STEM Ed Announcement: Spring 2014 STEM Tuesday Seminars

["Mort Sternheim" <mort@k12s.phast.umass.edu>]

This is a UMass STEM Ed program
 ===============================
 
 UMass STEM Ed Institute Presents: Spring 2014 STEM Tuesday Seminars
 
 STEM seminars are held at 4PM on the first and third Tuesdays of each
 month during the academic year in Hasbrouck 138. Everyone is welcome; no
 reservations are needed, and there is no charge. Parking is available in
 the Campus Center Garage. This fall the lineup includes:
 
 February 4
 
 Jenny Ross
 Associate Professor, Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
 
 Getting Together: Easy Ways to Improve Teaching in Your Department
 
 Sustainability in teaching innovation is one of the biggest challenges
 facing educators today. Often, an enthusiastic and energetic
 faculty-member will make changes to a course, such as flipping the class
 or other modern teaching methods only to be switched out of the class
 after a few years. If the new instructor does not want or feel
 comfortable
 with such innovations, the positive changes will be lost. This is a huge
 waste of effort for all involved and results in negative progress for
 changing to more modern, evidence-based teaching methods. At the UMass
 Department of Physics, we have sought to improve sustainability in
 teaching innovation through increased communication among faculty. We
 started a peer mentoring group focused on teaching in the department. We
 meet every other week for lunch to discuss our teaching and how we can
 make true changes to the curriculum and individual courses. The essential
 part of sustainable change is buy-in from a majority of the department
 through a combination of administrative support and grass-roots
 initiatives for change.
 
 February 18
 
 Penny Noyce
 Trustee of the Noyce Foundation
 
 Integrating STEM With Literacy
 
 Literacy for the 21st century includes literacy in STEM as well as
 cross-disciplinary skills in examining evidence and making arguments. 
 There is significant overlap among the Common Core Standards for English
 Language Arts, those for Mathematics, and the Next Generation Science
 Standards.  However, as K-12 educators face growing demands and limited
 time, most teaching still occurs in instructional silos. This
 presentation
 will discuss opportunities for integrating literacy with STEM fromK-12.
 >From using science journals and scientific texts in reading lessons to
 leveraging poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and even a musical to illustrate
 STEM concepts, we will explore a range of curricular and informal
 learning
 resources and ideas.
 
 March 4
 Cathy Helgoe, LEGO Education; Karen Sullivan, For Inspiration and
 Recognition of
 Science and Technology (FIRST); Renee Fall, Commonwealth Alliance for
 Information
 Technology Education (CAITE); and Sarah Dunton, Girls, Inc.
 
 "LEGO Education-Supported Outreach Programs for Girls"
 
 Two programs supported by LEGO Education are efforts to encourage
 girls to
 be active, engaged, motivated learners. 1) Girls Connect:CAITE, FIRST,
 Girls Inc. and LEGO Education have collaborated on several one-day
 sessions inviting teams of girls (4-6 members per team) in grades 3-8 to
 participate in a robotics experience. Seven teams of girls and an adult
 coach (parent or teacher) spend a Saturday developing their robots to
 compete in missions based on a theme e.g,. climate change, smart
 transportation or tools for helping senior citizens. The theme can change
 but the focus on designing, building and programming robots provides
 hands-on experience for girls to explore and increase their interest in
 computer technology, programming, engineering, science, and  athematics
 and to help them think of themselves as technologically competent and
 capable. 2) Girls Inc., Technology and Literacy:Girls Inc. has a new
 program that incorporates technology to provide tools and inspiration for
 reading, writing, and storytelling. Using iPads, LEGO Education
 StoryStarter building sets and StoryStarter Visualizer software, girls
 unleash their creativity through storytelling and multimedia
 technology to
 illustrate and publish their stories. This project encourages girls to
 work collaboratively and to strengthen public speaking and literacy
 skills
 while building their confidence in a fun, supportive environment.
 
 March 25
 
 Whitney Hagins
 MassBioEd, BioTeach Mentor & Program Coordinator
 
 Bioteach and Beyond
 
 BioTeach is one of the flagship programs of the Massachusetts
 Biotechnology Education Foundation. It is an ambitious teacher
 professional development program designed to support biotechnology
 instruction and career awareness activities. Whitney Hagins, BioTeach
 Mentor and Program Coordinator, will describe the current work of the
 program as well as lay out future plans. Information for schools to
 become a BioTeach school as well as sample laboratory activities will be
 provided.
 
 April 1
 
 Sarah Dunton, Director of Education, Girls, Inc. Holyoke; Simi Hoque,
 Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation, UMass
 
 Eureka!
 
 Girls Inc. of Holyoke inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold. In
 the summer of 2013 the Eureka! program was launched with the support of
 the College of Natural Science at UMass Amherst. Eureka! is an informal
 educational program serving middle and high school girls through STEM
 education, sports and adventure programming and personal development
 programs such as media literacy. This highly interactive program provides
 girls with the opportunity to engage in cutting edge research along side
 of professors and graduate students in the STEM fields. The goal of
 Eureka! Is to increase girls' interest in STEM and support their
 engagement with academics on a university campus.
 
 April 15
 
 Adam Norton
 Professor, UMass Lowell
 
 Artbotics: Attracting Students to STEM
 
 The Artbotics program combines art, computer science, and robotics to
 create interactive, kinetic sculptures. The program has been designed to
 incorporate these subjects in introductory fashion, allowing for students
 of all experience levels to participate. Artbotics serves as an outreach
 platform to interest students in STEM (science, technology, engineering,
 and math) fields, and aims to increase the participation of women and
 minorities in these fields. This talk will outline some of the core
 principles of the Artbotics program, its development over the past seven
 years, and the future of the program, with many examples of projects
 produced during classes and workshops.
 
 
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