STEM in Primary

STEM in Primary
A blog for those interested in primary school STEM education

Saturday 29 April 2017

Girls in STEM

Stuff this week - Girls in STEM

If you are the average family you will have two kids with one boy and one girl. If you are not average like me you might have three girls! Either way you likely have an interest in girls and STEM.
Many STEM industries are typically male dominated yet despite this women have made and continue to make significant contributions to the total of human knowledge. Since the 1800s women like Ada LovelaceMarie Curie and Grace Hopper have been experts in their field. The recent movie Hidden Figures showed the critical roles women have played even in the face of overt racism. In the most recent times we can watch Physics Girl on YouTube, Ayeh Bedir is the CEO of LittleBits and Carrie-Ann Philbin started off as Geek Girl on YouTube, wrote some books and is now the Director of Education for the Raspberry Pi Foundation. (She is also doing the awesome Crash Course Computer Science YouTube series)
What is interesting is that research shows that in school a high proportion of girls are interested in STEM yet only a small number go onto a career in these fields. This is not an Australian specific problem.
There are a large number of incentives and organisations dedicated to addressing this imbalance. In Australia we have Tech Girls are Superheroes and Girl Geek Academy and there are Australian chapters of globals movements such as Robogals. Globally there is Techgirlz and Girls Who Code and many more. So there is plenty of support for your girls if they are interested in STEM.
There are practical things you can do at home. Let the girls use the drill and the hammer; make a billy cart with them. Encourage them to make things with electronics. Have fun doing various science experiments. Include them when Mum or Dad is fixing something. There are some great pages on the Internet showcasing women in STEM which would be great to look at together.
In my experience in primary school it is the girls who are more likely to be interested and focused during a STEM activity. We just need to maintain that passion throughout their schooling.
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Stuff in the news

Bucking the STEM trend: one student's journey to success -  Imogen Low, who wanted to become a doctor, shared the perception of many other students that ICT was for “geeks and gamers”. However, that all changed in 2014 when her teacher entered her into the Young ICT Explorers (YICTE) competition. An article from The Educator 18 April 2017.
How Do You Get Middle School Girls Hooked on STEM? Ask TechGirlz - Philadelphia-based non-profit TechGirlz takes on the challenge of getting young girls to stick with STEM education. An article from PC Magazine 18 November 2016
Why is Russia so good at encouraging women into tech? - An article from BBC News 21 April 2017
Want to Break Stereotypes in STEM and Computing? Take a Look at Computer History - By sharing the history of computers with our students we can help break the stereotypes about gender and race in computing. An article from Edsurge 6 April 2017.

Stuff to buy

New STEM Picture Books - STEM picture books introduce young children to science, technology, engineering, and math. 
*At this point in time I earn no money from any product I list and I am not affiliated with any other company.

Stuff in education

A STEM revolution across the curriculum - Amid urgent calls for an enrichment of STEM education in Australia, Terrie Jones and her team from Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney plotted a plan of action. An article from EducationHQ Australia 18 April 2017.
The next generation of innovators is here—and they’re girls - An article about a technology competition sponsored by gemaker 9 January 2017.

Stuff to do Australia Wide

Australian STEM Video Game Challenge - For grades 5+.The Australian STEM Video Game Challenge will ask participants to develop games in response to a central theme or idea. Registration open 1 May and submissions close 25 August.
Young ICT Explorers -  A non-profit competition, which has been created by SAP to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects. Registrations are OPEN. See the YouTube video here!
Edutech 2017 - EduTECH is the LARGEST education event in Asia-Pac and the Southern Hemisphere. 7-9 June 2017 in Sydney.
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Young Engineers Australia - Provides an engaging, hands-on learning platform using LEGO® and K’nex® assembly kits
CoderDojo - A volunteer run programming club

Stuff to do in Brisbane

Robotronica 2017 - Robotronica is a groundbreaking one-day event showcasing the latest developments in robotics and interactive design. QUT's The Cube 20 August 2017 
- - -
Brisbane Library Service has purchased the very flash NAO Robot and is showing it off in various libraries.
The Cube at QUT has a number of changing programs. 
Brisbane Planetarium - Features entertaining and informative shows for adults and children
Flying Fox Studios - A studio offering programs in the arts, music and construction areas from babies to teenagers in Brisbane
It's Rocket Science School Incursions - Educational and fully interactive project based rocket science incursions for primary and secondary schools in a safe and empowering learning environment.

