Happy 2019-2020 School Year to all Educators and Families!
talkSTEM would like to welcome everyone back to school with some exciting and fun new project launches! No matter what your learning environment looks like, there is a place for everyone to engage with the talkSTEM Learning Suite. It’s an exciting bank of resources if you want your students to think outside of the box and to see STEM in their everyday worlds.
Here are five easy things you can do, as educators, mentors, and parents, to help connect STEM that students learn to their real world experiences:
1. Get inspired!
Read and watch perspectives from thought leaders in the local and national STE(A)M learning and teaching ecosystem on our Digital Forum.
Join the talkSTEM community to keep in touch and receive notifications when we have new Forum posts and other content. Also, connect with us on facebook (@talkSTEM), twitter (@talkingSTEM), and instagram (@talkingSTEM). We’d love to see you at live, community events and you can also access our curated content.
2. Subscribe to walkSTEM Academy
This is our freely accessible and commercial-free YouTube channel. We have over 120 short videos showcasing STEM in everyday settings and at our partner locations. These range from beautiful Camp Whispering Cedars (the Girl Scouts of NE Texas STEM Center of Excellence), Love Field Airport, urban neighborhoods, a Starbucks cafe, and more. We’ve been generating a lot of great, new STE(A)M content with our partners over the summer. If you’ve ever had students asking, “Why do we need to know this?” or “Why does this matter?” you’ll want to watch and share.
3. Create your Own walkSTEM! Collaborate to design a unique STEM-themed tour of your space. This can be done as an in-class project aligned to specific standards, during out-of-school or enrichment time, or as a fun neighborhood activity. You can even submit your final product as videos to be considered as a feature on our forum or walkSTEM Academy. We are looking for a diverse group of participants from all over the country and beyond! Teachers, you can even collaborate with one or more colleagues to do this. We’ve created a step-by-step guide for all different types of groups and hope you will check it out.
4. Go on a Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Watch this fun animation introducing walkSTEM Explorers, our virtual Scavenger Hunts. Dallas area-based students can win prizes, thanks to our generous partners. This include free family passes to the Dallas Zoo, Perot Museum of Science and Nature, Texas Discovery Gardens, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Arboretum, and more.
5. Watch our talkingSTEM Videos – a new category of videos now available
New on our YouTube channel – you can watch these videos (and share with your students):
- observe a choreographer from the Dallas Black Dance Theater connect a pirouette to physics
- hear from a sound professional working at the Symphony Center explain how echoes are key to sound quality
- connect taking off on an airplane to singing, thanks to a demo by an opera professional and the Bernoulli Effect
- hear about unconscious bias and the importance of drama and teamwork from a panel of women entrepreneurs
- listen to four, senior-level Women in Tech share their views on careers and developing STEM mindsets
Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you! Email us at info@talkstem.org.
Dr. Koshi Dhingra has dedicated her career to STEM education and is passionate about having every child live up to their potential. Seeing a lack of girls and other underrepresented youth in STEM programs, she founded talkSTEM in 2015 to address the imbalance. She has a doctorate in science education from Teachers College, Columbia University, has years of experience teaching in graduate and undergraduate programs, and has held leadership roles in universities. She advises and collaborates with a broad range of educational institutions globally. Dr. Dhingra began her career teaching science in middle and high school in New York. She lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, three children, and two dogs.
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