What do I want to be when I grow up?
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
Who the hell knows? Jessica, Twilight Saga: Eclipse I’m creating a grad class journey presentation that shares my story of where I’ve been, where I’m headed, and how I will get there. In writing the where I’ve been part, I kept thinking about Jessica’s graduation speech in Eclipse — the Twilight Saga is my go-to movie for rainy days, so I’ve watched them at least a couple of times a year. Change your mind and change it again because nothing’s permanent. So make as many mistakes as you can. That way someday when they asked what we wanna be, we won’t have to guess – we’ll know. Jessica, Twilig ..read more
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Mentoring Book Review Part 3
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
We love your review and want to publish it! That’s what I wish I heard but alas that is not what I heard when I received the email tonight just a few days after submitting my book review for consideration. I also did not receive a, hey, here is feedback and we’d be willing to review a new draft if you make these changes, but I’m going to email back and ask anyway. So, here are a few thoughts and pointers I learned along the way. I did not know I needed an abstract so I ended up writing that on the fly as I was submitting my book review. When I researched what to include in an abstract most sa ..read more
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Based on What Theory?
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
Science fairs and their accompanying science fair projects are a staple in many schools, districts, and communities. Often, students share and demonstrate the results of standard experiments in which they changed one of the variables, such as testing the effects of different liquids on plant growth or an egg as a proxy for human teeth. Typically students must follow a specific series of steps often referred to as the scientific method and include a hypothesis that states what they think the results will be. Too often, these hypotheses are not based on any existing theory or evidence. Thus the ..read more
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A Brief History of Science Education in America: Part 2
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
If you missed Part 1 from the Constitution to the 1940s, check it out here. Towards the end of the 1940s, practical applications for school were still going strong and in 1947 and 1950 Commissioner of Education, John Studebaker, appointed a National Commission on Life Adjustment Education for Youth. This commission promoted the concept of life-adjustment as a means for democratizing education. During this time, these life-adjustment skills, such as democratic living and personal and social growth were considered more important than core knowledge and disciplinary content which was promoted onl ..read more
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A Brief History of Science Education in America: Part 1
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
Disclaimers: I am making my best effort to synthesize and share as accurate of information as possible but just like the nature of scientific discovery, I do not have all the evidence and thus can only do my best to accurately portray the facts as I understand and perceive them. I have always wanted to work for a large science textbook publisher and when I first moved to Chicagoland I had my heart set on it. Alas, I didn’t end up working for a large publisher but I did work for a smaller one on supplemental curriculum and it was one of my favorite jobs. Currently, I’m a part of an editorial te ..read more
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Mentoring Book Review Part 2
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
Festschrift (noun) a volume of writings published in honor of a scholar, often presented during their lifetime. From German Fest “celebration/festival” + Schrift “writing/work of an author)” When I chose this book to read and review I did not know what a Festschrift was and so I expected a typical book you would read for a college course but was delighted to discover that it was an edited collection of writings. The editors organized the book into three parts: Part I Introduction and Tributes, Part II Concepts and Research, Part III Theory to Practice and an Epilogue. The significance of cho ..read more
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Mentoring Book Review Part 1
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
One of the assignments for my Intro to Doctoral Studies class is to write and submit a book review. I was pretty excited about this assignment for two reasons. First, I love it when there is real-world application instead of just writing a paper to turn in to the professor. I think that learning by doing the work a professional would do is such a more enriching and meaningful experience. Second, I want to work on getting published so this is a great first step! Each week for class we have a guest speaker that presents on some topic such as resources available in the library or life in academia ..read more
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Neuro-Informed Education
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
While I was working at Newsela, one of the last projects I worked on was a Brain Science + SEL (license may be required to access link) series of lessons geared towards back-to-school. It came about because several of our book studies (Make it Stick, Mindset, Payoff, The Knowledge Gap) led by the Learning team were on the science of how we learn and motivation. Examples of Newsela texts in one of the lessonsExample of one of the multi-day lesson sequences In particular, I had known of Growth Mindset but never actually read Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset. I really connected with the idea of learni ..read more
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Tenets of a Scientific World View
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
Scientists, by definition of their trade, hold some underlying world views. Let’s check a few out. 1. The world is comprehendable If the world were not understandable through careful and systematic observation, then what would be the point of science? For what is science but the careful, systematic study of the natural world? By studying a phenomenon, its variables and relationships such as causes and effects, and looking for patterns that reveal structures and functions, science helps us make sense of the world around us. Often, scientists use tools engineered to enhance the human senses i ..read more
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Intro to History of Science
STEM in Action
by beckymmcdowell
2y ago
According to Hank from Crash Course, we are still quite ignorant about so many things such as dark matter (why there appears to be more matter than we can account for) and science is not stable or a single truth. New evidence, data, and thinking change what we know and think we know about the universe. Below is a high-level summary of the first few episodes in the series. If you want to check it out yourself here’s the link to all 46 episodes. How do we define science? Science is our body of knowledge about the world as well as our methods of how we know what we know. This is why the Next Gen ..read more
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