MIT Stem Pals
 
 
pumpkins
October 2012
 
 

Creative Use of Technology Knocking Down the Walls of the Classroom
From Mac Hird and Kyle Webb

Mac Hird and Kyle WebbTeaching demands a huge amount of time. Teachers must make sure they are aligned with the curriculum, use their evenings to grade previous assignments, and still manage to plan lessons every day that are interesting and engaging. How can a science teacher find the time to keep on top of new developments in the fields and answer every inquisitive question from high school students that might motivate students to pursue a STEM career, such as green technology, space exploration, and medicine?

Education technology is beginning to fill that gap. Many are familiar with Mythbusters, the Discovery Channel, Mathalicious, Khan Academy, BLOSSOMS and other experts that provide videos answering specific questions that students have asked. But for every question that is answered, there are surely thousands that go unanswered. There is a better way; knocking down the classroom walls to connect teachers to the experts themselves and bringing them virtually into any classroom all over the world.

While this idea may seem far-fetched, it actually works. We’ve done it. A few times over the last few months, we have worked together to bring Mac, a graduate student at MIT, into Kyle’s high school chemistry classroom in Missouri. It took almost no time to set up, was completely free, and undoubtedly increased student interest in STEM and in pursuing an advanced degree. It’s not very often that you hear kids coming out of science classrooms excited about wormholes, atomic structure and the newest trends in science and technology.

Using mentors in science classrooms is not a new idea. They bring real world perspective into STEM classes that can often seem abstract and distant from students' lives. The young age of undergraduate and graduate students makes them particularly successful at becoming role models for these teenagers. But without a university nearby, it can be very difficult to get widespread and regular participation from these scientists-in-training. Smart use of technology can fix that.

In our example, students used collaborative document editors to brainstorm ideas, and Mac used Skype to call into the classroom where students asked any questions they wanted about STEM topics or careers. No question was off limits, and students that normally found themselves fighting off a nap were on the edge of their seats listening to answers to the questions they asked.

For example, while much of one session was dominated by a discussion of the death of stars, black holes and hypothetical wormholes, a student drastically changed the conversation by asking “If ice is transparent, and snow is just frozen water, why is snow white?” Mac’s answer: “I’ve never actually thought of that before. I don’t know. Let’s think about how we could figure that out.” We then talked about shaved ice, how it was also ice that was originally transparent until we made a physical change to it, and ended up generating the hypothesis that physical arrangement of ice crystals must have something to do with the transparency. Then we had a quick discussion of reflection and refraction before designing an experiment to confirm our suspicions. It was refreshing for students to see someone with a high level of knowledge use the words “I Don’t Know” and then continue on to work with those students to design an experiment to answer the question.

Five or ten years ago it would have been a major struggle to get a scientist into a high school classroom, but now, due to creative use of new technologies, it is even easier than the click of a mouse!

Mac Hird is a Masters student in the Technology and Policy Program at MIT and a research assistant in the MIT Education-as-a-Complex-System Group.

Kyle Webb is a high school math and chemistry teacher at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis, Missouri.

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