Laurel School 5th Grade Robotics/ Programming Example
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Transcript Laurel School 5th Grade Robotics/ Programming Example
Shaping STEM Education for Girls:
New Research on How to
Engage Girls in the STEM Fields
LARRY GOODMAN, PH.D
Director of Strategic Programming; Co -Director of
The Center for Research on Girls, Laurel School
LICIA KOVACH
Science Department Chair, Laurel School
What the research tells us about
shaping STEM for girls
Teach STEM with a Purpose
Promote Tinkering
Provide Role
Models
Encourage Growth
Mindset
STEM with a PURPOSE
STEM with a Purpose: L.A.B. Days
Primary School L.A.B. Days
Lesson examples:
• what makes a good habitat for animals
• studying plants
• discovering the food chain in pond and forest ecosystems
• measuring the impact humans have on ecosystems.
STEM with a Purpose: L.A.B. Days
Primary Faculty observed
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Students discussing, with impressive expertise, the species of plants
and animals in the area
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Students spontaneously creating
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Students inspired to write about nature’s details more descriptively
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Environmental stewardship becomes
more meaningful
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Service leaning- clearing/mulching trails,
identifying trees for younger students and
visitors, hanging and filling bird feeders
and weeding out invasive plants.
STEM With a Purpose:
Engineering in the Primary
Boston Museum of Science Curriculum
Through stories and real-world engineering
challenges, girls learn the engineering process
STEM With a Purpose:
Engineering in the Primary
Projects include
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wind turbine design
packaging design (shipping boxes using recycled materials)
simple machine toys design
testing the capacity of suspension bridges for crossing rivers in Nepal.
STEM With a Purpose:
Engineering for Olevolos
• Girls are more likely to engage with STEM
initiatives that have a clear purpose
• Our girls engineer and build structures for the Olevolos
orphanage in Tanzania
STEM With a Purpose:
Engineering for Olevolos
Due to materials and resources,
many decisions had to be made
“in the field”
Decisions made “in the field”
were not always ideal
This year’s group plans to make
improvements to the swing set
Promote TINKERING
Promote Tinkering: Tinkering Stations
Tinkering Stations are
in the Primary, Middle,
and Upper School
We rotate activities
on a regular basis
Best materials are
often store-bought
manipulatives
Promote Tinkering: Middle School Robotics
Dancing Queen —
Robotics Challenge
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CHALLENGE DETAILS:
Place your robot in the dance
arena. Without having it touch
the walls, have it twirl in a circle,
go forward until it gets close to
the walls, twirl again, and
repeat. If it can twirl four times
without hitting a wall, you have
completed the challenge.
Provide ROLE MODELS
Providing STEM Role Models: Trading Cards
Famous Women of
STEM Trading Cards
• 100 nominations from girls in grades K-12
• 3rd-7th graders interviewed for input
• currently in use in grades 3-5
Providing STEM Role Models: Playing Cards
Famous Women of
STEM Playing Cards
Encourage GROWTH MINDSET
Encourage Growth Mindset
Our learning is cultivated by our efforts and
purposeful engagement
The bigger the challenge, the more we need
to stretch
Essential skills to develop: self-efficacy,
risk taking and resilience among others
Encourage Growth Mindset: Modeling Instruction
Research indicates that a girl’s self-efficacy
improves when modeling instruction is used.
All Physics courses at Laurel School are taught
using modeling instruction
Encourage Growth Mindset: Modeling Instruction
Modeling instruction is a structured inquiry method that tasks
students with developing models of the physical universe
through experimentation.
Encourage Growth Mindset: Standards Based Grading
Standards Based Grading — SBG is a different way
to look at assessment and reporting of knowledge
to students. At Laurel, it consisted of two
primary aspects:
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The course content was divided into clearly communicated
learning goals which students were assessed on.
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Through continuous reassessment of the learning goals a
student or teacher could track the areas of difficulty a student
faced, the growth she showed and her level of retention.
Promoting
Tinkering
Well-being
Spatial Skills
Brain
Training
Researchbased
Curricula
STEM with a
Purpose
Stereotype
Threat
STEM Role
Models
Self-Esteem in
Middle School
Parent
Education
Outreach
Academic and
Popular
Publications
Biennial
Symposium
21st Century Athenas:
Aligning
Achievement & Wellbeing
Play and
Learning
Original
Research
Resources
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Modeling Instruction Research: http://modeling.asu.edu/
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Positive Impacts of Modeling Instruction on Self-Efficacy, Vashti Sawtelle, Eric Brewe,
Laird H. Kramer, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33199
Department of Physics, Department of Teaching & Learning
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Mindset The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck, PH.D