KnowAtom's Blog

Nationally recognized education journalist Jennifer Berkshire discusses big questions that will continue to shape the future of K-12 with KnowAtom CEO Francis Vigeant.

"We're seeing the whole conversation around testing start to shift. The conversation around the relationship between charter and district schools is going to, if not shift, get sort of more concrete and out in the open. I think that as we have this sort of bigger debate about the future, about what kind of jobs people are going to have, it's going to be impossible to talk about schools without having a more vigorous argument about what schools are supposed to be doing." -Berkshire

In this transcript of their conversation, Jennifer and Francis discuss these Five Debates:

1. What is school for?
2. Should school be about adults pulling or kids pushing?
3. What should the relationship between charter schools and traditional school districts be?
4. How should we measure school quality?
5. What is the relationship between schools and neighborhoods?

Despite its role as a Lead State Partner in the creation of the Next Generation Science Standards, the golden state may be falling behind on actually implementing the new standards into the California science curriculum. While the standards have been official for years, there is little evidence that they’re actually getting taught in the widespread basis required in California classrooms.

“A review of some of California’s largest school districts shows that fewer than half even mention the new science standards adopted by the state nearly two years ago in their Local Control and Accountability Plans, which they are required to draw up as a result of school reforms championed by Gov. Jerry Brown,” EdSource says. 

“Amid all the political controversy surrounding the Common Core standards and the arrival of the Smarter Balanced test in Oregon last year, you’d be excused if you missed the news that the state also has new science standards and plans to roll out a new science test in 2018,” begins a May 2016 article in The Bulletin.

Little fanfare notwithstanding, this move could make a big impact on the future of science education in Oregon. The Oregon Science Standards, which in the last few years have been switched over to reflect the Next Generation Science Standards, used to be measured by the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or OAKS testing.

As of 2018, that will no longer be the case. So why the delay in the timeline? 

The Hawaii State Board of Education adopted the Next Generation Science Standards on February 16, 2016, and plans to implement them over a four-year period beginning with the 2016-2017 school year.

At the time it officially adopted the standards, the 50th state joined 17 other states and the District of Columbia in using these new science standards to inform a curriculum more suited to teaching students the skills and practices they need to succeed in higher education and their careers, and become true members of a global workforce. The 17 other states who had adopted the standards included Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. 

Here at KnowAtom, our focus is on helping districts align to the Next Generation Science Standards with authentic inquiry. In order to do this, we are focused on the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards and the National Research Council's definition of effective STEM instruction. 

"When we codify, we run the risk of losing innovation. That's why you see so many technical companies now hiring artists, because the opportunity to include problem solvers that potentially think differently. Innovation and creativity go hand in hand. There's no question about it. As members of society, we have a responsibility to leave the next generation better off than we found it, and I think we run the risk of losing that capacity by homogenizing and standardizing." -Dr. Stephen Immerman

KnowAtom CEO Francis Vigeant discusses the connection of art to science, technology, engineering and math in K-12 classrooms with special guest Dr. Stephen Immerman, president of Montserrat College of Art in Massachusetts. 

In this transcript of their conversation, you'll read about:

• Beyond aesthetics: What is art?

• Why STEM educators are welcoming art and calling it "STEAM"

• How art education can leverage science and engineering practices

• Where you can get involved in the national movement from STEM to STEAM

"Mrs. Condry understood something about how my mind process works. What happened was that she realized I liked to make connections. ... That's what I got from Mrs. Condry. It was really pretty neat. She gave me permission to use my brain and think." -Lewis Athanas

Audio technology innovator Lewis Athanas spoke at the STEM² Summit about his adventures and misadventures throughout his education and how they eventually guided him to pursue a career in audio and noise-cancelling technology.

In this transcript of his talk at the Summit, you'll read about:

• His precocious early beginnings in elementary school
• How a few good teachers shaped his passions into his vocation
• How he almost set his dorm on fire by keeping a scientific experiment under his bed

"I said: Let's do projects. Time is short! They all stopped and they're looking at me like, 'what?' when I say, 'let's do stuff.' It's universal. Kids everywhere like the hands-on stuff. I'm sorry. It's a lot more fun for them than just reading a book. I want them to read books, but you need some incentive to read a book." -Mark Gelfand

Mark Gelfand, a STEM-minded financial systems pioneer, spoke at the STEM² Summit on advancing hands-on STEM initiatives internationally in Ethiopia, Israel and other countries.

In this transcript of his talk from the summit, you'll learn:

• What's so exciting about the STEM world
• How, in the words of Gelfand's son, "inside every child, there is a scientist"
• Secret airlifting, Ethiopian immigrants, and math class

"We're in a 21st-century innovation economy. Ideas rule the day. We need to really think about our schools in a way that help students just change the world. Actually help them to change the world, not just simply be prepared to live in it." -Scott Morrison

In this transcript from a live interview with KnowAtom CEO Francis Vigeant, Scott Morrison, Director of Curriculum & Instructional Technology in the Marchester-Essex school district in talks about:

• "Building back” all the way from kindergarten to prepare kids for STEM careers
• The difference between knowing and engaging in STEM practices
• Similarities between the order of the process of writing and the order to science ed practices
• Focusing on the “why” of education
• The biggest challenges in making the switch to the Next Generation Science Standards

"When you put the questions to the kids, A) They become more active participants, versus just passively trying to absorb the information. B) is, if you don't know the answer, it's actually cool. You can put the burden on them to ask the questions, then say, "Hey, you know what? I don't really know." Or, "Let's see." You don't even have to say that you don't know. It's like, “Let's see. Let's try it out; let's test it. We can find it out through this experiment.” -Vicky Wu-Davis

Meet Vicky Wu-Davis, videogame designer and entrepreneur. In this transcript of a live webinar chat with KnowAtom CEO Francis Vigeant, you'll hear about:

• The connection between critical thinking skills, entrepreneurship and STEM
• How Vicky's degree in accounting turned into a software company in 2000 that provides technology for social games and virtual worlds
• How these skills and experiences fueled her passion to co-found International Orphans Foundation and Youth CITIES

Readiness levels speak to where a student is in terms of being able to access and work with curriculum content.

Awareness ready means they are mindful that the subject exists and of what scientists and engineers do; knowledge readiness means they have a framework of understanding about it; performance ready means they can interact with the material in the same context they've already learned; and mastery ready means they can take that material and use it creatively, evaluatively and analytically in any context. 

One of the key pieces that we need to consider is the new definition of effective STEM instruction.

The National Research Council (NRC) developed the definition back in 2011 and today it is very clearly reflected in the new Next Generation Science Standards. An ongoing trickle-down effect from the NRC’s thinking accounts for the multi-state collaboration we have today: the Next Generation Science Standards. Now, if we want to stay on the same page, we must all share a common definition of what it means to teach STEM concepts effectively. 

If you want to avoid a Next Generation Science Standards showdown in your school or district, the first step you can take is to understand the design of the NGSS standards and, most important, that they are performance expectations. They are categorically not about recalling facts. Therefore it’s very important that you avoid adopting resources that label themselves “now next generation aligned,” “now next generation ready,” or any other euphemism meant to disguise resources based on the traditional model of science instruction.

This is crucial. Even if a resource is from a giant company, the recall-based model of instruction is simply not compatible with the next generation of STEM instruction.