Place Based Education
Posts by wkehl
Personalized Learning
Learning STEM Through Theater?
In keeping with the theme of alternate models of access to STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) education, how about learning science through theater? A study published this past week in Physics Education Research found that students who role-played energy as it flowed and changed in different situations were better able to visualize and understand concepts about energy.
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Innovation Intermission
This month, I’ve been exploring alternate models of access to informal STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) learning. This week, I’m taking a detour – an innovation intermission at a workshop with Nina Simon at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.
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Why Aren’t There More Virtual Science Museums?
Why aren’t there more virtual science museums? (And when I say “science,” I mean “STEM-related.”) If a major barrier to access for science museums is their physical location or cost of admission (or both), why aren’t virtual museums flourishing on the internet? According to 2011 Census Bureau data, 71.7% of households in the US have access to the internet and there are about 2.4 billion internet users in the world. Although problems with access persist, and visiting a virtual museum isn’t quite the same as getting up close and personal with real objects, virtual museums could have great potential for increasing the reach of informal STEM education.
Personalized Learning
Takin’ STEM to the Streets
This month, I’m exploring alternate models of access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) learning. Previous posts have discussed the topic generally, and MOOCs in particular. This week, I revisit the portable reading room model of the Uni Project.
Personalized Learning
Museums & MOOCs
Earlier this month, I wrote about museums and alternate models of accessibility, from mobile brain science museums to portable pop-up hands-on STEM ‘museums’. These models, although mobile, still exist in a physical space – and there’s nothing wrong with that. The Think Tank is filled with brain science technology that just isn’t available to the average person, and the whole point of the Foundation for Early Learning’s Uni project is to bring hands-on science-related activities into public spaces.
Personalized Learning
Using Stories to Teach Evolution
Evolution is often a difficult subject for students to grasp, even putting aside politics and religion. It’s also a very important concept to understand biology.
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STEM: Coming to a street near you?
I love science museums. There are some things you just can’t experience anywhere else – a giant dinosaur skeleton towering over you, or looking through cabinets after cabinet of life from around the planet.
Personalized Learning
How Do You Draw a Scientist?
What comes to mind when you think of a scientist? Try this: Make a list or draw a quick sketch of a scientist.
Personalized Learning
Next Gen Science Standards 101
The Institute for Science and Math Education at the University of Washington recently offered a crash course on the Next Generation Science Standards. Director of the Institute Philip Bell and a panel of STEM education experts provided a helpful orientation well worth 75 minutes of your time - the presentation should be available on the Institute's website soon. In the mean time, don't forget to check out the resources at the end of this post.
Personalized Learning
Science Outreach with Teachers, Dinosaurs
The fossils and data collected all help UW scientists investigate the extinction that ended the age of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. DIG teachers aren't just adding to paleontology research - they're a part of it.