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"When students transition to college, they're shocked to find that instructors don't spoon-feed them information. Instead, teachers ask them to motivate themselves as they grapple with concepts and problems, said Zach Widbin, physics teacher and engineering course instructor at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix." [not a] Surprise: rigorous hands-on project-based learning (supported by University of Arizona) engages kids. I wonder how many collaborative projects there are like this, with a local School of Ed actively working with neighboring schools beyond traditional student teaching and observation?

Thanks for sharing this, Chris. It's both interesting and relevant to my project for this course. A comment at the bottom suggested that really the companies need to change their unrealistic minimum criteria for job candidates. I've heard that argument before, and sometimes I do wonder when I see complaints from companies looking only for people with 5+ years of STEM work experience railing on the state of STEM education. What do you think?

Thanks for sharing Chris! I can totally relate to this. I remember having to sit through those "weed out" intro biology and chemistry courses in undergrad. They were the antithesis of motivating but I pushed through because I knew without them I couldn't do the "cool science" I wanted to. I remember at the time thinking these courses were weeding out people who were entertaining the idea of a STEM career but just didn't want to put up with the cut throat nature of these courses. It seemed to me the classes were more concerned about weeding out people than by providing an environment that really fostered learning.

Can engagement and motivation in Middle School/HS STEM areas sustain itself through college? "Undergraduates across the country are choosing to leave science, technology, engineering and math programs before they graduate with those degrees according to a 2010 University of California, Los Angeles, study."

Is Google "really" making us stupid? How does the ability to easily access a breadth of information affect our motivation to go for depth?

Google left China seems to be an error

Brianno Coller, an associate professor of engineering at Northern Illinois University, is showing that video games have a place in the classroom.

"The MMO will also be designed to promote "science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning," and NASA intends to allow it to actually offer course accreditation to players. "

NASA Resources Enrich STEM Curricula at Forest Lake Elementary Being a NASA Explorer School allows Forest Lake Elementary to deepen the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula with technology tools and resources.

Two ways to read about Wharton professor Jonah Berger's take on how game mechanics can be engineered to promote social currency. Do you agree with Berger's perspective? Here's the link to the academic paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1836457

As we get closer to the presidential election, organizations and individuals are once again appealing to officials for an education reform. Over the past few years there has been a push for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) programs. What about a push for language instruction?

Virtual reality field trips!

"Everything that happens in the game has two components -- the visual component where you can see what's going on, and then there is the audio component where you can also hear what's going on"