California’s proposed new math framework offers a “choose-your-own-adventure approach” that is “fundamentally flawed,” argue Jennifer Chayes and Tsu-Jae King Liu, professors of electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley. Collegebound students could choose a data science pathway rather than advanced algebra and precalculus courses, they write. That will shut the door to STEM majors — including data science — in college. “We have seen firsthand how students lackin

Teen-age girls are groomed for the STEM lifestyle in summer coding camps. “With responses ranging from “squirming in discomfort” to “completely discouraged from studying science and engineering,” a nationwide poll group of high school-age girls revealed Tuesday that the nation’s young women are being utterly creeped out by scientists twice their age constantly attempting to lure them into the study of science, technology, engineering, and math,” reports The Onion. Chemical en

San Francisco spent $54 million to build and equip a new STEM-focused middle school to serve low-income black students — and lure middle-class students from nearby neighborhoods, writes Daniel Duane in Wired. “Tech titans” contributed. It sounded great, he writes. “Then it opened.” It shouldn’t be a surprise: A great building doesn’t make a great school. There were laboratories for robotics and digital media, Apple TVs for every classroom, and Google Chromebooks for students.

Young people can succeed in technical jobs even with mediocre grades in math and science or liberal arts majors, claims a new study, on the State of STEM by STEMconnector. “Some students believe if they get a C in algebra then they can never pursue STEM, that STEM is only for the smartest of the smart,” author Erin White tells EdSource’s Carolyn Jones. However, “the most important skills in the workplace will be flexibility, critical thinking, communication, the ability to ad

Middle-schoolers in Ohio are learning math, science and programming — and competing in contests such as MakerMinded to expose them to careers in advanced manufacturing reports Ed Week‘s Benjamin Herold. Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, or LIFT, and partners across the Midwest are developing learning activities and competitions. At Woodward Park Middle School in Columbus, eighth-graders build machines, seventh-graders code apps and sixth-graders take part in a “trash slid

Carlos Huerta, an engineering student at Downtown College Prep Alum Rock High, works on wheels for a “drop-and-dash” robot for the Silicon Valley Tech Challenge. Photo: Joanne Jacobs Silicon Valley imports technical talent from around the country and around the world, but the kids who grow up in the Valley’s working-class neighborhoods, “the children of groundskeepers, janitors, cooks and construction workers,” rarely get a shot at high-paying, high-tech jobs,” I write on Min

At a highly selective public magnet school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology near Washington D.C., 65 percent of incoming students are Asian-American, 23 percent are white, 5 percent Latino and 2 percent black. Last year, 75 percent were Asian-American. Few come from low-income families. If applicants do well on the entrance exam, they’re judged by grades, an essay, teacher recommendations and a resume. There’s pressure to increase racial, ethnic and so

Girls who are high achievers in math, and confident about their ability, are less likely to major in math, engineering and science than high-achieving, confident boys, conclude Gema Zamarro & Lina M. Anayas, who tracked students through college. High achievement raised the odds of a “hard sciences” major by 7 percentage points for boys but only 2 percentage points for girls. However, having a parent who works in a STEM occupation has a much stronger effect on girls (14 percen

In gender-equal Norway and Finland, 20 percent of college graduates in science, engineering and math are women, compared to 41 percent in Algeria, which is not known for gender equality, reports Olga Khazan in The Atlantic. In countries where women have a free range of choices, fewer women choose math and science careers. Women who face greater gender inequality may value STEM careers as a path to financial freedom, concludes a new paper published in Psychological Science by

Pushed to offer more college-prep classes, California high schools have cut auto shop and other vocational classes, reports Carolyn Jones on EdSource. Now teachers argue that shop classes provide a hands-on way to teach science, technology engineering and math, or STEM. Students learn auto repair in Hayward, California. Photo: Carolyn Jones/EdSource “Auto shop these days is . . . about engineering, math, computers, physics, problem solving,” said Ruben Parra, president of the

Among the STEM toys in this holiday gift guide is this kit for ages 10 and up. In my day, children couldn’t isolate DNA at home, though I guess we could breed bacteria. Neither could scientists. Students learn to isolate DNA from a tomato, build a DNA model, and breed bacteria as they gain an understanding of how genetic engineering informs many biomedical- and science-related fields. They can even analyze evidence to identify suspects and solve a crime by studying genetic co

Integrating art into science and math teaching — turning STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) into STEAM — is “counterproductive” and “pedagogically unsound,” writes Jay Greene in Ed Week‘s arts education package. “By trying to put the arts almost everywhere, integration is likely to result in arts education almost nowhere,” Greene writes. Separate arts classes taught by specialists will be dropped. Few teachers have “expert knowledge in multiple fields as well as co

Sesame Street’s STEM monster is mistake-prone Grover, reinvented as Super Grover 2.0, writes Kate Stringer on The 74. Whenever the furry blue monster flies into a scene to solve a problem (which usually involves a dramatic crash-landing) with his lightning bolt helmet and red cape, Super Grover throws his head back and loudly declares, “Now I will unleash the power of observation!” Like children, Super Grover relies on trial and error — with lots of errors. In one episode, Su

Hidden Figures, which is getting good reviews, tells the story of three “colored computers” who helped the U.S. win the space race. As blacks in segregated Virginia in 1961 and women in NASA’s very male culture, they overcame many obstacles. The movie is based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s book about Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who started at NASA doing data entry and ended up doing the math that put John Glenn in space — and got him back alive. Andre Per