For America to remain a global leader, we need our students to have a world-class education. That’s why students in Northern Arizona University’s Global Science and Engineering Program and Valparaiso University’s International Engineering Program double major in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field and a foreign language and spend an entire year abroad, Inside Higher Ed reports.
Encouragingly, even though these programs require an extra year of college and semesters abroad, they either cost the same or just slightly more in tuition compared to other fields of study. The universities are doing this with international exchange programs, paid internships and scholarships.
MORE: These Kindergarteners Already Speak More Languages Than You
The fastest-growing jobs in America are in STEM but these institutions — modeled after the University of Rhode Island’s renowned five-year International Engineering program — are preparing their students to succeed outside our own borders, as well. As the Inside Higher Ed article points out, students in the STEM fields of do not typically take advantage of study abroad programs because of their demanding course requirements or perhaps their lack of interest in studying a foreign language. But in our increasingly globalized economy, we need a workforce that’s not just technically skilled, but one that has knowledge about the world — from different languages and cultures, to different environmental and social systems.
Tag: stem
This 6-Year High School Challenges Everything We Thought We Knew About American Education
At the innovative P-TECH early college high school in Brooklyn, “innovators” (what they call their students) don’t finish school until grade 14. But here’s the kicker: When they graduate, they walk away with an associates degree and a guaranteed job at IBM.
Thanks to public and private partnerships (IBM provides mentors for the school), P-TECH kids are taught science, technology engineering and math skills that get them ready for collegiate success and an invaluable leg up in the global economy. It’s a radical makeover of our traditional education system. As Rana Foorohar writes for her TIME cover story on the school, “a four-year high school degree these days only guarantees a $15 an hour future.”
MORE: This City Has a Bold Plan to Close the Technology Gap
P-TECH only launched in Sept. 2011 but already has scores of high-profile endorsements and even imitators. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, inspired by the New York academy, is opening six P-TECH schools in his own city. He told the magazine, “What’s very clear to me is that high school education as it is envisioned today isn’t sufficient for the modern workplace, or the modern economy.”
President Obama visited the Crown Heights-based school last year, and touted its game-changing model in his State of the Union address: “This country should be doing everything in our power to give more kids the chance to go to schools just like this one.”
MORE: Inside the Movement for Free Community College
“Companies, they’re looking for the best-educated people, wherever they live. And they’ll reward them with good jobs and good pay. And if you don’t have a well-educated workforce, you’re gonna be left behind,” Obama said.
The President also said in a speech during his October visit to the school that Verizon and Microsoft are following in the footsteps of P-TECH’s partner, IBM, and are considering public school collaborations. “This is a ticket into the middle class, and it’s available to everyone who is willing to work for it,” he said. “That’s what public education is supposed to do.”
To Change Public Education, This Nonprofit Is Hacking the System
In order to effectively change American education, it’s imperative to understand what schools, students and their teachers are lacking. DonorsChoose, an online nonprofit that has channeled more than $220 million to classroom projects, has been collecting data on the country’s educational needs and charitable donations for the past 13 years, gathering a treasure trove of information into giving in the U.S. education system. Now, for the first time, DonorsChoose, in partnership with Looker, a software company that focuses on data discovery and business intelligence, is releasing this unprecedented data collection to the public, free of charge, through their Hacking Education initiative, in order to allow citizens to generate their own insights into the state of public education.
MORE: The Radical School Reform That Just Might Work
Starting today, anyone with a valid email address can request access to explore DonorsChoose’s more than 20 million records, which Looker has combined with public education data. This allows people to learn about what schools need and which causes donors are more apt to support. “Exploring and analyzing our data through Looker has helped us develop strategies to increase charitable donations to schools,” Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose said in a press release announcing the initiative. “By identifying giving trends, we can better restructure and target our fundraising.”
DON’T MISS: The Surprising Secret to Improving Math Skills
So what factors do drive funding to schools in need? Here are some examples [PDF] from DonorsChoose’s 2013 Giving Index — a report that analyzes 340,000 donors, $60.2 million in donations and more than 130,000 school projects during the course of the year:
- People are far more likely to donate funds to schools within 25 miles of their zipcodes.
- Elementary education received the most funding, topping other grades by more than $3 million.
- Literacy and language projects received 42 percent of funding, followed by math and science, which received 30 percent. Health and sports received the least amount of funding, with 3%.
- 50 percent of projects requested basic school supplies and books.
- STEM projects were most funded for older students (grades 9–12).
These types of insights — many and more of which can be found through DonorsChoose’s Hacking Education initiative — can chart the course for research, spending and fundraising to help teachers find the tools they need to provide students with the quality education they deserve.
ALSO: Is This the Pinterest of Math and Science Education?
The Surprising Secret to Improving Math Skills
With the emphasis on preparing our youth for careers in science, technology, engineering and math, it seems like reading and writing have fallen by the wayside. But according to the Hechinger Report, there’s hope for lovers of the written word. In a new paper from Stanford University and University of Virginia, “Learning that Lasts: Unpacking Variation in Teachers’ Effects on Students’ Long-Term Knowledge,” researchers studied 700,000 third-through-eighth graders over eight years and found that students with good English teachers had better math skills in the long term. Interestingly, having a good math teacher did not have the same long term benefits on a student’s English skills, the report said. It’s unclear why English helps boost math scores, but it’s suggested that English is necessary for other subjects (word problems in math, for example) whereas you don’t need math to write essays or read books. This news comes shortly after a promising report from the Association of American Colleges and Universities finding that liberal arts majors close the salary and unemployment gap compared with their STEM peers over time. So to educators and policy makers everywhere—if we want a brighter future, let’s have our kids read great books, too.
MORE: Is This the Pinterest of Math and Science Education?
Is This the Pinterest of Math and Science Education?
In early January, roughly 100 Duke students did something most college students never want to do: They came back from winter break early. But they had a very good reason. Twelve undergraduate teams competed in a 48-hour challenge at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business to come up with innovative ways to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in both the U.S. and India. Their final proposals were full of inventive ideas, including a program where students would repair bicycles and a tutorial program where older students would teach younger students via video. But the first-place team went the extra mile, designing an online platform similar to Pinterest, called “STEM Pals,” which could help students gain STEM problem-solving skills while providing resources to teachers. STEM Pals would feature “lessons in a box,” kits with materials to create water filters, lamps or latrines, which could then be used to help needy neighborhoods near the schools. “We use these kits to spark an interest in project-based learning,” first-place team member Andrew De Donato told The Herald Sun. As its name suggests, the platform would also feature a pen-pal component, connecting schools in the U.S. with schools in India. De Donato and another winning-team member, Jenna Karp, said they would like to see STEM Pals come to life. The $1,500 in prize money awarded by Duke may help them do just that.
More Fun Could Fix Science Class
Parents want kids to learn more in science class, and students want school to be interesting and relevant. The solution? Make science more fun! Programs like the Mission Science Workshop in San Francisco give kids a space to explore, experiment, learn to think scientifically, and find subjects they can pursue further at school. It’s part of a new set of teaching guidelines called Next Generation Science Standards that get students to go beyond rote memorization and experiment like scientists, putting them in charge of their own exploration and learning.