Superintendent’s Corner

Camp Colton STEM meeting comments (8/22/08)

Welcome to the blog space for the Northern Arizona P-20 STEM Initiative. Thank you for your continued interest in a unique opportunity for students in Northern Arizona. I have created this blog to complete a strategic plan for the initiative. Use of a blog to complete the strategic plan is a brand new strategy for me and may be for you too. We’ll learn about this tool together! I was trying to get this on a wiki but it became too complicated.

Futurist Joel Barker once said that the best way to predict the future is to help create it. We have an opportunity as members of diverse entities to build this new collaborative for students – education, business, government, interested individuals and philanthropy.

Background

FUSD is spearheading a Northern Arizona P-20 STEM Initiative.   P-20 refers to preschool through university/adulthood.  STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  Young people growing up in Northern Arizona will enter a rapidly changing world of work and compete with youngsters around the globe.  Almost every segment of work is undergoing dramatic change and very few job opportunities are low skilled.  Thus, every student will benefit from a curriculum that stimulates higher level thinking and creative problem solving.

The National Governors Association created a report entitled Innovation America.  Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano co-chaired the study with Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota.  Innovation America focuses on strengthening the competitive position of states in the global economy by improving our capacity to innovate.  Arizona has invested both public and private dollars to grow new knowledge-based economic engines including information and communications technology (ICT), sustainable systems (SUS), and biomedical research (BIO).  The academic sector, P-20, plays a key roll in Arizona’s economic development.

Education is a key underpinning of innovation and is important from the time a child is born through working adult life.  People in most segments of the work world require the ability to learn, un-learn, and re-learn at ever increasing rates.  Thus, a strong foundation in traditional educational areas, creative thought, and what are called 21st Century skills is critical. 

A collaborative and cooperative effort among parents, educators, businesses, scientists, government and philanthropy is likely to yield desirable and measurable results for young people in Northern Arizona. 

What is STEM Literacy (taken from Innovation America)

• Scientific Literacy is the ability to use scientific knowledge (in physics, chemistry, biological sciences, and earth/space sciences) and processes to understand the natural world but to participate in decisions that affect it (in threemain areas – science in life and health, science in Earth and environment, and science in technology).
• Technological literacy in the modern world means the ability to use, manage, understand, and assess technology.  Students should know how to use new technologies, understand how new technologies are developed, and have skills to analyze how new technologies affect us, our nation, and the world.  Technology is the innovation, change, or modification of the natural environment to satisfy perceived human needs and wants.
• Engineering literacy is the understanding of how technologies are developed via the engineering design process; lessons are project-based and integrate multiple subjects, making difficult concepts relevant and tangible to students and tapping into students’ natural interest in problem-solving.  Engineering design is the systemic and creative application of scientific and mathematic principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and systems.
• Mathematical literacy means the ability of students to analyze, reason, and communicate ideas effectively as they pose, formulate, solve, and interpret solutions to mathematical problems in a variety of situations.

“STEM literacy is an interdisciplinary area of study that bridges the four areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  STEM literacy does not simply mean achieving literacy in these four strands or silos.  Consequently, a STEM classroom shifts students away from learning discrete bits and pieces of phenomenon and rote procedures and toward having investigating and questioning the interrelated facets of the world.”

A strategic plan is offered to achieve the promise that no child or adult is left behind. 

Please link to the Draft Strategic Plan that is UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

Members of this collaborative are expected to:

1. Read, analyze, criticize, and add to this effort.
2. Suggest goals and objectives (either respond to the blog or e-mail Kevin Brown who will add to the Draft Strategic Plan).  The format for objectives should include the objective, action steps, who is responsible, timeline and resources needed.
3. Plan time to periodically review the Draft Strategic Plan.
4. Suggest materials and resources.
5. You can bookmark to this page using the tab below.
6. What else?…