Schools & Programs
STEM Schools vs. STEM Curricula
The STEM education movement was given a significant boost in its efforts by the Obama administration's Educate to Innovate campaign for excellence in STEM education. Announced by The White House in late November 2009, this program asks for business, industry, communities and individuals to actively engage in supporting STEM education in all of our nation's schools. This national program follows closely the Ohio STEM learning network programs that work to nurture collaboration among varied institutions.
The OSLN model has already demonstrated in its earliest work that leveraging resources from many sectors (business, government and academia) and bringing many voices to the table has a profoundly positive effect on the delivery of STEM education and student outcomes. This new approach focuses on measuring and acting on results rapidly and sharing that learning among peers quickly. By adopting the distinctly corporate management tool of "best practices" the STEM education movement is looking at improving the efficiency and delivery of successful teaching techniques to as large an audience as possible. The biggest difference between a corporate culture and the STEM culture? We are looking to aggressively share our findings with peers to allow scale and replication of our best practices as soon as possible.
Another key to the STEM education movement is that it does not entail a whole sale reconstruction of existing schools into STEM schools, but rather encourages adapting current content standards into STEM focused curricula that will not only meet the state standards but will ensure a generation of graduates that are ready for the workforce needs of the 21st century which will, we know, demand fluency in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics.
Among the many STEM High Schools currently under development in the United States, two already launched schools have been ideal models instrumental in assisting our development efforts. Links to these schools are provided below.
High Tech High
The Metro School