stations, and “walking water”.

5.       Explore nature and answer your children’s/student’s questions; if you don’t know the answer offer them extra credit to research it. Suggested activities may include: making rainbows, nature color hunts, and/or stopping and exploring nature with magnifying glasses.

6.       Encourage children/students to be creative and invent things. Explain that science can lead to fame and money. Introduce them to Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Jane Goodall, and Temple Grandin.

I used the following webpages to provide information on this blog:

www.lovemyscience.com

www.wikihow.com                        

www.fun.familyeducation.com

  

Pros and Cons of "The Common Core"

As a current and future educator, as well as a mother of 4 young children, the state of the United States education system and our steady decline in student achievement rankings greatly concerns me. As we explore possible solutions to this problem the idea of “The Common Core” often comes up.

“The CommonCore” consists of cohesive expectations for what students in Kindergarten through 12^th grade should be taught and be able to achieve in each grade. The goal of “The Common Core” is that it will better prepare students for college and the workforce.

In order to make an educated decision on your position in regards to “The Common Core” it is important to be aware of some of the pros and cons of this unified strategy. This is a list of some of the positive and negative 
aspects of “The Common Core”.

Pros

·         Allows states to compare standardized tests more accurately and shows how students are achieving from state to state

·         Common core standards are internationally bench-marked and countries that currently have a single set of national norms have high performing students, therefore the U.S. should be successful in improving their academic ranking which has steadily been dropping

·         Classes can be more rigorous and high quality

·         Common core offers relief to highly mobile students such as students who often move from state to state for parent employment or military involvement

·         Common Core will improve students ability to use higher level of thinking

·         In the long run it will lower monies spent by states for test development, scoring, and reporting

·         Will enhance teacher collaboration and professional development

Cons

·         Common Core standardized tests will not have an adapted or modified version for special education students

·         States that currently have high standards may have to lower their standards to meet those of other states

·         Younger students will have a more rigid learning experience than their older peers experienced

·         Initial adjustment for teachers and students may prove difficult because it will introduce a different teaching  and learning style

·         May result in high teacher turn over because some teachers will choose to resign or retire rater than learn the new teaching techniques or curricula

·         Initial cost for states may be high due to changes in inefficient textbooks and technology

After reflecting on the benefits and downfalls of “The Common Core” I still haven’t decided if I am an advocate or not. Although I see the benefits of common standards, I am concerned that some organizations are confusing common standards with unified instruction. Furthermore, our focus is so standard driven that we are neglecting individual developmental differences. In this regard, both high and low achieving students are affected. For example, gifted students may not be allowed to express their learning by displaying their multiple intelligences and special education students are assessed and reported using the same guidelines. Where do you stand?