STEM Today -- Fall 2020

Aiming for Space — an d Our Higher Po tential

Behind the making of The Right Stuff

PLUS: Back to School: A Daunting Problem Remote Learning: A Creative Wonderland The Case for K-2 Coding Going Virtual, Touching the World SciFest All Access

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FROM THE EDITOR

Executive Editor Robert Yehling

“ We’ve seen the most innovative, inspiring displays of ingenuity and creativity by educators and administrators in decades.”

It’s been a year like no other in the history of education, and the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned schools, the economy, and our lives upside down, forcing all of us to make major changes to our lifestyles and routines. In the STEM education world, it has meant losing most offcampus and after-school programs, huge participatory events like the First Robotics League, and missing out on many hands-on learning opportunities — not to mention career training for older students.

However, amidst the many challenges, and also due to them, we’ve seen the most innovative, inspiring displays of ingenuity and creativity by educators and administrators in decades. In the months since they and their classes were forced online, teachers have come up with countless creative ways to present their courses virtually — from puppet shows to converting kitchens into chemistry labs, from creating robot videos to having students make slide shows of recent vacations and using them to study earth sciences.

Teachers have always been the most unsung and underpaid heroes in our society; in 2020, they’ve taken their heroism to a new level. They’ve managed to not only keep students engaged both online and in socially distanced classrooms, but they’ve also reconnected students to the imaginative, experimental and creative facets of learning that define their futures far more than standardized tests ever will.

Most administrators also have made the most of the burden placed on them. Their dilemma has been daunting: do we risk opening our schools, and suffering outbreaks? Do we send kids to school some days but not others? Or do we stick with virtual learning until the pandemic dies down or the vaccine arrives? Imagine asking yourself that question, multiplying by hundreds or thousands of students, and getting buy-in from the parents.

As of this writing in late September, everyone is in school — either virtually or in-classroom. That’s a huge victory for administrators and our society.

We thought greatly about how to present this issue. It would have been easy to focus on the many negatives education and STEM have faced this year. Instead, we decided to celebrate the wins, the way in which COVID-19 is evolving education in America — both in its content and delivery. Our profiles, conversations, features, and hands-on stories reflect a process where parents are working more closely with their kids, teachers and students are co-creating every day, teachers are collaborating with each other, and everyone is being flexible and adaptable.

To tell these stories, we’ve broadened our writing team. We’d like to welcome new columnist and educator Alysha Horstman, who won the Mom’s Choice Award in 2019 for DoodleMatic, the toy she and her husband co-created. Also joining us are journalists Alexa Black Tabor and Melissa Jenkins, as well as editorial assistant Erin James, who is dealing with the new school reality as the mother of twin seven-year-old girls. Back with us is Canadian robotics and coding educator and STEM Today Senior Writer Mike Washburn.

And, of course, we tip our hats to our partners, the U.S. Science and Engineering Festival, which literally took online an expo that draws 350,000 people every two years: SciFest All Access will be the largest virtual event in the education and science world.

We hope you enjoy this issue — and feel the inspiration and determination that comes from the actions and voices of the educators, administrators and STEM advocates we have profiled. Let us know what you think.

Robert Yehling

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STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

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contents

ABOUT THE COVER: The Right Stuff brings back America’s first massive STEM initiative — the decade-long quest to get to the Moon in the 1960s. More than 400,000 workers innovated science, tech, math, and engineering so much that we still use many of their creations today. Patrick Fischler (left) and Eric Ladin play Chris Kraft and Bob Gilruth, the NASA engineers that masterminded our first rockets, spacecraft and missions.

FALL ISSUE COVER

22 A iming for Space —

Cover Photo: National Geographic/ Gene Page

and Our Higher Potential

Behind the making of The Right Stuff DEPARTMENTS 2 From the Editor 10 EduBits 14 New Technology 16 Curriculum 18 Teacher’s View 50 Product Showcase 52 Coming Next Issue INTERVIEW 20 Navigating a Unique & Daunting Problem: Marc Schulman STORIES 26 COVID-19’s Hidden Healthcare Blessing 28 The Most Innovative Year of Teaching Ever?

32 Shreveport’s Creative Back to School Plan 34 When Remote Learning Becomes a Creative Wonderland 38 Parents, Children & a Buncee Experience 40 The Sooner the Better: The Case for K-2 Coding 42 Going Virtual, Touching the World 44 Moving USASEF Online: SciFest All Access 46 10 Platforms to Watch 49 Weaving STEM into the Economic Framework 4

STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (left) and Christina Koch (right) put on their spacesuits as they prepare to leave the hatch of the International Space Station and begin the historic first-ever all-female spacewalk. The two ventured outside the International Space Station on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019 to replace faulty equipment on the station’s exterior. Photo: NASA

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PUBLISHER/ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Charles Warner cwarner@goipw.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shane Brisson shane@goipw.com

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Robert Yehling

MANAGING EDITORS

Patricia Miller Joe Toppe

Erin James

ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR

SENIOR WRITERS

Melissa Jenkins Mike Washburn

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Alexa Black Tabor Beth Covington Harold Geller Alysha Horstman

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Mary Roche

V.P. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Dave Van Niel

VIDEO/PODCAST PRODUCER

Dalton Brown

VIDEO EDITOR

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

Steven Higgins

Evan Kelley Hannah Hart

SPECIAL THANKS Marc Schulman, Nancy van Dillen/USASEF, Brian Boothe/Zoomwerks, Tim Magner/Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, Eda Gimenez/Buncee; the school districts of Carlsbad (CA), Shreveport (LA), Westchester County (NY), Los Angeles and Chicago, and additional thanks to Carly O’Brien for her assistance over the years.

A camera onboard the "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft photographs astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. during his historic flight on February 20, 1962.

Credit: NASA Image

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STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

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EduBits

Written and compiled by Melissa Jenkins

Stem World: A Universe of Labs, Camps, and Workshops STEM World is quickly becoming one of the most inspiring STEM-education and resource centers in the U.S. Onsite, year-round STEM workshops, labs, and camps are being implemented with cutting-edge science and technology curriculum integrating Common Core, NGSS, and project-based learning standards. They also have a real laboratory and technology maker space in a 2,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art workshop.

The creators of STEM World wanted to foster science and technology interests outside the traditional classroom. Inspired by their own kids’ curiosity, the founders imagined a place for “all things STEM,” including challenging educational programs, a real world laboratory and creative workshop, interactive displays, and quality equipment. All of this comes in an inspiring, state-of-the-art hands-on learning environment like no other.

STEM World also features camps. STEM Camps are summer and holiday camps for co-ed children age 5-14, which encourage future scientists and engineers to think, create, and innovate. The children are also given an Extended Care lunch while attending. STEM Kids is an after-school, eight-week co-ed workshop for children ages 5-7 that will spark their imaginations. STEM School is a weekday co-ed program for home-schooled students ages 8-14, while STEM Girlz is a boy-free engineering and technology workshop for girls ages 8-12.

STEM Labs is an after-school co-ed eight-week program for children ages 8-14 that engages in hands-on activities with core STEM topics.

STEM World’s philosophy and mission has always been simple: Inspire future scientists because scientists are heroes, too.

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STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

HowTrump’s Work Order Impacts STEM Students No longer will Americans with a college degree get a leg up when seeking jobs with the federal government. President Donald Trump signed an executive order July 24 that will overhaul the government hiring practices so that a job applicant’s skills will be given equal or greater priority over a college degree.

Administration officials say the shift will allow the government to hire a more inclusive workforce based on a person’s skill set, as well as a person’s education level. The federal government is the nation’s largest employer with 2.1 million civilian workers. The government is not eliminating the college requirement, but instead will stress skills in jobs where having a degree is less important (two-thirds of Americans don’t have a degree.)

Trump’s executive order directs federal agencies to shift from vetting job candidates based on credentials and written questionnaires and move toward using assessment methods that will more directly determine whether they possess the knowledge and skills to do the job. It will also overhaul job qualification standards in cases where they are limiting opportunity for those with diverse backgrounds.

How will this effect STEM students and STEM career aspirants?

Quite simply, most STEM career jobs require college degrees. That will not change. For those that don’t, the executive order creates greater opportunities to showcase various STEM skills in places like factories, construction projects, logistics, and manufacturing jobs. If someone opts for trade school over college, and refines STEM skills there, the executive order is a positive change when seeking federal employment.

EduBits DENSO Offers Mobility Scholarships The world’s second largest mobility supplier, DENSO, announced on July 4, 2020 that it has awarded more than $1.5 million in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education grants to 13 North American colleges and universities.

DENSO North American Foundation (DANF), a part of DENSO’s philanthropic division, made the grants possible. DNAF will also support the company’s mission now and in the future to develop a proficient, well-informed workforce. This year’s round of grants support programs focused on connected, automated, shared, and electric mobility – as well as the technologies and advanced manufacturing roles that bring these areas to life. These are key to DENSO so they can continue to help preserve the planet, transform transportation, and improve safety.

Since 2001, DANF has provided more than $10 million in higher education grants. It also provides disaster relief grants to the American Red Cross and other first responder organizations. Grant proposals are invitation only and are evaluated based on technical merit, student experience, and alignment with industry needs. DENSO is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion inside the company and beyond — a principle that brings unique perspectives together, bolsters innovation, and pushes DENSO forward.

To craft how the world and your career move forward, join us at www.densocareers.com.

Orlando RisesTowardTop of Stem Job Growth Index An analysis of the U.S. metros with the best STEM job growth potential released on July 21 ranks Orlando’s beautiful city No. 7 in the STEM Job Growth Index. Orlando was the highest-ranked Florida city on the list. “Orlando’s primed for tech opportunity because of its trained talent in gaming, simulation, and aerospace,” CEO of Blue Mahoe Capital Partners David Mullings said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage for a high-tech job in Orlando is $83,800. Not only do high-tech jobs provide higher wages, but they also strengthen and provide diversification of the region’s economy. Tourism is a $75 billion dollar industry that employs hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs relying on a constant stream of visitation. Further, STEM jobs typically have lower rates of unemployment, higher wages, and are more resilient. Some of the leading technology companies in the area include Lockheed Martin Corp., Summit Broadband, Dignitas Technologies, Design Interactive Inc., and JHT Inc.

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STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

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EduBits

Who Has The Smartest Math Brain?

Boys — And Girls!

We’ve lived for generations under the belief that boys have the smarter, more analytical math brains from their earliest school years. And, for that reason, girls are less inclined to pursue STEM-based studies and careers.

Now we know the truth — and it’s entirely different.

Jessica Cantlon led a research team at Carnegie Mellon University that comprehensively examined the brain development of 49 boys and 55 girls from three to 10 years old.

Cantlon and her team conducted the first neuroimaging study to evaluate biological gender differences in math aptitude. Her team used functional MRI to measure the brain activity while watching an educational video covering early math topics. The researchers then compared the results of the Test of Early Mathematics Ability, a standardized test for 3 to 8-year-old children, to that of the scans for brain similarity.

They found that the math ability and brain maturity were statistically equivalent between boys and girls, both in gender and age performance. “This is an important reminder that humans are more similar to each other than we are different,” said Alyssa Kersey, postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Psychology, University of Chicago and first author on the paper.

