Innovation Collaborative

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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission and Goals
    • STEAM Position
    • Diversity in STEAM Education
    • History
    • Council
    • Institutions
    • Staff
  • Improve Practice
    • K-12 Effective Practices
    • K-12 Innovation Fellows
    • Out-of-school effective practices
    • STEAM Teacher & Administrator Professional Development
    • Rationale
  • Collaborate
    • Research Thought Leaders
    • Convene
  • Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Creative and Innovative Thinking Skills
    • Certified STEAM Lessons
    • Certified STEAM Rubrics
    • Peer-Reviewed Articles
    • Bibliography
    • Books for kids
  • Blog

THIRD INNOVATION COLLABORATIVE STEAM RESEARCH ARTICLE PUBLISHED

10/18/2021

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The Collaborative’s first goal is conducting and sharing research on the many ways that STEAM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Arts/Humanities, and Math) promotes creative and innovative thinking for all demographics. Throughout the 7 years of this research in K-12, the Collaborative has focused on discovering the most effective practices in classroom implementation and teacher professional development. This work has been generously supported in part by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

To share its research, the Collaborative publishes its findings in peer-reviewed journals, among other venues. The third Collaborative research article, “Effects of Transdisciplinary STEAM Lessons on Student Critical and Creative Thinking”, has just been published by The Journal of Education Research, a publication of Routledge, Taylor, and Francis, the leading publisher in academic education.

The article is primarily authored by Bess Wilson, PhD, Collaborative K-12 Co-chair and Assistant Professor, Department of Foundations and Secondary Education, University of North Florida. Secondary article authors are Collaborative Executive Director Lucinda Presley, Collaborative Innovation Fellow Kimberly Olson, and Dr. Wilson’s graduate assistants HwanHee Song and Julie Johnson.

The article shows how STEAM classroom lessons and experiences can strengthen student creative thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and persistence.

In line with another Collaborative goal, applying research to practice, these findings, along with all other research findings, will be applied to the Collaborative’s upcoming STEAM teacher professional development and classroom implementation in the 2021-22 academic year. These findings will be integrated with the Collaborative’s Culturally Responsive Teaching strategies to meet the needs of all learners, especially those in underrepresented populations. 

You can find the article at: Effects of Transdisciplinary STEAM Lessons on Student Critical and Creative Thinking.

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Innovation Collaborative Visibility Update

10/18/2021

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The Collaborative’s Visibility Committee has been researching strategies and content to help raise the public profile of the organization, motivate membership, and provide more value to member educators, administrators, and other invested stakeholders. Much of its proposed work focuses on website content and social media engagement. This includes:
  • Providing video interviews with thought leaders on a range of issues 
  • Linking to other STEAM-based teacher professional development made publicly available by member professional education service organizations, such as NAEA, NSTA, and EdTA
  • Publishing newsletter columns that feature STEAM conversations between thought leaders and examples of transdisciplinary learning 
  • Posting regularly on social media with a variety of information.
The Visibility Committee also is working to create more readily available branding graphics that will allow its members and their institutions to use on their own websites and presentation slide decks. Additionally, the committee will make available core language that its members can use in their biographies and presentations to acknowledge their support of the Collaborative.

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CREATING EQUITY IN ARTS EDUCATION

10/18/2021

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Arts education institutions and their members across the US are addressing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) in a variety of ways.​

View this Arts Are Education Talk It Up podcast to learn some of the ways this is being accomplished.

The podcast is hosted by Jim Palmarini, Educational Theatre Association Policy and Advocacy Advisor and Director of the Arts ARE Education (ARE) campaign. ARE is sponsored by the National Coalition for Core Arts Education (NCCAS), a coalition of national arts and arts education organizations working to make standards-based arts education available for every student.

This ARE podcast features Erika Hawthorne, Education Specialist for the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a national network of organizations dedicated to promoting arts education. In this podcast, Ms. Hawthorne discusses AEP’s Equity Working Group and its current efforts.

