Why STEM and Why Now?

Kenneth WessonEducational Consultant: Neuroscience

San Jose, CA kenawesson@aol.com

Why STEM and Why Now?

It Supports Brain-considerate Learning

The brain is without doubt our most fascinating

organ. Parents, educators, and society as a

whole have a tremendous power to shape the

wrinkly universe inside each child's head, and,

with it, the kind of person he or she will turn out

to be. We owe it to our children to help them

grow the best brains possible.

-- What is Going in There? Lise Eliot

• What are the preferred strategies by which the brain learns and how do they align with

the NGSS, CCSS and STEM? (p-s, making connections, and interdisciplinarity)?

• How do the goals of the NGSS, CCSS and STEM merge into an operational classroom

model for learning)?

• The “shift” → new ways of teaching, planning, thinking, etc.

• Quick writes, table-talks, and interactive learning

Brain-STEM

Education:Designed around

“Brain-considerate Learning”

MemorizationFactsProcedures

Moving From Teaching Students to Be…

•Knowledgeable (facts)

to •Cultivating knowledge-ability (learning how to learn/un-learn/re-learn, how to process and use the available information resources – information critical thinking),•Cultivating a wide range of problem-solving abilities•Teaching students to memorize vs. teaching students to think.

Teaching continues to be the most cognitively exhausting profession, because what teachers must know and do today. The list of prerequisite knowledge continues to swell every year.

From the College of Education,We Became Familiar with…

Learning theorists: Piaget: Stages of development

Bruner: Discovery learning

Von Glasersfeld: Construc-tivism

Bloom: Taxonomy of L’

Vygotsky: Zones of proximal development

Fleming: Learning styles

Lave & Wenger: Communities of practice

Ausubel: Meaningful learning

Dewey: Experiential learning

Freire: Critical pedagogy

Kolb: Experiential learning

Gardner: Multiple Intelligences

Levine: Schools attuned

Holt: Un-schooling

Goleman: Emotional intelligence

Skinner: Behaviorism

Montessori: Montessori education Hargreaves: Interpersonal relationsPask: Conservation theory

Pavlov: Classical conditioning

Thorndike: Memory theory

Teachers Memorized 40+ Different Types of Memory and Memory systems

•associative memory•auditory memory•autobiographical memory•conceptual memory•conditional memory•declarative memory•echoic memory•emotional memory•episodic memory•explicit memory•flashbulb memories•iconic memory•implicit memory•informational memory (which isn’t a survival mechanism 

• long-term memory• motor memory

• permanent memory

• primary memory

• procedural memory

• reflective memory• secondary memory

• semantic memory• sensory memory• short-term memory

• source memory• state-dependent memory• working memory

What Teachers Are Required to Know Today - 3

HueristicsDialecticsMnemonicsDidacticsProblem solving

Cognitive structures

Metacognition

Epistemic cognition

Thinking SkillsStudy SkillsLearning to LearnDepths of KnowledgeStudent Learning ObjectivesLearning paradigms

Intentional TalkAccountable Talk

Strategic ReasoningArtificial IntelligenceLogicInductionDeductionIQ

Inquiry learningMulti-sensory learningActive LearningHands-on learningStandards-based learningBrain-considerate learning

What Teachers Are Required to Know Today - 4

Adaptive learning

Discovery learning

Adaptive learning

Outcomes-based learning

Transfer learning

Brain-based learning

Blended learning

Mobile learning

Distance learning

Virtual learning

Passion-based learning

Mastery learning

Macro-contexts for learning

Situated learning

Cooperative learning

Collaborative learning

Associative learning

Project-based learning

Competency-based learning

Optimal learning

Lecture-based learning

What Teachers Are Required to Know Today - 5

HemisphericityPeriodicityAutoplasticity

Procedural KnowledgeNoeticsTime-on-task

SocraticsInquiry LearningMind-mappingSemantic-mappingBrain-stormingSchema theory

Differentiated instructionData-driven decision-making

Structures of IntelligenceInstrumental EnrichmentThe Innovative sciencesTeaching across the CurriculumInterdisciplinary teachingExecutive function skills

Authentic AssessmentAlternative AssessmentPerformance AssessmentPortfolio Assessment

What Teachers Are Required to Know Today - 6

Interpersonal relationsEducational objectivesMultiple intelligencesConversation theory

Direct instructionScaffolding

Critical ThinkingLateral ThinkingRemedial ThinkingFlexibility in Thinking

Behavior modificationSituated learningLearning communities

Educational objectivesLearning communitiesProcedural knowledgeLearning stylesInstructivismBehavior modification

Process vs. ContentProcess vs. ProductWhole class vs. Facilitator

PlatooningTransitional Pre-K

sH.O.T.S.

B.Y.O.D.

M.O.O.C.s

1-to-1 Classrooms

Flipped Classrooms

Digital literacy

e-Books

Coding

Interactive Whiteboards

Smart Boards

Computer-Assisted L’ng

Gamification

On-line Educational Resources (OERs) Cognitive Overload!

Common Core State Standards

for Reading/Language Arts

Common Core State Standards

for Mathematics

English Language Development

Standards

The Next Generation Science

Standards

National Core Arts Standards

21st Century Skills

College and Career Readiness

STEM or S.T2.R.E.A.M. (addressing content for the 1st time )

What Teachers Are Required to Know Today - 7

God put me on earth to accomplish certain things.