A New Handbook For STEM Education The newly released Handbook of Research on STEM Education explores the most pressing areas of STEM, and represents a comprehensive synthesis of research and presentation of policy within the realm of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The Handbook’s 37 chapters speaks directly to the integration of STEM, providing a deep and meaningful landscape of STEM over the last two decades. Divided into six sections, The Handbook utilizes the lens of equity and access by focusing on STEM literacy, learners with disabilities, early childhood STEM, socio-scientific issues, informal STEM, gender equity, race-related factors, cultural-relevancy, and parental involvement.

Topics covered include: STEM learning, the nature of STEM, curriculum and assessment, STEM pedagogy, critical issues in STEM, STEM teacher education, and STEM policy and reform.

The Handbook of Research on STEM Education is available on Amazon.com.

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New Technology

The Phygital World

By Alysha Horstman these plans will undoubtedly include phygital experiences. Despite the sudden transition, some educators discovered strengths through the digital platform that allowed them to build personalized learning and support services for students. Pre-recorded and replayable lessons offered greater flexibility for students to move at their own pace, with more opportunities for review and clarification and more time to pursue personal educational interests.

Although these silver linings show promise, they don’t fully tap into the potential of a truly phygital learning plan. To explore these possibilities, educational developers can find inspiration at the heart of early childhood education.

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“Phygital” refers to almost anything that uses technology as a bridge between the physical and digital worlds. The goal of a phygital experience is to create a seamless interaction between the two worlds through three key components: immediacy, immersion, and interaction. While continuous advances in technology have improved the speed of our digital connections, the challenge lies in creating immersion and interactivity — a flawless connection between physical and digital components that keep the user actively and emotionally engaged.

COVID-19 pandemic, the phygital model has been thrust into the spotlight of educational practices and research. In the United States, the sudden reliance on eLearning resulted in varying degrees of success due to socio-economic disparities, challenges, and learning curves.

Although technology integration has been at the forefront of curricula for at least a decade, there is still a great deal of growth that is not only possible but necessary. As schools toil to redesign their learning plans, it seems inevitable that eLearning will continue to be a key factor.

The phygital concept was first developed as a marketing strategy. However, industry leaders quickly recognized its innovative strategies as a critical component for success. Amidst the

School leaders, teachers, homeschoolers and parents are searching for innovative technology that will span the physical and digital divide to better serve students. The most successful of

STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

Recent research shows that a balanced blend of physical and digital play helps children develop creativity and problem-solving skills. The toy industry is currently exploding with innovations in this phygital play space and many companies are focusing their phygital efforts on STEM education, fusing fun with a focus. Parents and educators interested in amazing phygital STEM products that help with both virtual schooling and homeschooling should check out innovative, STEM-based platforms that teach game design while turning artistic creations into exciting playable games.

One is Tink Digital’s “DoodleMatic” ($29.99 through www.tinkdigital.com). Other phygital STEM platforms include “tori” by ISKN, Bandai Namco ($129 through www.tori.com), which shows mirror play, and Osmo’s Genius Starter Kit ($139) and expansion game bundles (from $29 to $79 through www.playosmo.com), which teach a variety of concepts — depending on the expansion packs that are sold separately.

As the world enters a new normal in the wake of the pandemic, new phygital experiences will provide the innovative solutions necessary to reenvision, enhance and rebuild the economy, education system and entertainment industry. !

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Curriculum

The Beauty of Gameschooling

By Alysha Horstman

Schools and families are toiling to balance schedules, learning software, screen time, and social-emotional concerns. With remote learning and social distancing regulations inevitable, teachers continue searching for innovative tools that not only provide instruction but foster exploration, creativity, and a love of learning.

Gameschooling, the intentional and specific use of games to teach, practice, and access learning, is gaining attention this academic year.

There are two main approaches to gaming in education — “gameschooling” and the more common “gamification.” Gamification apps are designed to incentivize learning by rewarding correct answers with awards and progression to new levels. This works great when only one correct answer exists (for example, in math), but falls short of fully engaging students in the exploration process needed for literacy or sciences. Alternatively, gameschooling immerses students in the process from start to finish, by engrossing them in the game’s decisionmaking. As leaders in the education and toy industries recognize the profound learning benefits of play, in particular ‘gaming,’ many new products have become available for classroom and home use.

Considering the benefits of games in education, it is not surprising that schools are leveraging popular game creation platforms like Minecraft and Bloxels in the classroom. Both platforms offer children ‘building blocks,’ whether virtual or physical to design games. The process of designing games enhances creativity, problem solving, self-direction, and other 21st century skills.

Tink Digital Inc., a family owned edu-toy company, was created to address needs seen through one of the founder’s experiences as a classroom teacher. Their award-winning DoodleMatic offers educators an innovative approach to using game design in the classroom that is financially accessible and preserves kids’ original visions and authorship. With DoodleMatic, kids draw their

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games on paper using certain colors and then, just by taking a picture, it turns into playable games. DoodleMatic teaches STEM processes, introduces physics concepts, and is a proven tool to engage reluctant readers.

At first glance, game design and literacy seem unrelated, but professional game designers rely on storytelling to hook and captivate their audiences. For many students, this connection reframes the “daunting task” of reading and writing as play. When characters can become Avatars, and the story arc is connected to game play, students can approach literacy from a new vantage point, facilitating expression of ideas and comprehension across age levels.

Elementary teachers love using DoodleMatic to assess reading comprehension. After readalouds, students get to draw a game using literary elements from the story. The main character becomes the AVATAR, the setting is the game space, and the story problem becomes GOALS and HAZARDS. It’s a fun and engaging way to show student understanding.

Designing games in conjunction with creative writing helps middle school students tap into a creative mindset. Brainstorming through play, individually or collaboratively provides an open mindset to test possibilities, story conflicts, and outcomes.

Even at the secondary level, game design is effective to boost student understanding and engagement. For example, students can create a series of games that break down and highlight critical points of each chapter within challenging literary works.

With new safety protocols limiting and challenging traditional teaching practices the addition of Gameschooling to curriculum will serve to engage, excite, and empower students as we all navigate the ‘new normal’ and this unconventional school year. !

ALYSHA HORSTMAN is a veteran public school art teacher, a curriculum designer, and instructor of game development, technology, and design. She is based in Westchester County, NY.

Teacher’s View

What it Took to Put Classes Online

By Harold Geller

Photo iStockphoto.com/Belyaevskiy

In early April, there was an article published online by my institute of higher education about how the university managed to put over 5,000 classes online during a two-week period in March. The narrative was quite remarkable, to say the least. Unfortunately, the author of the piece spoke only to administrators. Perhaps that was his directive? There were quotes that one often hears from administrators, like “it was allhands-on-deck.” One administrator was quoted as saying it involved “a little bit of magic,” while another stated that it was “nothing short of remarkable.”

The author named the team members of the “Instructional Continuity Team.” The author noted that this group “met daily with an aroundthe-horn program that allowed all to outline priorities and concerns.” It certainly was apparent that these administrators were more than willing to take credit for all that was accomplished.

In my opinion, the article was a lot of selfaggrandizing nonsense. I personally did not use

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a single software application mentioned in the article. The article also touted Blackboard as being the backbone of successful operations.

However, I was able to put my classes online without any help from the center noted in the article. I was in my own office over 12 hours per day for more than a week, just to get all my courses online. I did my own HTML coding.

Neither my name, nor any of my colleagues who did their own coding, was mentioned in the article.

I also looked into the salaries of those people mentioned by the author of the piece. Their combined salaries were over $1.5 million per year; but, we should have pity on them for meeting on a daily basis? Really? They are still receiving their high salaries, so should they not be expected to be working every day? At least they get paid well for their time; faculty do not.

Enough with the complaints; how do I believe this push to go online should have been handled? Obviously, I don’t believe in the topdown approach. If you really believe that the

university is a learning community of students and faculty, then requests for help should come from the bottom up. Another way of putting it: administrators should be directing their staffs to get assistance requests from students and faculty, and address those if they need any. The administrators should see their purpose as supporting faculty and students, not the other way around.

In days gone by, at my institution, each department had its own computer technician who addressed the needs of each department.

With the centralization of services came the highly paid administrators, followed by those administrators dictating to faculty how and what they should be using and doing. While there are those who say this is part of the corporatization of universities, I say it is the erosion of shared governance and a destruction of a learning community. !

DR. HAROLD GELLER is a doctoral fellow in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University in Virginia.

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Q&A

Navigating a Unique and Daunting Problem: A conversation with Marc Schulman, Executive Director, USASEF

By Robert Yehling Every morning, educators, administrators and education advocates wake up hoping the nightmare of the last six months is over. That somehow, we can return to education-as-usual, with full classrooms nationwide, STEM and other afterschool programs firing on all cylinders, and students balancing schoolwork with their campus social lives.

Sadly, we’re not there yet. Not even close. As of this writing, our educational system looks like a patchwork fraught with danger. Many schools are open in America, but many more are not.

Some of the open schools are running hybrid schedules with some online instruction; others are fully virtual. Alarmingly, more than 500,000 kids have tested positive for COVID-19 since schools began opening in early August, according to the CDC — and school reaction ranges from full shutdown to sending kids home for a day to deep clean the classrooms. In short, it’s a mess.

What impact will this have on our students, educational programs, schools — and the educational level of our society as a whole?

USASEF Executive Director Marc Schulman has some incisive thoughts on this. Not only does he run the biggest STEM event in the world, but USASEF also is the pre-eminent STEM-focused events group in the country. On a more personal note, his kids are learning virtually this school year, putting him in the same boat as millions of parents trying to balance work, home life, educating their kids, and maintaining their sanity.

We spoke with Marc about the current situation, as we stumble through a school year unlike any other in… well, 100 years, when the Spanish Flu pandemic was handled in a very simple way — by sending students outside to learn in outdoor classrooms (a highly effective

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form of learning, by the way).

STEM Today: First of all, should kids go back to school live? Should schools open later in the fall? Or should we go virtual?

Marc Schulman: I’m as much an optimist as the next person, but I’m also a live events producer, so I have to be a realist: it’s not going to happen in all places. In my kids’ school district in suburban Chicago, they announced they were going back to school full-time with masks, and I thought, ‘No way they’re going to do that.’ Sure enough, two weeks later, they completely reversed course — no one went to school. We’re seeing that all over the country, and we’re seeing schools that opened either closing back down entirely, or sending kids home for cleaning days. In some cases, schools have told parents to be prepared for a switch to virtual later in the fall, when we get into flu season and have the flu and COVID-19 both to deal with.

My point is this: with this virus, the best-laid plans are going to get hit. I’d love for my kids to go to school and stay there, but this is a pandemic and people need to take it seriously.

STEM Today: The COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. and the country shut down less than a month before the USASEF Expo in Washington, D.C., which would have drawn more than a quarter-million students, educators, and education advocates from around the world.

How has the organization adjusted its many programs to the suspension of live events?

M.S. We had to put a halt to our live event 25 days out this year. When that

happened, we froze in place, just like everybody else. No one was thinking long-term. We went virtually dark for two to three weeks. Then we realized we had access to all this amazing content and people, which could be easily transmitted virtually.

That led us to develop new virtual concepts, like our live X-STEM event, which is essentially a TED Talks for kids. We didn’t just want a speaker sitting at a desk in a living room giving speeches to kids. I wanted it to look like they were on stage. It boiled down to us producing, essentially, a TV show, with graphics, music and switching screens. We ended up doing one hour per day for five days, with speakers like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins from the National Institutes of Health, the first all-female spacewalking team of Dr. Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, and David Gallo — the man who discovered the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo iStockphoto.com/Halfpoint

We ended up signing up 67,000 households in all 50 states, plus 19 countries.

