On April 26-28, the Detroit – For Inspiration Recognition of Science & Technology (FIRST) World Championships were held, hosting over 15,000 students and 40,000 spectators from all around the world, including of 111 Michigan teams. It is with great excitement that the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) share two Michigan teams, Stryke Force, Kalamazoo and Team RUSH, Clarkston were part of the winning alliance for this year’s game, FIRST POWER UPSM.
The State Board of Education (SBE) celebrated the success of the Stryke Force, Kalamazoo and Team RUSH, Clarkston FIRST Robotics teams by honoring them at the June 12 board meeting. Their presentation demonstrated the level of technical capacity, educational excellence, and 21st Century competencies achieved by these students and the students participating in the 1400 teams across the state.
Stryke Force had students Sierra Staunton and Kjersten Lindbloom, present. Sierra shared, “We work to inspire others, because FIRST inspires us. Through FIRST, STEM is accessible.”
Team RUSH had students Valentina Vargas, Jessica Ray, and Jason Richards present. Valentina shared that Team RUSH, “aims to create self-confident leaders who inspire others to celebrate STEM.” The students from Team RUSH shared that they work to fail faster in order to learn more to ensure they are focused and execute their mission.
Both teams shared that the FIRST Digital Badges allow them to demonstrate to colleges and industry their mastery of high valued 21st Century skills. SBE member, Lupe Ramos-Montigny stated, “I’m encouraged and inspired by you. You are on to great success.”
All State Board members and Interim State Superintendent Sheila Alles congratulated the teams for their success at the 2018FIRST World Championship and thanked them for their attendance and presentation.
Many other Michigan teams were awarded with high honors at the Detroit-FIRST Robotics World Championship. Team 2834, Bionic Black Hawks, Bloomfield Hills, won the Chairman’s Award, the highest honor given at the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship. This award recognizes the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. Michigan teams were represented in every subdivision winners, as well.
The FIRST Robotics Program empower students to demonstrate their competency in learning in a variety of ways. They have opportunities to solve problems that leverages the power of technology by developing and testing solutions in creative and imaginative ways. They are able to construct knowledge and make meaning of their learning experience for themselves. Students become global collaborators by utilizing technology to make connections with others to broaden perspective and learning through the creation of original products.
This program supports Michigan’s Top 10 in 10 strategic plan by supporting Goal Two, strategy 2.6 and 2.7 by engaging students in well-rounded learning experiences in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), language, business, culture, and creativity, as well as providing access to personalized learning technologies that support and enhance those learning experiences.
The MDE is looking forward to supporting the FIRST Robotics grant program in the 2018-19 school year through continued commitment of grant funding. The 2018-19 and 2019-20 FIRST Robotics World Championships once again will be hosted in Michigan.
Many districts are about to get a big boost in funding for the most flexible piece of the Every Student Succeeds Act: the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, better known as Title IV of the law. The program just got a big, $700 million boost from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2018, bringing its total funding to $1.1 billion. And it could get even more money next year, because the House appropriations subcommittee in control of federal education spending is seeking $1.2 billion for the program in new legislation.
Districts can use Title IV funding for a wide range of activities that help students become safer and healthier, more well-rounded, or make better use of technology. And districts have a lot of leeway to customize Title IV to their needs. However, districts that get $30,000 or more must do a needs assessment, and spend at least 20 percent on an activity that makes students safer, and 20 percent on something that makes kids more well-rounded.
So how do districts plan to spend the money? Three education groups—AASA, the School Superintendents Association, the National Association of Federal Program Administrators, and Whiteboard Advisors—surveyed districts to find out. Since May, 622 districts have responded to the survey…
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
Want more on Title IV? Check out this explainer. And if you want to dive even deeper, check out an archived version of this webinar.
NEWBURGH – Eddie Ramirez often offers his friends a special kind of “economic” advice.
“I always tell my friends, don’t invest in the Stock Market,” related Ramirez. “Invest in the Latino community.”