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CREATING EQUITY IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

10/18/2021

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By Sharon Delesbore, PhD, Collaborative Board Member         

Sharon Delesbore, PhD, is a Collaborative Board member and President of the Association for Multicultural Science Education, an affiliate of National Science Teaching Association (NSTA). She also is Asst. Principal, LV Hightower High School, in Ft. Bend ISD, Missouri City, TX.

This article is an adaptation of a blog she was invited to write for the STEM Teacher Leadership Network. This network is an NSTA affiliate that focuses on improving schools, policy, and the future of STEM education. As the Collaborative focuses on serving the needs of diverse populations, this article points out the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion in science education.

I must preface this piece with honesty. It was difficult for me to pull my thoughts together to write given the many incidents of injustice, white privilege and racism that remind us of the continued inequities in our society. In an effort to create an America of equality, we, as a nation, have worked hard not to offend “others”. When I say “others”, I mean the different groups of people who have felt neglected, negated, and punished for not fitting into the idealized image of being an “American” that is commonly communicated by our mainstream and social media. 

Truthfully, this country’s forefathers created a document framed in biased ideologies. Their definition of being “created equal” was limited to white men of financial means. It is 2021 and things have changed, with new, courageous voices speaking up, asserting that individuals and organizations must become self-reflective practitioners and conscientious reformers willing to meet the challenges of creating equity in all aspects of our society. The need for equity is most pressing in the education of our students, including in science education.

Our work to create equity in science education will not come to fruition until educators recognize and realize that the work starts from within. Are we truly ready to look ourselves in the mirror and ask tough questions that go to the root of our beliefs about how we think about all people, whether black, white, Hispanic, Indian, male, female, rich, poor, disabled, or gifted? I am speaking particularly of and to anyone who feels that they have not been represented with dignity. I am speaking of and to anyone who believes that they do not have a seat at the table of decision-making. I invite you to pull up your own chair because your thoughts are valued and your input wanted.

For any conversation to begin, I always like to start with an operational definition of words. There are many shared definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion; the ones I’m sharing here are but one example. 

Diversity refers to the demographic subgroups within educational institutions. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), released in April 2013, identified student diversity through seven case studies noted in Appendix D – “All Standards, All Students: Making the Next Generation Science Standards Accessible to All Students". The four accountability groups defined in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act [ESEA], Section 1111(b)(2)(C)(v) were;
  • Economically disadvantaged students,
  • Students from major racial and ethnic groups,
  • Students with disabilities, and
  • Students with limited English proficiency.

Further, student diversity is extended by adding three groups:
  • Girls,
  • Students in alternative education programs, and
  • Gifted and talented students
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This listing of groups is not exclusive. These parameters were derived from science instructional colleagues to help us collect data. All students matter when it comes to science literacy.

Equity is the intentional consideration, formulation, and implementation of practices, policies, and procedures within an organization to deter systemic biases that can hinder the measurable outcome of programming as well as create barriers that can affect student achievement within demographic subgroups in comparison to institutional expectations and performance standards. Equity fosters accountability between stakeholders involved in the decision-making process and those designated to perform within the organization. A conscientious, equitable mindset can help begin the process of desegregating and reversing bias implications of practice. To create equity in science education will demand individual and corporate reflection that includes asking some tough, fundamental questions. One strategy that might help is the application of the A-List Approach©, which was developed by Dr. Delesbore to create equitable opportunities in science education for all students. It can address this dilemma by:
  1. Assessing the entire system of focus (i.e. science education) without bias or barriers
  2. Addressing the pros and cons of the system
  3. Altering the system by redesigning a plan of action
  4. Activating the plan of action.
  5. Assessing again and again to ensure accountability.

Inclusion is an opportunity to reach all stakeholders by consciously being mindful of their needs. In other words, we must conscientiously be inclusive instead of exclusive. Inclusion promotes analysis and evaluation in order to determine needs. Our personal philosophy of how we interpret life changes because we are now formatting our minds to conscientiously and intentionally identify factors and barriers that would cause any person to ‘not be successful’ in our great land of opportunity and freedom.

Creating equity in science education is a ginormous undertaking. As scientists, we thrive in data. The challenge is reminding decision-makers our students are the deliverable outcome of the curriculum we develop, time we invest, budgets we anticipate, and futures that we hold in the palm of our hands. Every decision we make determines the destiny of every child. We must take the blinders off, remove bias, prejudice, and racism from the equations that we formulate in our society to ensure that all students have the same opportunity to excel and contribute to our America, whether in science or whatever endeavor they pursue, given the educational opportunity they so richly and equally deserve.
 

About the Author: Dr. Sharon Delesbore is the president of the Association for Multicultural Science Education (AMSE), an affiliate organization of the National Science Teaching Association. AMSE was organized to stimulate and promote science teaching to students of culturally diverse backgrounds and to motivate such students to consider science-related careers; to explore and promote the improvement of science curriculum, educational systems and teaching methods in school; to assist such stimulation; to recruit and involve teachers of all minorities in science education; and to initiate and engage in activities and programs to further improve the science education of culturally diverse students.

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How Art and Science Spark Creativity

10/18/2021

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In case you missed it when published in 2017, The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World is well worth a weekend of deep thought. Authors David Eagleman (a neuroscientist) and Anthony Brandt (a musician) take a unique look at human history and innovation from their diverse but complementary perspectives.

Eagleman is the Emmy-winning writer and host of the PBS series, The Brain. He also is the director of the Center for Science and Law at Stanford University. Brandt is a composer and Artistic Director of the contemporary music ensemble Musiqa, winner of two Adventurous Programming Awards from Chamber Music America and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). 
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Not an “odd couple” at all, the co-authors look at art and science together. They examine how many innovators--from Picasso to Steve Jobs--build on what already exists to create something new. Their paradigm is organized into three categories:
  • Bending—changing the structure of something that exists to accomplish a new purpose
  • Breaking—taking something apart to rebuild something new 
  • Blending—combining the components of two or more existing objects into something totally different.

The authors begin with a re-telling of the process that kept the Apollo13 astronauts alive when their space capsule was crippled by an explosion as it was approaching the moon in 1970. Among the numerous problems solved by the Apollo 13 astronauts and ground crew, one of the most creative was using onboard items such as socks and duct tape to create a square scrubber to fit into a round hole so that they would not be overcome by too much carbon dioxide. The authors then discuss Pablo Picasso’s groundbreaking Cubist artwork, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Picasso worked on this painting for months, showing it to disapproving friends but never quitting. Eagleman and Brandt assert that “the cognitive routines underlying NASA’s and Picasso’s creative acts are the same.”

The book is filled with countless other examples, including how the invention of flamboyant hairstyles, bicycles, and stadium designs might share the same basic processes. As one reviewer noted: “Understanding ourselves and our creativity is a journey that also helps us to understand what makes us human".

What makes this book especially valuable to educators is that these examples can be models for students to use when innovating. A question such as “Could you solve this challenge by bending or breaking or blending?” can be the spark. Students who might have been convinced that they were not creative can find ways to appreciate themselves and their own unique ways of thinking. “Thriving in a constantly changing world requires us to understand what’s happening inside our heads when we innovate', the authors remind us.

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Crossing Boundaries

10/18/2021

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In Fostering a STEAM Mindset across Learning Settings, Laura D. Carsten Conner, Blakely K. Tsurusaki, Carrie Tzou, Perrin Teal Sullivan, Mareca Guthrie, and Stephen M. Pompea describe their seven-year project to connect both out-of-school and in-school practitioners and settings. They initially developed their conceptions of STEAM mindset in out-of-school summer academies for youth. The STEAM kits they developed in these settings were eventually adopted by the local school district. Their report, in Connected Science Learning (October - December, 2019) describes “a tapestry of STEAM connections between in-school and out-of-school settings.”