STEM Today: Seems to us that a well-done virtual event, while lacking the tactile benefits of a live event, can expand the reach in some ways of what you’re presenting, since it’s online.

M.S. These virtual events are not regional or national, like you’re often limited to with live events; they’re global. You can take a successful concept and turn it into a virtual festival. You can take a software program for producing events and repurpose it into exhibitors with virtual booths, with different buttons to click and play, links, videos, live chats, and interact with people in the booths. It’s a cross between virtual reality and gamification.

STEM Today: Does that mean it’s going to be a long while before we see the USA Science & Engineering Festival or other live USASEF events?

M.S. We’re hoping to create a live event for July of 2021. We were going to roll out a live event this fall, which seemed like a good idea a few months ago, but we can’t. There’s 100 reasons why we want to go live, for the sake of our STEM kids, educators, and the industry, but one huge reason why we won’t — people will likely die. Forget the economic impact. There’s nothing more costly than someone dying.

STEM Today: What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the STEM community as a whole?

M.S. In the STEM community, we’re certainly feeling the impact. Most STEM nonprofits are shuttered now, and may never recover. I feel

Photo iStockphoto.com/Nadezhda1906

particularly for groups like First Robotics, which cannot operate virtually. I also feel for all of the afterschool programs; even in schools that have brought back students, these have been canceled.

A lot of good, localized nonprofits will not make it through this school year. There will be a huge gap in fundraising with the economic situation, as corporations and families continue to hunker down on their money. It’s going to create long-term problems for organizations trying to do good for students. I hate to say this, but I think we’re going to see a huge collapse.

STEM Today: That’s tragic, to say the least.

Switching gears to what we can do now, kids have been virtually learning en masse for about six months (as of our deadline). What developments and innovations have you seen in virtual learning tools, and platforms the schools are deploying?

M.S. There are a lot of great tools out there, a lot of collaborative teaching-learning platforms.

They’re getting more efficient every day (see 10 Top Online Learning Platforms story, pages 4648). I think through our situation now, tech will make more major leaps in online learning.

COVID-19 has thrown a huge bomb into a typically very calm industry, and out of necessity, the emphasis is on institutional competency over innovation now — we have to have kids learning on these platforms. But I think the tech world will continue to come in and fix this, with institutions becoming more open to these changes.

STEM Today: Another obvious concern is the disparity between low-income families

and those with better financial situations.

An educator in Shreveport, LA told us that their biggest goal was to get the 5 percent of students without internet service into an online situation. This is going on all over the country — but not all underprivileged students are being served. Can you discuss this?

M.S. The pandemic is already deeply impactful to the underprivileged, who have to worry if they can get online, if they have access to supplies or a computer… there are things schools today don’t have. It’s cheaper to produce classes or events online than live, but you need all students to have access. If we can get to all of the underprivileged students, you can do more with less. However, COVID-19 is already setting back all students, most drastically the underserved. Then there’s the issue of kids being locked down at home, away from their friends, the societal aspect. To me, that’s the bigger impact. We’re literally removing the community aspect of schools.

One area I’m really concerned about is rural America. The numbers of underprivileged kids in these areas is quite a bit higher, percentage-wise, than in cities or the suburbs. Some areas still don’t have online access. While there are some rural places where kids can go to school, kids are being sent in places with major COVID-19 issues — partially because of lack of online resources. In a lot of these places, they shouldn’t be going to school. There will be a teacher that dies from this; there already has been. Or, worse, a child will die.

When that happens, parents and administrators will think, ‘a political decision has killed somebody and we should step back.’ !

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Aiming for Space — and Our Higher Potential:

L to R: Eric Ladin as Chris Kraft and Patrick Fischler as Bob Gilruth in National Geographic’s The Right Stuff streaming on Disney+.

(Photo: National Geographic/Gene Page)

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Behind the Making of The Right Stuff

By Beth Covington

I

t was one of the best books written about one of mankind’s greatest feats.

When Tom Wolfe published The Right Stuff, it was 1979, just 10 years after Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon to complete a dizzying first decade of space flight. The you-are-there bestselling book focused on the Mercury astronauts, all test pilots, and how the new NASA space program changed their personal lives — and what we believed to be possible.

A three-hour movie version of The Right Stuff, starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, and Ed Harris, came out in 1983, winning four Academy Awards. Now, Nat Geo, Warner Brothers, and Leo DiCaprio’s Appian Way drill down even more into Wolfe’s iconic portrayal with an eight-show opening season. It will premiere on Disney+ on October 9.

The tone, gravitas, and significance of the space program in the 1960s is captured in riveting fashion by an all-star cast. This ranges from excellent portrayals of the Mercury 7 astronauts, our first, to the way in which family lives, technology, and excruciating go/no-go decisions touched the people involved, while launching us into space exploration permanently. It is the first National Geographicbranded scripted TV series to appear on Disney+. Plenty of space fans, old and new, are in for fulfilling binge-watching when it premieres.

The cast includes many familiar faces: Limitless alum Jake McDorman (who plays the first American in space, Alan Shepard) and Suits co-star Patrick J. Adams ( John Glenn) lead the way. Others include Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon A Time), Aaron Staton (Mad Men), James

Lafferty (One Tree Hill) and Michael Trotter (Underground). The showrunner and scriptwriter is Mark Lafferty.

We had the opportunity to talk with actors Patrick Fischler and Eric Ladin, who play the engineering brain trust behind America’s space program, Flight Director Chris Kraft (who died in July 2019 at age 94) and Chief Flight Engineer Bob Gilruth. In listening to them, it was easy to feel their sense of continued wonder at what NASA and American workers pulled off by putting a man on the Moon just 10 years after starting a space program — with technology we’d consider highly primitive today.

STEM Today: Gentlemen, what first drew you to The Right Stuff? Was it the story? Your love of the early space program? The momentous achievement for humankind that it represented?

Eric Ladin: It was the words. Mark Lafferty wrote a beautiful script that attracted a lot of great actors. But space is something that has always riveted me. I grew up in Houston, visited NASA while in school, and we talked about space all the time. Being able to tell this story in long form was really appealing to me. We all hoped to be astronauts, but very few were, then I hoped to play an astronaut. When that ship sailed, I got this chance to play the Mercury flight director. It’s an honor.

Patrick Fischler: “This was one of the best scripts I’ve read in a long time; it captured me instantly. I think space takes the greatest form of storytelling there is. It has adventure, drama, purpose, questing, and a beginning, middle, and end. The main thing is that the urgency is there, always. People love watching these kinds of

adventures, because it brings out something deep in all of us. Before I took the role, I didn’t know much about Bob Gilruth. I wanted to make sure I honored him in a way he deserved.

He’s responsible for the beginning of the space program, but he was a super timid man, and didn’t want recognition.

STEM Today: When watching the pilot and second episode, a number of scenes jumped out (spoiler alert). One that struck us was how 110 men signed up for a program no one knew about — they received certified letters.

Both of you marveled at the moment in space history as well. Can you describe your experience in working with it?

PF: It’s my favorite scene in the pilot. Gilruth and Kraft were working in a vacuum. When they made a call for volunteers to be the first astronauts, they didn’t know anyone would volunteer. They would’ve been happy with 20 candidates. Little did they know that 110 men were thrilled to be involved. That led to their next challenge. You can only do so much testing with 110 highly qualified test pilots to decide on seven astronauts. Kraft and Gilruth relied on their instincts to choose them.

EL: The real charge is when the guys do show up. The assistant comes in and says, “two names.” “Two names? We only got two?” “No, only two guys didn’t show.” Kraft and Gilruth weren’t prepared for this; they had to ask themselves, who will have the best relationships with each other and with us? Chris was not a fan of John Glenn; he’d run into him when Glenn was a test pilot. He didn’t like Glenn’s stubbornness. But that stubbornness made Glenn a great test pilot, and then a great astronaut.

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STEM Today: The show also dives headfirst into the astronaut family story, which played out publically in a feel-good way throughout the 1960s, but was far more complicated behind the scenes.

PF: What happens to the astronauts and their families? What happens inside their homes? I love how we portrayed it. These were test pilots, known in the military but not outside it. Within weeks, thanks to Life magazine and NASA’s announcement, they became seven of the most recognizable faces in the world. It’s exciting to see them turn into instant celebrities, which some handled better than others, as we show.

Dr. Robert R. Gilruth (right), MSC Director, sits with Dr. Christopher C. Kraft Jr., MSC director of flight operations, at his flight operations director console in the Mission Control Center, Building 30, during the Apollo 5 (LM-1/Saturn 204) unmanned space mission.

wives were. In one sense, the space program projected a 1950s sort of simplicity, but that simplicity didn’t exist for any of the astronauts or their families.

STEM Today: A most miraculous thing about the 1960s space program is that we even got off the ground. We literally had to build the technology from scratch. By today’s standards, it’s really primitive — and yet, the space program started the buildout that led to many of the conveniences and tech we enjoy today. Your thoughts?

John H. Glenn, one of the Mercury 7 Astronauts, runs through a training exercise in the Mercury Procedures Trainer at the Space Task Group, Langley Field, Virginia. This link-type spacecraft simulator allowed the astronaut the practice of both normal and emergency modes of systems operations.

Photos courtesy of: NASA

EL: I don’t believe NASA was looking at how the men would translate as celebrities. Kraft and Gilruth were engineers, and then Life came into the picture and boosted seven astronauts into celebrity… it was quite a headache for Craft.

STEM Today: Another sticky point wellportrayed is how these test pilots, who always took their lives in their own hands, suddenly had to let NASA flight engineers on the ground control their flights – since the astronauts weren’t actually flying the Mercury spacecraft.

EL: Test pilots have huge egos — they have to.

In the show, Alan Shepard tells about the

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conflict of trying to lose his edge, which people and public relations want, but the edge kept him alive; his willingness to live on the edge made him a great test pilot. When they realize they’re going to be “spam in a can,” it’s obviously a huge problem for them. On one hand, they’re doing interviews, buying Corvettes for a dollar, having the time of their lives. On the other, they don’t actually get to fly the spacecraft.

PF: I watched the show with my daughter, who’s 11. She said, “I didn’t know anything about any of this.” She kept asking, “Was this true?” She was surprised when my answer was always “Yes,” when we showed how complicated the job was and the relationships with their

EL: It amazes me what was accomplished with so little technology. For young people to see this when they watch the show, while playing with their smart phones, apps, talking to anyone in the world in any number of ways… your smart phone has more computing power than the command modules and lunar landing vehicles did. Yet, these Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo engineers used slide rules, graphs, and their brains to put people in space from remote locations all over the world. When we went to the Mission Control Block House in Cape Canaveral and saw what engineers worked with 60 years ago… it’s amazing to think they actually got this done.

STEM Today: And with that, The Right Stuff hits home on the emotional component, how engineers felt inside about sending these

asked if they’d step aside because they were worried about dying, they would never let that happen. It speaks to why they felt more comfortable taking major risks.

STEM Today: Both of you have stated you think the timing of this show’s release is significant for more than start-of-fall-season reasons.

PF: Sometimes, I feel specific shows can change the course of where we’re going. Right now, in these tumultuous times, The Right Stuff really speaks to the possibility of humans, what we’re able to create, and where we can go.