Ramirez, the CEO of R & M Promotions as well as the Director of the Latino High School Scholarship Fund, has been diligently following his own people tip for much of his life- particularly with area youth-for over 20 years with the creation of the Hudson Valley Latino High School Scholarship Awards program. Together, with his wife Norma, the two have relentlessly sought out gracious sponsors so that these higher education monies, along with other forms of recognition, can be secured for well-deserving, often overlooked youth. Their efforts have now resulted in yet another milestone: 140 recipients have received these scholarships. A record-setting 11, who were honored at Newburgh’s Ramada Inn Thursday night, made that number official. And the selection was not an easy process: another record-setting number, 65 candidates applied. Each carried with him/her an impressive resume of academic, athletic, and community accolades as well as creative, well-written essays and stellar teacher references. That pool of candidates, along with the special ethnic flair of the scholarship, were just a couple of the reasons Newburgh Free Academy senior, Taino Caballero, was thrilled to have been chosen.
“When I found out I was one of the winners, I was super excited; it was the first scholarship I actually got out of several I applied for,” recalled Caballero, who is headed to the University of Albany in the fall to pursue a major in Digital Forensics. “This one is special to me because it’s for my ethnicity of Puerto Rican and Dominican; I’m going into the STEM field, which is related to the sciences (and technology), a place where the Latin female presence is not really visible, so I want to inspire more Latin women to join that field.”
The evening’s guest speaker, Jacqueline Hernandez, Town of Woodbury Councilwoman and Deputy Supervisor of Woodbury, knows all about taking uncharted paths and inspiring just the way Caballero aspires to some day. Attending a predominantly white, upper class student body at Colgate University, Hernandez spoke about the discriminatory challenges that gave her a “tough skin,” helping mold her into the persistent, hard-working, “never-take-no-for-an-answer,” woman she is today. Relating her initial career path in the sciences, she spoke of the “meant to be” twists and turns that steered her toward being a businesswoman as well as politician, two paths she had no formal training in, but possessed something much deeper.
“A lot of times you have your sites set on one path, but the journey changes; every part of my journey led me to a bigger picture,” Hernandez asserted. What I thought was a dead end, actually started a new season.” Urging soon-to-be graduates to take chances, be creative, and most of all: follow their passion, she added, “You need determination and a plan, and you then need to put wings to it, execute and make it come alive.” Hernandez said. “You can achieve and overcome, as long as you put your mind to it.”
At least one of this year’s recipients appears to already be living the life Hernandez alluded to. Kayla Deleon, has been hard at work this past year with the McLymore Foundation, an organization promoting non-violence in Newburgh. The Newburgh Free Academy senior has been assisting with the group’s mission of getting kids off the streets while using art as a form of expression rather than violence. “Being Latina really shapes your mind and how people see you,” said Deleon, who will attend SUNY Cortland with a major in elementary education in the fall. “So, I want to break the mold, and not be another statistic; rather I intend to come back to Newburgh, the place and community that raised me and made me who I am, and teach here some day.”
What do you think of when you hear the word “gateway?” Is it a promising image, perhaps an invitation to a lush garden? Is it a forboding one, conjuring up the image of a heavy lock on a rusting door?
That’s the double-edged nature of gateways, and in this special report, Education Week aims to explore both facets as they relate to students’ progression through science, technology, engineering, and math in K-12 schools and into their futures.
Gateways can swing open, giving students opportunities to master the ability to think logically, reason, model solutions to problems, and troubleshoot, all of which are in demand among employers both in STEM fields and, increasingly in non-STEM ones.
Or gateways can shut and lock, cutting off the ability to acquire those skills and putting students at a disadvantage, perhaps for the rest of their lives.
STEM Education: Opening Gateways to Learning & Careers
Despite its reputation as a field flush with opportunity, even STEM can pose dead ends for students, such as the traps of remedial math education or course sequences that don’t lead to high-paying, satisfying careers.
In one sense, the problem with defining high-quality, flexible STEM pathways in K-12 education begins with the looseness of the term STEM itself. Too many advocates use it glibly, implicitly giving it the suggestion of limitless promise and opportunity. But a close look at labor-market data suggests it’s not as simple as that…
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
More than 100 students at the 43rd Annual Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference in Birmingham on Friday created their own city where technology is paramount and littering and cyberbullying are not tolerated.