But right now I’m so far behind,

I’ll never Die!

What Mathematics Teachers Had To Do for High School Students In The Past

1. Prepare the college-bound for calculus.

2. Prepare the non-college-bound for

employment.

3. Identify which students were which.

What Mathematics Teachers Are Expected To Do for HS Students Today

1. Prepare them all for calculus.2. Prepare them all for employment.3. Prepare them all for a life dominated by computer technology.4.Prepare them all to pass state-mandated competency tests.5.Prepare them all to meet the CCSS ELA standards, the CCSS Math standards, and the NGSS standards

It is your job to prepare our students for

new occupations in the 21st Century that

1. have yet to be created

2. for a future that we have neither

encountered nor envisioned in

detail

3. demanding the mastery of skills that

we cannot even imagine.

Why STEM?

College and Careers in 2014

Male Female

US Population

1950

Male Female

US Population

2012

2030

Highly skilledWell-educated

Creative/innovative“Portable skills”

UnskilledUncreative

Unemployed

Distribution of Skilled/Creative vs. Unskilled Workers

60% of the new jobs of the 21st century will require knowledge and skills possessed by only 20% of the current U.S. workforce.

STEMThe most recent 10-year employment projections by the U.S. Labor Department show that of the 20 fastest growing occupations projected for 2014, of them require significant mathematics or science preparation to successfully compete for the job.

23

In 2012, nearly 70% of American HS graduates failed to meet college-readiness benchmarks in science.

15

College Freshman are Well or Very Well Prepared

‐ High School Teachers ‐‐ College Instructors –

Freshmen Needing Remediation

Two-year colleges – Four-year colleges/univ. –

College Retention Rates in 2012: From 1st to 2nd year of higher education

Two-year colleges – Four-year colleges/univ. –

89%26%

51.7%

19.9%

55.5%65.2%

Today’s College Students…

Average Graduation Rates: 1983-2012

Two‐year colleges in 3 years –

Four‐year colleges in 5 years –

29.1%

36.6%

Your Major Matters

Bachelor’s Degrees Granted in the U.S.

1. Business2. General Studies3. Social Science and History4. Psychology5. Health Professions6. Education7. Visual and Performing Arts8. Engineering and Technology9. Communications and Journalism10. Computer and Information Science

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Bachelor’s Degrees Granted in Competing Nations

1. Business (1)2. General Studies (10)3. Social Science and History (6)4. Psychology (9)5. Health Professions (4)6. Education (5)7. Visual and Performing Arts (8)8. Engineering and Technology (2)9. Communications and Journalism (7)10. Computer and Information Science (3)

Bachelor’s–Competing NationsSource: National Center for Education Statistics

Your Majors Matter

13 Million Americans are unemployed.

However, 3.8 million jobs in the U.S.

remain unfilled.

STEM

Approximately what % of all US-granted doctoral degrees in engineering, mathematics, computer science, and physics (STEM) were awarded to foreign students in 2008?

A. 20%

B. 50%

C. 75%

D. 90%

Tapping America’s Potential, www.tap2015.org 29

STEM

In 2002 there were 4M 9th graders in the US. In 2011, what percentage of this group graduated from a (2/4 yr.) college with degrees in a STEM field?

A. 5.5%

B. 10.5%

C. 19.5%

D. 25.5%

National Center for Education Statistics; Digest of Education Statistics

10 Highest-Paying Degrees(Aug 2011)

The 10 college degrees that lead to the highest salaries.

1. Petroleum engineeringMedian starting salary: $97,900Mid-career average: $155,000 2. Chemical engineeringMedian starting salary: $64,5000Mid-career average: $109,000 3. Electrical engineeringMedian starting salary: $61,300Mid-career average: $103,000 4. Materials science and engineeringMedian starting salary: $60,400Mid-career average: $103,000 5. Aerospace engineeringMedian starting salary: $60,700Mid-career average: $102,000 

 6. Computer engineeringMedian starting salary: $61,800Mid-career average: $101,000 7. PhysicsMedian starting salary: $49,800Mid-career average: $101,000 8. Applied mathematicsMedian starting salary: $52,600Mid-career average: $98,600 9. Computer scienceMedian starting salary: $56,600Mid-career average: $97,900 10. Nuclear engineeringMedian starting salary:$65,100Mid-career average: $97,800 

The NSF reported the following statistics that reflect the 2006 U.S. science and engineering workforce:

55% white men18 % white women12% Asian men5% Asian women3% Hispanic men2%  Black men1% Hispanic women1% Black women2% Other men1% Other women

Source: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics. 2011. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2011. Special Report NSF 11-309. Arlington, VA.

Demographics in 2014

Apollo 1 was the first manned (Grissom, Chaffee, White) mission of the U.S. Apollo manned lunar landing program.

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the moon, Americans Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969,

From Apollo 1 to Apollo 15…

Apollo 1 - Norm Casson worked on the Apollo Missions #1 - 15 for NASA as an engineer, and later as the Director of Apollo Test & Operations on NASA's Apollo Project, having the responsibility of testing every piece of equipment that would take the astronauts to the moon and back.

