Ms. Spellings had two missions, math and reading. I think since she never taught she never learned to integrate skills and enhance reading through other subjects. I always used science as a motivator. We read, we used those icky reading books that if you really use them in the way they ask you have an all day boring task. Here’s the deal. Most reading textbooks are the middle of the sandwich. Children don’t learn to wade into the story. Textbook writers take the best part of the story and then make workbooks and puzzles around it. Oops, forgot the phonics book and the word list.

Teachers have to correct these workbooks. Most of the texts have a number of things to add to the story an maybe even a DVD. If you do all of these things your class will be busy all day, well, don’t forget about math.

We have math as a long highway that never ends. It is a mile long and an inch deep. Panicking began for me in February when the yearly test began. I had not finished the book of course and I was going to be measured by the outcome of the work of the kids for this year in FEBRUARY.. why can’t they test in June or at the real end of the year?

Math in most American school is drill and kill. I loved problem solving so I taught it too. I am sure that there is a kind of problem solving but I mean real problem solving, and extended math, thinking math beyond memorization. I did not make kids do 250 long diivision problems if they understood the process and could demonstrate it. I also used math games, math sofrware and http://www.shodor.org ( Interactive math) Algebra was a natural progression. Not hard at all.

More than that we played some math as a group against the computer. You betcha we knew the factors of numbers. There was a game that would challenge us to gve the prime numbers. I think it was called the prime number generator. All I know is that kids wanted to stay down from lunch to beat the computer.

Men’s ideas of geography are great. I once turned down a chance to live a summer on a glacier, with no makeup and scare contact with people. I would have liked it for a week maybe, But I did spring to learning about cultures and travel and mapping the world to learn about people.

I probably would have been an anthropologist had I been exposed to the right mentors. But have been to 22 countries. Geography however is not a subject taught in schools either. Go figure. The world is smaller we need to know things and we talk about places around the world every day.
Do we know our geography skills. I think not and the reports show us that most American citizens DO NOT KNOW geography. So ? Ethnobotanical studies come to mind. I fell in love with that kind of learning on Earthwatch expeditions. I learned to think of cultures in a different way exploring archaeology. American social studies is often quite truncated. We go from Greece to Rome, to Europe , Medieval Studies, to the US and then.. we learn about the USA. Maybe now they include the African Diaspora. Sometimes we include Egypt because everyone is fascinated with mummies. Even girls. Did I say that? What I mean is geography is not always adventure living. I also never wanted to BE an astronaut. I just wanted to KNOW about it. Isn’t that ok?

Biology and botany. Reading it is not that much fun. But I had a parent who plowed up a section of the play ground ( back forty) and we did early yield crops. While doing this we also hatched chickens, raised frogs, raised butterflies, tilapia, and did some bottle biology. Then there is the NASA stuff. I used to do an after school program because I had the stuff and the kids would not go home. Now there is money for after school program. Lots of money. Girls will attend those. I know one that really works. Afterschool Universe, NASA
the kids make a spectroscope, a telescope and do hands on things. At the high school level we at the Thornburg Institute have a total hands on curriculum and the girls ( teachers) do very well. I had a growing chamber for hydrophonics but some parent said that people in California used it for growing dope, so my principal made me get rid of it. It was great for raising tomatoes. I see that thing in the airline catalogues all the time. Must be used for lots of things.

Courses for Dummies?

One reason teachers don’t know good STEM skills is because of teacher courses designed for teachers. They might as well put science for dummies, or physics for dummies or , biology for dummies on the label.

I am an accidental lover of science. I went to Catholic schools so I didn’t get much in the way of science except reading about it. I wen to a Black school where they probably decided that we didn’t have the smarts to learn science. My science education has been with NSTA, with NASA, with lots of different organizations who really teach the sciences. I am proud to say that I took my astrophysics at Berkeley . Ironically, since I took so many institutes and workshops and special programs I don’t have a degree in a particular discipline. Maybe that;s a good thing. Geography, Geology, Astronomy, Archaeology, Field Studies, Ecology, the Globe Program
all fun and wonderful experiences.

The hard part was getting permission to actually teach science. I learned to write grants for the resources I needed. I learned to invovle parents so that the school board would not say no. I stood on the shoulders of NSTA, and NASA and other groups . I still had a hard time in the culture of schools as they are today.

We must be more creative, innovative and imaginative in teaching STEM science, technology , engineering and math. Did I tell you about the project in engineering that became a school playground that we and parents designed. A little reality helps. I am not about mountain climbing, but I have flown as a passenger near Mt. Everest and even then I was scared. Adventure for me is a different thing. Learning to cook Pho noodle soup. Thinking about how the slaves lived and died. learning tesselations. Maybe we need more women to teach STEM in different ways,or not. The exposure is a problem.

Who ever glued rocks in a box. I am sure that I am infamous for freeing the rock from glue so that kids could actually handle and test them. You get the drift? Hands on minds on for all. Abolish the gating factors of NCLB.
If everyone and his mother has a GPS, shouldn’t we teach geography? Just a thought.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/03/girls_in_stem_roundup_study/

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/03/girls_in_stem_roundup_study/
Study: Girls still not swarming into sci-tech, dammit