Today, the STEMx network released a new resource for parents as many families adjust to life at home. STEMx is a national coalition of state STEM organizations, also managed by Battelle.
The STEMx Parent’s Guide to STEM offers more than 30 pages of research and interviews examining how to understand STEM education. This guide adapts the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative‘s Companion Book for Parents for a national audience. Members of the STEMx network and the national labs managed by Battelle also contributed.
Download the guide here. Please feel free to share with credit to the STEMx network.
Finally, STEMx readers also provided resources for the launch. Below, you’ll find a list of supplements to the parent’s guide.
The STEMx Parent’s Guide to STEM and these resources offer a long term resource. But what about parents looking for ways to support learning during temporary schools closures?
One special resource just launched. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has coordinated with American technology companies to create TechforLearners.org. The site provides a searchable online database of education technology tools for online classrooms and teaching, allowing educators to search for free and discounted tools and services by grade level, product type, and subject matter.
We’ve also updated our list of school closure resources with new links from The Henry Ford Museum, Texas Instruments, the National Science Teaching Association.
Supplements to the STEMx Parent’s Guide to STEM
| Name of resource | Description |
| “What’s Math Got to Do With It?” | This book, by Jo Boaler, titled “What’s Math Got to Do with It?: How Parents and Teachers Can Help Children Learn to Love Their Least Favorite Subject” was published in 2009. In this straightforward and inspiring book, Jo Boaler, a professor of mathematics education at Stanford for nine years, outlines concrete solutions that can change things for the better, including classroom approaches, essential strategies for students, and advice for parents. |
| Discovery Education: 5 Ways Digital Content Can Support Virtual Learning (including support for Parents): | Looking for meaningful and engaging learning activities for your children? The “Daily DE” features a grade-band appropriate learning activity for every day of the week. From digital interactives to virtual field trips to fun science experiments and more, these daily activities are great for keeping the learning going at home! Visit here to learn more: |
| ASM Materials Education Foundation | Provides Materials Camps for teachers and students in a variety of locations. Teachers learn about materials science lessons that can be inserted into chemistry, physics, and other courses. Students participate in group projects with professionals. The flagship camp at ASM headquarters is free for students to attend. |
| Be WISE Camp | They have two STEM camps:
Residential Camp At Kenyon College. Gambier, Oh for girls going into grades 7 and 8 in fall of 2020. This will be our 32nd year. Day Camp at Liberty Middle School, Newark, Ohio for girls going into grades 5 and 6 in fall of 2020. This year will be our 9th year. The camp is designed to develop interest, excitement, and self-confidence in middle school girls in STEM. They hope to provide the girls with the confidence and motivation to enroll in more STEM classes at the high school and college levels to prepare them for careers in a STEM field. The camp is designed to provide real-life, hands-on experiences in STEM using problem solving and thinking skills. This camp is provide by a nonprofit organization Be WISE Camp. They welcome all girls with no restrictions on states or communities. |
| Buildit Challenge | Buildit Challenge is a 501c-3 charitable organization. We coordinate STEM project fairs for schools and community groups in the Miami Valley. Our mission is to build communities of hands-on learners who are discovering ways to apply STEM to fix, make, build, and change the world. |
| GrowNextGen | This free resource, sponsored by the Ohio Soybean Council, includes career videos and information, online games, and science fair projects related to agriculture and soybeans. |
| Key Ideas to Consider when Implementing STEM | This article provides strategies for how to successfully integrate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts. Research-based instructional strategies are introduced and described. A problem focused on constructing a bridge that supports five apples is used as an example to illustrate the instructional strategies. The strategies are divided into three themes with multiple subthemes. The themes are classroom environment, evaluation, and purposeful teaching. |
| Learning Blade STEM4Parents | STEM4Parents are parent-ready handouts designed to stimulate STEM conversations at home, help fill ESSA requirements for parental involvement, and encourage research and simple at-home experiments. The Learning Blade platform offers a STEM4Parents handout for each of its 12 missions. A sample of these is available at the link below. Each handout includes:
• Table Talk: STEM conversation starters for parents and students to discuss together that focus on common experiences and require no previous preparation, • Dig Deeper: Career research topics and links to allow families to research STEM careers, • Home Lab: Home experiments that require only common materials and encourage fundamental STEM practices, and • Signature Sheets: For parents to return to the teacher indicating completed activities. |
| Science Fair Fun Parent Resources | Blog posts, newsletter & social media feed that will help parents to effectively support your child while they lead their Science & Engineering Fair projects. |
| The Gender Gap in STEM Fields: Theories, Movements, and Ideas to Engage Girls in STEM | The 2010 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology indicated that there was a need to provide individuals with strong STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) backgrounds in order to be a competitive country internationally. Additionally, it has been found that there is a gender gap in STEM related fields. Therefore, this article describes theories related to the gender gap in the STEM field and ways to engage girls in STEM related fields in order to close the gender gap. The researchers of this study did extensive research to review the current literature, condense and summarize the findings from various studies, and provide steps for educators to engage in that will create an early atmosphere of positive learning environments for girls to be curious about STEM concepts. |