In recent years, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning has received a lot of attention as more 21st century jobs require employees to have strong STEM skill knowledge. This increasing need to provide students with more skills in STEM subjects to be ready for the changing world of work has many parents, educators, and policy makers questioning how to add more STEM programs in schools where time and budgets are short.
We want higher scores on standardized tests, higher high school graduation rates, and higher numbers of high school grads ready for college. If students are falling short of these demands, it must be the teacher who’s supposed to be teaching them something, right? According to some new studies: wrong.
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Have you ever wished you could connect your students with students across the world? What about provide a once in a lifetime experience to your students without having to leave the classroom? Edmodo can do just that.
Today is Veteran’s Day. It is a time to give thanks and pay homage to all of the people who have served this country—past and present. We owe our freedom as a nation to these brave individuals who have made huge personal sacrifices on our behalf to preserve our liberty. This summer, we had the pleasure of working with our intern Brandy Castner, an Iraq vet working toward her degree in journalism at Metropolitan State College of Denver. All of LifeBound gives thanks to Brandy today and encourages you to read her guest post on women in the military on my blog from earlier this year.
While some experts are worrying about closing the digital divide, others are sending their kids to schools that refuse technology like the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Silicon Valley, according to the article “A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute.”
Over the last few days we’ve honored World Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Last month, alongside International Literacy Day, the UN released statistics that showed how difficult it is to fight poverty and sickness in nations around the world where illiteracy is rampant.
Some notable numbers that show the magnitude of illiteracy on a worldwide scale are:
“Hanging out,” “messing around,” and “geeking out.” Those are the three levels of information consumption and creation that Chicago’s main library used to develop it’s newest space for teens called “YOUmedia — a Digital Library Space for Teens,” according to the article, “Digital library aims to expand kids’ media literacy.”
October has been named National Bullying Prevention Month in effort to raise awareness of the negative effects bullying has on students’ social, emotional, and academic well being. Almost 32 percent of students report being bullied at school, according to the Edutopia article, “Bullying Prevention: Tips for Teachers, Principals, and Parents.” Students who are victims of bullying are more likely to be armed with a weapon at school, get in physical fights, and suffer from anxiety, depression, and mental health problems.
“Why are some people so much more effective at learning from their mistakes?” That’s the question researchers are asking to understand why some people respond better to learning by trial and error, according to the article “Why Do Some People Learn Faster,” by Jonah Lehrer.
Did you have a teacher who made learning science, technology, engineering, and math interesting? Were you encouraged by a teacher’s enthusiasm for your proficiency in STEM subjects? Did you tell yourself or were you told that you weren’t good at STEM subjects?