Back to School Roadmap
The Biden Administration has developed a Return to School Roadmap to support educators, school leaders, parents, families, and communities lead students on a path to return to in-person learning this fall, where they are safe and supported. The Roadmap contains three “Landmark” priorities for each school, district, and state as they work to reengage students and bring them back into classrooms:
- Prioritize the health and safety and of students, school personnel, and families
- Build school communities, and support student’s social, emotional, and mental health
- Accelerate academic learning
Each landmark contains many resources, including Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time, and field-based examples to support educators, school leaders, parents, families, and communities as students return to school this fall.
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Mathematical Reasoning with Connections
Mathematical Reasoning with Connections (MRWC) is a fourth-year high school mathematics course designed to prepare students for the rigor of college mathematics. MRWC is funded by a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3*) grant awarded in 2016. It is designed as a bridge to postsecondary mathematics required in STEM and non-STEM majors.
MRWC embeds the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs) as an integral component of the course. Led by a team of high school, county office, community college, and university educators, MRWC teachers and coaches grow in their own conceptual understanding of advanced-level math and pedagogical shifts needed to implement the curriculum. Participants learn how to infuse technology, SMPs, and the Five Practices for Mathematical Discourse into every lesson. Second Year and Beyond professional learning (PL) workshops were implemented after overwhelming requests from teachers to have additional opportunities beyond their initial 20 days of PL.
A total of 21 districts, 70 schools, 8,700 students, 134 teachers and 36 instructional coaches have participated in the work. The initial evidence suggests MRWC students outperform controls on end-of-year assessments. Notably, MRWC students' attitudes toward math, the usefulness of math, and their desire to take math in the future are improving, whereas control students' attitudes are either decreasing or remaining unchanged.
Students have expressed how the MRWC course has helped them be open to different ideas, enable them to better explain the necessity of math, and persist when roadblocks arise. Teachers articulated that the PL has helped change instructional practices in MRWC and other classes as well as deepened their conceptual understanding of higher-level math. For additional information, please contact Teresa Cummings, PhD at tcummings@rcoe.us or (916)204-4227.
*The i3 grant has been renamed the Education Innovation and Research program.
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What Works Clearinghouse: STEM Webinars on Demand
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) just released two webinars to introduce educators to evidence-based resources that support instruction. Given the heightened demands on educator time this school year, the webinars have been prerecorded so they are available to listen to when convenient.
In these webinars, educators and experts provide an overview of the different WWC resources that educators can use to inform their decisions on selecting instructional programs and practices and highlight examples from evidence-based resources to improve math, science, reading and writing skills.
The STEM webinar features:
Additional resources such as the full libraries of practice guides and intervention reports, and other resources to support educators to use evidence-based practices are also available for free on the WWC website.
IES Research Plans
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) received $100 million through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to respond to the learning challenges posed by COVID-19. This blog provides an update on how IES will use those funds to invest in research grants, gather data through the School Pulse, and make sure that the information generated about accelerating learning is translated into forms that are useful, usable, and used.
New Computer Literacy Data Available
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has added data from the 2013 and 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) to the International Data Explorer (IDE). The ICILS is a computer-based international assessment that measures 8th-grade student capacities in information communications technologies (ICT) via two domains: computer and information literacy (CIL) and computational thinking (CT). Twenty-one education systems around the world participated in ICILS 2013. The United States participated in ICILS for the first time in 2018, along with 13 other education systems. The IDE is an online, interactive tool that allows users to explore international study data and create customized tables, charts, maps, and analyses. Start exploring the ICILS data in the IDE today.
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Mark Your Calendar
October 15, 2021 – Data Literacy STEM Webinar
“Big data”—the ability to harness and use data at scale—has transformed our economy, our democracy, and our daily way of life. Yet, there are significant skills gaps in the data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) fields. The power of data is rapidly transforming careers in manufacturing, health care, and education. AI has made navigating social media and online information a societal conundrum. Join us to understand what Federal, state, and local partners are doing to address these gaps, and what resources exist to bring data education programs to your school. Register here.
Recent Archive
July 28, 2021 – Advanced Manufacturing: Industry of the Future
All STEM briefings and webinars are archived here.
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This is not an all-inclusive list.
STEMIE Fest
The Department-funded STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education (STEMIE) has an exciting program lined up for this year’s STEMIEFest. Last year, over 1,800 early childhood, early childhood special education, early intervention professionals and faculty, STEM industry professionals, and families joined STEMIEFest for five days of interactive learning and discussions on early STEM learning for every child. All sessions will have ASL interpreters, captioning, and Spanish translation. You can apply for continuing education units (CEUs) and/or professional learning certificates. Registration to the event is FREE for everyone and will open in early September! In the meantime, check out last year’s program and sessions.
