STEM Curricula: Are online courses good enough?

 

 Photo credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk/galleries.htm

In my last post, I gave an example of how traditional science classes differ from multi-disciplinary, project based STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) classes.  It's important to consider how to engage your student in STEM programming, with new options popping up all the time. Some homeschooling parents use online curricula for traditional sciences, and these courses have validity and a solid place in education.  Unfortunately, I think online coursework for STEM only hits about half of the target.

It's true that part of what STEM offers could be learned from a textbook.  Its concepts are drawn from any of the physical sciences, technology, or mathematics and are often criss-crossed between two or more of these.  But STEM is much more: it's about learning how to communicate and interact well with peers in brainstorming, design, invention, innovation and collaboration.  These are the "soft" skills needed for the next generation of workers and they may seem obvious but require many hours of practice to master.  These are also the skills that an online course does not address.

I have taught STEM to five separate groups of homeschoolers (about 65 total students) over the past two years.  I have noticed that the skills that my STEM homeschooled students most need practice in are not vertical collaboration (ages above and below) but rather horizontal project collaboration (peer, same aged).  The homeschoolers I teach are wonderful, well-socialized and have good friends.  However, friendships are different from collaboration.  What my experience has shown me (this is not scientific, only observational) is that it takes nearly 30 hours of practice for homeschooled students to become very skilled in brainstorming and completing design projects together under constraints.  Acquiring STEM skills is less like charging through a textbook and more like apprenticing in a trade or growing a garden.  It takes time, mentoring and iteration.

So what is a parent to do?  My next post will have links to real-time (as opposed to virtual, online) STEM resources.  I'd love any and all comments and thoughts.

STEM for Homeschoolers

Graphic tile by E. Keyser, ACTS Geometry student

What is STEM and how is it different from science or math?

"STEM" or "STEM education" are hot topics right now, but they sound like you're into teaching plants or helping flowers.  The name itself is misleading.  STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, all lumped together in a handy dandy acronym.  So - not plants, but math and science loosely glued together?  No, that's not quite it either.  With this post I'm going to break down what STEM is and compare one day's science class versus STEM class.

What is STEM?

Although you can find umpteen definitions of STEM around, many agree on the following: STEM education combines multiple subjects together while using student-centered learning techniques.  It is an effort to bridge the gap between what a pure science class teaches (biology) and the skills a biological research scientist uses in a career (knows biology, but also needs to communicate well, design and test, use math to analyze data, and interact with other scientific professionals).  STEM education has a heavy focus on design, student initiative and "soft" skills such as collaboration, innovation and invention.

What's a real example of the difference between a science, math or computer class and a STEM class?

I teach several high school math and science courses at a co-op to homeschoolers, along with STEM classes, so I experience this every week. Here's the rundown of what happened on a recent day.

Physics class: we are studying periodic motion, and begin a unit on spring systems.  Students sit on chairs around a table and listen while I lecture and use the whiteboard.  I have several visuals to illustrate how springs work.  Students seem like they understand, and I prompt them for where they see springs in everyday life.  I do all my usual "teacher-ey" things to keep students engaged.  We do a lab exercise, where students in small groups measure data about springs.  I review what their lab report should look like.  End of class. The next class will continue with periodic motion.

STEM class:  Early in the year student groups brainstormed areas of interest in any STEM field.  One group picked alternative energy, so this day we are studying wind tunnels.  I arrive with a fan, clear containers and lots of tools.  After a brief lecture on how wind tunnels design, student groups spread out on the floor to make their own models. I walk between groups, making sure everyone is collaborating well.  While each group works, we talk about how to make smoke lines, how a mesh can help reduce wind turbulence, and what kind of turbines might work well.  We also brainstorm about where turbines could be placed.  We pack up and groups take their models home to finish. The next class will test our models and smoke lines.

Let's run that back.  Both classes were valuable.  Physics was concept-centered, and I used strategies to engage students including a hands-on lab.  STEM was also concept centered, but those concepts drew from multiple sciences and design work.  Students chose the topic and drove the flow of class, working with their peers the entire class.  Their end product will be a workable wind tunnels to test turbine prototypes, along with enhanced collaboration and design skills.

In coming posts I'll outline some age-specific STEM opportunities and what some barriers to STEM involvement are for homeschoolers.  If you have any experience with STEM and would like to add to the conversation, drop me a line at marycsaville@gmail.com or on twitter at @marycsaville.

Graphics by ACTS Geometry Students.  Produced in Google SketchUp

It's time for a conversation about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and homeschoolers, both secular and non-.

Traditional subjects like biology or physics might have homeschoolers using a single subject textbook, digital book, online course or co-op.  STEM is something different - it's an opportunity to combine many scientific, mathematical and technological concepts into an amazing soup.

