From local solutions to global
challenges, imaginative problem-solving
is at the core of STEAM education. This strand will explore the potential for
STEAM education to address public good, civic engagement, workforce
development, and other shared
goals to benefit future generations.
The
future of STEAM lies in the hands of educators, whether new to the field as pre-service
teachers, policy-influencing administrators, or professional learning veterans.
This strand looks at how innovative
curricula, pedagogy, technology, communities of practice, labor-management
collaboration and other key elements of support preparation, professional
development, and STEAM educator retention.
Partnerships
and community involvement connect
learning beyond the K-12 classroom and elevate diverse voices. Through the lens
of partners in early and higher education, informal and expanded learning,
non-profit and industry, student voice, and parent engagement, this strand
shows how inclusive team efforts
help STEAM education thrive.
Innovative learning
environments promote inquiry and
facilitate collaboration, critical
thinking, communication, and creativity
to help meet the needs of a variety of learners.
STEAM learning environments that are student-centered require flexibility and accessibility for various types of learning, including project-based and Social-Emotional Learning, outdoor learning, modernized
technology, and personalized instruction.
Educators
can support our diverse student
population to succeed by designing instruction
to foster a positive classroom environment where all learners are engaged and able to express what they know. Hear
educators and facilities professionals share promising practices that cultivate success through their physical
and conceptual structures.
This
strand highlights innovative
courses, projects, principles, and
activities that integrate disciplines within and beyond STEAM, promote student engagement, and activate deeper learning.
Presentations will share successful standards implementation that crosses multiple subject areas and highlights the connected complexity in
each of the STEAM fields. Content will also examine examples of computer science and career technical education
which are mindful of equity and access for
all students while bringing coherence to their learning experience.
Innovation
in engineering, architecture, medicine, media, and artistic expression begins
with visions of what could be realized. Through a combination of
disciplinary knowledge, skill, and understanding of human cultures and
aesthetics, arts integration pushes
the boundaries of STEM while embracing student capacity for creativity, self-expression,
and dreaming big.
The
environment provides engaging and relevant context for learning and applying
STEAM content and skills. California's Environmental Principles and Concepts,
integrated in the California Science Framework, inform this approach.
Connecting teachers and students in the digital world through media meets
learners where they are while promoting healthy engagement and productive
collaboration. Building environmental and media literacy while designing
solutions to real-world challenges is an effective strategy to deliver
standards-based instruction, develop civic skills, and inspire STEAM careers.
2. How would you categorize your
presentation to help guide attendees
interested in following subject pathways? Select up to three
pathways.
Equity and Access for
All in STEAM
Discipline Deep Dive (within S, T, E, or M)
Makers and Makerspaces
Early Learning
Career Technical Education
English Language Learning and Development
Making Standards Come Alive
Welcoming
Non-STEAM Specialists
My bio-page describes "life
on a road less traveled." Here
is an overview of my journey.
In college I majored in chemistry,
liked it and did well as an undergrad at UC Irvine, receiving an NSF Fellowship
for Graduate Study. But in grad
school at the U of Washington, I decided to not pursue a career doing
specialized research, and I left with an MS. After a time of working, traveling, teaching,
and writing a booklet (Strategies for Problem Solving) and textbook (Physics:
Power Tools for Problem Solving), I returned to grad school in History of
Science at the U of Wisconsin. When
a fellow student said "we historians" I thought "no, this isn't
me," and I left with an MA. By
contrast, after entering the School of Education at U of WI, when I thought
"we educators" it felt natural, even joyful. It was "me" then, and still is
now. I've enjoyed teaching, mainly chemistry
and physics (at both UW's) but also math, problem solving & study skills, music
improvisation & theory, tennis, juggling, ballroom dancing, and ESL. But even more, I love to think about
learning & teaching, about how to do these well. Therefore I admire skillful teachers who
do it well, who creatively cope with the complex challenges of what they do, connecting
with students in many ways on many levels.
My PhD dissertation was a unifying
synthesis of ideas (mainly from scientists and philosophers, but also from
sociologists, psychologists, historians, educators, and myself) into a model of
scientific method, and using this model for the integrative analysis of a
creative classroom where students solved genetics problems by using scientific inquiry. These ideas about problem solving have
been generalized from science into all areas of life, and are now being
developed in my website, Using Design-Thinking Process for Problem Solving and
Education. I enjoy working with
other educators, sharing ideas so we can learn from each other, exploring
possibilities, developing curriculum & instruction. I like working together to design activities
and strategies that are a good match for how students like to learn (and are
able to learn), and how teachers like to teach, so we can be more effective in
helping students improve their creative-and-critical thinking skills.