Cousin Norm, former Director of Apollo Test & Operations

The Achievement Gap

• Vocabulary = proxy for knowledge. Achievement gaps are knowledge gaps primarily sponsored by ever-expanding vocabulary gaps.

• A highly developed vocabulary facilitates precision, not just in speaking, but in thinking.

• Lack of vocabulary can be a crucial factor underlying the school failure of disadvantaged students (Becker, 1977; Biemiller, 1999).

The Gap That Goes Unnoticed

There is a wide gap (a disconnect) between what we think we deliver to our students on a regular basis and what students believe we are delivering to them.

We Lead

We Teach

We Learn

We Support

We Learn Student Survey (Grades 6-12)

217,596 student voices

We Teach Instructional Staff Survey

21,028 voices

Learning requires effort, and one of the best predictor's of students’ effort and engagement in school is the

relationships that they have with their teachers (Osterman, 2000.)  Students function more effectively when they feel respected and valued and function poorly when they feel disrespected or marginalized (National Research Council, 2004) 

Emotional Intelligence in Education

Participants’ Poll

T – I make learning exciting for my students.

86%

S – My teachers make learning fun.

41%

Teacher – Student Comparisons

T – I make learning exciting for my students.

86%

S – My teachers make learning fun.

41%

Participants’ Poll

T – I am aware of my students’ interests outside of school.

84%

S – My teachers know my interests outside of school.

28%

Teacher – Student Comparisons

T – I am aware of my students’ interests outside of school.

84%

S – My teachers know my interests outside of school.

28%

Participants’ Poll

T – Students can apply what I am teaching to their everyday lives.

92%

S – I can apply what I learn to my everyday life.

59%

Teacher – Student Comparisons

T – Students can apply what I am teaching to their everyday lives.

92%

S – I can apply what I learn to my everyday life.

59%

T – I know what my students are passionate about.

76%

S – My teachers know what I love to do outside of school.

27%

Participants’ Poll

T – I know what my students are passionate about.

76%

S – My teachers know what I love to do outside of school.

27%

Teacher – Student Comparisons

1. Students find that what they care about becomes the easiest to learn; they remember best what they understand.

Emotions and Learning

2. Students don’t care what you know,

until they know that you care.

3. “Students learn as much for a teacher as they do from a teacher.”

Linda Darling-HammondStanford University

• Why do we need to learn science and engineering?

• Their clothes, shoes, and e-devices in use by them are all the products of design/engineering.

• Their healthy bodies are a consequence of design & engineering, by way of new technologies in agriculture, medicine/medical devices and tools, whose tools were designed by engineers.

Why NGSS & STEM?

• Life, by its very nature, is science. It operates by rules that govern how things work and how they can/cannot interact with one another, when we endeavor to solve problems.

• Look around the room. Can your identify one tangible object that was not a product of design/engineering (other than your colleagues)?

Every morning in Africa, the gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Change? Complacency is Fatal

It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you’d better start running.

  --African proverb

Every morning the lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

How Did the Human Brain Get the Way it is Today?

• Brain spurts: Increases in the volume of the human cranium that coincided with impressive advances in cognitive, emotional, communicative and social capabilities.

1. Upright walking (bipedalism): (4.3M to 2M years ago)

2. Tool usage: (2.4M years ago) – tools for problem-solving

Advances That Prompted Brain Changes

3. Art, artifacts and symbolism (35K years ago): ∙ Objects with irresistibly striking visual (representational) properties, “manuports”

4. Complex social structures and relationships• Large-group living • Communication: Nonverbal gestures, hand

movements,• Broca’s Area, limited oral language.

Advances Prompting Brain Changes

5. Speech and complex oral language: ∙ Fostered the ability to preserve and transmit information and ideas from one generation to another (oral tradition). 

6.Symbolic language and the printing press (570 years ago): ∙ Replaced the need for “oral tradition” ∙ Opened a new dimension in the human brain

Advances Prompting Brain Changes

7. Technology: ∙ Extending the ranges of human sensory systems, memory systems, communications, perception

∙ Advanced technology: Computers, Internet, simulations

∙ Virtual reality/virtual sensory experiences: Experience anything in the world from virtually anywhere in the world.

∙ Obliterating the limits placed on humans based on time/place, which had governed all previous interactions.

Asynchronous, not occurring at the same time, and asyntopic, not occurring in the same physical place.

Advances Prompting Changes in the Human Brain

Survival of the fittest?

Survival of the fastest adapting brain

You Are Here:

“21st Century” Technologies

Person-to-Person Communications

Listening to Music

Dewey decimal system?

Information (25 B.G.)

Paying for goods and services

Our Schools

academic self-pacing

Transportation

Connect for Productivity:Surfmark

Connect socially

Canestahttp://www.canesta.com

In San Jose, CA

These are virtual keyboards that can be projected and touched on any surface. The keyboard watches your fingers move and translates that action into keystrokes in the device. Most systems can also function as a virtual mouse.

Projection Keyboard

Projection Keyboard and Projector

Tgh

The Switch60 light bulb uses a fraction of the energy (12.5w) that it takes to light a 75w bulb. Best of all, it will last 25,000 hours or 20 years.

