This week in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math news, one private tutoring business claims STEM interest is helping to grow the industry.
According to a press release from the Tutor Doctor, a nationwide continued interest in STEM studies has helped to significantly increase the private tutoring industry.
"The demand for more Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) courses is turning parents and students to seek extracurricular help, driving the growth for brands like Tutor Doctor, the leading one-on-one in-home private tutoring franchise, whose services helped more than 200,000 people, and will assist 35,000 more in 2016,” the release said.
"The demand for more Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) courses is turning parents and students to seek extracurricular help, driving the growth for brands like Tutor Doctor, the leading one-on-one in-home private tutoring franchise, whose services helped more than 200,000 people, and will assist 35,000 more in 2016.”
Read the full release.
With the national push for getting more students of all race, ethnicity and background into STEM studies, expert Melanie Pinola encourages teachers and parents to learn alternative ways to encourage STEM interest without being forceful.
"Beyond helping with their homework (or having them explain Common Core math to you), we can immerse them in STEM every day—without forcing it on them—and make it actually kind of cool,” Pinola said on LifeHacker.com.
She provides several suggestions for doing this, such as making STEM applicable to real life, focusing on experiences over lessons, and praising the process.
Read her full list of suggestions here.
According to an international study of physics teachers in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, less experienced teachers were more likely to give female students worse grades than male counterparts despite the same answers.
The researcher behind the study, Sarah Hofer, speculated that part of the reason for this phenomenon is that “it mostly involves the mental shortcuts we all take to avoid spending too much time and energy reasoning things out. When dealing with people, these shortcuts can lead us to rely on stereotypes. In this case, inexperienced teachers haven't developed the skills needed to quickly evaluate a student's performance, so they fall back on our cultural biases, which is that females are less likely to do well in physics,” according to an article on ArsTechnica.com.
Read the full story.
For teachers in districts transitioning to the Next Generation Science Standards, Measured Progress is offering a topic-based item set and Teacher’s Guide for classroom use to help with the transition.
"Measured Progress STEM Gauge is a formative assessment resource that supports classroom instruction. STEM Gauge provides students with opportunities to demonstrate understanding of the three dimensions of the Performance Expectations (PEs) as instruction occurs,” said Measured Progress’ site.
The set includes formative support tools and 15 sets of 20-25 assessment based questions that relate to NGSS topics to help get the ball rolling in the classroom.
Find out more here.
A webinar from Level Up Village is seeking to help educators learn how to best implement 3D printers, the latest trend in STEM learning, into the classroom.
The webinar will take place Thursday, Jan. 21 from 5-6 p.m. EST.
Find out how to sign up here.
Who said STEM and the arts had to be at odds?
In the Pennridge School District, the school’s guitar club is merging music and STEM by using STEM skills to create musical instruments.
"The Pennridge Guitar Club began last fall with 24 students working on ukuleles one or two days a week after school and on Saturdays. Electric guitars are the next project,” said The Bucks County Courier Times.
The club’s endeavor is evidence that arts do not have to be sacrificed as interest in STEM booms.
Read the full story.
Compiled by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor