By: John Bennett

John Bennett — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:01:04 +0000

I’ve got a great idea: Open up the money to broad groups of educators very interested in developing / facilitating new STEM schools OUTSIDE the traditional public / magnet school systems model – a charter school for example. I am part of a very interested and motivated group of educators exploring the viability of just this! While still very much in the exploratory stages, any proposal we agree to submit will involve STEM focus, will probably start in the middle school grades, grow up as enrolled students move up, grow down as we add students – eventually being a full K-12 school. The pedagogy will almost certainly be PBL and student-centered. Also very importantly, we are looking for this to be more than a school – a learning center or campus.

So these are the ideas of our really motivated group at this early stage; I refuse to believe there are no other study groups out there doing te same thing. Our and I expect all or most other groups are dedicated to seeing if this can done. We are experienced with the components of our vision for the school (really learning center or campus). Obviously, one of the hurdles to reality in this case (and other cases as well) will be money. To help make these plans a reality then, change the requests for proposals to allow groups such as ours to submit proposals. WE DO UNDERSTAND THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY APPROACHES NEEDED TO YIELD HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES PREPARED FOR UNIVERSITY STUDIES AND SUCCESSFUL STEM CAREERS DISCUSSED IN THE POSTING.

Such opportunities for STEM students will not meet the demands of course but they will help for sure. Equally importantly, the assessment necessary for schools such as ours to know how we are doing in order to refine approaches as appropriate will provide guidance for other efforts to supply increased numbers of adequately prepared college STEM students as well.

Comments on: Funding STEM Education: Corporations Give Big Money But Not Ideas

By: John Bennett