People are working out there to get us out of Astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn at breakfast before Shepard's Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) spaceflight.

the situation we’re in. The same with the engineers and people behind the scenes doing this for space.

EL: Has there ever been a time when we’re in more need of inspirational or aspirational shows than (nine) months into 2020? We need a TV show that reminds us of our possibilities.

Instead of picking up at Apollo, what everyone most remembers — the moon walk — we took it back all the way, to what they accomplished in the decade leading up to Apollo 11. Hopefully, when we get to a Season 5 or 6, we can show people like Elon Musk sending us back to the Moon, then to Mars.

STEM Today: Finally, what do think is the

Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., peers into his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule before launch on the morning of May 5, 1961.

Walter C. Williams, Flight Operations Director; and Chris Kraft, Chief of the Flight Operations Division, MSC, are shown in the Mercury Control Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the decision to go for the full 22 orbits is made for the Mercury Atlas 9 (MA-9) mission.

Photos courtesy of: NASA

men into space — and how then, it seemed, people were willing to “push the red button” more than today. Can you elaborate?

every day. If it goes one way, it’s an utter disaster.

If it goes the other, it’s utter celebration. How terrifying.

PF: These guys took this very, very seriously and very much to heart. Getting to the Moon, and all the missions beforehand, was their entire life for a decade. Bob Gilruth died a thousand deaths every time a rocket went up with a human on top of it. He feared for every astronaut who ever flew. The show brings out the fear that existed in he and Kraft. People don’t think about that. They rode a fine line,

EL: We don’t push the red button now like we did then. We’re too caught up in ‘what if ’s’ and needing to have all this security and regulation for everything. This is a different generation, a different time. Maybe we know too much. The generation that became our astronauts and engineers in the ‘50s and ‘60s lived to a different mantra. If you asked any of them if they’d be willing to die in space, they’d say ‘Yes.’ If you

greatest single achievement of the 60-year history of the space program?

PF: For me, our greatest accomplishment in space was Shepard’s flight, because of how crucial it was. If we could get one guy up, then it was a rocket ship blasting us to Apollo and beyond — and that’s what happened.

EL: Putting a man on the Moon. With the difficulty of the mission, time in history, using not just one craft but two, the dramatics of seeing fellow humans walking on the surface… that’s the greatest achievement. Kraft wrote in his book about running into a World War II veteran right after Apollo 11. The veteran was crying as he told Kraft, ‘That makes me as proud as anything I’ve seen.’ !

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Photo iStockphoto.com/twinsterphoto

COVID-19’s Hidden STEM Healthcare Blessing

The coronavirus epidemic and havoc it has wreaked on schools also has created a golden opportunity for STEM students focusing on medicine and technology.

By Alexa Black Tabor Though the coronavirus pandemic has presented countless inconveniences, there is now a ripe opportunity for educators across the U.S. to not only reinvent, but create a future where STEM lessons are at the forefront of interest for students.

By redesigning the school curriculum, delays caused by the pandemic have allowed educators worldwide to develop innovative lessons.

Further, society is beginning to grasp why school budgets are blatantly in need of an increase. In the school system, some would say that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics have never been more important if we want our students to be equipped to resolve the many obstacles we are currently facing. The education of science and technology skills has found itself in need of minds equipped to respond to rapidly changing events. Students will be faced with solving many global challenges in an ever-evolving future, placing

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investments in education, science, and technology at the fore of importance.

Applications of the current pandemic in these studies can prove to be advantageous, drawing a clear, tangible connection for students between their studies and impacts of the current pandemic.

Some educators are examining the obvious relation between biology education and COVID-19, as well as prompting an in-depth study of how the historical and sociological facets of science education can lend itself even further. Teachers emphasize that transference of knowledge across generations is key in science education. However, many feel this cannot be obtained by simply shifting old methodical lessons to Zoom, but by incorporating the coronavirus into the subjects using personalized and rewarding self-driven learning.

As a result of educators adapting to pandemicrelated regulations, many report that replacing

old educational standards with a new framework that seamlessly combines knowledge with skills needed in the 21st century will increase collaborative efforts. STEM students will not only need to thrive in an ecosystem emboldened by their knowledge, but also by honing the proper skillset and values in order to mold the future for a thriving, united citizenship.

Educators and students alike feel that such a thing has yet to be so important, especially in the midst of a game-changing, widespread and unpredictable pandemic that requires unity in overcoming it. For example, a subject not often touched upon in biology lessons is the rationing of healthcare.

Most studies have centered around focusing on the evolution of new technology involving engineering, technical, and pharmaceutical medical advancements as well as addressing ongoing environmental issues such as industrial pollution, environmental degradation, infertile

with up-to-date data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) and various other sources in relation to how it was spreading around the globe and the way countries reacted to it, thus demonstrating different results.

surface, engineering can also play a key role in the response to this pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak has more than highlighted their potential solutions that could halt or slow its spread. As of late, many have been consigned to answering the call for 3D printing of components for ventilators and other medical equipment.

Another clear instance is when Educators are reaching through to STEM Seegene, the South Korean students by embracing new approaches, which molecular biotech company, created include the introduction of a higher standard of Photo iStockphoto.com/iloliloli test kits before their country even education overall. Innovative university had its first documented case of the inventions are also assisting in fighting the land or quality of air. This has led to a decrease of virus. Considering that it quickly outbreak, some of which include an human health. Amid the height of COVID-19, transformed into one of the most affected autonomous robot that helps deliver care and the threats society faced were overloading the countries, many have attested their steadfast services, drastically minimizing human contact healthcare systems around the globe, which led approach to detecting early cases as crucial in to limit the risk of viral transfer at the to the stark realization for many countries about reducing the overall impact. pandemic’s worst. There has also been a PECD the availability of life-saving medical equipment, antimicrobial coating sterilizer that removes up Such reveals how STEM studies can overall and that some virus patients were treated before to 99.99 percent of infectious viruses. Human influence the fate of many at the fore of a global others, despite having equally debilitating and contacts are minimized to limit the risk of calamity, ensuring that students worldwide severe illnesses, due to hospitals being human-to-human transmission. Though harness the powerful tools and responsibility of overwhelmed. limited, these are among the many cost effective positively impacting humanity. Considering the solutions being discovered and utilized.

“The health capabilities of the current system, South Korean fatality rate of 0.9 percent at the the American system, the Western European time of this development was much lower than Many universities continue to offer STEM system is mainly focused on chronic diseases other countries, science and education are students immersive online education for the and I think we could learn from the mediatory beyond crucial. benefits of the country. Considering the tangible on how to be prepared against infectious impacts of their contributions to society in real On June 22, Rebecca B. Reynolds, Ph.D., diseases,” Professor Gilberto Montibeller said. time, this may influence other brilliant minds to Associate Professor of the Rutgers University “Pandemics, endemics, and everything that join in and aid humanity against this School of Communication and Information, capacity planning can provide us. So that’s the pandemic. ! noted: “First and foremost, emergency remote second issue.” teaching is a temporary shift of instructional ALEXA BLACK TABOR is a news journalist and Students interested in entering the field of delivery to an alternate mode due to crisis feature writer based in Western Kentucky. She is health and disease may be prompted to resolve circumstances. The primary objective is to also the author of Verithyan, a novel she began this issue, in the event another behemoth-like quickly provide temporary, reliable access to writing at age 15. virus presents itself. Many predict one will. instruction and support during Preparation has been emphasized in the a crisis, not to re-create a robust classroom, prompting attitudes toward being educational ecosystem. proactive rather than reactive. Many educators Nonetheless, educators still have compared the coronavirus with the aim to optimize quality of infamous Spanish Flu of 1918 — a worldwide instruction, adapting to local pandemic that led to the deaths of nearly 50 conditions while relaxing million and lasted for approximately 2 years. accountability goals and measurements. But emergency Although technological advancements and the remote teaching is not the same massive boom in transportation has certainly thing as distance learning; it is aided in the spread of this 21st century virus, it a situation of triage and we are has also allowed us to rapidly share vital all doing our best. This is an information so countries can work in unison to emergency and often develop a vaccine, better equip healthcare for accountability goals, another outbreak, or altogether suppress evaluation, and assessment COVID-19. expectations are necessarily Such technology made way for China to build relaxed under such conditions.” multiple hospitals within a 10-day period, Photo iStockphoto.com/format35 Though not apparent on the allowed for society as a whole to keep in touch FALL/WINTER 2020 | STEM TODAY

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The Most Innovative Year of Teaching Ever?

While communities, parents, and administrators struggle over keeping schools open — or reopening at all — teachers turn their creativity loose to provide engaging education to students

By Robert Yehling Let’s face it: The past several months have been brutal to an already strained education system. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down America, and forced students and teachers online. Remote learning, designed as a supplement to the classroom, was forced to become the primary learning tool. Our first goal became to keep kids engaged for the final quarter of the 2019-20 school year, despite instructors’ lack of familiarity with the tools.

Onward we crawled to summer. Once there, “summer vacation” turned into a nasty tug-ofwar between sending kids back to school or not, with everyone from the President to the CDC and parents weighing in. Meanwhile, teachers, online education, and internet providers worked feverishly to upload curriculum, create virtual classrooms, increase bandwidth, and extend services to the underserved.

activities also have been deeply impacted. As USA Science & Engineer Festival Executive Director Marc Schulman noted, off-campus programs for STEM students (such as First Robotics) have been crushed. This has seriously hurt a major layer in STEM education — inperson, hands-on learning.

and her husband, Martin, won the 2019 Mom’s Choice Award for the DoodleMatic, a learning toy they created. “How are teachers supposed to teach full curriculum in this combined synchronous and asynchronous setting? And then keep kids on the other end of the screen engaged?

It’s easy to get swept up in the bad news.

However, from the rubble of 2020, an already heroic cornerstone of our society has risen up to assure that kids not only learn, but to do so in a most creative and engaging way.

“Most teachers have not only adjusted, but they’ve come up with more and more creative ways to engage students and teach the curriculum. They’re turning more to companies like ours for additional resources. They’re tapping their creativity, coming up with new ways to teach.”

THE TEACHERS: “What teachers are being asked to do right now is almost impossible,” says STEM Today columnist Alysha Horstman, a former high school visual arts teacher and current Director of Art and Education for Tink Digital. Alysha

“Our teachers get together on monthly calls with us,” said Eda Gimenez, Strategy & Business Manager for online education and publishing platform Buncee. “It started with simple things

Parents, who stress enough just getting their kids back on school and sleep schedules, found themselves facing long lists of new protocols for this back-to-school season. Not to mention the most agonizing decision many had ever faced — is it safe to send my child back to school?

Today, millions are back in school, while millions still aren’t. Some students are in class full-time, while others split their weeks between real and virtual classrooms. Since the first bells rang in early August, hundreds of thousands more children and tens of thousands of college students have tested positive, forcing campuses to close for deep cleaning (or longer-term), dorms to shut down, and precious school days to be washed off the map. School might be in session today, but what about tomorrow?

School clubs, sports, and other extra-curricular Photo courtesy of DoodleMatic

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like, ‘Oh, I’m making schedules now.’ Now it’s evolved into teacher-to-teacher collaboration, pooling resources, and creating class projects together.

Teacher-to-student, remote learning has become much more focused on the individual than it is in the classroom. And it’s making kids more self-reliant.