Berkeley Lab's energy-efficient torchieres

give off "cool" light.

Michael Siminovitch

Modern Commercial Airline Cockpit

Testing testing

2012: Boeing 787

industrial

Solar-powered Boats

Driverless Car

The new Mercedes SLC 600

 “Magic Mirror” – deploys voice recognition technology to execute commands - surf the web, check/respond to e-mail, glance through news/magazine articles, video content, recognize tagged pharmaceuticals or other products you use, allowing you to instantly access information on your prescribed meds by placing them in front of the reflective “mirror” (LCD.)

New definition for the term “Flying Solo”

Swiss Airline Pilot-inventor, Yves Rossy

A new definition for

the term “going to

work.”

3-D Interactive Virtual Dissection Table

Nerve-Shocking Armband Helps Amateur Musicians Play Like Pros

“Possessed Hand” - Armband composed of 28 tiny electrodes sends e- impulses through the skin and into the nerves of the fingers causing precise movements. By varying the timing and intensity, it can help beginners play the guitar (like a pro).

Improves patient safety and process efficiency with medication dispensing.

…automated medication dispensing system prevents medication errors, reduces pharmacy labor, and lowers drug inventory. The hospital pharmacy robot automates medication storage, selection, return, restock, and crediting functions for 90 percent or more of a hospital's daily medication volume. These robots can handle pills in a fraction of the time it takes humans

Robotic Pharmacies

The “canary in the mine” (Nano

Air Vehicle – NAV)

The First Robotic Hummingbird -

2011 Breakthrough

Award …

The Knowledge Explosion

“The sum total of humankind’s knowledge doubled between 1750 and 1900. It doubled again between 1900 and 1950, again from 1950 to 1960, again from 1960 to 1965. It’s been estimated that the sum total of humankind’s knowledge has doubled at least every five years since then.

It’s been further projected that by the year 2020, knowledge or information will double every 73 days.”

Dr. James Appleberry - President, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

... Jupiter's Moons

Jupiter has moons?

giving it the largest retinue of moons with

"reasonably secure" orbits of any planet in

the Solar System.

Saturn?

(50 + 17, awaiting official confirmation = 67)

62 (53 + 9 awaiting official confirmation)

The “Shelf-life” of Facts

67

• 48 chromosomes until 1956 (46)

• The earth is the center of the universe (heliocentric)

• The earth is flat; The earth is round; The earth is an

oblate spheroid

• Smoking: “Doctor recommended” → carcinogenic

• Meat is good for you –

• Human beings traveling faster than 75 mph would die

• Dinosaurs were slow, greenish-gray and unintelligent

• Pluto is a planet

In Scientific Research

International Astronomical Union

Aborigines

Darkly pigmented skin is highly protective under intense UVR areas, melanin is a natural sunscreen. As people moved around the world, from high UV to low

UV areas, there were skin color repercussions.

Annual Average Exposure to UV Radiation at Ground Level

Knowledge Fallacy

If students have a single exposure (lecture, video, reading, etc.) to a concept, they should be able to respond correctly on a test.

Important distinctions must be made between what one

hears vs. understands

hears vs. recognizes

recognizes vs. understands

understands vs. remembers

remembers vs. reproduce

remembers vs. what one knows how to apply

3. Find x.

4 cm

3cm

recognizes vs. understands

Popular Icons: 1950 - 1990

Popular Icons: 2014

120M/hr.

1.11B users 80B images

2B views/24h 130M

200M

5th on web51M page-views/day

700M visits/month

Company Founded InMoodle 2001iTunes 2001Facebook 2003Myspace 2003LinkedIn 2003Flickr 2004YouTube 2005Blogster 2005Twitter 2006Khan Academy 2006Google Docs 2007Virb 2007Dropbox 2007Evernote 2008Students Circle Net. 2010Google+ 2011Pinentrest 2011

 (Google – 1998)

The Human Brain

1.Always engaged in “sense making”

2.Actively seeks connections that build on our prior experiences

The Net Generation

1.Accustomed to instant gratification and always connected2.Use the web for friendships, personal interests, self-directed learning, and for self-expression3.Constantly multitasking and linking up for stimulation gratification, but not for academic development or intellectual pursuits.4.Less fear and less respect for authority5.Prefer learning from peers and media sources.6.More positive response to collaboration not individual achievement7.Risk avoidance rather than trial-and-error8.Consumers and observers rather than creators.9.Motivation is extrinsic rather than in intrinsic10. Use a new lexicon for communicating with one another.

We cannot navigate successfully in a complex 21st-century world using 19th and 20th century, strategies, tools, and learning models.

Technology will not replace the need to be literate.

--Rebecca Alber, UCLA

Technology in the 21st Century

Caveat #1

“I’ve seen students with i-Pads and the novelty is there and the engagement is there, but it’s not clear that novelty and engagement will lead to increased academic achievement.”

--Stanford Education professor Larry Cuban

Caveat #2

1. Highly Visual Brain (19 senses)2. Is “wired” by experience (plasticity)3. Operates by patterns/connections (representative neural pathways)

• The brain confers on us the ability…

To know things today that we did not know yesterday,

To do things today that we could not do yesterday

To solve problems today that we could not solve…

Over time: our growing repertoire of knowledge and

cognitive skills ↑ – based on connections

Knowing how the brain “works”

Why is Hands-on Learning Effective? Developmental Neurobiology

Sensory Cortex

Motor cortex

In the “digital age,” it is critical that educators remember that the 10 digits on your hands were the

first human digital devices.