For example, in my STEM class I begin with a outline of what we'll cover, typically a science concept, technology issue, or description of an engineering career. I lecture - briefly, usually no more than 15-20 minutes - then the fun begins. The students, having received information, immediately split into groups to tackle a challenge based in the lecture concepts. Collaboratively they filter water, separate ingredients, study tsunami waves using a model, devise structures out of crazy supplies, launch marshmallows, and many other things. We debrief the exercise as a class and the students complete a reflective journal entry on what they've experienced.

STEM class ends up being student-driven and highly interactive. The students practice the design cycle, brainstorming techniques, innovation skills, and mostly, how to collaborate well on a group project.  I publish their work on my blog, on YouTube or other digital venues.  Some high schools, like our local public Albemarle High School, have academies or programs that promote STEM. Albemarle has MESA - which stands for Math, Engineering and Science Academy. There are wonderful non-profits around, like Charlottesville's Computers 4 Kids, that mentor low-income students in computing skills while providing them computers at program's end.

The nagging question for me is, what are other homeschoolers doing?  Even better, how can we create a community to help them get involved in collaborative STEM work?  Our county has a large and thriving co-op, but what do you do when that's not an option?  Do you know of homeschool co-ops or home groups that offer STEM classes that I can contact? Many areas also have service learning opportunties, which my older STEM students are doing this year. Is  your local homeschool co-op or family group interested?

 I'd looking to hear and collect knowledge about what homeschoolers do for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.  In the future I hope to blog more on creative ways to engage homeschoolers in STEM, pre-engineering curricula, collaborative work and service learning.

If you are in the field of STEM ed and work with homeschoolers or a parent looking to find resources, comment or find me on twitter @marycsaville.  I've created the twitter hashtag #stemhomeschool to bring resources together.



Every day STEM programs online offer ways for homeschoolers to get involved even if they are living in remote areas.
Some of the links that I've found to be very helpful are:
National Service Learning Clearinghouse
Tells you everything you need to know about service learning and how to begin a project in this excellent, hands on, service based educational model.
PBS Zoom Science
Colorful, engaging site with how-to experiments, engineering challenges, science inquiry and observation.  Geared toward elementary through middle school students.
Discovery Education
With all the quality that Discovery brings to the table, this site has resources for STEM curricular units and lesson plans.  Discovery is also pioneering digital textbooks called "techbooks" for future learning - techbooks would be interactive digital content that updates, educates and inspires.  Plus you'd save the backache from lugging around a huge textbook.

The Wright Stuff

Image credit: Jm@n Google 3-D warehouse 2011

What can you do with 200 square feet of corrugated cardboard, 100 feet of cardboard rollers, yards of yarn and Makedo connectors? If you add in over 20 students and 5 hours in the hot sun, you get a half-scale model of the Wright Flyer.


Why? Why would we do such a thing? I'm slightly crazy and the awesome students were actually really happy to do it. We finished up our Intro to Engineering course for the year with a four-week unit on the STEM concepts of recycling - where do plastic bottles, diapers, cardboard and glass come from, and where do they go when we throw them away. To "tangify" the lessons (I'm totally coining that word, meaning to make tangible) we did mini-challenges with Makedo and then brainstormed a LARGE group build using only recyclable materials.

In order to practice the design cycle, smaller student teams imagined projects and pitched them to everyone. Students voted and the winning project was to model the Wright Brothers' first flying machine, the 1903 Wright Flyer.
Working off of a Google SketchUp model of the Flyer (credit: J-m@n) from the 3-D warehouse, we shrunk it to half size and printed multiple views with dimensions. Students brought boxes, tubes, plastic bags and old yard, lots of it.


Although our ultimate goal of constructing such a solid Flyer that we could actually launch it failed, we did manage to put together over 75% of the very complicated airplane. I think each of us knows a ton more about Orville and Wilbur's ingenious design and how to work together on a project. We ran into the same issues that every project has: time overruns, material shortages, weather factors - but there's nothing better than practice to learn how to deal with these in a productive manner and keep progressing to a goal. Excellent work, students - you really did something special.

Tsunamis, Engineering and Compassion

Scale model tsunami zone

I felt conflicted over this week's lesson on engineering structures for tsunami survival using a scale model. I didn't want students to laugh over or trivialize the enormous trauma our brothers and sisters in Japan are undergoing. I did want to give them a better sense of a giant wave's size, scope and destructive power while teaching about tsunamis being a natural (unpreventable) disaster. Not a single person should think that anyone in Japan bears fault for the earthquake or tsunami. I want to help in some way by contacting a Japanese homeschooling group similar to ours here to find out what we can do. I'll update everyone as that effort comes together.