Most impressive in their report is evidence that “self-compassion, rather than self-judgment, can help quiet (a child’s) negative inner voice and promote creative practice”.  They describe these key principles:
  • Privileging creativity rather than rote practice
  • Highlighting “mistakes” as opportunities for discovery
  • Stressing the intrinsic value of process rather than product
  • Focusing on activities with multiple possible outcomes
  • Promoting enthusiasm and playfulness
  • Building opportunities for youth to communicate about their work.

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Examining STEAM and Its Potential Pitfalls

10/18/2021

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In The Trouble with STEAM and Why We Use It Anyway! its diverse authors argue: “STEAM offers significant promise through its focus on multiple ways of knowing and new pathways to equitable learning. On the other hand, it is often deployed in theory, pedagogy, and practice in ambiguous or potentially problematic ways toward varying ends”. 

The authors analyze varying STEAM definitions and warn that because the approach has so many different interpretations, using the term STEAM “may force a backlash against inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to learning”. They trace the history of the approach and document a variety of research strands that have contributed to understanding STEAM today. 

The report pays particular attention to the great potential of programs “where STEAM is conceptualized as both pedagogical and mutually instrumental, meaning neither the STEM fields nor arts are privileged over the other, but all fields are equally in play with the potential for transforming educational policy and practice”. 

This scholarly article can provide significant support to teams that want to innovate across boundaries in ways that break traditional norms. The extensive reference section provides more empirical support for developers.
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Read more about the work of authors Sam Mejias, Naomi Thompson, Raul Mishael Sedas, Mark Rosin, Elisabeth Soep, Kylie Peppler, Joseph Roche, Jen Wong, Mairéad Hurley, and Philip Bell in Science Education, March, 2021.

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Applying Research Thought Leader Wisdom (part 2)

5/23/2021

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The Collaborative’s Research Thought Leaders help provide the strong research foundation for the Collaborative’s work. Each Thought Leader is nationally and internationally recognized in their own field and brings an extensive depth of experience and expertise. They also are adept at working across disciplines.

In previous newsletters, we brought you interviews with each of our Thought Leaders. This new series, launched in the Winter 2021 newsletter, reflects on how you might apply some of their most important ideas in your STEAM work. To do so, we’re using examples of the Collaborative’s successful application of these ideas in K-12 classroom implementation and teacher professional development. The first article examined creative and innovative thinking. This second article examines STEAM and interdisciplinary learning. Future series articles will look at such topics as applications of these concepts to learning settings, STEAM educator training, and creating effective STEAM models. The information below is based on Thought Leaders’ interviews and an in-person convening in Washington, D.C. in 2016, that was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Interdisciplinary Learning
Interdisciplinarity refers to knowledge that spans disciplines and fields. It is particularly relevant in the 21st century since many innovations occur at the intersections of various fields. Also, we live our fast-paced lives in an interdisciplinary manner, often experiencing science, art, and humanities phenomena simultaneously. 

