VCU STEM

A brief 10-minute video describing the importance of STEM education and its implications. Posted by Chesterfield County Public Schools (ccpsva). 19 Dec 2008

I completely agree with Tristan, it is always awesome to see stuff that we talk about in our coursework being implemented in the field. I feel like sometimes important topics to me are forgotten when we translate them into teaching in the classroom, but this proves me wrong. And makes me feel great about the future of STEM education.

I had never heard of "STEM" until a Chesterifield CPS principal mentioned it. I had to stop her and ask what "STEM" was, which, as a scientist, was very embarrassing. I think it is great that CCPS has embraced the synergistic effect of STEM subjects functioning together. Awesome!

Great resource if you have students needing makeup or home-bound. Virtual Chemistry Experiments are a collection of interative web-based chemistry tutorials. The tutorials employ Physlets and Chemistry Applets to simulate experiments or depict molecular and atomic structure. The guiding concept is to involve the read in making observations and acquiring data, and then using this information to draw conclusions and infer chemical principles.

I find these are best as additional to traditional lab experiences or, as I posted earlier, I use these for the students that can't be at school for usual labs. Understanding limitations of their own lab technique and evaluation of errors does not occur with simulations. Similar to difference between multiple choice assessment and free response.

I agree with Anna, virtual experiments wouldn't be my first choice in methodology for lab experiments, but there are somethings that you just, can't do in the classroom. Whether it is from limited resources, limited class time, or simply the experiment is too dangerous for the classroom, virtual experiments are a good alternative. I had a chemistry professor in my undergrad who was making a dvd textbook with lectures and experiments and there was a lot of cool experiments on the dvd that he would have never been able to do during his lectures.

This site provides lessons on a wide array of earth science topics that kids can access at home which includes interactive videos, games, activities and lessons. It also provides great resources for teachers that can help foster creative lessons with the content. The website is a little confusing at first because each link (topic) will redirect you to another website (i.e. National Geographic) but it exposes you to different approaches to teaching the content.

Wow! There is a lot of information on this link directly related to Earth Science. I am currently going through each link and writing down notes to help me with some of my future lectures. Thanks so much for the link that brings it all together so that I don't have to have a search overload for some of these great resources!

For my undergrad, one of my professor's was working on a smart phone app to help with Dendrology for students currently learning the extremely boring subject. It's a really cool idea, and caused me to be very interested in a wide variety of education related apps on my smartphone. I think smart phones has the potential to take education the next mile, but much like video games they need the extra little push to help accomplish stem education.

PBS Kids has activities that do a good job of linking engineering to science, math, and technology. The website has many characters which my students identify with. Many of the activities and concepts, that are covered, are for younger students, but some are for the upper grades.

Great website- it is very "children" oriented due to the nice colors, drawings and simplicity. I love it for the content that is accessible by young learners but I appreciate it even more because it has very innovative classroom activity suggestions (as well as lesson plans) for teachers. Even more importantly, there have a listing for family activities for each subject, which I think is great because learning can be even more meaningful when it is done outside of the classroom.

Eight minute video that defines and explains implications of STEM. Created & Posted by nwpaworkforce. 9 Feb 2011

I think this is a good video that students can relate too. Nice find!

Anna - this is something that I think teachers should show their students, even if there is no STEM curriculum in effect. I love how the students described something very practical- like playing video games- to show how each of the four disciplines are intertwined.

A I just read an article about an innovation that will be awesome for military and national security. This invention will guide bullets, using lasers, to targets at a distance of almost 2 km. I know this isn't education related, but the students of today will be developing the innovations of tomorrow. I'm sure this bullet technology was engineered with a wealth of mathematics, physics, and earth space R&D.

Thinkport is a product used in Maryland to help integrate technology in the classroom. The specific link that I am attaching is simulations of a multitude of subjects that could be incorporated into any lecture or free time that the student has. The topics covered vary from mathematics, an interactive art museum, anatomy, construction of different satellites, to literacy skills. It's goal is to increase technology use in the classroom regardless of the subject matter.

Have used this for years! A resource for my Epidemiology enrichment course in conjunction with Johns Hopkins.

I don't have too many go to sites yet (I hope that improves in the near future) but I did run across this compilation of youtube videos related to science that I think will be helpful in the future. Given some of them are way too basic to use, but there used to be really cool look inside the cell type stuff. The original site shut down so I had to find where someone else posted the links on their blog so my apologizes if you can not access it at this time.

Hey Eric- Thanks for posting this website- I was looking through the videos and happen to come across some that I think might be useful for me when I start teaching very soon!

This resource is webcast from UC Berkeley Lectures, maybe not the most practical for the classroom but its always interesting to look out how others are teaching similar content.

Do any of these fit our needs? Chart is interesting.

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