Saturday 22 April 2017

Local Australian Support for STEM in Primary Schools

Stuff this week - Local Australian Support for STEM in Primary Schools

In Australia it is government that is the principal sponsor of the changing STEM education landscape. By sponsor I mean providing funding for resources and teacher training. This takes for form of grantsteacher training programs (often only online ) and awards such as the Peter Doherty awards for excellence in STEM education
In the USA, however, there are daily news reports of corporations and others making grants for STEM. 

In Australia not so much. There are some exceptions such as Social Ventures Australia who has partnered with Samsung to create the STEM Learning Hub, a new initiative designed to boost STEM learning in schools with the greatest need.
Beyond that I have had little success in identifying organisations that are interested in assisting primary schools improve their STEM offerings. This dearth of support I think is illustrated by the call last year by the Federal Government for grant submissions as part of the Digital Literacy School Grants. My school applied for a grant in October 2016 which was supposed to be awarded by the end of January 2017 but due to over 1800 submissions the announcement was only made this week (No we didn't make the cut :-(  ).
To be fair there is some non-grant assistance being made available. There is Australia's new Science online TV channel. ABC Splash (ABC's online education channel) has a dedicated STEM section. Universities such as QUT have ongoing teacher and student education programs some free and some for a small fee, typically though these are immediately sold out. Lastly the CSIRO administers the governments Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools (SMiS) Program.
So I am not sure why the private sector is reticent to get involved with primary schools. Possibly it is a chicken and egg scenario. Schools may not be showing how corporations can assist and how they can be innovative and make the donations worthwhile. Equally corporations are not making their philanthropic intentions known.
So what do you think. Should their be more corporate assistance to schools for STEM? What can schools do to attract sponsorship?
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Stuff in the news

How Kids Benefit From Learning To Explain Their Math Thinking -  An article from KQED News 27 March 2017
Birmingham Covington: Building a Student-Centered School - It IS possible. You just need a vision and commitment. An article from Edutopia 6 April 2017
In One of Connecticut’s Most Innovative Districts, Belief in Every Student Comes First - Schools often state they are "child-centered" or that they are addressing the needs of "all children", but what does this really mean and how can the thoughts behind it be achieved. An article from Edsurge 4 April 2017.

Stuff to buy

Bloxels - A hands-on platform for kids to build, collaborate, and tell stories through video game creation. It is a clever learning toy that lets children build their own video games and characters, one physical block at a time.
*At this point in time I earn no money from any product I list and I am not affiliated with any other company.

Stuff in education

Related Problems: Reasoning About Addition - A great video showing how year 1 students can be taught how to spot patterns in maths.
Related to the video above 3P Learning has a blog post from 2013 along similar lines. Making sense of mathematics through reasoning.

Stuff to do Australia Wide

new iconAustralian STEM Video Game Challenge - For grades 5+.The Australian STEM Video Game Challenge will ask participants to develop games in response to a central theme or idea. Registration open 1 May and submissions close 25 August.
Young ICT Explorers -  A non-profit competition, which has been created by SAP to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects. Registrations are OPEN. See the YouTube video here!
Edutech 2017 - EduTECH is the LARGEST education event in Asia-Pac and the Southern Hemisphere. 7-9 June 2017 in Sydney.
- - -
Young Engineers Australia - Provides an engaging, hands-on learning platform using LEGO® and K’nex® assembly kits
CoderDojo - A volunteer run programming club

Stuff to do in Brisbane

It's Rocket Science School Incursions - Educational and fully interactive project based rocket science incursions for primary and secondary schools in a safe and empowering learning environment.
Robotronica 2017 - Robotronica is a groundbreaking one-day event showcasing the latest developments in robotics and interactive design. QUT's The Cube 20 August 2017 
- - -
Brisbane Library Service has purchased the very flash NAO Robot and is showing it off in various libraries.
The Cube at QUT has a number of changing programs. 
Brisbane Planetarium - Features entertaining and informative shows for adults and children
Flying Fox Studios - A studio offering programs in the arts, music and construction areas from babies to teenagers in Brisbane

Saturday 15 April 2017

Teaching maths with robots

Stuff this week - How can Seymour Papert's ideas be used in teaching maths?

