ABOUT
Coherent STEM Learning by Design
Among the early formative experiences of my career was service at Miami University with Ohio's NSF-supported Statewide Systemic Initiative for mathematics and science education reform. From that time, I've remained captivated by questions about how our "systems" can better serve the highest educational aims to the greatest benefit for young and future generations. With its foundational consensus report Science for All Americans (1990), Project 2061 defined its vision and long-term challenge...
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THE NEED FOR SCIENCE LITERACY
Education has no higher purpose than preparing people to lead personally fulfilling and responsible lives. For its part, science education—meaning education in science, mathematics, and technology—should help students to develop the understandings and habits of mind they need to become compassionate human beings able to think for themselves and to face life head on. It should equip them also to participate thoughtfully with fellow citizens in building and protecting a society that is open, decent, and vital. America's future—its ability to create a truly just society, to sustain its economic vitality, and to remain secure in a world torn by hostilities—depends more than ever on the character and quality of the education that the nation provides for all of its children.
(Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990).
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Little did I know that some years later I would collaborate with Project 2061, while serving at one of the nation's top STEM schools, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). There, I also came to understand the educational power of Problem-Based Learning (adapted from medical education) and IMSA's "crown jewel" program, Student Inquiry and Research (SIR). Later, I would be called upon to launch Student Research as a design pillar of the new Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science (PRISMS) and subsequently, AP Capstone Seminar and AP Research at Chicago's Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy. Other formative projects included an NSF-funded standards-based inventory of 50 curricular programs, Chicago's Museums and Public Schools (MAPS) multiyear program evaluation, professional learning with the Chicago Lesson Study Group and the Asia-Pacific Math and Science Education Collaborative (AP≡MSEC), university service in STEM teacher education, and site visits to some of the world's most acclaimed schools.
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From a STEM Ecosystem perspective, we ask how well environments and interactions serve to nurture and stimulate healthy development of the young to thrive and co-create the world they will inherit as adults. What I have seen corresponds with vast research, including longitudinal international studies (Schmidt, 2001), that systems could be more focused on what matters, and that learning experiences could be far more coherent, personalized, authentic, relevant, and meaningful. Therefore, it is the mission of Coherent Learning Design to collaborate with allied individuals and organizations to advance coherent STEM learning.
Rutherford, F. J., & Ahlgren, A. (1990). Science for all Americans. Oxford University Press. http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/intro.htm
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Schmidt, W. H. (2001). Why schools matter: A cross-national comparison of curriculum and learning. Jossey-Bass, A Wiley.