Through this challenging time, many teachers are showing students the love of learning. It is really impressive.”

Photo iStockphoto.com/MelkiNimages

A FEW NOTEWORTHY EXAMPLES: • Jonte Lee, a chemistry teacher at Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C., turned his kitchen into a chemistry lab, donned a smock, and taught his classes via Instagram Live. It required a few trips to the store, but Lee kept the ingredients simple — and his students conducted experiments at home. “If we are going over the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.

We have ice, water, and we can turn it into steam,” Lee told WJLA-TV. The reason for Lee’s decision speaks volumes: “Life has changed, but the love I have for my students still has not changed,” he said.

Photo iStockphoto.com/FG Trade

• A number of school districts, from Brooklyn to Northern California, moved learning outdoors for the summer and early fall. Teachers used that setting to weave more science education into the mix. Besides added instruction, it kept kids away from tight indoor classrooms — and looking at sky rather than walls has a way of enhancing creativity. It also reprised the step taken during the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago to keep education rolling.

• A high school English teacher in Arvada, CO fulfilled creative writing requirements by breaking her class in half and assigning each group a book to write.

Students had to collaborate with one another, as both chapter writers and editors, while the teacher guided them through the process. Besides stretching students’ capabilities, it had another effect: creating collaboration and community among the students, and making them entirely proficient on the virtual learning software. That benefitted them in other classes.

Photo iStockphoto.com/SVETIKD

• The Agua Hedionda Foundation environmental science and natural history education program in Carlsbad, CA serves 10,000 students annually in grades 2 through 12 through hands-on daily field trips. When the pandemic hit, the Foundation met with local school districts and turned their operation into a TV studio — and then produced highly entertaining, content-driven shows that were piped into virtual classrooms.

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The Most Innovative Year of Teaching Ever?

• Several teachers took the risk and returned to their classrooms in schools that remained shut down. They livened up their coursework, jumped online with their students — and gave students the visceral feeling of being in class.

“You can use a white board or smart board and Zoom; it’s easily done,” the USASEF’s Schulman said. “Teachers can show students live how to do a science project, or any other sort of hands-on project. This is what it means to be creative.”

Every day, more stories of teacher ingenuity pop up, pointing to the hidden blessing beneath the harsh reality of the pandemic: forced out of their classrooms, teachers are drawing on the passion, creativity, and love of working with kids that they felt in their hearts when they first decided to become educators.

“The daily challenge is concentrating on the kids in front of you,” Alysha Horstman said.

“You’re not going to get there with long lectures or boring lesson plans. Not online, for sure. Plus, there are so many classroom connections missing when you’re not together. How will younger kids interact with each other? How will they stay engaged? How can we focus on their social and emotional needs?”

While off-site teachers continue to refine their tech skills to make virtual learning even more hands-on and collaborative, what about providing those needed classroom or lab supplies to students stuck at home? Or making it possible for after-school programs to take place?

“Most students, especially STEM students, are hands-on learners,” Schulman said. “It’s important to find ways to put materials in the hands of students, whether sending them home, finding them in a store, or ordering online.

Enter Rosie Riveters, named for the young women who traded spatulas for wrenches and took to America’s manufacturing plants during World War II . “We’re delivering more supply kits for STEM students for afterschool and weekend programs than ever,” said Brittany Greer, Executive Director of the non-profit which provides hands-on, interactive programs to engage and inspire girls ages 4 to 14 with an enduring growth mindset. And now, due to COVID-19, they’re also in the business of delivering STEM kits to students at their homes, providing the supplies they need.

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Photos courtesy of Rosie Riveters

“We’re all about teaching 21st century skills, supplementing what the schools teach, and also delivering the kits they need, especially for kids whose families can’t afford the kits,” Greer said.

“We’re focused on critical thinking, problemsolving, and individualized learning — but also hands-on interactive learning.”

With many schools not in session, young science students and other primarily hands-on learners are particularly hard hit. Greer feels it’s doubly bad for girls, who already are dealing with confidence issues in the classroom when it comes to STEM-based learning.

“We hear two things from girls more than anything else — ‘This is hard’; and ‘it’s not fair.’

We take their complaints apart, see what’s causing them, examine a solution, and put it together through our mentoring videos, kits, and lessons. Our goal is to stop these doubts from coming back into the pipeline in middle school, when most girls make their decisions on whether to push forward in STEM — or not.”

Matthews. The 35 students, girls interested in STEM, were broken into four independent project groups. All required on-demand resourcing. Ms. Matthews guided their general science lessons into specific projects, then tied in with Rosie Riveters to create check-in points, question-and-answer sessions, videos, feedback, group project discussions, and to assure the materials needed were available.

“What we forget when we look at high school STEM students is that, by that time, they’re wired to participate in this way,” Greer said. “But what about when they start at age four? Or six?

We have to teach these skills to them. While a lot of classrooms aren’t in live session right now, we can still teach STEM skills — and our program of helping the students get materials, helping the schools, and providing outside resources is a good way to do it. And now we’ve got material available online for all science teachers.”

Rosie Riveters also interacts directly with schools in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region.

“We’ve created a whole schedule of online content, and created Rosie the Riveter activities with materials accessible at home — or through kits we deliver thanks to our many donors,” Greer explained.

A common thread runs through these new programs: great innovation and creativity on the parts of teachers and the community education support system — parents, leaders and product donors. When we emerge from COVID-19, with established in-class and virtual learning platforms, we will do so with teachers whose skills have been expanded and stretched.

She cited a class at Braddock Elementary School in Annandale, VA taught by Joyce

Once the dust settles, that could mean an education boom in the U.S. !

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Shreveport’s Creative Back-to-School Plan School administrators throughout the country spent the summer scratching their collective heads to find back-toschool plans that worked. They would balance the COVID-19 risk with in-class needs of students, form a plan — and get bumped back by the summer upsurge in cases.

Administrators in Shreveport, LA faced the same issue, but also a unique demographic situation. The 40,000student school district includes not only urban and suburban residents, but also rural residents; the city borders Arkansas and Texas. Not only did they need to worry about the balance between virtual and classroom learning, but also hooking up a large underprivileged group to the Internet — mainly in the rural outskirts.

“We spent the summer building infrastructure to support virtual learning for everyone that needs it,” said Chamber of Commerce President Tim Magner, himself a former educator and administrator. “Our school district made a number of efforts with tech providers and Internet providers, using COVID-19 dollars, to provide broadband connectivity to 95 percent of students; later in the summer, we worked on the other 5 percent. This fall will tell us how effective we have been.”

So far, so good. In addition to the increased connectivity, Shreveport instituted a creative back-to-school plan that factored in all the attendant concerns: student and teacher health; the COVID-19 situation; balancing online and in-class learning; and honoring and making more possible parents’ work needs.

Here’s what they did, prior to the disruptions caused by Hurricane Laura: • Students in grades K through 5 began

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attending school five days per week, with on-site daycare provided after class. This gave parents the chance to go back to work, and also minimized the immediate need to teach online learning to the youngest students.

• Middle school and high school students began by attending class twice per week, and switching to at-home remote learning three days per week.

Parents who were uncomfortable with their kids returning to school could opt out, with students learning virtually for the first quarter — then choosing either to return to school or remain home.

“We feel we came up with a good, flexible solution for the situation,” Magner said. “The older students are going to be more adept and comfortable at online learning, and also they’re older, so they don’t need the constant parental supervision. For younger students, the after-care program makes it easier for parents to work more than a few hours a day.”

As it turned out, this was one of the more flexible back-to-school plans in the country. That should be no surprise: Shreveport has risen to become an educational magnet, with education on the minds of not only teachers and administrators, but also the business community, Magner being a perfect example.

Besides the school district, there are nine universities and 60,000 college students within an hour of downtown Shreveport. Its Louisiana State University affiliate features one of the largest and best MBA programs in the nation, and it’s now completely online for 7,000 students. !

— Robert Yehling

Images provided by Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce/ magnerphoto.com

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When Remote Learning Becomes a Creative Wonderland Buncee set out as a learning platform for collaboration between teachers and students. When the pandemic hit, its greater potential was unleashed, transforming education for both.

By Robert Yehling How much fun does the Buncee team have?

Click the “Our Team” link on the website (http://edu.buncee.com), and the energy that swirls in their office becomes clear. CEO Marie Arturi is pictured with a school yearbook-like caption that reads, “Most Likely to Have Toys in Her Office.” COO Claire Cucchi’s says, “Most Likely to Celebrate Christmas in July.” Schools Relationship Manager Bryan Gorman goes with, “Class Clown.”

took place, from 850,000 users in 42,000 schools across the U.S. and 188 other countries.

Since the pandemic hit, session traffic has jumped by 120 percent.

Buncee has been used in innovative, creative, and imaginative ways that raised the eyebrows of Marie and her team — and in so doing, expanded how teachers could teach and students to learn remotely. In short, it is a learner-centered model.

“Our goal has always been focused on empowering the student, helping them be more independent, finding their voice, creating on their own — and having fun,” Marie said. “I can’t imagine running a company where the employees don’t have fun with what they do.”

Added Strategy & Business Affairs manager Eda Gimenez, whose caption reads, “Most Likely to Wake Up Before 5 A.M.,” “It’s definitely the most rewarding place I could ever imagine working. Through the collaborations of teachers and students, and their creativity, we literally learn something new about our tool every day. It’s really a lot of fun.”

Buncee is one of the most creative, collaborative and globally engaging learning tools in an educational market — remote learning — that was forced onto center stage when the pandemic hit last March. It is a multiple award-winning content creation and communication tool that enables students, teachers, and administrators to easily author, publish, and share visually engaging and interactive content.

As of September 2020, Buncee has received more than 22 million views, where engagement

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create, demonstrate, and share; not just consume.”

Buncee provides a variety of templates and creation tools from which teachers can develop visually engaging and interactive lessons, projects and assignments. Students can then complete those assignments — or equally as valuable, create and publish their own content, projects, or stories, using a multitude of media options available in the platform. Beyond

Buncee CEO Marie Arturi (above) presides over one of the most creative and entertaining learning tools in education — which she thoroughly enjoys playing and creating with, too.

“Buncee fits perfectly into the new learnercentered model by giving students the tools to become creators, a key element of 21st century learning,” Marie said. “Students today don’t learn with text alone, so Buncee provides tools for them to create content incorporating multimedia to make the learning more effective.

Students using Buncee foster their creativity skills and learn that technology can be used to

making learning fun and creative, from day one, Marie and her team have also focused on increasing collaboration and student engagement, always a challenge in classroom settings.

The result? With Buncee, multiple layers of collaboration can ensue between teacherstudent, teacher-parent, student-student, and

Eda Gimenez (upper left) and her Buncee teammates have regaled audiences from schools to the prestigious BETT Conference in London with the creative and collaborative potential of Buncee for classrooms — and individual students.

especially since the pandemic hit, teacherteacher and parent-student. Along with that, due to the ease of using the tool, students tend to become self-directed content producers and are able to think and learn more independently.

They feel more comfortable taking charge of a project — sometimes working with students from halfway around the world. Some of the ways that kids have used Buncee have been to problem solve community challenges, and share and learn about environmental challenges with each other. Another student used the tool to write a 95-page storybook themed on diversity, which creatively started as a story about a cup of hot chocolate.

