DON'T MISS THESE STEM LEARNING ORIENTED EDUCATION GRANTS

ROBOTS ON PROJECT RUNWAY

Lookout Heidi Klum, a new French supermodel is about appear on the runway at the Barnes and Noble store in Austin, Texas on September 28th, 2013 at 11:00 AM. There will be no less than five of these beguiling French lovelies dressed in the latest fashions by students in the award-winning robotics classes of Anderson High School and Eastside Memorial High School in Austin at this Robot Fashion Show Bookfair.

DEMONSTRATING QUADRATIC EQUATIONS IN THE REAL WORLD

Quadratic Equations are one of the more abstract mathematical concepts for high school students. Even if you can remember and solve the formulas, it’s hard for teens to think about how quadratic equations could ever help them in their future job, or even how they could save a life. It is the main goal of the RobotsLAB BOX to help bridge the gap between concepts and what they truly mean in a world that doesn’t revolve around white boards and exams.

LESSON PLAN IDEAS FOR TEACHING VECTORS

WHY ARE WE TEACHING MATH THE SAME WAY WE DID 10 YEARS AGO?

If you were to buy a cell phone 10 years from now, do you think that it will be the same phone you bought a year ago? Probably not. If you buy a car 10 years from now you’d want it made with better technologies, right? The same thing should be applied to education. But rather than 10 years from now, we need to have that sort of change within 1 year.

LIST OF TOP COLLEGES FOR STEM MAJORS

If you want a career in a STEM related field, it makes sense that you should go to a school that grants the most STEM degrees right? So with that in mind here is some ofthe top-ranked STEM degree granting universities.

FOCUS ON PEOPLE NOT JUST TECHNOLOGY

I’m sure you’ve seen YouTube videos of young kids picking up iPads and operating them like it was second nature (if not here’s your chance). There’s also a chance that either you or someone you know has sat at a PC wondering how to make a table in Excel. Powerful and useful technology is useless if the design of it is convoluted.

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL TAKES NEW APPROACH TO LEARNING

How many of us remember dissecting a frog? Or perhaps you can complete this phrase: “I” before “e” except after… I rest my case. Teaching is one of the oldest professions and so are the majority of the approaches to subject matter.

The standard lecture, standing in front of a class with facts and formulas on a dry erase board are leaving children disengaged and wanting more (after all, didn’t we dream of school being less boring?). Some schools, like Manor New Technology High School in Texas, have tossed away the textbooks and advance placement classes and replaced them with project-based learning.

GE GRANT PROVIDES HELPS MATH PROFICIENCY AND GRADUATION RATES

Unfortunately, almost everyone has a friend that didn’t graduate from high school. Sometimes this person excels with tests but never does their homework, it could be that friend’s home life makes school incredibly difficult to get through, or there’s the friend who lands an awesome job programming and decides they don’t need school anymore. There are many reasons for dropping out but a common factor is a lack of an understanding of basic education ideas, like math for example. GE understands this and has responded to this with the introduction of the GE Foundation's Developing Futures in Education program.

MUSEUMS OPEN DOORS TO INFORMAL MATH LEARNING

Math students are notorious for asking the question: When will I ever use this? The answer isn’t simple, (or convincing to most teens) and has been known to keep math teachers up at night, at least I think it does, to be honest I have no idea if a math teacher even sleeps but I digress. The point is math is not exactly a “sexy” subject in the eyes of many K-12 students… until now.

The National Museum of Mathematics in New York City is attempting to change math’s image problem and make it cool to learn about. In conjunction with other math exhibits around the nation (side note: the National Museum of Mathematics is the only museum dedicated to the subject in the country), curators are inviting the public to look and think about math in a hands-on, fun way. Sounds awfully similar to what we do here at RobotsLAB with the BOX.