steM: Let’s Not Forget about Math!
STEM is my favorite four-letter word these days! As we know, STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. But when you look at typical photographs showing students “doing STEM” you might think it is written sTem or sTEm. That is, you see Technology or Technology-&-Engineering emphasized. It’s fine to think of students designing and building things. But let’s not forget the ‘S’ and the ‘M’ in STEM. Today I’d like to talk about the ‘M’, namely Math. Read more.

Flipping Classrooms
As Project Manager of MIT BLOSSOMS, I often have the opportunity to speak with high school teachers from across the country. During these conversations, I have been surprised by the number of teachers who want to flip their classrooms, and even more surprised by the number of schools requiring teachers to flip. Still on the fence myself as to whether this movement is anything more than a fad, I decided to dive in a bit more deeply. I found a great place to begin this dive in the report, "A Review of Flipped Learning," designed to guide teachers and administrators through the concepts of flipped classrooms and provide definitions and examples of flipped learning in action. This report, put together by educators at George Mason University and Pearson, presents the following comprehensive definition of a flipped classroom... Read more.

Bringing the Why and Who into the Chemistry Class
MIT is offering a new chemistry and biochemistry online resource for college and high school classes called “Behind the Scenes at MIT." This online resource from HHMI Professor and Investigator Catherine Drennan is a series of two-minute science videos that illuminates the why and the who of chemistry by featuring MIT scientists explaining how a general chemistry concept is essential to their research. Each science video is accompanied by the personal story of the scientist’s career path. Read more.

A Brief Report from STEM Solutions 2013
I attended the U.S. News STEM Solutions 2013 conference in June. The theme of this second gathering of the national STEM community was “Teach, Inspire, Hire”. But this does not convey the true breath of the experiences that were shared at the conference. This year I saw much more of the “feet on the ground”, lessons learned that the participants could take back with them and put into action immediately.

The panel format for most of the sessions allowed an excellent exchange of views, among both the panel participants and the audience. Each of the sessions that I attended allowed a significant amount of time for comments, questions, and answers. The discussions among the audience members and panel participants continued well past the end of the session. Read more.