Neuroplasticity: + Cortical Changes That Result From Learning How To Play the Violin

Creighton University

Re-wiring the brain

Making Connections

Will this bulb light if the connection is in water?

• Is water a conductor of electricity?

• Plasma Light

• Electricity→ Magnetism→ Electromagnetism → Light

• Electromagnetism 1 of the 4 fundamental forces in our universe (gravity, E-M, S/W nuclear forces)

Electromagnetism

…From Where We Are

to Where We Need to

be?

Knowledge: Combinability

Creativity and p-s through combinability - if you have a rock, and someone else gives you another rock, you have two rocks.

Combinability

However, if you combine the knowledge in science that (a) one rock is a flint stone and one is iron pyrite(b) that rubbing these two stones together in a

certain way can make fire…then the ability to combine knowledge is far greater than the knowledge that you have 2 rocks resting in your hand.

+ =

Preparing Students for YESTERDAY OR THE FUTURE?

Today: 30,000 to 35,000 new research fields

Newly hybridized scientific areas creating new disciplines:Neuropharmacology Neuro-oncology Neuroendrocrinlogy Environmental Toxicology Psychoneuroimmunology Tissue Engineering Geotechnical engineering Pharmacogenomics Bio-organic Chemistry Molecular EndocrinologyMolecular Biophysics Molecular BiophysicsNano-engineering Molecular GeneticsMicroelectronics Gene Therapy Microbiology Plasma Physics Evolutionary Biology Evolutionary PsychologyPlasma Physics Geothermal EngineeringGeophysics/Astrophysics Physical Chemistry Heteronuclear Isotopic labeling Behavioral pharmacology

Materials:

Paperclip (unfolded/straightened) Narrow straw

Stopwatch

Graph paperScience notebook

Investigation and Data Collection

1.Begin your investigation.

2.Verbalize and record your observations.

3.Record your data.

√ The science of learning

√ The learning of science

 The Language of Science and science-centered language dveelopment

Instead of saying: Use MINDFUL LANGUAGE by saying:

“Let’s look at these two pictures.” “Let’s COMPARE these two pictures.”

“What do you think will happen when…?” “What do you PREDICT will happen when…?”

“How can you put those into groups?” “How can you CLASSIFY…?”

“Let’s work this problem.” “Let’s ANALYZE this problem.”

“What do you think would have happened “What do you SPECULATE would have happened if…?” if…?

“What did you think of this story?” “What CONCLUSIONS can you draw about this story?”

“How can you explain……?” “What HYPOTHESES do you have that might explain...?”

“How do you know that’s true?” “What EVIDENCE do you have to support…….?”

“How else could you use this…..? “How could you APPLY this ……..?”

The Science of Learning

Scientists, Mathematicians and Engineers

“Reading and writing comprise

over half of the work of

scientists and engineers.”

(NRC 2011)

Procedure:

1. Hold the straightened paperclip with your right index finger and thumb, and the straightened paperclip between your left index finger and thumb.

2. (Start the stopwatch.) Insert the paperclip into the straw hole (with both eyes open). How many seconds did it take you?

3. (Start the stopwatch.) Insert the paperclip into the straw hole with your left eye closed. How many seconds did it take you?

4. (Start the stopwatch.) With your right eye closed, insert the paperclip into the straw hole. How many

seconds did it take you?

Procedure:

5. Holding the paperclip with your left index finger and thumb, and hold the straightened paperclip between

your right index finger and thumb.

6. (Start the stopwatch.) Insert the paperclip into the straw hole (with both eyes open). How many seconds did it take you?

7. (Start the stopwatch.) Insert the paperclip into the straw hole with your left eye closed. How many seconds did it take you?

8. (Start the stopwatch.) Insert the paperclip into the straw hole with your right eye closed. How many seconds did it take you?

Data from Each Group 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Scientific Thinking Summation

1. How did your data compare with the other groups?

2. What communication skills did you use during your conversations?

3. Did you agree/disagree with anyone in your group? Why? How were your differences expressed? How were they resolved?

4. Did you change any of your thinking? Why?

Summary Science Sentence Stems

1. Our data indicate that …

2. Based on our findings, we can conclude that…

3. This is also an example of ________

4. From our additional research from the library/Internet, we found out that…

5. I would suggest an extension to this activity that would investigate…

From Binocularity (2) to

STEM to

ST2REAM

Cannot afford to think as a one-dimensional single-

purposed “switchblade” performer.

One-dimensional Learning

Today’s Students = Swiss Army knives

• Preparation must be multi-dimensional (Olympic

training without being informed of your specialty)

• Multi-talented (MI) – Life-long learners; flexible thinkers;

synthesizers

STEM: The “How”

STEM Education integrates all 4 contents of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It supports application by combining these “silos” into a new trans-disciplinary subject in meaningful realistic ways.

STEM Education seeks to ↑ access to learning preparing students for post-secondary study, the 21st century workforce, and becoming informed citizens.