“The act of creating a Buncee builds critical thinking and design skills,” Eda said. “Sharing and commenting through the platform also offers an opportunity for digital citizenship conversations as well. All of these pieces

combine to create a future and career-ready student. We want students to feel they can confidently lead the conversation and easily demonstrate what they’ve learned, all in their own creative way and voice.”

Buncee has been featured at digital content, publishing, and educational conferences since its inception, but the company really picked up speed in 2019 and 2020. They are involved in a variety of global collaboration initiatives such as the Global Buncee Book, Global Maker Day, and more — all of which involve students of all ages worldwide working together, then sharing their work. The company’s presentation at Digital Book World in Nashville wowed digital and text publishers the world over. Early in 2020, they and STEAM educator Rachelle Dene Poth co-hosted a session that showcased Buncee and partner Microsoft Education at the prestigious BETT education conference in

London. The description says it all: “We all know that creative freedom can empower our students, and we know how important it is to encourage more creativity in the classroom. But, how can educators go about fostering a creative environment? And what are meaningful ways that schools can integrate creative and empowering tools like Buncee and Immersive Reader to enrich the learning experience for kids and their community? Join us for this session as we share how Microsoft Immersive Reader and Buncee can be used together to empower all learners, particularly language based learners; and build content engagement and confidence in them.”

However, an even deeper potential of Buncee’s value as a resource and creative education tool came from an external influence no one expected or wanted — the COVID-19 pandemic. As teachers scrambled to learn how to teach classes FALL/WINTER 2020 | STEM TODAY

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When Remote Learning Becomes a Creative Wonderland

The Buncee team is a talented, diverse crew of bright young minds from around the world, dedicated to growing our love of learning.

remotely, and parents tried to wrap their already busy heads around the concept of virtual learning, the Buncee team stepped up — and so did its teacher ambassadors, school administrators… and students.

“All of a sudden, remote learning and working happened — and it got crazy for everyone,” Eda said. “Everyone needed help. No one knew what remote learning really looked like. How do we support schools? What main resources do we provide? Luckily for us, Marie was really gracious, very health conscious, and had us working from home a week before closures were fully announced in New York. So we were ready to help. Our team was on call for our community and it became 24-hour-a-day team support for a few weeks to get everything set up.

We launched a few sites, and built new features to make it easier for teachers to connect with their students.

“During this time, we more deeply integrated Buncee with Microsoft Teams, making it easier for students and teachers to keep connected.

Then we launched more discussion functionalities to make it easier for teachers to give feedback, even at a distance. What was super cool was that we saw teachers ideate all these different creative ways to use the tool

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STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2020

beyond instruction to help engage school communities during remote learning.”

The spirit of collaboration, already baked into Buncee’s culture and platform, soared beyond the team’s wildest expectations. However, as site visits and engagement jumped and Buncee staff fielded questions from stressed teachers and parents, team members had to gain a greater foothold of what collaboration would mean, now that remote learning had transitioned from an option to a national educational necessity.

“There’s a lot of collaborative ways to look at remote learning,” Eda explained. “One is teacher to student relationships – how do you get students engaged from afar? People just didn’t know how you’re supposed to structure students for the day. There were teachers that wanted to give the full class experience as if they were inperson. The second challenge was that parents were now involved. How do you get them into the educational picture? The third, a new door opened – teachers now had more opportunities to collaborate and learn with each other. And the main part, when everyone started flooding the market with different tools, a lot of teachers, not being savvy with tech, didn’t realize there were data security issues to navigate. So these four areas were our focus.

“Teachers started using Buncee as a HyperDoc, or a major ‘appsmash’ hub, where they could easily record videos or audio of lessons, hyperlink critical class materials or files, all while making the resources fun and interactive, which was important for engaging students at a distance. This made it easy for parents and students to have all information in one place. They know where to look. When you’re teaching from afar, it’s harder to teach the kids what buttons to click, so it’s important to have everything together.”

School administrators started getting involved, too. Assistant Principal Victoria Morse of Hillsborough County in FL, wanted to support and encourage her teachers. She wanted to promote a positive learning sense in the community, but also keep her teachers connected to the community and continue building it. What happened next wowed the Buncee team — and made them big fans.

“She actually used Buncee as a broadcast and produced different daily episodes for the faculty, and weekly episodes for the students and families,” Eda said. “She made one directed to the students and their families, and one for her faculty. One broadcast celebrated the birthdays of students in her school. Then she pointed out

Buncee in Action What does Buncee look like in action? What are some of the things students, teachers, parents and administrators can create and share?

ways to feel fantastic. Her approaches were really engaging, and really impressive.

“Her broadcasts caught on so well that some families pulled all their kids together, sat on the couch and watched it on TV. Teachers viewed the broadcasts before starting their day and felt inspired to do their best for students. It’s something everyone looked forward to every week.”

Buncee focused greatly on empowering teachers with tools and resources, right down to amping up its ambassador program.

On it, teachers and team members get together on a monthly call to share ideas on how better to engage students. That evolved into teachers working directly with each other — something that is very tough to do when in a classroom six to eight hours per day. As a result, teachers from all parts of the country – and world – used Buncee to share resources, lesson plans and assignments, and create class projects together.

But perhaps the greatest benefit of Buncee’s platform during the pandemic remained the same as it did when the company launched: empowering students to think and learn more independently, but also collaboratively with other students.

“For teacher-to-student relationships, remote learning has become much more focused on the individual than it is in the physical classroom,” Eda said. “And it’s making kids more self-reliant. That goes for all virtual learning right now. Students are suddenly on their own in a way, maybe able to reach the teacher, maybe not. So then they have to figure out ways to solve problems themselves. This led to further student-to-student relationship building, sharing and collaborating, sometimes with kids from other parts of the world.”

In doing so, nearly a million students and teachers not only got ahead of the virtual learning curve, but continue to have great fun doing it. When fun merges with education, it leads to students and then adults filled with ideas, problem-solving skills, vision and aspiration — exactly what is needed as the 21st century continues to fill up with challenges. It’s also the whole point of education: to instill a lifelong love of learning… not a problem for a company of innovators for whom “learning” and “fun” are one and the same. !

We decided to share with you a digital sample of some of the more creative projects to emerge from the pandemic — and how they’ve stretched the virtual classroom not only into the living room, but towards more independent learning by students and teachers alike.

Click and enjoy… https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/ be23902151264b74ab9e3dcecbe3bed2 https://wps.edu.buncee.com/ buncee/6d41b3b2dc6e43c6b53b41c42d17d2c9 https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/ d1702d37e52848b18c2060f325689ae9 https://app.edu.buncee.com/ buncee/17df240fc1db4decb3325a579d5dc375 https://app.edu.buncee.com/ buncee/845c19aec1b0430480ef204339c38b78 https://app.edu.buncee.com/ buncee/889c7860b0274f24ab97e17a80c7fe84 https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/ e9c5b59aa261457d8e236b867199c1bc https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/ a6a4b9f0bfac4cb08e20c53d787341a4

(Erin James also contributed to this article.)

FALL/WINTER 2020 | STEM TODAY

37

Parents, Children & a Buncee Experience

By Erin James

Ella and Emma Knowlton dive into their Buncees, bringing fun and education together. Photo by Skilyn Jenkins

After sitting down with my twin girls for only an hour and a half working on the Buncee software, Ella and Emma wanted to explore all the different avenues Buncee offers a pair of youthful adventurers.

They were hooked.

As a parent, I have tried several different educational software programs on the market today. I will say that Buncee is one of the best interactive and educational software programs to date. The ability to visually create and learn at the same time is this platform’s strong suit. To me, it’s the true magic of Buncee. The girls were learning, creating, and improving computer skills simultaneously, and didn’t even notice it.

The program offers step-by-step instructions, pre-made templates and the option to start from scratch to create your very own Buncee. There

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is no reason for a parent to feel overwhelmed.

Buncee has made it even easier to use with Buncee Ambassadors, with teachers on hand to help take youngsters’ minds to new heights.

In the end, it turned out to be her own little book of sea animals that asked outside viewers, “What am I?” The giggles and accomplishment she felt left me in awe of the Buncee program.

Ella chose to use the pre-made template and construct her own Taller or Shorter slide show.

She was able to compare pictures of two objects and decide and input which was the taller and which was shorter. This kept her so engaged she was asking to create more! Just the ability to have her name on a creation to call her own brought a sense of joy every parent hopes his or her children can feel while learning.

The girls were also able to view other Buncees created by children around the world. This gave them more knowledge and insight to the many cultures spread throughout our globe. What a gift for seven-year-olds to experience! They were also able to share their own creations on the Buncee platform for others to view. With all of the trials that we are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Buncee offers children the ability to step outside their front doors and see the world through their peers’ eyes — all while staying safe and sound at home in their own living rooms. !

Emma chose to create from scratch Emma’s Sea Adventures, a seven-page slide show of different sea animals. Each page showed a picture of a sea creature, to which she was able to add her own personalized text to describe what she saw on the page.

ERIN JAMES is the Assistant to the Editor for STEM Today.

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The Sooner, the Better: The Case for K-2 Coding

By Mike Washburn Some of the more exciting new developments in educational robotics are happening in K-2 education. This is a long-neglected area of educational robotics, with few good reasons why. As educators, we know that when you let students have the freedom to learn, and grow, and develop on their own, they can do amazing things. The only people stopping kids from being great are… adults. Our students have no fear, so why have we been afraid to give them great coding experiences like their older classmates?

Let’s talk about why this matters, and some of the awesome tools out there to get started.

In a typical classroom scenario, coding education starts around the fifth or sixth grade.

Unfortunately, that leaves not a lot of time to study the basics and get the fundamentals down before digging into much harder content in high school. What if we could push the timeline back to the point where students are starting to learn the fundamental concepts of coding at a much earlier age? This would allow us begin teaching concepts in third and fourth grade (rather than fifth and sixth, like now) and much more complex concepts as early as sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. Doing this would open up a whole host of opportunities in high school using commercially available coding engines to design games, and creating complex programming to solve real problems.

What about K-2? There remains plenty of reasons why you would want to teach coding to primary students that apply to them at their own age. Coding and robotics remains one of the strongest pathways to teach those critical 21st-century skills we are focused on passing along to our students — such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration. All of these are challenged and nurtured when you teach primary students how to code. By fostering these 21st-century skills at an even earlier age, we are setting our students up for success in the future.

There are quite a few platforms emerging in

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Using typical blocks, numbers and color schemes for an atypical lesson for young students — coding.

the space. Education robotics giant Makeblock (mTiny) and startup Matatalab (Matatalab) have both developed amazing K-2 coding platforms. There are dozens of others. Out of all the emerging platforms, Matatalab has me the most excited. It is unleashing an amazing wave of educator creativity as teachers are finding new and exciting ways to use the platform with their own materials to create awesome custom lessons. As someone who is immersed in the educational robotics space, I consider myself lucky to be able to see what so many teachers are doing with these platforms every day.

The point is, students aren’t afraid to learn new things. They aren’t afraid to be pushed.

They are rarely afraid to fail and when they do, they’re quicker to get back up and try again.

There’s never been a better time, and there have never been better products. So if you’re a primary teacher, consider bringing robotics into your classroom. Your students will amaze you and thank you for it. !

