Looking how to put all the STEM pieces together in the classroom? The STEM Hub’s Summer Institute will show you how!
Educating students to become career and college ready requires not only providing students with core learning and 21st century skills, but also requires motivating students to delve deeply into the material, explore the material from different perspectives, and gain fluency in applying the material to new problems.
Research[1] shows that the key ingredients in generating student motivation are:
1. Having students believing that the lessons are purposeful (i.e., relevant and social)
2. Having elements of self-determination embedded in the learning (problem or project base learning)
3. Having an expectation of success (proximal difficulty and scaffolding)
The STEM Hub Summer Institute is designed to help teachers build on these ideas to develop lessons that support advanced learning. Critical to the institute’s program is to connect teachers through focused industry tours with engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and professionals that use the material a teacher wants to include in their lessons in real life, meaningful ways. In addition, the summer institute is also committed to bringing together teams of experts in curriculum writing, design of assessments, use of technology, and integration of scientific instrumentation into the lessons.
During the week of August 11, the Summer STEM Institute will bring together a critical mass of industry and instructional resources to help teachers move their instruction to new levels. The institute will be a success if teachers try new STEM learning in their classrooms, share their experiences with other teachers, and ultimately, if they excite and engage their students in STEM learning.
Information and applications can be found here. Applications are due March 31, 2014.
[1] Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation | Video on TED.com, http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
Guest blog submitted by:
Would you like to be a guest blog contributor? Please contact the STEM blog: tammybon@empirestem-fl.org