Thought Leader Input
  • Importance of processing information. All Thought Leaders agree that, in our era of standards-based learning, processing information is most important. This includes getting our students to effectively integrate science practices/processes, arts competencies/habits of mind, and humanities skills/habits of mind. In short, in addition to teaching the WHAT, we should teach the HOW. Creativity Thought Leader Bonnie Cramond, PhD, says that we should embed the higher-level thinking skills and processes throughout any lesson.
  • Innovation. Neuroscience Thought Leader, Sandi Chapman, PhD, points out that students need to develop a broad-based perspective (a meta view) by integrating concepts across disciplines and then applying that integration to innovation. She adds that, based on their research at the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth, when you change a classroom to be innovative, schools’ performance on standardized tests improves, among other things. “Our brain is an engine that can get excited about learning,” she says, adding that when students learn the facts they can apply them to innovative problem-solving. This, she says, applies to all ages to promote lifelong learning.
  • Problem-solving. Dr. Cramond points out that we must emphasize the problem-solving process in learning. We also must improve the way that students refine and narrow the problem in their problem-solving process. Science Thought Leader Hubert Dyasi, PhD, agrees. He says that often problem-solving is a set of steps to follow and that we must move away from this formulaic approach. We must ask the students, he continues, what is the problem about, what knowledge do they have that can help solve the problem, and what knowledge can the student use from other fields to help solve the problem.
  • Changing Perspectives. Dr. Dyasi also points out the importance of looking at problems from different perspectives, such as looking at a science problem from the art perspective. An example of this is looking at the behavior of materials, he adds. It is also important, he says, for students to bring the perspective of their everyday lives to the problem-solving experience.
  • Arts and Science. Arts Thought Leader Rob Horowitz, PhD, states that it is important to look at how the cognitive, social, and personal competencies learned in the arts are applied in other disciplines and vice versa. Transfer, he discovered in his research, can benefit all disciplines. For example, arts skills of creativity, imagination, and the willingness to express oneself are also applied in STEM. We want to be sure, he emphasizes, that in these integrations, the arts experience has integrity as an arts experience, not as an afterthought. (See Fall, 2020 article on transfer).
  • Visual Thinking. Dr. Chapman says that in addition to art for art’s sake, visual art is an important way to synthesize information. Students also should be encouraged to use visual thinking to better understand math, writing, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Dr. Dyasi agrees, saying that in science the representation is often visual and it’s important to be able to think visually.
  • Integrating Disciplines. Our ultimate goal, Dr. Cramond says, is to have lessons and experiences that integrate the arts, STEM, and humanities where the boundaries are blurred and the disciplines fit together seamlessly. This includes, she says, having the higher-level thinking skills embedded throughout the experience. Dr. Dyasi adds that this type of learning is best addressed in units instead of in a single, short lesson.
  • Imagination. Dr. Dyasi also stresses the importance of imagination. This, he says, is how scientists move from data to generalizations to modeling. These steps are important in helping students “see” science ideas, he adds.

Application
  • The Collaborative’s National Endowment for the Arts-supported multi-year and multi-session teacher professional development (PD) effective practices project addresses these important Thought Leader concepts. It deeply trains teachers in the uses of interdisciplinarity. One science teacher graduate of the course said, “Before this course, I saw the arts as the icing on the cake; I now see them as a very important part of the batter. The cake, itself would not be complete without them.” 
  • To provide this effective training, the Collaborative addresses the three most prominent forms of interdisciplinary learning: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. 
  1. ​In multidisciplinary learning, students plan toward a common goal but work on different disciplines separately, combining them at the end. 
  2. In interdisciplinary learning, there are opportunities for integration, but the experience is structured so that students work within separate disciplines. When combined, the disciplines enhance each other, but are not dependent on each other for success. 
  3. In transdisciplinary learning, students work on different disciplines interdependently and simultaneously, seeing that one discipline cannot complete the task without the other. Students have a deeper understanding of each discipline and reach an overarching synthesis. This synthesis can help solve problems, explain phenomena, create a product, and more. 
  • The Collaborative’s research found that, for teacher professional development: 
    • It is beneficial to make the training a multi-year process to promote deeper understanding and use of interdisciplinarity. 
    • The multi- to inter- to transdisciplinary continuum is essential. While many teachers are at the multi- or interdisciplinary stage, the ultimate goal is to integrate transdisciplinary experiences into their curriculum.
    • Integrating the habits of mind and process thinking skills across disciplines is very important. This helps students learn the facts, the standards-based content.
    • Qualitative assessment is needed to capture the depth and richness of the learning and thinking. 
    • This type of training has made a significant difference in students’ content engagement and learning, in addition to higher-level thinking.