STEM Today Senior Writer MIKE WASHBURN is a robotics and coding educator in Ontario, Canada

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Going Virtual, Touching the World

The X-STEM All Access event opened a new era for the USA Science & Engineering Festival — delivering a full conference virtually. It was a smashing success. By Beth Covington

The first two women to spacewalk together, working with experiments on the International Space Station: Christina Koch (L) floats with the SPHERES robots as she prepares to run code from participants of the SPHERES Zero Robotics (ZR) 2019 Middle School Summer Program, while Jessica Meir conducts cardiac research inside the Life Sciences Glovebox, a biology research facility located in Japan's Kibo laboratory module.

Imagine the conversation Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Vice President Al Gore, spacewalking astronauts Christina Koch and Dr. Jessica Meir, and famed cave explorer Jill Heinerth would have if they were all in the same room. What would they talk about? What questions would you ask them? Can you even imagine?

the first major virtual event put on by USASEF during the coronavirus pandemic. Held over a week in mid-May, the “household names” and other presenters covered a series of presentations that ran the gamut of career tracks for STEM students, offering enough insights, science and advice to fill a small gold mine.

Well, thanks to the marvels of technology and their common interest in STEM, you don’t have to imagine anymore. While we’re dealing with virtual rooms these days, these great scientists and other STEM forerunners actually did show up at the same time — in a way.

That’s not all. This event did not end when the “crowds” dispersed from the virtual presentations. All of the video presentations and other goodies are preserved on the USASEF website for students, parents, teachers and classrooms worldwide (https:// usasciencefestival.org/x-stem-all-access/).

They were among the featured presenters in the USA Science & Engineering Festival’s X-STEM All Access, presented by AstraZeneca,

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X-STEM All Access evolved from X-STEM, typically a featured segment of the USA Science

& Engineering Festival in Washington D.C. X-STEM is designed as an interactive experience for 6th to 12th graders, with everything from inspiring discussions to projects and experiments created and shared.

Due to the pandemic, the USA Science & Engineering Festival’s live event was postponed for 2020, leaving an estimated 350,000 attendees high and dry. But not for long. The USASEF team quickly shifted gears and created an amazing online conference, stretched out the presentations to a week, and brought in some of the most eminent experts in the world — including Dr. Fauci, the most trusted face of the government’s scientific and medical response to COVID-19.

Each of the interactive events included a presenter, speaker or moderator, interactive time for students and presenters, and a teacher resource page. Presenters spoke from the comfort of their home or office, rather than a stage. “In order to make this as fresh and lively for our visitors as possible, we basically treated it like a TV production,” USASEF Executive Director Marc Schulman said. “Our team did an amazing job pulling it together so quickly, getting the registrations, and creating content that students, parents and teachers alike can continue to benefit from.”

• Exploring Our Planet, with oceanographer Dr. David Gallo and underwater cave explorer Jill Heinerth.

The topics were just as riveting as the seamless presentations. They included:

All of these presentations are available on the USASEF website. But that’s not all. In a brilliant move, the USASEF team also created Teacher Resources pages to accompany each presentation, featuring questions to students posed by the presenters themselves. Teacher Resources also includes teacher and parent tips, links to USASEF and event video libraries, plus two sets of questions drawn from the content — engagement and fact questions, and reflection and analysis questions. There are also Bonus Options, suggested scientific projects or assignments for students to work on, to deepen

• Shattering STEM Stereotypes, with biomedical scientist Dr. Knatokie Ford and Google engineer Kim Swennen.

• Ambassadors of Conservation & The Climate, with atmospheric scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, and a special appearance from former Vice President Al Gore, whose blockbuster 1992 book Earth in the Balance helped raise awareness of what was then called “global warming.”

• Science that Saves Lives, with drug discoverer Dr. Mika Sovak, along with Dr. Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins from the National Institute of Health.

• Life Beyond Our World, with Christina Koch and Aerospace Systems Engineer Bobak Ferdowsi. Koch’s partner in their historic 2019 spacewalk, fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, made a special appearance.

their comprehension of the material or subject.

As an example, here is a Bonus Option from the presentation from Christina Koch, Bobak Ferdowsi and Jessica Meir, compliments of the USASEF site: While a Research Associate for the US Antarctic Program, Christina served on the Ocean & Glacier Search & Rescue Team and the Firefighting Team.

Do some research about what is required of someone serving on these types of teams in such an environment. Write a one-page essay detailing these requirements and how this experience may have helped prepare her for her time in space?

Take a deeper dive and research Bobak and his accomplishments. Write a one-page essay expressing how Bobak challenges your idea of an engineer and how his story inspires you personally.

As for the presenting sponsor, AstraZeneca?

They’re busy right now in third-stage clinical trials with a Coronavirus vaccine.

While X-STEM All Access could not be live this year, it accomplished something even more impressive: bringing great scientists together, in a virtual format that visitors can continue to enjoy, months after the event ended. !

X-STEM All Access featured great presentations, interactive programs, and some of the most esteemed scientists and thinkers in the world, including former Vice President Al Gore and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

FALL/WINTER 2020 | STEM TODAY

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Moving USASEF Online: SciFest All Access

By Melissa Jenkins For the past decade, the USA Science & Engineering Festival has been proud to offer the largest student-based science festival in the world. Every two years, up to 350,000 attendees have gathered to participate in thousands of hands-on activities, exciting stage shows, and conversations with STEM mentors.

Thanks to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the USASEF has pulled its festival online in a big way — with SciFest All Access. It will be held online Sept. 26 to Oct. 3. This is the second major STEM virtual program since the pandemic hit, and USASEF reports very high registration volume.

“During these trying times, the need for inspiring educational content is more important now than ever before,“ said Marc Schulman, Executive Director of the USA Science & Engineering Festival. “The USA Science & Engineering Festival is uniquely qualified to offer its brand of immersive content virtually.

While we are hopeful for the day when we can once again offer ‘hands-on’ exhibits to our students, we are proud to host a quality alternative with this virtual field trip.”

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Attendees will have a full week to virtually experience over 100 exciting and innovative exhibits featuring interactive STEM activities from outer space to inner body. There will be something for everyone: K-12 students, families, educators, and college students. Some of the Exhibit Portal Zones to explore will be Defense & Security, Energy, Engineering & Tech, Health & Medicine, Math & Computer Science, Natural Sciences, and Space & Aviation. There will also be a STEM Scavenger Hunt where you can earn badges and prizes, a STEM Store to get geared up, and a College Career Center to get started in a STEM career.

With an all-access pass to the STEM Stage, participants will see interactive performances from music to experiments to magic that will surely keep everyone entertained. They can also take part in fun science demonstrations that explore the mysteries of chemistry and more, or get hooked on science with ‘Mr. Science’ Jason Lindsey, 3M Visiting Wizards, and Nate Ball just to name a few. Not to mention exciting shows with Hollywood stunt science expert Steve Wolf, ‘Mr. Fascinate’ Justin Shaifer, Roy Moye III and many others.

Photos Innovation & Tech Today/Adam Saldaña

Photo Innovation & Tech Today/Adam Saldaña

The beat of great activities continues through a great earth and space science platform.

Experience Impossible Science at Home with world-champion magician Jason Latimer. Join NASA & the U.S. Geological Survey on a 50year quest to observe Earth from space and discover what lies hidden in the moon’s permanently shadowed craters with NASA Chief Scientist, Dr. James Green, Dr. Brian Odom and others. Learn about weather forecasting from Amelia Draper and join environmental engineer Dr. Tracy Fanara in her pursuit to extend humanity’s time on earth.

Explore the wonders of the ‘Big Blue’ with science communicator and television host Danni Washington and find out how science can be more familiar, accessible, and inclusive with

Neuroscientist Dr. Samantha Yammine, also known as ‘Science Sam’.

The College Career Center at SciFest All Access offers students and adults in the workforce a virtual space to explore opportunities and connect with employers from industries, federal agencies, and corporations throughout the U.S. and beyond. Some of the career opportunities will be from the United States Air Force, Amazon, NASA and more!

attendee will be required to register separately so they can create a unique screen name to access the virtual platform.

The best part of all? There is no cost to log on and attend.

If you’re an educator and would like to register a large group of students from your school, use the School Group Registration Form to sign up.

After submitting the form, you will be directed to a confirmation webpage to confirm your submission was received. In the days leading up to the event, you will receive an email from info@usasciencefestival.org containing a link where you will create your own personal screen name and login credentials.

Complete the online registration form at https://www.usasciencefestival.org to join both SciFest and the College Career Center. Each

Meantime, get ready for the most amazing week of STEM-based activities ever experienced on an online conference platform. !

Photo Innovation & Tech Today/Adam Saldaña

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The Virtual Learning World:

10 Platforms to Watch

By Melissa Jenkins

With millions of elementary, middle, and high school children, plus college students, learning from home this fall, who is powering their virtual classrooms and online learning platforms? Dozens of companies have seen customer demand skyrocket since COVID-19 descended on our shores in early March, with their platforms being elevated from learning options to absolute necessities.

We surveyed learning platforms to find the most innovative, user-friendly, interactive and collaborative experiences — as well as those offering the most valuable content to students. Here are some that we particularly liked:

LearnWorlds brings everything you need into one place in an online platform that offers the ability to build your online academy while creating unique, interactive, and social learning experiences that are easy and affordable at the same time.

It’s ideal for individual instructors and educators — but also for entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses, professional trainers, and internal employee training for companies.

Udemy is one of the most popular online course marketplaces on the Internet.

It makes course creation possible for teachers, instructors, educators and freelancers with the possibility of acquiring new skills. This educational platform has more than 40 million students and 50,000 instructors. It offers a range of online learning materials including PDF documents, PowerPoint, text, and video content amongst many others.

Skillshare is great for instructors who are in the creative field and want to make a side income. It has more than 4 million students and up to 24,000 lessons in various disciplines. Course lessons last from 20-60 minutes and are made out of a series of small videos, class projects, and a student community that encourages interaction through discussion forums.

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Coursera is aimed for instructors and professors who are based at a HE partner institution or business. With 23 million users, it is dedicated to offering high-quality online training courses worldwide. Coursera also provides students the opportunity to receive certifications from renowned institutions.

Thinkific is ideal for solopreneurs, small/medium businesses, and online trainers. A standalone course platform helps sell online courses. Thinkific provides everything you need, including an easy-to-use interface to build courses and rich multimedia to add right into your course content.

Open-edX has powered more than 8,000 online courses from 100 prestigious universities and businesses that are currently offering higher education in many disciplines. Open-edX is an open-source content management system behind the massive online course provider (MOOC)-edX, that was created by a team of scientists from Harvard University and MIT.

WizIQ is ideal for enterprise employees, individual teachers, trainers, colleges, universities, tutoring, and Test-Prep companies. It is a cloudbased education platform for real-time or self-paced training using your own custom-branded domain. It delivers line and on-demand webinars and it’s a very popular tool amongst online course creators who prefer live training, coaching or a classroom-like feeling.

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The Virtual Learning World: 10 Platforms to Watch

Teachable is a great option for new course creators, solopreneurs, coaches, and creative professionals. It’s an online platform that serves the everyday instructor.

Easy and simple solutions are provided for uploading your learning content, customizing your online school and communicating effectively with your students.

Buncee (see page 38) has over 1,000 templates to choose from to unleash your creativity in no time. Buncee Templates gives you a jump start on any creation, but with the freedom to add your personal touch. You’ll be able access their library of 8,000+ exclusive stickers, animations, and templates, or upload your own.

