PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Teaching remotely is a big challenge, but many local school districts are taking advantage of new technology.
Teachers at Pine-Richland schools wear wireless microphones and use tracking cameras, document cameras and interactive display boards with mounted cameras so students both in school and at home can see the same things.
In the Elizabeth Forward and Avonworth school districts, teachers are using Gizmos virtual science labs, which allows students to manipulate the variables and work together.
Elizabeth Forward Middle School eighth-grader Joseph Maksin grew virtual plants.
“You got to pick what type of plant you were using, how much soil, the amount of sun it was getting, how much water it was getting, and it would show a time-lapse of how it was growing,” said Maksin.
His pre-biology teacher at Elizabeth Forward Middle School, Rachel Lintelman, said, “I liked
For over a decade local science teachers have banded together to form the Eastern Arizona Science Initiative. Together, these educators put on annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Math summer camps and provide teacher support.
Paul Anger is the EASI chairperson and one of the creators of the non-profit group in 2008. Anger is also the director for the Eastern Arizona College Discovery Park campus, where the group holds their meetings and multiple youth summer camp activities.
“Teachers meet once a month to go over planning activities to help each other as teachers. A big factor is the extracurricular activities during the summer for the youth,” Anger said. “The idea is Discovery Park will be the hub of science and STEM activity of Graham and Greenlee County.”
Anger said over the years the initiative’s summer STEM camps have grown in popularity. While the cost of attending the three to four-day camps
STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics and is an extension of the popular STEM concept. STEAM focuses on math, science, technology and engineering, but highlights the creative process as an essential skill complementing these disciplines.
Sponsored by Octo’s Employee Engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee, the virtual event will offer a series of live, interactive, STEAM activities and experiments to encourage and engage students. Attendees will receive a no-cost custom kit of materials needed to participate. Following the event, video of all activities and experiments will be made available online, allowing anyone access and offering teachers a resource for virtual and in-person learning.
Schools and organizations participating in the event include:
hBARSCI has donated beakers for every kit and is furnishing a raffle prize.
According to Octo Senior Manager Andrea Heithoff, the event’s coordinator, Octo has been involved for many years with D.C. area schools’ robotics
WESTON — Students are expected to fully return at the lower levels later this month, raising concerns for the school board about what that means for those still distance learning.
The Board of Education supported the lower schools switching to fully in-person and expanding the middle school’s hybrid learning to a full day beginning Oct. 26. But members raised concerns the plan the district’s administration presented Thursday could require additional staffing dedicated to distance learning. The high school would remain in its hybrid early-dismissal model.
“While in this document we are recommending hybrid full day, our energies are substantially on getting everybody back in,” Superintendent William McKersie said at a BOE meeting Thursday. “We want everybody back in — certainly K-5 we want them back in and that’s what the document is saying.”
The possibility of having to hire additional staff to designate teachers for the voluntary distance learning program
The University of Washington Foster School of Business is adding a STEM pathway to its MBA program. UW photo
Most top-25 schools that added or extended application rounds this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic saw big benefits in the form of increased MBA applications; many parlayed the deeper talent pool into bigger classes. Not so at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business in Seattle. Though the Foster School did add a fourth round this year extending more than two months from March 17 to May 19, the app windfall never arrived: Foster’s app total for the cycle was 833, three fewer than it received in 2018-2019.
The decline, minor though it was, continued a slump for Washington Foster that began in the 2017-2018 cycle, when the school saw its MBA applications drop from a record 1,038 to 934. Counting this year’s backward movement, the Foster School
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Matthew Hartzler, Arthur L. Johnson High School senior, recently earned a merit scholarship with a value of $30,000 per year through the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal Program. The Rensselaer scholarship is awarded to outstanding math and science students.
Matthew Hartzler, Arthur L. Johnson High School senior and scholarship recipient. (Photo: ~Courtesy of Clark Public School District)
According to Rensselaer, a university based in Troy, New York, the medal was ”first presented in 1916 with two purposes: to recognize the superlative academic achievement of young men and women, and to motivate students toward careers in science, engineering, and technology.”
School Counselor Molly Cusick stated, “Matt is a very hard-working student that always looks to take on new challenges, both academically
Enlarge / Patti Grace Smith was an important figure in the commercial space industry.
Alvin Drew remembers becoming entranced with airplanes a few months before his fifth birthday. In the fall of 1967, he went to the airport in Baltimore to see his father off on a business trip. In those simpler times, he recalls walking outside to watch the takeoff from a designated area on the runway.
Four-year-olds are into all things big and loud, and seeing an airplane come racing down the runway, popping a wheelie, and then taking off was just about the coolest thing he could imagine. His mom and grandmother, both educators, noted his interest and bought him model airplanes. This nurtured a budding interest in flying and later becoming an astronaut.
“They saw a smoldering fire of curiosity inside me,” Drew said. “They went out and threw as much gasoline on the fire as
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 5, 2020—As part of a U.S. Department of Energy graduate-student program, 52 students from 43 different universities will be sponsored to conduct research at 12 national laboratories. Seven of them will come to Los Alamos National Laboratory for their research experience for between three and 12 months.
“These graduate student awards help prepare new scientists for STEM careers that are vitally important to the DOE mission and the nation’s economy,” said Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “We are proud of the accomplishments of these outstanding awardees and look forward to seeing what they achieve in the years to come. They represent the future leadership and innovation that will allow American science and engineering to excel in the 21st century.”
“The DOE SC Graduate Student Research program has a LANL track record of providing top tier doctoral students who end up making meaningful contributions to both the
Three remarkable young women beat the challenges and distractions of lockdown to achieve success
Three young women have risen above difficult circumstances exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdowns to keep up with demanding study schedules and remain an inspiring force for their families and friends. Glory Matshete (28) from Brits in the North West, Sibaxolise Mningiswa (20) from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape and Maishibe Thobela (20) from Pretoria in Gauteng are united in one thing: a thirst to make their dreams come true, no matter what.
Now in their second year of a three-year Bachelor of Information Technology degree at South African ITversity Belgium Campus, sponsored by the Datatec Education and Technology Foundation, the three women are aiming to carve out IT careers for themselves in the fields of science, technology, education and mathematics (STEM), in all of which there are massive skills gaps in South Africa’s economy.
BEAVERTON, Ore., Oct. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Expanding upon its award-winning Vernier Graphical Analysis™ app, Vernier Software & Technology is launching the Vernier Graphical Analysis Pro app to engage students—either remotely or in the lab—in more advanced analysis of data from biology, chemistry, and physics experiments. The new app, which is available as part of a 30-day free trial, is being offered at a special introductory site license price of $69, granting access through June 2021. Users can easily insert, view, and sync a video to sensor data for inspection and analysis as part of the scientific discovery process.
“The Graphical Analysis Pro app includes all of the features of the Graphical Analysis app, plus upcoming enhancements like internet-based data sharing to further support science teaching and learning,” said John Wheeler, CEO of Vernier Software & Technology. “Whether using it in the classroom or for remote