S.T.2R.E.A.M. Schools

Science

Technology (and Thematic trans-disciplinary

instruction to extend student learning)

Reading and Language Arts

Engineering

Art

Mathematics

(Maximizing connections and sensory experiences)

Leonardo Da Vinci

Almost 500 years following his death, the name of Leonardo

Da Vinci still tops most lists of the greatest scientific minds in

world history. The “Renaissance Man” of insatiable curiosity

and determined innovation, Da Vinci was an accomplished

inventor, scientist, mathematician, painter, sculptor, architect,

cartographer, engineer, anatomist, botanist, geologist, and

writer. Da Vinci left us the seven Da Vincian Principles to

guide the pursuit of scientific discovery.

Leonardo Da Vinci

7 Da Vincian Principles: Da Vinci was a one-man university of art and science, who referred to himself as “uoma senza lettere” and “discepolo della esperienza.”

1. Curiosità: An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning. Questions and inquiry-based learning; “Great minds ask great questions.” A desire to learn more. Curiosity leads to creativity.

2. Dimostrazione: A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Learning for oneself through personal experience (“food” for brain development), question the accepted theories/dogma. 40 years pre-Copernicus, da Vinci wrote “IL SOLE NO SI MUOVE.”

Leonardo Da Vinci

3. Sensazione: The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience. Take advantage or the synergy of the senses to learn - Multisensory learning

4. Sfumato (literally means “Going up in Smoke”): A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty. With

uncertainty, we look for answers → to creative thinking.

5. Arte/Scienza (art and science): The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination (“whole-brain”)

6. Corporalita: The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, poise.

7. Connessione: A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena.

Leonardo Da Vinci

• Many of history's most prominent scientists were quite accomplished in the arts.

• MacArthur “genius” Robert Root-Bernstein, in his book Sparks of Genius, detailed a startling finding.

• Researched the lives of 150+ renowned scientists from Pasteur to Einstein, one single common trait:

Creative Minds and the Brain

“Arte/Scienza”

• Nearly all of the greatest scientists, mathematicians, and inventors were also musicians, artists, sculptors or poets.

Drawing does for the brain during the day,

what

Dreaming does for the brain at night.

7 Da Vincian Principles:

#7 Connessione: A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Lighting a Bulb: Making Connections (Elaboration)

We spend billions of dollars each year on protecting ideas instead of

connecting ideas

Making Connections

Neurons and synapses.

The number of neurons (the information processing cells) inside your brain is approximately equivalent to

all of the trees found in the Amazon rain forest (100,000,000,000). The # of plausible permutations and combinations of brain activity > the # of elementary particles in the universe.

They operate by making connections with one another. The number of connections (synapses) inside your brain is comparable to all of the leaves on all of the trees in the Amazon rain forest (approx. 62 trillion connections among the 100 billion brain cells.)

The Astonishing Neurons

…forget to take vitamins/medicine after meals?

This system turns a fish tank into an aquaponic garden, a perfect model for demonstrating how our natural environment works: fish waste fertilizes the plants, and the plants filter the water in the tank.”

JACK IKARD, St. Edward’s University (Tex.), ’16

Neural Networks Representing New Ideas

Which “phase” of matter describes the environment in your classroom, school district or home?

Gas = chaos

Solid networks = rigidity/stability, but

incapable of meaningful changeLiquid networks = characterized by fluidity and creativity → capable of (regular or spontaneous) re-invention, recombination, evolution → innovation

Neural Networks Representing New Ideas

•Good ideas are created from connected neural networks, where new connections are made → to a corresponding new idea that suddenly comes to mind – Eureka! This is the innovative engine of the 21st century and has been for every century.

•The only requirement – plasticity (it is not the number of neurons, but the representative connections they make)

STEAM: Making Connections

• The first human incubator - at “La Maternite” → infant mortality rates for the next 500 babies ↓ by 50% → incubators installed in all of the city’s maternity hospitals.

• 1896 Berlin Exposition: “Kinderbrutenstalt” - child hatchery with live infants was the most visited of all exhibits.

• 1940s → incubators = standard hospital equipment.

• After World War II new incubators with oxygen lead to a 75% ↓ infant mortality rates between 1950-1998.

• One of the best medical inventions, because the metric for a medical device should be “How much does it extend the life of the patient?” Devices extending life from age 85 to 87 is often as/more expensive as the $40,000 device that extends a life from just 1 week to 87 years.

STEAM: Making Connections

STEAM: Making Connections

• Global catastrophes → $$ & medical equipment → 3rd World countries → incubators from WHO/international relief orgs.

→ when the incubators are no longer operational (no parts or expertise to repair) → abandoned/trashed (1 dz.= $500K) → “Design That Matters” → more reliable, less complicated and less expensive incubator (no expensive spare parts/no highly trained repair techs): “Coffee, Coke, and cigarettes, and old car parts can be found anywhere in the world”

• NeoNurture (Dr. Jonathan Rosen, RISD students) → incubator made out of recycled and spare car parts: headlights (heat), dashboard fans, air-intake filters (air circulation), and batteries (= easy to repair/replace) producing heat and airflow → comparable to expensive “real” incubators

The 50 Best Inventions of 2010: NeoNurture Incubator

• Spare/old automobile parts → re-combined and re-purposed into a new life-saving neonatal device

• Visual spatial thinking: How do we develop students who can look at spare car parts and see an incubator by creatively re-combining those parts into a new and useful product?