The City of Diversity – with the slogan, “Where Everybody Counts and YOU Matter” – was a “tech city” and it even came with an election season to give students a taste of politics.
Birmingham is hosting the 43rd Annual Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference. The four-day event, which ends May 26, features a series of panels, workshops, and collaborative events that encourage networking, camaraderie, and idea-sharing. The theme for 2018 is “Building Tomorrow’s Community Today.”
Creating a city during the youth conference was a lot harder than imagined, said Annissa Owens, a rising junior at Shades Valley High School.
“You have to find neighborhood presidents, city councils, a mayor; you have to find transportation, how to get around,” she said.
However, Owens, 15, said she is grateful for the experience which included her role of getting people out to vote.
“[Citizens] have to get the law they want to be passed, and to do that, they have to vote for whoever they want to be mayor,” she said. “I think my part is important because if you want your voice to be heard you should go vote. So, you can’t get mad when the change you wanted didn’t happen if you don’t vote.”
DeRenn Hollman, 13, who will attend Ramsay High School in the fall, was a mayoral candidate and said his goal was to “make the city more comfortable and like easier for people.”
“I want more technology, and you won’t have to work as hard for things,” he said. “It’s a tech-heavy city, so it’s easy, but the easiest thing to do is to participate in the things the city has going on.”
Running for elected office wasn’t as easy he thought.
“Campaigning is hard because you have another candidate who is just as qualified as you,” he said. “But you also have a team behind you and people who support you and believe in you. It’s still hard to go up there and speak in front of people though.”
The candidates had two major campaign issues: cyberbullying and littering.
“You’re either for littering to be a crime or against littering to be a crime,” Owens said. “You’re either for social media to end because of cyberbullying or you’re against social media to end because of cyberbullying.”
Hollman said, “as a mayor I want some cyberbullying to stop, but I don’t think social media should have to end because of it. Social media is fun but use it responsibly.”
Campaigning taught the students some valuable lessons.
“You still have to go through a lot of different people (such as the legislative branch) and if they don’t like it, they cannot go through with it,” Hollman said. “You can’t just say ‘littering is a crime’; you have to send it to your council to approve it. If they don’t like the law they can vote against it.”
Owens said he now sees some things differently.
“Some things are not as easy as it sounds,” she said. “Like getting extra transportation is not as easy as I thought it was. Like getting a new bus. You have to go through voting and funding to get those new things.”
Danny Brister, operations manager for the City of Birmingham Mayor’s Office Division of Youth Services and co-chair for the NUSA Youth Conference, said the message for students was simple.
“We told them that we need their impact, their intelligence, we need them to engage,” Brister said. “At the age of 18 a young person can serve as neighborhood president. That’s important for them to know. As early as 16 they can vote in their neighborhood elections. We hope they gain an understanding that it takes a lot of work. We hope they leave inspired to make a change.”
Birmingham is hosting the 43rd Annual Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference. The four-day event, which ends May 26, features a series of panels, workshops, and collaborative events that encourage networking, camaraderie, and idea-sharing. The theme for 2018 is “Building Tomorrow’s Community Today.”
In a Mobile, Ala., elementary school, students regularly don hard hats, goggles, and lab coats to conduct science experiments. They design ramps for toy cars, observe the process of chicks hatching in an incubator, and build beaver dams by using materials from nature and design.
“I don’t want them to pretend to be scientists,” said Julie Neidhardt, the instructor and founder of the Nurturing Engineering, Science, and Technology (N.E.S.T) lab at Hutchens Elementary School, which serves grades pre-K-2. “I talk to them like they are scientists.”
That sort of inquiry-based, hands-on instruction in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is rare in elementary grades, experts say—despite the fact that young children can be sponges for the kind of information taught in those subjects.
STEM Education: Opening Gateways to Learning & Careers
“Young kids are, all on their own, completely committed to being excited and interested in STEM topics,” said David Evans, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. “The sad thing is, if there isn’t good support in schools, they lose that by the time they get to middle school.”
CHICAGO — There’s no doubt that foundational knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math will help tomorrow’s job seekers to excel in the future of work. However, much of this success depends on the level of STEM instruction they receive while still in elementary, middle and high school.
