STEM education is obviously a major piece of 21st century instruction and we know how important these experiences are for students. Many of those hard and soft skills they learn throughout elementary, middle, and into high school often help them better transition into a future career. Plus, for more and more of them, that career might be very closely related to STEM.
Although it’s a more advanced robotics tool, the Create 3 is certainly viable for any classroom. The biggest differentiator between the Create 3 and the Root Robots comes with its programming functionalities, which are almost entirely centered on text-based programming in Python but teachers could also, however, use it to introduce students to the world of ROS 2.
About three years back, Logan and his family learned that he had inherited a rare genetic condition known as TANC2 Syndrome. Instantly, most of the normalcy slipped out of his life—with near-constant hospital visits, medical tests, and physical struggles—but one thing that remained was his passion for gaming, leading to his mom helping him learn to build his own system.
There are, of course, many different pedagogical approaches that can lead to effective instruction. These days, teachers might be fond of promoting a growth mindset, a maker mindset, or perhaps even instilling a collaborative mindset in children. Whatever buzzwords we toss around, however, they’re only as effective as the purposeful teaching techniques that result.
There truly is an endless number of elements to computer science and, as time has gone on, educational robotics solutions have evolved to help our teachers illustrate so many key coding concepts with various avenues for students to develop these skills. So, while some are designed for EarlyEd students (as early as Pre–K), others are complex enough for high school.
What started simply as competitions among lifelong gamers has ballooned to this billion-dollar industry with professional video game players squaring off in tournaments around the world, students earning scholarships to play in college, and learning how to make money. Esports has even permeated high schools and it’s providing brand-new opportunities for development.
Besides opportunities to participate in something they are truly passionate about, kids can also learn more about things like how esports has become this popular and some of its potential benefits and drawbacks. Also, some of the cons of esports in schools might be fairly obvious but in connecting them to their own personal experiences, students can learn a lot.
Today’s educators, as we know, are facing plenty of challenges, including, believe it or not, grappling with how to expose students to STEM learning. STEM remains a huge part of the economy and, consequently, it is a large focus in many classrooms but that doesn’t always mean that it’s easy for educators to make it accessible, equitable, and effective for all students.
While STEM learning wasn’t always top priority in the pandemic-disrupted years, some educators continued doing their best to provide students with these opportunities in different learning environments. And, in that time, we have seen how many top classroom EdTech tools also double as beneficial STEM toys for individual exploration. So, here are a few of our favorites.
Whether it’s within today’s business world, the tech world, the educational world, or in the STEAM world, celebrating diversity and inclusion should be the norm. If we have collectively learned anything within the last handful of years, however, it’s that this isn’t universal. In our contemporary STEM and tech jobs, particularly, we still lack true racial, gender, and ethnic diversity.