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Kajabi is for non-techie online course creators and individual instructors selling simple format courses and downloadables.

It is an all-in-one platform that offers the tools to sell digital products, including online courses.

Varsity Tutor is an exceptional online tutor platform for students of all ages. Their onboarding process features friendly and knowledgable “admissions” counselors who size up the tutoring goal and student — and then place the student with tutors that are compatible with both their personalities and learning needs.

Tutoring sessions are offered in live 1 ½-hour video sessions. Plus, the student can go online anytime, 24 hours a day, with a particular homework or class issue — and a tutor will help them in real-time.

Tutoring is sold in packages of 50, 36, and 24 hours. Varsity Tutor has seen a 50% spike in demand so far as students catch up for lost school time.

Weaving STEM Into the Economic Framework:

A Look at FayettevilleCumberland, NC

When it comes to developing the people and technology to protect America’s freedom, Fayetteville and Cumberland County, N.C. is a national treasure. Insiders often refer to it as “Pentagon South.” In 2018, it was deemed “The Most Innovative City in the Country” by “Education Matters,” an online public forum program that serves North Carolina.

The Fayetteville and Cumberland County area is already dominated by young people. First, the area’s young, highly educated workforce has the knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of today’s advanced manufacturing operations. Their skills are supported by customized training support offered through Fayetteville Technical College and extensive broadband capacity.

Further, the area is the gateway to Fort Bragg, home of the U.S. Army’s Airborne and Special Operations forces, and site of many of the nation’s most important defense contractors. Many of the over 7,000 men and women who exit the military each year through the Fort Bragg portal are choosing to remain in the community and become a part of the civilian labor force — a huge factor as more and more STEM-based jobs come to the area.

Fort Bragg, home of the U.S. Army Airborne and Special Operations forces.

Fayetteville State University Science and Technology building.

Photos: Fayetteville State University

The Tony Rand Student Center is considered by many students the heart of the Fayetteville campus.

Photos: FTCC Media Services

The third piece is education. Under Gov. Roy Cooper, education budgets have increased in the state during the past two years, with specific emphasis on teacher development, overall course growth, and STEM-based classes. “Education is the most important job in state government,” Gov. Cooper said on “Education Matters.” “We know it’s the key to the future of young people and the economy. STEM is at the center of much of our future economy and tech development, so we’re working to emphasize that more and more as our overall quality of education continues to improve. Our goal is to be No. 1 in the Southeast.”

Fayetteville in Cumberland County is a place where the latest technologies are applied with Fort Bragg Army soldiers and federal defense and technology government contractors. The area has a long tradition of making things the world needs — and a historic willingness to anticipate and adapt to changes. That’s one of the reasons so many companies in innovative manufacturing are anchored in the area, from metalworking to auto parts, plastic molding to lighting and appliances, to electrical transmission components. Major tech contractors reflect the diversity that appeals to STEM graduates. They include ACLC Innovation for Growth, Booz Allen Hamilton, Aevex Aerospace, General Dynamics, IBM, Microsoft, MAG Aerospace, and more.

The area’s young workforce comes from Fayetteville State University, Methodist University, and Fayetteville Technical College, as well as the Academy of Math and Science for High School, which works hand-inhand with K-12 schools. Another program is Fayetteville State University’s Strengthening Stem 4 Success (S4) Program, a federally NSF-funded grant program that increases enrollment and completion of students in STEM programs that lead directly to career positions. The four specific aspects are S4 Research Scholars Program, STEM Professional Seminar Course Sequence, Assessment-Based Adaptive Math, and Peer Tutoring and Supplemental Instruction. Highly educated residents have earned many degrees in STEM fields such as Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Computer & Information Sciences, and Mathematics & Statistics. !

— Beth Covington FALL/WINTER 2020 | STEM TODAY

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Product Showcase

STEM Holiday Gift Ideas

DAMI Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) Sit and Play http://www.animalisland.us.com MSRP – $199 Safety and learning are two of the top concerns that parents face when it comes to our children. AILA has made these concerns manageable with the Animal Island Learning Adventure Monitor System. It doubles as an interactive, educational learning system and baby monitor all in one. It comes preloaded with eight different curriculum areas. Since the system is preloaded, the fear of ads or pop-ups becomes a non-issue. The Animal Island Learning Adventure Monitor provides your child with safety and the ability to learn at home during the early stages of cognitive development.

Parents will also have the option to download the AILA parent app and monitor your child’s progress and visually see all of their successes! I would highly recommend this early years one-stop-shop tool for parents to see their children blossom in the early stages of childhood development.

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By Erin James

Blaze Pod Teenage or adults www.blazepod.com MSRP – $279

(includes four pods and free unlimited access to Blaze Pods workout activities)

Staying physically fit is something everyone and every parent should make a priority. Blaze Pod not only helped make our physical training and abilities stronger, but took their training to the next level by creating an interactive workout experience to include cognitive training. They have managed to offer a full body workout system while training our brains at the same time. Blaze Pod is a touch sensitive pod that makes our workouts more fun and challenging in each session. With the use of visual cues from the pods, inviting you to tap them, Blaze pod tests your reaction times, agility, strength, memory, and decision-making.

Pre-loaded workouts include training for balance, coordination, core, flexibility, power, spatial awareness, speed, stamina, and more!

With the Blaze Pod App, you also will have the capability of tracking your workouts to see how you performed in each area, which will help you track your progress and compare your stats. Blaze pod also offers you the ability to target problem areas and create customized workouts based on your own body’s needs. I strongly feel that the Blaze Pod system would be ideal for anyone wanting to improve their physical and mental health. Also, as a former high school soccer player, I see the Blaze Pod system being extremely beneficial to high school athletes trying to take their game to the next level.

JOBY: Gorilla Pod Vlogging Kit www.joby.com MSRP – $199.95 As our world continues to grow and be more innovative, JOBY has made the lives of content creators much easier and more manageable with the JOBY Gorilla Pod Vlogging Kit. The Gorilla Pod is an all-in-one kit for our virtual creators. It includes the GorillaPod Mobile Rig, Mini LED and Wavo lights, and a Mobile Microphone.

The lightweight materials and design add up to a portable kit that weighs in at only 19 oz. Creators will enjoy the flexibility, pitch perfect audio and portrait ready lighting. The attachments are Bluetooth-enabled and detachable, giving the creator everything you need at your fingertips on the go!

When your child’s next virtual assignments pops up, JOBY will be here to help in giving you the best tools necessary to complete the task. You can also review and edit your content on the myJOBY app.

Product Showcase YuJet Surfer Electric Jetboard www.yujet.com MSRP – $9,999 (financing is available via Affirm) We even have a gift idea for those who can afford a high-ticket item built for adventure and building stamina and prioproceptive skills.

Can the surfing world come to you, no matter where you live? The answer is yes! YuJet has done just that with the YuJet Surfer Electric Jetboard. YuJet has provided beginners to professionals with the ability for riders to travel for 40 minutes, or up to a 16-mile range on one charge. Reaching up to 24 mph, riders will be able to transfer between modes using the handheld remote, giving each rider the ability to go at their own pace or skill level. YuJet Surfer Electric Jetboard is not only a new way to be out on the water, but it is also eco-friendly with no harmful emissions, noise pollution, or fuel required. YuJet has given the surfing world a new look and more opportunities to each rider’s potential.

CozyBomb Monkey Balance Counting Math Games www.cozybomb.com MSRP – $18.98 CozyBomb has added another level to early childhood development with the CozyBomb Monkey.

It offers youngsters the ability to visually learn their numbers by balancing a math problem on the scales on each side of the adorable monkey. It introduces numbers in a fun new way to peek the interest of wondering new minds. The balancing monkey math games will grow memory, attention, and problem-solving functions to improve our children’s ever-growing brain development. This toy will provide hours of fun and learning all at the same time. Parents can watch their children’s math development bloom as the relationship grows with their new math helping buddy!

Pakoo STEM Toy 5 in 1 Kit www.pakoo.com MSRP – $29.99 As a parent, I adore this! Pakoo 5 in 1 Toy Kit will have children busy engineering their own 109piece motorized (battery operated) electric model. The models can then be torn down and rebuilt in five different ways. They will use their problem-solving skills to construct everything from a helicopter to an off-road truck. With your child’s imagination, the possibilities are endless. Pakoo has also included a step-by-step instruction manual to assist in the engineering of their own robots.

Working as a team to build interaction and teamwork with their friends is just another benefit this toy has to offer. Pakoo has provided your children with the kit offered to take their engineering capabilities to their next unknown adventure, whether it be on dirt or flying high above our heads.

Viahart Brain Flakes www.viahart.com MSRP – $19.99 Viahart has introduced Brain Flakes, a 500-piece interlocking disc set. Brain Flakes comes with a step-by-step instruction manual to help your child build their own ball. This will introduce the child to how the interlocking system works. The possibilities are endless with this new approach to constructing and building. Brain Flakes are child safe, BPA, lead, heavy metal and phthalate free! Brain Flakes will develop spatial intelligence and thinking. This toy would be great for a family night at the kitchen table, as you put your minds together to build and create as far as your imagination allows!

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COMING NEXT ISSUE SCIFEST ALL ACCESS Like thousands of others, we (virtually) attended the SciFest All Access event — the second major virtual event from the USA Science & Engineering Festival. We will bring you all the highlights and many discoveries, as well as the comments and insights of Jason Latimer, Ron Moye, and the other keynote presenters. We will also break out some of the key takeaway points that can be used in the classroom and online for further STEM studies.

STEM WORLD One of the coolest all-STEM campuses in the country has been slowly building steam in Pasadena, CA. Appropriate place, since that’s also the home of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory — where Mars rover missions are monitored — and CalTech, one of the world’s most prestigious schools. We will walk inside the doors at STEM World and show you how they’re engaging students of all ages, and innovating the way STEM is taught, in collaboration with and also independent of public and private schools.

STATUS OF STEM POST-COVID-19 Like practically every other segment of the economy and education, STEM has taken a substantial hit from the coronavirus pandemic. What will STEM education look like in America post-COVID-19? And how will off-campus, after-school programs bounce back after being severely impacted? We reach out to administrators, teachers, industry experts and more to present a look at paths forward as we go into 2021 and beyond.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES, TECH — AND STEM More and more community colleges are shaving off their older, legacy curriculum, and replacing it with tech and STEM-specific courses. They’re doing it for two reasons: to offer continuing education in STEM fields; and to provide specific job training, often in partnership with nearby corporations. We take a deep dive into this emerging trend in education — and how it is impacting communities and career opportunities.

VOICES OF THE TEACHERS From our columns to interviews, we continue our conversations with STEM teachers throughout the country, giving you the most insightful developments on classroom education, outside projects and the amazing feats of students — in their own words.

All of this, and much more, coming to you in the Winter issue of STEM Today!

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When it comes to developing the people and the technology to protect America’s freedom, it’s hard to think of an area that has more experience than Fayetteville and Cumberland County. We’re the gateway to Fort Bragg, home of the U.S. Army’s Airborne and Special Operations forces, with leading tech and defense contractors that performed �1.3B in prime Federal contracts last year. Our young and skilled workforce is drawn from an internationally diverse community with vibrant, creative energy and an upbeat downtown.

Visit investfayetteville.com to learn about your next business opportunity in Fayetteville.

Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation | info@fayedc.com | 910-500-6464