Last week I wrote about the extremely influential Seymour Papert. I want to write a little more about him as well as share an interesting perspective on maths education. What is interesting is how long these ideas have been around and yet they have failed to gain any widespread traction in transforming education. At least until now.
Seymour Papert worked and studied around the world; Cambridge, the University of Paris, the University of Geneva, the National Physical Laboratory in London and finally at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was while working at MIT that he produced the majority of his groundbreaking work.  MIT President L. Rafael Reif said about him:
“With a mind of extraordinary range and creativity, Seymour Papert helped revolutionize at least three fields, from the study of how children make sense of the world, to the development of artificial intelligence, to the rich intersection of technology and learning. The stamp he left on MIT is profound.”
As a mathematician Papert was particularly interested in how children learn maths and he developed the Logo programming language as he was concerned that “the computer [is] being used to program the child.” With Logo he presented an alternative approach in which “the child programs the computer and, in doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology and establishes an intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building.”
An article in Edutopia had in part the following:
It is the learning of maths by doing that is the most natural. If we look back at history, mathematics started not as a beautiful, pure product of the abstract mind. It started as a way of thinking about controlling the waters of the Nile, building the Pyramids, sailing a ship. It started as mathematical thinking, and then, gradually, it got richer and richer.
In school, we reverse that process. We start off teaching pure math. Nothing is more pure in abstract mathematics than the stuff we teach in primary schools. And it has to be if you're going to have such a thing as the "mathematics classroom." Because as soon as you have this other thing, it doesn't fit into a "mathematics classroom" or "mathematics lesson." I think we have to reverse this order of things -- that the order in which we teach mathematics and science today starts with the most abstract, the most static, and you learn to do manipulation of numbers, then you learn to do algebra, then you learn to do calculus, and at last you can apply it to something real.
Using robots in the classroom to solve problems is a fantastic way to learn maths. Counting, measuring and geometry are all required to solve robotic problems (just as Papert did with his original Logo language). Forget the number line on the whiteboard in grade 1. Put the robot on the floor and allow children to explore how to move distances in two or more steps. Attach a pen to the robot and program it to draw two dimensional shapes. This is how children can see how math is used.
Lego saw the value in this in 1984 and started collaborating with Papert. The relationship grew into a close one and lasted over 30 years. Lego commercialised the work Papert was doing at MIT when it created its “Mindstorms” robotics kits in the 90s. The name was taken from Papert’s 1980 seminal book “Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas”.
So much could be done in schools today to embrace Papert’s research. All we need is some forward thinkers and a push for changes in the classroom.
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Stuff in the news

Want to be a better biologist? Better learn how to code. - An article from Wired Magazine 10 March 2017
Are we preparing our kids for the right jobs? - An article about the possible future job losses due to automation Market Watch 6 April 2017
Where Non-Techies Can Get With the Programming - An article from the New York Times 4 April 2017

Stuff to buy

Rigamajig - Rigamajig is a building kit conceived for hands-on free play and learning. It's a collection of wooden planks, wheels, pulleys, nuts, bolts and rope designed to engage the inquisitive mind and creative spirit of children.
*At this point in time I earn no money from any product I list and I am not affiliated with any other company.

Stuff in education

STEM education will carry our children in tomorrow's economy - An article from The Hill news website 4 April 
3 Steps to Becoming a Coding Teacher - An article from Edutopia 4 January 2016

Stuff to do Australia Wide

Young ICT Explorers -  A non-profit competition, which has been created by SAP to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects. Registrations are OPEN. See the YouTube video here!
Edutech 2017 - EduTECH is the LARGEST education event in Asia-Pac and the Southern Hemisphere. 7-9 June 2017 in Sydney.
- - -
Young Engineers Australia - Provides an engaging, hands-on learning platform using LEGO® and K’nex® assembly kits
CoderDojo - A volunteer run programming club

Stuff to do in Brisbane

It's Rocket Science School Incursions - Educational and fully interactive project based rocket science incursions for primary and secondary schools in a safe and empowering learning environment.
Robotronica 2017 - Robotronica is a groundbreaking one-day event showcasing the latest developments in robotics and interactive design. QUT's The Cube 20 August 2017 
- - -
Brisbane Library Service has purchased the very flash NAO Robot and is showing it off in various libraries.
The Cube at QUT has a number of changing programs. 
Brisbane Planetarium - Features entertaining and informative shows for adults and children
Flying Fox Studios - A studio offering programs in the arts, music and construction areas from babies to teenagers in Brisbane

Saturday 8 April 2017

Who in the world was Seymour Papert?