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STEM Teachers Wanted: Apply for Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship
The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship (AEF) Program provides unique opportunities for accomplished K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators to serve 11 months in a Federal agency or U.S. Congressional office. Einstein Fellows bring their extensive classroom knowledge and experiences to their host offices to inform Federal STEM education efforts. To be eligible, applicants must be U.S. citizens who are currently employed full-time in a U.S. public or private elementary or secondary school or school district. Applicants must have been teaching full-time in a public or private elementary or secondary school for at least five of the last seven years in a STEM discipline. The application deadline is November 18, at 8pm ET.
Energy Back to School Kit
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aims to support all the teachers, parents, students, and school support staff heading back to school. They offer STEM resources like virtual field trips of DOE National Labs, K-12 activities from the Labs, nonstop events, history dives in the origins of DOE, and much more. Check the STEM Rising website to see it all.
Undergraduate Energy Competitions
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Solar Decathlon Are you an undergrad looking to make a difference in clean energy? Get together a team from your school and apply now for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. In the 2022 Design Challenge (1-year design-only competition) or the 2023 Build Challenge (2-year design-build competition) for collegiate teams to design and build high-performance, low-carbon buildings powered by renewables! Finalist teams will be invited to vie for victory during the Competition Event at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Apply here by October 26, 2021.
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JUMP into STEM Have you heard about our building energy-efficiency competition for undergrads yet? Check out JUMP into STEM, a virtual competition. The JUMP (Join the discussion, Unveil innovation, Make connections, Promote tech-to-market) competition is open to teams of two to four students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities to solve critical challenges in the field of building science around the themes of equal access to healthy indoor air, resilience for all in the wake of disaster, and solving market adoption for emerging energy efficient technologies. Winners of the competition will have the opportunity to receive 10-week, paid internships at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), or the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Challenges close on November 12, 2021. The final competition will be held at ORNL on January 27 and 28, 2022.
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NASA EXPRESS Newsletter
Keep up with the latest NASA STEM opportunities for educators and students with the NASA EXPRESS newsletter. Each Thursday, subscribers receive information about internships, competitions, lesson ideas, webinars and more. Find ways to bring NASA current events into the classroom and make real-world connections to science, technology, engineering and mathematics concepts. Subscribe today.
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NASA Engagement and Educator Professional Development Collaborative
According to their website, the NASA STEM Engagement & Educator Professional Development Collaborative (EPDC) based at Texas State University is a national educator professional development and STEM engagement organization designed to partner with NASA in service to STEM educators and their students across the country. Their mission is to guide and support a broader group of educators to utilize the best of NASA’s professional learning resources integrated with culturally relevant STEM pedagogies to serve diverse student audiences by inspiring and motivating them to pursue STEM fields of study, careers, and opportunities with NASA. Teachers can participate in free distance learning opportunities including webinars on topics such as: Exploring the Rock Cycle; Science and Engineering – Similar but Different; Rocketry, Fan-tastic Forces; and, earn Digital badges. Parents can explore NASA STEM @ Home for students in grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12. Students can share photos and videos of their STEM in Action projects. There is something for everyone.
EPA’s Air Quality Flag Program
Every day across the US, flags are raised to inform students, teachers and members of the community about their local air quality. The flag color is determined by the Air Quality Index, which changes depending on the levels of ozone and particle pollution in the air. Children who have asthma are one of the groups particularly susceptible to the adverse health effects caused by high levels of air pollution. The Air Quality Flag Program’s activity guidance shows when and how to modify outdoor activity. This guidance helps protect the health of all children, including teenagers, who are more sensitive than adults to air pollution.
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New STEM Labor Force Report
The National Science Board (NSB) recently released a new report, The STEM Labor Force of Today: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers, which shows the critical contribution that STEM workers make to the U.S. economy and reinforces the value of training and education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This report includes the nearly 20 million individuals whose jobs require them to use significant levels of STEM expertise and technical knowledge but who do not hold a bachelor’s or higher degree.
Open STEM Teaching Tools
The STEM Teaching Tools site, funded by the National Science Foundation, offers open education resource (OER) tools that can help teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). A major focus is supporting the teaching of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Each tool is focused on a specific issue and leverages the best knowledge from research and practice. Under the News, you can learn a bit more about how you might use them. Review more Tools and check out the variety of Professional Development modules. This site was developed by the Institute for Science + Math Education at the University of Washington in collaboration with the Research + Practice Collaboratory: The Exploratorium, The University of Colorado at Boulder, EDC, Inverness Research, and SRI International.
In a recent press release, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offered a number of health tips for a successful school year for students, teachers, school staff, and their families. For parents and caregivers, the CDC also published a list of questions to ask schools to learn more about COVID-19 precautions and responses to more frequently asked questions. Reminder: The CDC has specific COVID-19 guidance for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.
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