The facts:

• Tsunamis travel faster than the beach waves we bob in. Most beach waves are created by wind traveling over the ocean for long distances. Their speed must be less than the speed of the wind. Tsunamis are created by earth movement in the deep sea and are not limited by wind. They can travel up to 500 mph.
• Tsunamis are much higher than beach waves. Because of how shorelines are shaped, a two-foot shift in deep seabed can translate into a thirty foot (or higher) breaking tsunami wave at the coast.
• Engineers can improve building tsunami survival odds by materials design and changing building structure and geometry. Stronger materials are better but more expensive. Minimizing exposed surface area helps too.
  

Students had three materials: paper towels, manila-type paper, and paper with toothpicks. Their challenge was to create model houses on a scale of 1 inch:10 feet quickly out of each material and position them on a "beach": a long, wide container half-filled with water and with sand on one end for a mini-coastline. Thanks to TeachEngineering for the plan.

Armed with six model houses (two from each material) the students placed their houses on the beach. We generated a scale-model thirty foot wave (video below shows how). Some houses were placed on sand 15 to 20 feet above sea level and were inundated. Toothpicks elevated other structures (some to ludicrous heights) and those fared better. Students observed how housing material and shape related to damage. They thought about the tradeoffs between material strength and cost, and between safe height and a height that occupants could actually reach!

Students did a wonderful job. They collaborated, practiced the design cycle (they were able to rework the buildings and have a second trial) and learned some STEM concepts. I'd say they also gained a better appreciation of the challenges engineers face due to tsunamis.

Additional resources: here's some recent tsunami survival design from a collaboration beteween Harvard and MIT: the Tsunami Design Initiative and SENSEable City.

Designing Packaging

Test your packaging acumen - out of these solid shapes, given a volume of 12 ounces, which would use the least packaging?
Yesterday I gave the class a taste of packaging engineering. It made sense since we just finished a materials science unit with a focus on properties - the kind of stuff that wraps and protects the things we buy and use is vital!

Packaging engineers must be able to successfully integrate industrial or chemical engineering and work with a team of marketers, designers and financial types. Choosing the proper material, labeling it with the right colors, transporting it safely, while protecting the food or consumer goods inside is a complex task.

Take fast-food soda cups for instance. I'm a forgetful type, so when I've got that large drink of lemonade in my cupholder I'll often leave it there for, um, let's say a few days. The same cup that nicely brought lovely cold lemonade to my lips has, after 72 hours or so, begun leaking out of the bottom seam and depositing unlovely sticky lemon syrup in my cupholder. Why didn't the quick serve eatery make a better takeaway cup? Why not plastic instead of waxy paper?

Every paper packaging decision involves a trade-off. Fast-food joints could easily provide solid plastic take-out cups but the cost for plastic instead of waxy paper would be much higher. They could also design the cups with better paper to hold the liquid longer but that would take more money as well. The fact is, engineers and marketing teams have decided that for the given design goals of serving a beverage that (should be) finished and disposed of in a few hours a slightly waxy paper cup is just the right container. In some sense the fast-food cup is "designed to fail" at just the right time to save everyone money and reduce waste.

How about a half-gallon of orange juice? Now there's a product that won't usually be finished in a few hours, barring an attack of thirsty teenage boys. (Once I drank a quart of milk in one sitting but that was kind of gross.) The paper is thicker, more waxy, with a replaceable cap. It won't leak in a few days - but it won't last forever, either. It also has very cleverly designed features and colors to make you enjoy drinking it and think that it's fresh, usually pictures of trees and oranges and straws on the outside. You could have a great sturdy container of OJ but with drawings of candy on the outside and it wouldn't sell because moms would think it was full of sugar, even if it wasn't.

Now, which shape did you guess would use the least packaging? It's the sphere.

Students this last week listened to a lecture on surface area and volume, void space and efficient shapes. Even though the sphere has the best surface area to volume ratio (the least packaging to hold the most volume) we don't see spheres of juice on the shelves! Why? Not an engineering constraint, but a consumer use one - people don't want their soda to roll away! Also, spheres take up more room when stacked in a box than rectangular prisms do.

After the lecture, students worked in teams of about five with pieces of paper to design a paper cup that could hold the most volume of water for about a minute. With only one piece of paper at a time, the surface area was set but the volume could vary - and did! Designs that were rounded in shape seemed to work best, although plain paper without any coating would leak water within a matter of minutes. Still, if someone could engineering a paper cup that could be made by folding only, no glue or cutting needed, while still serving consumer needs, there would be much less waste and tons of money saved on manufacturing.

For more study check out these sites showcasing excellent design in packaging:

The Dieline

I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review

Sugru Designs by Students

We've just finished two classes' worth of sugru solutions. I am so proud of my students, most of whom are around 15 years old, for creatively practicing the design cycle and giving excellent presentations. Several of them have been so kind as to allow me to post pictures of their work. There were modifications, repairs, even suggested inventions.



Overall, I think using an actual substance to help students understand materials science, polymers, and design was a good way for them to own the knowledge.