While we often assume that STEM programs are being initiated by classroom teachers, new research suggests that librarians and media specialists are increasingly taking the lead in bringing new, innovative tools into their school programs.
Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern on Monday, June 11 for “Librarians’ Insights on How to Integrate STEM and Coding into Makerspaces,” a free, 60-minute webinar led by Dr. Azadeh Jamalian, head of education strategy at littleBits. Dr. Jamalian will talk about how school libraries are bringing STEM into their curriculum and the leading role that librarians and media specialists are taking to make this a reality.
Whether you’re an educator inspiring the next generation of problem solvers, a stakeholder involved in developing programs for your community, or a librarian interested in facilitating maker activities in your school or library setting, you will benefit from attending this session. Be sure to bring your questions!
Azadeh (Azi) Jamalian, PhD, is the head of Education Strategy at littleBits, an award-winning platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that is empowering kids everywhere to create inventions, large and small. Dr. Jamalian has a PhD in Cognitive Studies in Education from Teachers College Columbia University, and has published journal articles and book chapters on a broad range of topics such as designing learning platforms for children, emerging educational tech, game design, mathematical education, and cognition. Dr. Jamalian has received numerous awards including “IES Prize for Excellence in Research on Cognition and Student Learning” and “The Cooney Center’s certificate of innovation in Children’s Learning.”
This American Libraries Live webinar is sponsored by littleBits.
littleBits is an award-winning 21st century tool for invention-based learning. The easy-to-use electronic building blocks snap together with magnets empowering everyone to create inventions, large and small. Each color-coded Bit has a specific function (e.g. lights, sensors, internet connectivity) and is reusable. With endless inventions, guides, and resources, educators and students can engage in increasingly complex challenges and grow their TECHNOLOGY LITERACY, CRITICAL THINKING, CREATIVE CONFIDENCE, CODING and STEAM SKILLS.
American Libraries Live is an immediate and effective way to get to the heart of the real issues in our industry. Each program lasts 60 minutes. With the help of real-time technology, it’s like having your own expert on hand. We look forward to you joining us. To receive e-mail reminders, register here. If you’re unable to attend live, this event will be recorded and available at americanlibrarieslive.org/al-live shortly after it concludes.
For information about advertising or sponsoring an AL Live event, contact: Carrie Smith, American Libraries magazine, casmith@ala.org, (312) 280-4216. For general information or press inquiries about AL Live, contact: Colton Ursiny, Administrative Assistant, cursiny@ala.org, (312) 280-5100.
What do chefs, politicians, mechanics, educators, and doctors all have in common? The answer is science and engineering. Most of us probably didn’t realize when we started Kindergarten that science and engineering would affect us every day for the rest of our lives. Science and engineering are all around us – in current events, in the food we eat, even in governmental policies. Science—and therefore, science education—is central to student’s lives, preparing them to be informed citizens, successful problem solvers, and knowledgeable consumers. If kids are to be able to pursue expanding employment opportunities in science-related fields, they must have a solid K–12 science education.
Thanks to new, multidimensional standards like the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), K-12 students have access to a high-quality science education that provides them with the skills and knowledge they need to be well-informed citizens, to be prepared for college and careers, and to thrive in modern society. Major advances have taken place in the world of science, engineering, and in our understanding of how students learn science effectively.
The foundation for the new multidimensional science standards is A Framework for K-12 Science Education (2012 NRC) that describes a vision of what it means to be well-educated in science and engineering. So far, 37 states have developed new multidimensional standards, including the 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) schools that have adopted the NGSS…
By Rajoielle Register
(Head of Brand Strategy and Growth Audience Marketing, Ford Motor Company)
We’re all familiar with the popular proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” As a 21st century society, this still holds true, literally and figuratively. For non-millennials, who grew up in a vastly different era, there is a nostalgic mindset that a diverse community of inspiring people interacting with children has a positive and sustained life-changing impact on their development. By no means should this mean the village is responsible for raising your children, but we all have a stake in their development and success.