Jonathan Plucker (Indiana U): Creativity (“CQ”)

was three times+ more accurate as a basis for

predicting an individual’s lifetime creative

accomplishments than IQ.

“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will

never come up with anything original."--Sir Ken Robinson

1. Asking questions and defining problems2. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information 3. Look for and make use of structure4. Planning and carrying out investigations 5. Attend to precision6. Analyzing and interpreting data 7. Model with mathematics8. Using mathematics and computational thinking 9. Constructing explanations and designing solutions 10. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them11. Reason abstractly and quantitatively12. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.13. Developing and using models 14. Engaging in argument from evidence15. Use appropriate tools strategically16. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

Standards from Which Discipline: Math or Science?

1. Asking questions and defining problems (NGSS)2. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information (NGSS)3. Look for and make use of structure (M)4. Planning and carrying out investigations (NGSS)5. Attend to precision (M)6. Analyzing and interpreting data (NGSS)7. Model with mathematics (M)8. Using mathematics and computational thinking (NGSS)9. Constructing explanations and designing solutions (NGSS)10. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (M)11. Reason abstractly and quantitatively (M)12. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

(M)13. Developing and using models (NGSS)14. Engaging in argument from evidence (NGSS)15. Use appropriate tools strategically (M)16. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning (M)

Standards from Which Discipline: Math or Science?

Standards correlations → overlapping standards,

overlapping content, overlapping concepts,

overlapping student learning objectives –

many of which are deceptively similar.

The 21st Century Classroom

Scientists, Mathematicians and Engineers

• Do scientists, mathematicians and engineers communicate with one another?

• Do scientists, mathematicians and engineers write summaries of their work?

• Do they write reports?

• Do they write research papers?

• Do they give oral presentations of their research at symposiums? Interviews?

In Reading, Math and Science

• Make predictions

• Make inferences

• Construct, revise, and question the meanings and strategies

as they develop (dynamically) minute-by-minute

• Determine the meanings of unfamiliar or unknown words and

concepts through interactions, interactions, and context

• Monitor their understanding of the concepts

• Constructing and revise written summaries

• Think about the concepts before, during, and after instruction

or investigations

Science

Technology

Engineering

Mathematics

Reading/Language Arts (Standards)

Art

Drawing/diagramming, visual spatial thinking, imagery, inferential

thinking, 2/3-dimensional modeling, symbolic models, interpreting visual evidence, visual representations -

illustrations, charts, etc.

Visual Literacy

S.T2.R.E.A.M.

Reading, writing, discourse, argumentation, vocabulary development, comprehension, journals, note-booking,

lab reports, summaries, oral presentations, recording interpreting and

critiquing data and information

Convergent/Integrative STEM T’ & L’

• Enrichment studies: Examine the effects of enrichment or deprivation on brain development, neurogenesis, neuronal growth and synaptogenesis.

• While neurons generally grew in size, measures of (a) increased dendritic density(b) increases in the number of glial cells(c) myelination of the axons (d) changes in brain weight and overall brain volume

• No toys or playmates all growth measures (impoverished)

• Playmates + a change of toys every other day (Enriched environments)

• Changing toys every hour: → similar neural connections in brain growth and development (your school day??)

Learning: When “More” Becomes “Less”

This image is copyright protected. The copyright owner reserves all rights. Bob Thaves: Frank and Ernst cartoon http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=7496

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S.T2.R.E.A.M.

This image is copyright protected. The copyright owner reserves all rights. Bob Thaves: Frank and Ernst cartoon http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=7496

•x

“Goodwill Engineering”7 Da Vincian Principles

Garage sales, Thrift shops, Goodwill, basements, etc.

1.Remove two parts and reassemble.

2.Remove four parts and reassemble.

3.Remove six parts and reassemble.

4.Diagram the interior

5.Begin writing assembly instructions (engineer)

6.Remove two more parts and reassemble.

7.Draw the complete interior

8.Complete assembly instructions

9.Test to see if the object is (still) operational

Open circuit = off

Closed circuit = on

Teaching Electromagnetism: Electrical Circuits

When I arrived at home last night, there was no electrical power in my house. I found a flashlight, but the light would not come on. List the possible problems that could explain why my flashlight did not work. How could I correct each of them?

(Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions)

My Own Diagram with Explanations

• Children, who have received instruction on forming

mental images on their own and paying attention

to illustrations in text, significantly outperform

their counterparts on tests of comprehension

and recall.

• Dr. Brian Swann – Harvard School of Dentistry

“Brain-sight” vs. Eyesight

How can we plan daily classroom experiences to meet the goals of STEM?

Brain-STEM: Transdisciplinary Science-centric Learning

STEM/STEAM

College Preparation Begins Well Before High School

Methane

Transfer: From Balance to Bridges

Working together applying skills from design and engineering?

Being creative using science, math, physics and imagination?

Girls are equally engaged in the learning as boys!

Learningand applying

Math?

