There has been an increase in attention to science in recent years because there has been a large increase in science, engineering, and technology in the workforce. Alabama has also seen the increase in jobs in those fields and is trying to set up its school systems to be stronger in the different areas. The state of Alabama believes that science, engineering, technology, and society are all interdependent and should be taught in a way that shows their connectedness. The position that they stand behind is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education through the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI).
The definitions of the STEM acronym:
Science: The study of the natural world.
Technology: One surprise …show more content…
The greatest challenge within student motivation is the disconnect between teacher and student. Teachers must get on a student’s level and understand what goes on in their world. What do they like to do? What do they play with? These things are very different from 20+ years ago. Kids do not play with LEGOs as much as they use to, Minecraft is a new favorite where they can do the same thing online but bigger and better. A great example of understanding students would be to allow students to use Minecraft to create a project for class. When students do presentations on a paper, teachers like for them to have something to show the class. Minecraft can be that for a student. Times have really changed and what motivates students has been drastically altered. There has also been a great emphasis on connecting what is going on in the classroom with what students can relate to in their daily life. Students can easily partake in a gardening type activity to understand sustainability. Doing these types of cooperative groups motivates students because they don’t realize they are learning. Being able to work together on real-world problems really engages students. In research by Fortus et al., they found that because students were presented authentic problems their interest levels in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics increased because students saw the need for, or value in, that …show more content…
Women like to help people and want to feel like they are making a difference. Little girls are exactly the same way, it is in their DNA. They would thrive on philanthropy based projects. They would do great in a buddy system where 6th graders go to a 1st grade classroom and help them with a science project. A better option would be to take 12th graders and get them to help with a project in 6th -9th grade classrooms, because, unfortunately, their involvement and confidence in these subjects decreases dramatically by high school. (Hsieh, 2015) If middle school girls see that high school girls are interested in science and helping them they will become more motivated to want to do the same. Schools need to bring in mentors for students. They need to see that there are a great number of female engineers, scientists, mathematicians, etc. and that they can be one too. There is a high possibility that their mother is not in one of those fields nor do they know anyone in one of the fields. They need to experience that. Young ladies need to know about different STEM programs that they can get involved in and schools need to come up with more programs that they can get involved in. In the article, Girls Against the World, Scientifically Speaking, it talks about Girl Scouts of Western Washington’s LEGO League, a competition that combines programming LEGO Mindstorms robots, team project planning, and creative problem
The definitions of the STEM acronym:
Science: The study of the natural world.
Technology: One surprise …show more content…
The greatest challenge within student motivation is the disconnect between teacher and student. Teachers must get on a student’s level and understand what goes on in their world. What do they like to do? What do they play with? These things are very different from 20+ years ago. Kids do not play with LEGOs as much as they use to, Minecraft is a new favorite where they can do the same thing online but bigger and better. A great example of understanding students would be to allow students to use Minecraft to create a project for class. When students do presentations on a paper, teachers like for them to have something to show the class. Minecraft can be that for a student. Times have really changed and what motivates students has been drastically altered. There has also been a great emphasis on connecting what is going on in the classroom with what students can relate to in their daily life. Students can easily partake in a gardening type activity to understand sustainability. Doing these types of cooperative groups motivates students because they don’t realize they are learning. Being able to work together on real-world problems really engages students. In research by Fortus et al., they found that because students were presented authentic problems their interest levels in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics increased because students saw the need for, or value in, that …show more content…
Women like to help people and want to feel like they are making a difference. Little girls are exactly the same way, it is in their DNA. They would thrive on philanthropy based projects. They would do great in a buddy system where 6th graders go to a 1st grade classroom and help them with a science project. A better option would be to take 12th graders and get them to help with a project in 6th -9th grade classrooms, because, unfortunately, their involvement and confidence in these subjects decreases dramatically by high school. (Hsieh, 2015) If middle school girls see that high school girls are interested in science and helping them they will become more motivated to want to do the same. Schools need to bring in mentors for students. They need to see that there are a great number of female engineers, scientists, mathematicians, etc. and that they can be one too. There is a high possibility that their mother is not in one of those fields nor do they know anyone in one of the fields. They need to experience that. Young ladies need to know about different STEM programs that they can get involved in and schools need to come up with more programs that they can get involved in. In the article, Girls Against the World, Scientifically Speaking, it talks about Girl Scouts of Western Washington’s LEGO League, a competition that combines programming LEGO Mindstorms robots, team project planning, and creative problem