High Quality Science Education

Through out our program, and especially this course, we have learned the importance of STEM education. Probably more important, we have learned that it's imperative students get exposed to STEM at a young age. I have the privilege of teaching at a school that educates students in grades K-8. In addition I am now head of the science department. With the situation I have been placed in, I have the opportunity to expose kids to science at a very young age. To accomplish this goal, all teachers, especially our lower grades teachers, need to be comfortable with teaching the science content. To aid with this, I will suggest that all science teachers at my school, especially elementary science teachers, attend professional development courses that focus on the science curriculum and ways to incorporate STEM. In addition, I would like to start a science club for both elementary and middle school students. The two should probably be separate, but I think it will be good if the older kids could help the younger kids during the meetings. Furthermore, I feel students should be exposed to professionals in the STEM fields and hear how rewarding the field can be. Hopefully this will help build students that will be competitive in the global economy which is being driven by STEM related fields.

What's our Sputnik?

This was a very interesting article by Friedman. I agree with a lot of the points he made in the article. One thing I strongly agree with is that we need to let other countries fight their own battles (Friedman, 2010). It makes absolutely no since for the US to attempt to rid a country of terrorism if the the countries leaders don't put forth any effort. Don't get me wrong, I agree that those who took part in 9/11 and other terrorist attacks on the US should be pursued and punished, but the job is done, we need to get our troops out of there.

Friedman also made another good observation that I agree with. He said the war on terror would bankrupt us, and that is exactly what is happening. The amount of money we have spent on the war on terror has prohibited need funds for our education system. This is a huge part to blame for us falling behind in the global economy which is becoming saturated with jobs that focus on STEM.

What can we do? First of all we need to get our government to pump money into our education system that will allow us to focus on STEM related education. We need to train teachers, especially elementary teachers, in ways to incorporate STEM focused lessons. Students need to be exposed to STEM at a young age because it promotes both critical thinking and problem solving skills (Laureate Education Inc., 2010). I also feel that incentives need to offered to teachers who teach STEM related subjects, and also to those who pursue STEM related degrees in college, and to those who have STEM related jobs.

If the fact that we are rapidly falling behind in the competitiveness of the global economy is not motivation enough to get it together, then I don't know what is.