Rajoielle “Raj” Register says that In order to awaken dreams and inspire the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers and leaders, it’s imperative to expose children to STEAM at an early age. (Ford Motor Company)
Early exposure to career choices are often the first step in the “What do I want to be when I grow up?” conversation. Although definitive decisions won’t be made for years to come, dreams and thoughts about future careers begin early. Whether policeman, fireman, truck driver, doctor, dentist, teacher, musician, sports star, and/or whatever it is their parents and relatives do, most children are passively aware and relate to the limited pool of occupations to which they are exposed.
While teachers offer an impressionable climate for first-hand learnings and experiences, parents provide the most important impact and stimulus on a child’s early life. Early exposure to non-traditional learning environments not only creates a generation of new dreamers and thought leaders, but also provides them with an eye-opening and novel perspective on the limitless opportunities that is their future.
From elementary to middle school, efforts to prepare students for college and beyond are taking hold earlier than ever as a childhood surrounded by books, scholastic support and diverse role models leave permanent impressions on a young person’s mind well into their late teens. That’s why early exposure to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) fields are especially important.
Reflected in its legacy history, American industry was built on innovation. To awaken dreams and inspire the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers and leaders, it’s imperative to expose children to STEAM at an early age. If engaged, receptive and they’ve developed an interest by eighth grade, they’re three times more likely to pursue careers in STEAM fields later in life.
STEAM careers are at the forefront of some of the fastest-growing industries. Conversely, they also have some of the largest gender gaps as women comprise only 26 percent of all science, tech, engineering and mathematics jobs. As they continue to grow, women are getting left behind.
Many young girls are turning away from STEAM careers during their developmental years and have completely opted out by high school. That must change and we, the village (with torches in hand), must step up to lead, advocate and champion that change.
For over three decades, the Ford Motor Company has been committed to supporting innovative initiatives that encourage and inspire young people to pursue and succeed in STEAM fields—a career path many, if not most, of today’s youth (especially African American youth) believe are out of reach for them.
Both within and outside the village, this is an important conversation that we must have as the future of our children is at stake. In addition to sponsorships, scholarships and aligning with synergy partners such as the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Ford has demonstrated its commitment in a hands-on way, connecting with and supporting a host of STEM and STEAM focused initiatives including Girls Who Code, Tech Sassy Girlz, STEMinista project, Destination Imagination, School Retool, Michigan Technological University, Amphi Middle School’s Girl Power in Science & Engineering, FIRST® Robotics and #WomenInSTEAM, among others.
Here in the U.S. and around the world, women are severely underrepresented in STEAM fields—career fields that are expected to grow more than 9 million jobs by 2022. No surprise, both women and men are needed to fill those jobs and we, individually and collectively, must do our part to begin to narrow the gap, especially among African American youth.
For African American communities, integrating young women in science and technology begins with planting the seed at an early age, nurturing that seed to show the impossible is possible and, cultivating girls to become a part of those fields. Ever shifting, the formative and impressionable years between teen and young adult are a principal cause for why young girls are looking away from STEAM.
Ford remains committed to inspiring young people to seek knowledge, be curious, solve problems and—like Henry Ford himself—make their dreams of a better world come true.
Whether parent, educator, leader, STEAM alum, or just someone who cares about the village and its children, you can play a role in supporting an up-and-coming generation of young girls interested and desirous to pursue a career in STEAM.
Let’s unite as one to stimulate, inspire and change a life. At the end of the day, we’re all stakeholders in the future and success of our children.
Rajoielle “Raj” Register leads cross brand strategy and growth audience marketing at Ford Motor Company. A proud STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) graduate, Raj embraces her education advocacy and is especially passionate about advancing impactful educational initiatives as highlighted by her oversight of visionary community programs that support HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and STEAM.
Affirming its commitment to education in minority communities and careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM), the Ford Motor Company recently presented $20,000 in scholarships to four deserving young girls at the “Tea & Bytes” annual fundraising event benefiting Tech Sassy Girlz, an Orlando-based nonprofit that provides minority girls, grades 6–12, with exposure and access to STEAM fields through college preparation, career readiness, mentoring and hands-on learning experiences.
Jenisse Rios of Colonial High School; Naia Butler of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University; Jianna Best of Cypress Creek High School; and Samela Pynas of Oak Ridge High School each received $5,000.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 203,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com.