I want to collaborate with other educators so we can explore possibilities
and develop our ideas,
My first major was Chemistry, and I did well,* but in graduate school (at
U of Washington) I ==
?? (* getting "top student" for all high schools of Orange
County, then for undergrads at UC Irvine, plus a Graduate Fellowship from NSF, and later a Dean's Club Award for
UW-Madison's School of Education)
NSF Fellowship for graduate school
+ Dean's Award for the
School of Education at U of WI-Madison
graduate degrees in
problem solving PhD at U of WI, scientific methods of inquiry, later
generalized into
my part in it -- developed an integrative model of Scientific Method -- by
combining-integrating ideas from ==== - and using it to do integrative analysis
(of goal-directed activities & their goal-achieving functions) of an innovative
inquiry classroom. award-winning
"we historians" versus "we educators" is me, my vocational
passion
continuing generalist interests
impressed by skill of skilled teachers, complexity of connecting with
students in many ways -- cognitive, motivational, emotional, self-image,
enthusiasm, confidence -- on many levels
Essential Conditions
for 21st-Century STEAM Teaching and Learning:
Innovative learning
environments promote inquiry and
facilitate collaboration, critical
thinking, communication, and creativity
to help meet the needs of a variety of learners.
STEAM learning environments that are student-centered require flexibility and accessibility for various types of learning, including project-based and Social-Emotional Learning, outdoor learning, modernized
technology, and personalized instruction.
Educators
can support our diverse student
population to succeed by designing instruction
to foster a positive classroom environment where all learners are engaged and able to express what they know. Hear
educators and facilities professionals share promising practices that cultivate success through their physical
and conceptual structures.
This strand highlights innovative
courses, projects, principles, and
activities that integrate
disciplines within and beyond STEAM, promote student engagement, and activate
deeper learning. Presentations will share successful standards
implementation that crosses multiple
subject areas and highlights the connected complexity in each of the
STEAM fields. Content will also examine
examples of computer science and career technical education which are
mindful of equity and access for all
students while bringing coherence to
their learning experience.
They will understand how
key ideas (see #3) form a set of integrated teaching strategies* that will help
students learn more from their experiences, both inside & outside school. These key ideas will be summarized in my
brief "elevator talks" and explored in brief discussions. A one-page handout, with details they
can read later, will include a URL where (within the url-page
and by following links) they can learn much more. / * My strategies and other
educational strategies & activities can "play well" together, with
synergistic cooperation. For
example, my key ideas will help a teacher design creative ways to make a
hands-on inquiry activity become more minds-on, so students will learn more during
their inquiry experience and (with reflection & discussions) afterward, to
help them "do it better" the next time(s).
[ 832 chars ]
With my broad
definition, Problem Solving (by using Design Thinking to "make things
better" in any area of life) includes almost everything students do. This wide scope lets us show students
how school experiences fit into the context of their whole-life experiences. When students understand this whole-Life
context, they can build two-way transfer bridges between their "whole Life"
and their "School life" with transfers from Life into School (so they
think "I've been doing this in my Life, so I also can do it in School"
for Confidence) and from School into Life (when they think "the
School-skills I'm improving will be useful in all areas of my Life" for
Motivation).
{for more info,
educationforproblemsolving.net/steam}
[ 727 chars ]
from life into school (for attitude-transitions to "I
can do this (in school)" and from school into life (for transfer of
school-skills into their life, "I can use this (from school)" in life)
I will show educators how to build bridges for
transfers-of-learning (from life into school, and back into life) and
use
creative-and-critical Design Thinking
help students improve
their problem-solving skills in all areas of life.
help teachers show students how their school activities fit
into the context of their real-life activities, connect them with
transfer-bridges from Personal-Life into School-Life (to increase confidence),
and (to increase motivations) back into Personal-Life.
transitions-of-attitudes (to improve confidence &
motivations)
students will think "what I'm learning in school will
help me do better in life, now and in my future
My key ideas form a conceptual framework that will
help educators help students "bring coherence to
their learning experiences."
Bridges: As explained in #3, we can help students
build bridges (from Life into School, and from School into Life) for transfers
of skills, and to improve their confidence & motivations, to promote healthy
growth for a wider diversity of students, for better equity.
Success: Due to differences in abilities-and-experiences
(in multiple intelligences) and motivations, some students will succeed better
with inquiry activities than in traditional book-learning and test taking.* Success will improve their
self-perception so it's more accurate, and is optimistic with a growth mindset,
thinking "yes, I can."
They will develop better attitudes & responses, will want to "feel
the satisfaction more often" by investing more effort in School. {* To expand access, so more students will
pursue their opportunities in all areas of School and Life, we can design eclectic
instruction with a variety of activities, including inquiry activities in areas
of STEM and non-STEM.}
[ 975 chars ]
building transition-bridges to.