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Using STEAM to Support Remote Learners

5/23/2021

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By Lucinda Presley and Tricia Shelton

In this article written for Collaborative member organization, the Arts Education Partnership, authors Lucinda Presley and Tricia Shelton detail how the Collaborative and the National Science Teaching Foundation can support STEAM-based learning for remote learners in these challenging times and into the future.


Since remote and hybrid learning are dominant modes of teaching for the foreseeable future, educators and students alike can benefit from STEAM learning strategies to promote engagement and learning across settings. Research suggests that STEAM (the integration of sciences, technology, engineering, the arts and math) education can help address these needs by increasing student engagement and preventing learning loss associated with remote learning.

STEAM education can help develop students’ creative, social and emotional, and critical thinking skills to enable them to effectively process and navigate these unprecedented times. The transdisciplinary focus of STEAM education is also well positioned to reduce redundancy and maximize learning across the disciplines when instructional time is at a premium.

The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) and the Innovation Collaborative have developed strategies and recommendations for high-quality STEAM learning for all students, which educators can integrate into their remote learning situations.

Pillars of Sensemaking
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NSTA recommends four “must haves”, or pillars, for this type of high-quality instruction.
These four sensemaking pillars focus on the following opportunities and learning for all students:

  • Nurture a sense of belonging as a valued member of the classroom learning community.
  • Use real-world phenomena or problems to drive learning by leveraging the interests, experiences and cultural and community assets students bring to the learning community.
  • Authentically engage students in the practices of the five STEAM disciplines.
  • Provide opportunities for students to share ideas and revise conceptions as they build understanding of targeted core ideas of STEAM disciplines to explain how or why the phenomena occurred and/or solved problems.

Strategies for Integrating STEAM Into Virtual Settings

These sensemaking pillars dovetail with successful hybrid lesson planning strategies the Innovation Collaborative found in preliminary studies that were completed with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The following strategic steps are designed for real-world problem solving that engages and empowers students to explore important concepts:
  • Decide what content/concept(s) and disciplinary practices/habits of mind you will use.
  • Work with a teacher in another discipline to integrate content and practices across disciplines. (To be STEAM, this must include an arts component!)
  • Determine the Big Idea for your integrated lesson.
  • Start with hands-on activities or problems to solve from your discipline and then integrate hands-on activities from the other discipline that dovetail with your content.
  • Assess the lesson and student projects qualitatively using rubrics.

These five strategic steps, coupled with the STEAM sensemaking pillars, can improve remote learning for students through STEAM education. NSTA and the Innovation Collaborative offer examples of lessons, rubrics and professional learning that can be used at home or in classrooms.
While the future is uncertain regarding remote and hybrid learning, we are certain that STEAM education will continue to provide meaningful learning experiences for students. Enjoy seeing students thrive and grow!

aep-arts.org

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Collaborative Online STEAM Teacher Professional Development Grows

5/21/2021

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The Innovation Collaborative’s national online STEAM teacher professional development series is expanding.
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Launched in spring, 2020, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, this professional development program trains teachers in STEAM effective classroom practices using the Collaborative’s K-12 research outcomes.

Despite the pandemic, more than 24 administrators and arts, sciences, math, and social studies teachers from across the U.S. have already completed the course. The current spring, 2021, cohort is simultaneously training teachers, administrators, and course facilitators. These facilitators are course graduates and also Collaborative Innovation Fellows. Given their gained experience and expertise, these facilitators will be well positioned to conduct future online professional development for the Collaborative.

Both teachers and administrators report a desire to continue their training. To do so, the 2020-21 cohorts have begun networking virtually to continue collaborations long-term through guidance and a networking platform provided by the Collaborative.

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Confessions from  a  STEAM-Powered Career

5/20/2021

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​By David Pyle, Collaborative Advisory Council member

I have a confession to make: I love organic chemistry. It's true. My original education was in the arts. Music and a BFA in painting and drawing. Then I was ruthlessly seduced by chemistry, physics, and math. That combination fueled a deeply rewarding career in business and media. A career that never would have happened had I not studied music, art, AND science. 

