I actually have more questions than suggestions.
1. What are the fundamental motivators for any high school student to embrace STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) as fun, enjoyable, productive, and profitable?
2. How does the current teaching system transfer valuable STEM knowledge to students? Are the students in an emotionally receptive state? It takes two to successfully transfer knowledge and skills (a skilled teacher and a receptive student).
3. Is real world application of STEM knowledge available in the hands of students now? Or does a student have to wait until age 22 (graduation) before they experience creating STEM based products and services?
4. Do students learn best by lecture, memorize sequential lists and two dimensional formulas of facts, take tests, and read about previous accomplishments? How best do you learn? What is fastest and most efficient way to learn and apply a new skill? When are you best motivated in a creative spirit? Shouldn’t we (adults) be showing students how to actually live and work in the environment they will inherit in a few years?
5. If you (an adult) had to re-do 16 long years of formal education again before starting a lifelong career, what would YOU do to prepare yourself as early as possible?
Now turn your answer(s) around and ask what WE can do for our children to prepare them for success and happiness. And how can we ensure our children become financially secure and emotionally independant of us as early as possible?
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Charter Tech Schools for Georgia
A March 14th article in the Washington post reported that a presidential panel declared math education in the United States “broken”. Closer to home it was recently revealed that 40% of Georgia’s 8th graders failed their CRCT math tests. Meanwhile, I recently reviewed a chart presented by Lockheed Martin showing 33% of their science and technology workforce will come of retirement age within the next 5 years. And, most of us know that today’s H1-B visa process sends bright foreign born, advanced-degreed university grads, back to their homeland after graduation. If that were not enough, we have all kinds of stats showing that the last thing on most US high schoolers’ minds is to take STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum, if they go on to college at all. Okay, I must admit, that it wasn’t on my top 10 list either, but I still want to have TAG and our Foundation play a role in encouraging today’s young people to consider STEM.
Now to my point - a June 6th article of the ABC revealed that four years after the founding of Tech High (an Atlanta based school) that the average SAT score of the first graduating class was 1397 - the second highest scores in the Atlanta Public School system. It goes on to report that all but three of the graduates have accepted into a four-year or two-year tech school. Before someone jumps to the conclusion that, the best students came to Tech High I can let you know that 73% didn’t meet the minimum reading score and 90% didn’t meet the minimum math score when they entered. The school expenses were far less than the Atlanta school system average too (only $8151 per student).
Recently Gwinnett opened a STEM school and I understand the results are superb. So; am I the only one that thinks that we should be shouting from the rooftops that our state should open up as many of these privately run STEM based schools as fast as humanly possible??
Comments (3)
Tino’s Blog
Keith
Thanks for your questions which I do believe are right on target. Generally, I do believe that experiential learning, like what happens in WebChallenge and FIRST Robotics is a step in the right direction. I have had the good fortune to be a judge in both competitions and have seen the participants fully engaged and learning. No one is twisting their arm. They are not sitting in a classroom and it sure looks and feels like they are learning. Some of us (I surmise; most of us) learn more by being out in the work world (or even simulated world of work) because they can better see what the learning has to do with other desired outcomes, like making a difference in the world. My own experience in high school was to drift into another place, in my mind, if I didn’t think there was a connection between anything I would ever use again, after the end of class. I was probably wrong most of the time, because most of the applications in school actually do have applications in life, but perception can be our reality. That all being said, the Tech High example I gave is a classroom story of a success. One of the TAG Foundation board members suggested that this was because the students were in a lazer focused environment and feeding off each others motivations and interests.
Congrats on your own efforts to create a student education program that breaks the norm.
That all being said, the Tech High example I gave is a classroom story of a success. One of the TAG Foundation board members suggested that this was because the students were in a lazer focused environment and feeding off each others motivations and interests.
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