9:30am | It shouldn’t take a scientist (or this article) to tell you that the way we take in new information is rapidly evolving. Technology is pushing our society into new realms, and the world children grew up with in the 1960’s was a far cry from the one I grew up with in the 1990’s, which in turn is a far cry from the one children are growing up in now.
The school computer lab is no longer the only place children have the ability to access the world wide web or learn about computer programming. Teenagers are creating their own iPhone apps on the weekend and there are plenty of legitimate stories of elementary school-aged children using code to hack into websites.
The tornado of excitement over science and technology appears to grow in size daily. How perplexing, then, that the percentage of our nation’s college students who choose majors related to these seemingly exciting fields continue to decline sharply.
Long Beach Poly Physics teacher, Meredith Ashbran, can’t control the nation but she can control her classroom, and if she has anything to say about it, that decline will soon be on the uptick at a local level thanks in part to the the continued implementation of STEM education into her curriculum. But what is STEM, and what benefit does it offer children when utilized? “STEM is is your Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It’s looking at those subjects within a classroom,” she says.
“My classroom, it’s not just a physics class . . .we talk about technology and we use technology. The kids learn engineering skills and mathematics skills. It’s the integration of all those skills that get kids ready for 21st century jobs. To get them ready to move on from academia and into the world of work, having done all this integrated coursework. I think a STEM classroom is really a classroom that focuses on skills that our society needs.” Meredith is not the only one who realizes that integration must be viewed as an essential component in today’s classrooms. One of the world’s tech giants themselves, Google, is doing it’s part to ensure that our high schools are moving towards a widespread implementation of STEM practices.
Meredith recently attended the prestigious Google Faculty Institute, where the goal was to work with California faculty to elevate and share best practices in the integration of technology in STEM classrooms. By engaging faculty, the institute hoped educators would walk away equipped with new ways of thinking about how technology can be used in the classroom. The three day institute culminated in grants awarded to groups of faculty to support the scaling and research around new ways of furthering this community of practice.
After hearing via word-of-mouth that the Google Faculty Institute were interested in sending a group from Cal State Long Beach, where she recently completed her Master’s Degree in Science Education, Meredith knew she had to give the application process a shot. “We had to create a video on our view of what technology could do for education. Why I got chosen? I hope it’s because I’m so excited about teaching and I really believe that technology can change the face of teaching as well as how our students learn!”
The Institute itself was geared towards those teachers coming from the Cal State system, as the roll our State’s schools play in credentialing teachers is extraordinary. “Around 10% of all teacher’s in the U.S. have gone through the Cal State program,” Meredith explains, “And about 50% of all California’s teachers are credentialed through it as well. Google realizes that if we can change how those 50% or so of teachers are being taught hopefully we can actually change 50% of the classrooms in California –or more.”
Long Beach Poly students who have Ms Ashbran for AP Physics will be experiencing for themselves this year some of the new ideas she is bringing back with her from her time at the Institute.
“In terms of technique,” she says, “the two biggest things I took away from the Faculty Institute is looking at “flipped” classrooms and blended learning models. Flipped classrooms is an idea about taking anything students can do independently and moving that outside the classroom. Like a lecture, making that a video exercise and having them do that at home. And then actually bringing in a lot more of the collaboration, problem-solving, and the group stuff into the class.” Meredith notes how much of the discussion at the Institute went back to evolving the teacher’s, and the school’s, role in their student’s lives.
“Instead of the teacher and the high-school, as they kept saying, acting as a “Stage on a Stage,” we’re looking at having the teacher be somebody that really guides students and helps them through that collaboration process instead of just dictating knowledge to them.”
As much as Meredith hopes the changes she is enacting this year will have an effect on the way her students view science and technology, she is aware that in order to see widespread change, she cannot be the only science teacher in the school district who implements STEM. Her passion for being a part of the movement towards this goal is palpable as she describes the ways she believes other area teachers can help to make this happen.
“STEM is so much more about what I would call real-life sciences than it is about a single curriculum. You can teach physics a ton of ways, but looking at what real physicists do, they build things. They use math to analyze problems, they use technology to help them understand concepts, and they use that science knowledge to wrap it all together.”
She continues, “Implementing that in Long Beach would be amazing if we could have our students looking at real-life science, looking how scientists are actually doing science and giving these kids a chance to have real-life problems solved instead of just the problems at the back of the book. Why not give them problems having to do with eco-sustainability or energy usage? Our kids really can solve problems in the real world if we gave them the chance.”
When this chance could be offered to all high-school students will be a waiting-game in itself. Quite the opposite of new iPhone apps, which are created and updated daily, our nation’s education system has been known to be beaten by slowest of the slow in the race to administer new practices. Whether it’s next year or next decade, Meredith is prepared to do her part no matter the vague timeline. “Something that really touched me at Google is something they kept telling us,” she says.
“And that is, when somebody at Google tells you “oh, it’ll happen in 6 months,” that’s like, forever!” she laughs. “Google moves really fast and they have the ability and innovation to really change who they are and what they do really quickly. We kept talking about how education is so very different. It changes very slowly and it moves very slowly. That doesn’t have to be the case. It was so energizing and reinvigorating to see that culture and feel like we can do this, we can change. We can make education work for our kids today and we can do it now.”