Question:What’s the first rule of STEM careers?
Answer: Don’t talk about STEM careers!

In a recent survey, a majority of students said that while their science and math teachers seem knowledgeable and keep class interesting, they aren’t teaching about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career options. High school students also said they don’t believe STEM knowledge is integral to getting a good job, which doesn’t bode well for leaders counting on STEM education to keep the nation at the forefront of the global economy.

The survey, conducted in December, asked more than a thousand students in grades 3-12 to provide a scaled report card (with grades ranging from A-F) on their science teachers’ classroom skills and activities.

Although 85 percent of students said their teachers deserve at least a “B” when it comes to knowledge about science topics (55 percent of students gave their teachers an “A”), 63 percent of high school students said their teachers are not doing a good job of talking to them about engineering careers (”C” or lower), and 42 percent of high school students said their teachers don’t ably demonstrate how science can be used in a career (”C” or lower).

Survey: Educators aren’t discussing STEM careers with students

Related articles by Zemanta

• Hands-on learning key to kids’ interest in sci/tech fields (arstechnica.com)
• High schoolers on the job; School-to-career program gives students hands-on experience (bendbulletin.com)

Nine Research-Supported Facts About Gifted Education: “In 2008, Dr. Sally M. Reis (University of Connecticut) prepared a National Association for Gifted Children position paper listing facts that we know to be true about gifted education.

She limited this list to include only conclusive statements that can be supported with many years of research findings about gifted education. Certainly, she could have included others; however, the idea behind this list was to collect those statements that had so much solid support, they could be considered established facts.”

Head on over to the Prufrock Press site to read the nine facts. They are pretty interesting. As you read them, think about your district and how they educate gifted children. Is your child really getting the best education they should get?

In recent years, psychologists have come up with a term to describe this mental trait: grit. Although the idea itself isn’t new – “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” Thomas Edison famously remarked – the researchers are quick to point out that grit isn’t simply about the willingness to work hard. Instead, it’s about setting a specific long-term goal and doing whatever it takes until the goal has been reached. It’s always much easier to give up, but people with grit can keep going.

While stories of grit have long been associated with self-help manuals and life coaches – Samuel Smiles, the author of the influential Victorian text “Self-Help” preached the virtue of perseverance – these new scientific studies rely on new techniques for reliably measuring grit in individuals. As a result, they’re able to compare the relative importance of grit, intelligence, and innate talent when it comes to determining lifetime achievement. Although this field of study is only a few years old, it’s already made important progress toward identifying the mental traits that allow some people to accomplish their goals, while others struggle and quit. Grit, it turns out, is an essential (and often overlooked) component of success.

As parents of gifted children, we tend to lose on the idea that finishing a project is often more important than receiving an A+ for that project (or assignment). We tend to determine success by the number of A’s and B’s rather than by the amount of class assignments completed, or whether or not a self-directed project was complete.

The idea that grit is more important may change the point of view of some of our educators as well.

Read more about it at the Boston Globe.