We are helping students change their attitudes-and-responses
students can experience success in a wider range
of school activities, outside traditional.
equity and access for all students while
Use Student Experiences to Build
Transfer-Bridges between Life and School
Show students how they use their
experiences (mental & physical, to predict & observe) in Design
Thinking, in all they do. Build two-way transfer bridges between life and
school, to improve confidence and motivation for a wider diversity of students.
[ 250 chars ]
Show students how they use their experiences (mental &
physical, to predict & observe) for problem-solving Design Thinking. Build
two-way transfer bridges between life and school, improving confidence
and motivation for a wider diversity of students. [250 chars]
Show students how they use experiences (mental & physical, to
predict & observe) in problem-solving Design Thinking. Build two-way transfer bridges between
life and school, to improve confidence and motivation for a wider diversity
of students. [245 chars]
Build
Transfer-Bridges Between Life and School, Using Student Experiences
3.
Provide a detailed description of
your presentation so the review
committee can visualize the session, including any hands-on activities.
Describe how you will address the
selected strand. (3,000 characters maximum)
This strand highlights innovative courses, projects, principles, and activities that integrate disciplines within and beyond
STEAM, promote student engagement, and activate deeper learning.
Presentations will share successful standards implementation that crosses multiple subject areas and highlights
the connected complexity in each of the STEAM fields. Content will
also examine examples of computer science
and career technical education which are mindful of equity and access for all students while bringing coherence to their learning experience.
I've done three Roundtable
Discussions (2014-15-16) for CA STEM, and would do it better this time, with better
planning that will include strategies-for-improvising with my actions depending
on the responses.
Before a session officially starts,
1-page handouts will be on the table, and I'll begin interacting with
early-arrivers.
During each session there will be several
rounds; most will include my brief
"elevator talk" to explain key ideas, brief small-group discussions, and
a brief whole-table discussion. The
timings for each "brief" activity will be tentatively planned, and then
adjusted with improvising.
Here are some key ideas:
¥ You can help students learn more
from their experiences (first-hand & second-hand), inside school and
outside school.
¥ People have PHYSICAL EXPERIENCES
(when we actually do an Action, so we can Observe what happens) and MENTAL
EXPERIENCES (when we imagine doing an Action, so we can Predict what would
happen).
¥ Then we can use OBSERVATIONS
& PREDICTIONS, plus our GOALS (for a satisfactory Problem-Solution) when we
ask The Science Question and The Engineering Question. {In a Reality Check, my Science Question
asks "were you surprised?" because your Observations (of what
happened) did not match your Predictions (for what you expected). In a Quality Check, my Engineering
Question asks "is there a good match with Your Goals?" when
you compare an Option's Properties (Predicted or Observed) with the
Goal-Properties you want.}
[ 1475 ]
¥ It's useful to define PROBLEM broadly, as "any opportunity to make things
better, in any area of life," so PROBLEM SOLVING (with creative-and-critical
Design Thinking) includes almost everything a student does in Their Whole
Life, inside & outside school, whenever
they design a better strategy, relationship, activity, or product, or (with science)
a better explanation.
¥ This wide scope lets teachers
build two-way Bridges: from LIFE
into SCHOOL (from past Whole-Life experiences into present School experiences,
to improve Confidence when a student thinks "I've done this before in Life,
so I can do it now in School") and from SCHOOL into LIFE (from present School
situations into future Whole-Life situations, to improve Motivation when a
student believes that "what I'm learning now in School will help me later
in Life, in my near-future and far-future, both later today and years later).
To build these bridges, teachers
can use a simple model for Design Thinking -- Define a Problem (decide what
to "make better") and Solve the Problem (creatively Generate Ideas &
critically Evaluate Ideas, in iterative cycles) -- to help students recognize
how they use this problem-solving process throughout their everyday lives.
We can build bridges for Transfers
of Learning, and for Transitions of Attitudes to improve Confidence and
Motivation -- two Essential Conditions for Learning -- to promote healthier growth
in more students, with wider diversity, for better equity. (also see #6, re: Diversity &
Equity)
[ 1517 total ] --> 2992
my other models --> deeper und, parallels ment/phys expmts used in 4 ways
IMPROVING
STUDENT DIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY
DIVERSITY and EQUITY: These bridges facilitate transfers
of problem-solving skills (between life & school, and between subject areas,
including STEM and non-STEM) and transitions of attitudes (to change self-perceptions
& personal goals, to improve confidence & motivations) for a
wider diversity of students, to promote educational equity.
Carefully designed culturally-unbiased inquiry
activities can let more students experience the thrill of success.
by mixing non-STEM
inquiry with STEM inquiry, showing how similar problem-solving skills are used
in both, to help more students improve their problem-solving skills in all
areas of life.
