A couple of years ago I started Models for Learning. The company’s tag line is “engaging the students of today to solve the problems of tomorrow.” The mission of the company is to interest and prepare youth for careers in Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics. Along those lines I have worked on the STEM Challenges model of engagement. A STEM Challenge is an engagement model designed to increase learner interest and preparation in STEM by engaging them in solving real world problems.
Today I came across the STEM Challenges website, a new site created by STEM Net in the UK:
A new initiative to inspire the next generation of British scientists and engineers was launched today (Monday 12 October 2009) on the Olympic Park in London. All secondary schools in the UK are being urged to take part in a series of ten STEM Challenges which encourage pupils to explore the challenges involved in delivering the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and tackle them using science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills.
This sounds really cool and aligned with my idea for stem challenges. Centering challenges around something as interesting as the Olympics, creating a public forum for sharing solutions, and rewarding responses.
Each term there will be a regional winner of the Challenge, chosen by a panel of STEM Ambassadors and online voting by all of the participating schools. Each of the ten regional finalist teams will then go on to compete at national level for a change to win an ‘experience’ prize, related to the Olympics.
I’m interested to see what comes of this. I think similar competitions could be centered around the grand challenges.
Posted on November 10th, 2009 by joel
Filed under: stem
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