Now, after 35 years that included managing consumer brand marketing, teaching, editing, writing, and executive leadership in publishing and media, I'm focusing on creating stories and resources that make those intersections between the arts and sciences - and the opportunities that arise within - clear and irresistible. For example, see the short resource videos at my CreativEnergy channel (https://tinyurl.com/5guohbwa) with titles like: ‘Mystery of the Portly Painting’ (did you know that oil paintings the world over are gaining weight at this very moment) and ‘Where'd that Color (Van)Gogh?’ (let's throw basketballs at poodle-shaped molecule models!). ‘From Caves to Charcoal to Carbon Fiber’ takes a Fred-Flintstone-Cro-Magnon guy from chewing on bear fat to inventing art-making to the molecular tetrahedrals of carbon.
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I’ve had such a rewarding career - in business, teaching (art + Montessori), publishing and media - not because I operated as an “art-person” or a “science-type”, but because I’ve been fortunate to live and work in the convergence of the two. I had an inkling of what this could mean when I took my first college course in organic chemistry, a topic that people often say brings them to their knees. It was a summer program in which the class met for three hours each day, jamming two full semesters into just 10 weeks. I did well in the class. Really well. And I found that I loved the subject. Why? Because organic chemistry is highly sculptural. To understand what's happening at a molecular level, you have to be able to visualize what's happening in three-dimensions. I soon concluded that I was in love with the subject (in a way that other students clearly were not!) because of the experience I had as a visual artist. I could clearly SEE what was going to happen around the bonding sites of different molecules and the mechanisms that would drive their "dance”.
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Over a period of years, it became abundantly clear to me that one of the most powerful and effective routes to really seeing the mechanisms of chemistry and physics - and of business and management - is through the creative skills that come with an artistic, integrative eye and ear. I've written and spoken about the "Perfect Intersection" in the arts; the fact that learning in the arts creates context and meaning around and within the other disciplines. In the hopes of making that connection tangible and real for others - and to add another voice to the many excellent programs and resources being developed across the STEAM community - I've launched the aforementioned CreativEnergy channel. Free lesson plans and other resources will be added soon. 
Confessions of a love for other disciplines? There are so many others who can say the same. And while confession may be good for the soul - I hope it will also be good for STEAM!

About David Pyle

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David's 35-year career in the arts and business has been fueled by his education in music, painting, and chemistry. In addition to experience as a teacher, he's managed consumer brands in the artist's products category, serving as Director of Marketing for Winsor+Newton and then Brand Director for Liquitex. In 2000, his book, What Every Artist Needs to Know About Paints and Colors, was published by Krause. Over the last 15 years, he’s served as publisher for the largest media brands in the fine art-making and crafting categories, most recently as Senior Vice President/Group Publisher with F+W Media managing The Artist’s Magazine, American Artist, Watercolor Artist, Interweave Knits, Love of Quilting and, online, ArtistsNework.com, ArtistsNetwork.TV, QuiltingDaily.com and Interweave.com and more. Through it all, he's continued to paint. In 2020, he left the corporate media world and launched a number of art-making initiatives, a new marketing services group called Pyle Creative Studio, and a series of educational resources for the art and science community.

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Imagination and STEM Learning

5/19/2021

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By Juliana Texley, Collaborative Board member and former NSTA President

Is there a divide between science and imagination? Common conceptions of science as non-imaginative persist, but research suggests the critical role of imagination, both in the practice of STEM and in shaping learners' perceptions of themselves. Leaders at the Museum of Science, Boston, are exploring the intersections of imagination, STEM, and education practice in ways that are actionable for museum professionals. Their project will consider how research on imaginative thinking, and perspectives on the role of imagination in STEM practice and STEM education, can be systematically applied to support STEM learning in museum contexts.
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A grant from the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support this project. This NSF division “seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and develop understandings of deeper learning by participants”. Research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, child development, and education suggest ways that imagination can be fostered and improved. This evidence could be applied to the design of museum experiences to help improve STEM outcomes.

