Educators today are instructing students who will be entering a job market to jobs that don’t even exist today. Where, in the past, education was designed to train students to take their place in a workforce that would function to maintain existing needs, today’s workforce will need to be trained to lead or develop innovative functions that will be created as fast as the changing needs of society progress. Fields such as energy technologies, which can help solve many worldwide problems, are fields that are only now being defined (Traurig, A., & Feller, R, 2010, January 1). Technology in all aspects of society will be a constant in students’ lives whether they are actively pursuing a career in a technology field, or whether they are merely a consumer and a voter who will need to understand the issues involved with living in a technological age.
Throughout my career, I have been interested in the use of computers in the classroom. Whereas computers have mostly been seen as a tool to deliver instruction or practice skills, in today’s educational world computers need to evolve into tools to help students develop computational thinking (CT). The International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) have both put the need for computational thinking at the forefront of their advocacy for STEM education. “Computing, because of its ubiquity and role in innovation, has become an essential tool for competition in the increasingly global knowledge economy.” (Computational Thinking Task Force. (2009, January 1)
Computers need to be thought of as an integral part of every aspect of the educational experience. Today’s students need to be able to think of computers as tools to use to solve problems instead of merely an extension of a textbook or a worksheet. As a STEM educator, teaching 21st century skills, I need to help my students explore ways in which CT can be used across all disciplines in order to facilitate their learning. A STEM educator will help students acquire the skills they need to solve current and future challenges whether they are in their personal lives or on a more global scale.
Just as the cross-cutting concepts in science and engineering work together to train students to see the inter-relatedness of the disciplines, and how the processes involved in understanding mathematics enable students to bring their math skills to bear when investigating knowledge in science or creating a solution in engineering, CT is an approach to solving problems that allows students to integrate digital technologies with human ideas. CT emphasizes the need for understanding the concepts and skills of the other disciplines while highlighting ways to organize a problem so that a computer can help. With the use of computers, educators can help students extend and refocus their creativity and critical thinking by allowing the computer to assist in their problem-solving capacity.
As a STEM educator, it is my role to develop curriculum for my students that delivers the facts and skills they need to know in a manner where they can construct connections with those skills and knowledge to help them explore the world around them. Inquiry based learning and problem based learning will deliver to students not only a strong foundational knowledge base, but also help them develop as problem solvers and researchers as they work to understand and practice the processes by which we discover, learn and apply what we understand to solve problems in our lives. Being an active teacher will entail understanding the connections between the disciplines and being aware of the best ways that my students will learn those connections. It means understanding how to assess and monitor my students’ progress and the understandings they are constructing so that I may guide them towards the mastery of their grade level standards. As a orchestral conductor knows and understands each instrument and its own unique expression of the score as well as where the overall score is headed musically, an active teacher is able to guide each individual student while moving the class through the curriculum to a set and understood goal (Guillaume, A. M., Yopp, R. H., & Yopp, H. K., 2007).
Working together with the other professionals at my grade level, school site, and district, I must continue to act in a leadership role to bring my newly acquired understanding of STEM education, as well as what I am learning as I help my students develop CT through the use of our Chromebooks. If we are to help develop students who are capable and desirous of participating in higher level math, science and engineering courses, we will need to work together to ensure that our teaching skills and curriculum deliver to the students the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed in the 21st century.
References
Computational Thinking Task Force. (2009, January 1). Computational Thinking Leadership Toolkit. Computer Science Teachers Association. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrFiles/471.11CTLeadershiptToolkit-SP-vF.pdf
Framework for 21st Century Learning - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009, December 1). Framework for 21st Century Learning - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Guillaume, A. M., Yopp, R. H., & Yopp, H. K. (2007). 50 strategies for active teaching, engaging k-12 learners in the classroom. Prentice Hall.
Traurig, A., & Feller, R. (2010, January 1). Preparing Students for STEM Careers (9-10) .Stem Career. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://stemcareer.com/stemwpfolder/wp- content/uploads/2010/09/Preparing-Students-for-STEM-Careers-9-2-10.pdf
Throughout my career, I have been interested in the use of computers in the classroom. Whereas computers have mostly been seen as a tool to deliver instruction or practice skills, in today’s educational world computers need to evolve into tools to help students develop computational thinking (CT). The International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) have both put the need for computational thinking at the forefront of their advocacy for STEM education. “Computing, because of its ubiquity and role in innovation, has become an essential tool for competition in the increasingly global knowledge economy.” (Computational Thinking Task Force. (2009, January 1)
Computers need to be thought of as an integral part of every aspect of the educational experience. Today’s students need to be able to think of computers as tools to use to solve problems instead of merely an extension of a textbook or a worksheet. As a STEM educator, teaching 21st century skills, I need to help my students explore ways in which CT can be used across all disciplines in order to facilitate their learning. A STEM educator will help students acquire the skills they need to solve current and future challenges whether they are in their personal lives or on a more global scale.
Just as the cross-cutting concepts in science and engineering work together to train students to see the inter-relatedness of the disciplines, and how the processes involved in understanding mathematics enable students to bring their math skills to bear when investigating knowledge in science or creating a solution in engineering, CT is an approach to solving problems that allows students to integrate digital technologies with human ideas. CT emphasizes the need for understanding the concepts and skills of the other disciplines while highlighting ways to organize a problem so that a computer can help. With the use of computers, educators can help students extend and refocus their creativity and critical thinking by allowing the computer to assist in their problem-solving capacity.
As a STEM educator, it is my role to develop curriculum for my students that delivers the facts and skills they need to know in a manner where they can construct connections with those skills and knowledge to help them explore the world around them. Inquiry based learning and problem based learning will deliver to students not only a strong foundational knowledge base, but also help them develop as problem solvers and researchers as they work to understand and practice the processes by which we discover, learn and apply what we understand to solve problems in our lives. Being an active teacher will entail understanding the connections between the disciplines and being aware of the best ways that my students will learn those connections. It means understanding how to assess and monitor my students’ progress and the understandings they are constructing so that I may guide them towards the mastery of their grade level standards. As a orchestral conductor knows and understands each instrument and its own unique expression of the score as well as where the overall score is headed musically, an active teacher is able to guide each individual student while moving the class through the curriculum to a set and understood goal (Guillaume, A. M., Yopp, R. H., & Yopp, H. K., 2007).
Working together with the other professionals at my grade level, school site, and district, I must continue to act in a leadership role to bring my newly acquired understanding of STEM education, as well as what I am learning as I help my students develop CT through the use of our Chromebooks. If we are to help develop students who are capable and desirous of participating in higher level math, science and engineering courses, we will need to work together to ensure that our teaching skills and curriculum deliver to the students the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed in the 21st century.
References
Computational Thinking Task Force. (2009, January 1). Computational Thinking Leadership Toolkit. Computer Science Teachers Association. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrFiles/471.11CTLeadershiptToolkit-SP-vF.pdf
Framework for 21st Century Learning - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009, December 1). Framework for 21st Century Learning - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Guillaume, A. M., Yopp, R. H., & Yopp, H. K. (2007). 50 strategies for active teaching, engaging k-12 learners in the classroom. Prentice Hall.
Traurig, A., & Feller, R. (2010, January 1). Preparing Students for STEM Careers (9-10) .Stem Career. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://stemcareer.com/stemwpfolder/wp- content/uploads/2010/09/Preparing-Students-for-STEM-Careers-9-2-10.pdf