Stuff this week - Who in the world was Seymour Papert?

Image result for seymour papertSeymour Papert was a mathematician, computer scientist, and educator who sadly passed away on 1 August 2016 aged 88. Some would argue that his work has had the greatest ever impact on children’s learning with digital technologies.
In the pencil-and-paper world of the 1960s classroom, Dr. Papert envisioned a computing device on every desk and an internet like environment in which vast amounts of printed material would be available to children. He put his ideas into practice, creating in the late ’60s a computer programming language, called Logo, to teach children how to use computers.
Yet his vision was not the usual way computers are used by children today. Papert was inspired by his former colleague Jean Piaget, the Swiss developmental psychologist whose study of child development has often been compared to Freud’s work in its influence on the science of human intelligence. Jean was known for his constructivist theories of education. Papert extended this theory of constructivism to formulate his own which he called constructionism. This is the way in which students can build knowledge by working with concrete materials rather than abstract propositions; that is, by creating artifacts they can share. Papert said:
“In this particular art class they were all carving soap, but what each student carved came from wherever fancy is bred, and the project was not done and dropped but continued for many weeks. It allowed time to think, to dream, to gaze, to get a new idea and try it and drop it or persist, time to talk, to see other people’s work and their reaction to yours — not unlike mathematics as it is for the mathematician, but quite unlike math as it is in school.”
These ideas were revolutionary for the time and still so today but they have spawned some of the changes that we now see such as the introduction of Makerspaces, the proliferation of educational technology and the introduction of coding into the curriculum.
Yet we still see the typical siloed by subject school timetables. The application to the real world is lacking and the opportunity for children to create is limited. One approach in education which attempts to solve this is Problem Based Learning (PBL). PBL is a constructionist method which allows students to learn about a subject by exposing them to multiple problems and asking them to construct their understanding of the subject through these problems.
What else can we do to embrace Seymour Papert’s ideas? Programming in Scratch, programming robots and exploring real world maths problems are three ways that are easily accessible. Anyone who has seen children engaged in solving these sorts of problems knows the value that they have for broader education.
So the ideas that Papert formulated back in the 60s are finally coming to the mainstream. We need to continue to think about ways in which our kids education can be enriched by following his lead. Watch this 2 minute video to see Seymour Papert talking about the classroom of the future in 1986.
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Stuff in the news

Seymour Papert dreamed of a learning revolution — why hasn’t it happened? - The legacy of AI’s founding founder hangs in the balance
Half of the high-paying jobs in America now require this skill - If terms like SQL, Python and JavaScript aren’t on your radar, employers may not be interested in hiring you. An article from Market Watch 22 March 2017.
If You Want to Survive in Design, You Better Learn to Code - An article from Wired Magazine 15 March 2017.
Talking to children about STEM fields boosts test scores and career interest - An article from Science Daily 18 January 2017.

Stuff to buy

Makedo - Makedo is a cardboard construction system for 21st century thinking, making and play.
*At this point in time I earn no money from any product I list and I am not affiliated with any other company.

Stuff in education

One of the earliest videos of Seymour Papert's work with children can be seen on YouTube. Fascinating how ahead of his time he was.

Stuff to do Australia Wide

Young ICT Explorers -  A non-profit competition, which has been created by SAP to encourage school students to create their best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related projects. Registrations are OPEN. See the YouTube video here!
Edutech 2017 - EduTECH is the LARGEST education event in Asia-Pac and the Southern Hemisphere. 7-9 June 2017 in Sydney.
- - -
Young Engineers Australia - Provides an engaging, hands-on learning platform using LEGO® and K’nex® assembly kits
CoderDojo - A volunteer run programming club

Stuff to do in Brisbane

It's Rocket Science School Incursions - Educational and fully interactive project based rocket science incursions for primary and secondary schools in a safe and empowering learning environment.
Robotronica 2017 - Robotronica is a groundbreaking one-day event showcasing the latest developments in robotics and interactive design. QUT's The Cube 20 August 2017 
- - -
Brisbane Library Service has purchased the very flash NAO Robot and is showing it off in various libraries.
The Cube at QUT has a number of changing programs. 
Brisbane Planetarium - Features entertaining and informative shows for adults and children
Flying Fox Studios - A studio offering programs in the arts, music and construction areas from babies to teenagers in Brisbane