[promote-enhance-stimulate-facilitate]
CONTEXTUALIZE, Personal Life, General Life, merge both together, blur the lines between "school life" and "outside life"
Help students see how they use Design Thinking for almost
everything they do. This wide scope lets you build educational
transfer-bridges from life into school (with students thinking "I've done
this in life, so I can do it in school") and back into life ("what
I'm learning in school, I can use in life") to improve confidence &
motivation for a wider diversity of students, to improve educational equity. [406 chars]
Help students see how they use Design Thinking for
everything they do. Use this wide scope to build educational
transfer-bridges from life into school (students think "I've done
this in life, so I can do it in school") and back into life ("what
I'm learning in school, I can use in life") to improve confidence &
motivation for a wider diversity of students, to improve educational
equity. [390 chars]
Show students how they use experiences (mental & physical, to
predict & observe) in problem-solving Design Thinking. Help them build transfer-bridges from
life into school (using their life-experiences) and from school into
life, to improve confidence and motivation for a wider diversity of students. [302 chars]
Help students see how they use Design Thinking for
everything they do. Use this wide scope to build educational
transfer-bridges from life into school (how? use life-thinking for
school-thinking) and back into life (use school-thinking in life) to
improve confidence & motivation for a wider diversity of students, to
improve educational equity.
[344 chars]
Show students how they use experiences (mental
& physical, to predict & observe) in problem-solving
Design Thinking. Help them build
transfer-bridges from life into school (to use life-experiences) and from
school into life, to improve their confidence and motivation. [268 chars]
problemsolvingeducation.com/steam [33 chars]
educationforproblemsolving.net/steam [34 chars]
ProblemSolvingEducation.net
IMPROV -- aud-leader(s) -- FIND (start before zero-time), ENCOURAGE (enthusiasm), interact
@ 4 ways to use experiments[experiences] -- zb, SciQuestion, EngQuestion
hands-on activities, focus will be to stimulate minds-on interactions
* Here is one version of each Question: my/The Science Question asks "were you surprised?" -- because there is not a good match between Predictions (what you expected) and Observations (what happened) -- in a Reality Check. The Engineering Question asks "is there a good match with your Goals?" -- when you compare an Option's Properties (Predicted or Observed) with the Goal-Properties you want for a satisfactory Problem-Solution -- in a Quality Check. / in a Reality Check, my Science Question asks "were you..." [ 463 ]
* In a Reality Check, my Science Question asks "were
you surprised?" because your Predictions (what you expected) were not
matched by your Observations (what happened). In a Quality Check, my Engineering
Question asks "is there a good match with your Goals?" -- when
you compare an Option's Properties (Predicted or Observed) with the
Goal-Properties you want for a satisfactory Problem-Solution -- in a
Quality Check.
into 3000 - from 250
can use a process of
inquiry to help students "discover" that they are using familiar
thinking skills from life into school
compare P & O in
Science Question, if surprised should revise their theory about "how the
world works." Reality Check
compare P with Goals, in two kinds of Quality Checks (Predictions-Based & Observations-Based)
a process of design thinking to solve problems
Were you surprised? Does it match your Goals?
using experiences -- that occur during "experiments" they do mentally (by imagining "what would happen") to make Predictions) and physically physical experiments (to produce
actually do, imagine doing
can use their improved thinking skills now (in their present life) and later (in their future life)
The simplicity of Design Process will help a
teacher show students how they use design thinking for almost everything they
do in life. This wide scope lets the teacher build educational bridges
from life into school, and back into life. These bridges will improve
transfers of learning (between life & school, and between subject areas)
and transitions of attitudes (to change the self-perceptions & personal
goals of students). By building bridges to promote beneficial
learning-transfers and attitude-transitions, we can help a wider diversity of
students — for better educational equity — improve their confidence
& motivations, and their problem-solving skills in all areas of life. [689
chars]
thinking skills from life, transfer into school
from life into school (using familiar thinking
skills)
, to improve educational equity.
¥ from School into Life, learning for their
future, to improve Motivation: We can show each student how they will be
using design thinking for "almost everything they do" in their future
life (in their future whole-life, inside & outside school) so the
design-thinking skills they are improving in school will transfer into life and
will help them achieve their personal goals for life.* When students want
to learn in school because they are learning for life, this will increase their
MOTIVATIONS to Learn.
[[ middle-school ]]
9. Would you like to submit your presentation as a 60-minute session or 15-minute roundtable presentation? (15-minute roundtables are shorter presentations with multiple options in one room. Participants will rotate between roundtables during the session to engage in multiple conversations.)
[[ 15-minute roundtable presentation ]]
[[ yes ]]
@ 4 ways to use expmts