Understanding that there are no

limits to their creative thinking

Traci Loftin: Nevada Presidential Awardee 2012

(The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) is the nation's highest honor for teachers of mathematics and science)

Student engagement reaches new heights

“Aha” moments: moments of insight, where new understanding or a new solution spontaneously emerges without a conscious or active search.

“Aha” Moments

What makes learning memorable for adults?

Active investigations into scientific practices!(no different than our students)

What makes learning memorable for adults?

Active investigations into

scientific & engineering practices!

(no different than our students)

Prediction: “Oil and water don’t mix.”

Daniel Kahneman, the first non-economist to win a Nobel Prize in economics received his

award for “theory-induced blindness” – the loyalty to a belief about some aspect of how the world works that is so strong that it prevents you from seeing how the world really works.

Play and Water

The illiterates of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot

learn, un-learn, and re-learn. --Alvin Toffler

We want to known best as the innovation nation

instead of a high-stakes testing nation,

where two-thirds of the hours in a school year

should not be devoted to prepping students

for tests leaving no time for building

creativity through engaging in relevant

STEM/STREAM learning.

…not merely “academic problems” for the purpose of intellectual development, but global challenges to the very survival of our planet and our species. They will require new approaches, novel ideas, new solutions, and the complex merging of multiple disciplines.

vancomycin

cin

my-cin

co-my-cinvan-co-my-cin

Reverse Direction Decoding

antibiotic drug of last resort for hard-to-treat hospital-acquired infections

Drugs Contaminate Lake Michigan Prescription drugs have been found far from Milwaukee's sewage outfalls, suggesting the lake is not diluting the compounds as scientists expected

By Brian Bienkowski and Environmental Health News  | Thursday, September 5, 2013 | 5

Antibiotic Resistance Is Now Rife across the Entire Globe A first-ever World Health Organization assessment of the growing problem calls for rapid changes to avoid the misery and deaths of a potential "post-antibiotic era" Apr 30, 2014 |By Dina Fine Maron

Dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria and other pathogens have now emerged in every part of the world and threaten to roll back a century of medical advances. That’s the message from the World Health Organization in its first global report on this growing problem, which draws on drug-resistance data in 114 countries. “A post antibiotic-era—in which common infections and minor injuries can kill—far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century,” wrote Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director general for Health Security, in an introduction to the report. The crisis is the fruit of several decades of overreliance on the drugs and careless prescribing practices as well as routine use of the medicines in the rearing of livestock, the report noted. 

…Annually Televised Teaching Awards?

 What about new televised programs…

Monday Night

So You Think You Can

“Dancing with the

The of Orange County

“America’s Next

Science

Teach?

Astronomers”

Teachers

Inventor”

The only people whose jobs cannot be

automated or offshored in the new “super-

connected,” “flat,” world are the

innovators.

Learning approaches that are at the heart of the 21st Century Classroom:

• Curiosity (inquiry)

• Creativity (innovation)

• Collaboration (teamwork)• Communication (listening, speaking,

reading, writing)

• Critical thinking (analytical skills)

• Curriculum focused on problem-solving

They also happen to be innate in young children.

The 21st Century Classroom

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful

committed citizens can change the world.

Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

--Margaret Mead, Anthropologist, 1901-1978

Rosa Parks1913 - 2006

The Power of One

Charles Drew1904-1950

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

An open frame waiting to be filled by One of your TN-STEM students?

…grow the best brains possible!

The Gift

Yesterday is history,

Tomorrow is a mystery.

But, today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called

The Present.

Contact Information:Kenneth Wesson

(408) 323-1498 (office)(408) 826-9595 (cell)

San Jose, CA kenawesson@aol.com

sciencemaster.com

Brain-STEM: Why STEM and Why Now?

Started at 268 Now at: 268 Goal: 130Time: 90 minutesUSED:

A Mixture or Solution?

A Mixture or Solution?

A Mixture or Solution?

A Mixture or Solution?

A Mixture or Solution?

.

When a gas is dissolved in a liquid → another type of solution. When a vitamin tablet is dissolved in water, carbon dioxide is produced to help the tablet dissolve quickly. Sparkling water is also a solution of carbon dioxide in water. When the gas is in solution, you cannot see it – just the bubbles, when the gas comes out of solution.

Is CCSS+NGSS

A Mixture or Solution?

A mixture is the results of 2 or more materials distributed evenly after being mixed together, but each maintains its own identity (visible).

A solution is the combination of two or more substances where the original parts become homogenized and indistinguishable.

If we try to combine oil and water… What do you predict will happen?

Prediction: “Oil and water don’t mix.”

Daniel Kahneman, the first non-economist to win a Nobel Prize in economics received his

award for “theory-induced blindness” – the loyalty to a belief about some aspect of how the world works that is so strong that it prevents you from seeing how the world really works.

Play and Water

Making a Lava Lamp

Materials:•Oil•Water•Colored dye•Alka-Seltzer•Flashlight

Procedure:

Pour 1 part water 4 parts oil into a container. Let the mixture settle. Pour 2-3 drops of colored dye into the container. Add ½ tablet of Alka-Seltzer.

NGSS + STEM = more of a solution than a mixture

Making a Lava Lamp

NGSS + STEM = more of a solution than a mixture

Making a Lava Lamp