The project will complete a literature review, a document review, and a survey of ISE (Informal Science Education) professionals. It will host a convening of STEM professionals (researchers, practitioners, educators, and others) and disseminate products designed to inform future project development. As a result of these activities, the leaders hope to prompt conversations about imaginative thinking, identify areas for future research, and influence future research. They hope to inspire imaginative thinking among public audiences through exhibitions, programs, and other designed experiences.


The grant Principal Investigators are Rebecca Kipling and Christina Reich of the Museum of Science, Boston. You can find out more about the project at:
https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1906899&HistoricalAwards=false

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News From the Field

5/18/2021

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​Using Drama to Understand the Nature of Science

“Using Drama to Expand Student Understandings of the Nature of Science”
An article by Lydia E Carol-Ann Burke, Alison McAvella, and Anne Wessels
 
For decades researchers have identified the affective barriers that prevent students from identifying with the roles and practices of science. However, the December, 2020, Science Teacher journal describes experiences that contributed to significant gains in student understanding of the nature of science. These pedagogical strategies allow students to express their feelings and describe experiences in ways that are not common in science education. 

In an introductory strategy, students sort 15 statements about the nature of science as “Agree” or “Disagree.”  Then, students review their whole group’s record of agreement or disagreement and the teacher facilitates a discussion about understandings and students’ personal experiences.  
In Strategy 2, student pairs create ‘freeze-frame’ depictions (tableaux) to represent the relationship between Science and Student. This strategy of striking and holding a pose is similar to the recent mannequin challenge trend and could be explained and set up in the same way.

In Strategy 3, students observe and discuss science-themed drama. The authors cite the Copenhagen movie as one example of a drama that allows students to consider the nature of science.

In Strategy 4, students create scenes that represent extracts from a larger storyline. First, the class collectively generates a list of important contemporary scientific issues. These issues can be local or global and can be general or specific to the topic of study. After creating the list, students as a group prioritize the issues (e.g., using a dotmocracy survey or other voting strategy). The top-ranking issues are then distributed as topics for small group work. There, they develop a short scene based on the issue assigned. The goal is to work toward an “inciting incident”, an event that would propel the main character into the central problem of the story in a dramatic or life-changing way. 

The authors recommend that teachers be patient as students express themselves, being very attentive to the students’ comments, repeating and seeking amplifications and clarifications, until students are satisfied that they have clearly communicated their ideas.
https://www.nsta.org/science-teacher/science-teacher-novemberdecember-2020/using-drama-uncover-and-expand-student

Ya Gotta Have Art!


ESL (English as a Second Language) students in the
Engaging Newcomers in Language and Content Education (ENLACE) Academy at Lawrence (Massachusetts) High School, share the same challenges and more as native English-speaking students in these “unprecedented circumstances”. This started with an effort to get a 3-D printer for the art department. It ended up as a major effort in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow program for ENLACE art teacher Shaddai Vargas. Samsung sponsors a national competition that challenges public school teachers and students to come up with STEM-based solutions to problems impacting their communities. The contest helped Lawrence students come up with a whole world of new possibilities that integrate art, engineering, and technology. Vargas writes: “Teaching STEM through PBL [Project Based Learning] is something that I want to continue for the positive impact it will have on the future…not just for my students but for our community and the world. Integrating technology and PBL in my art class opened a new special vibe where creativity and community are in a constant boost”.
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Vargas’ students’ projects involved looking for a solution to natural gas explosions, which had devastated homes in the community.  As an art teacher, he felt the experience opened a “whole new world of opportunities” for his curriculum.
https://www.eschoolnews.com/2021/02/10/how-an-art-teacher-tackles-stem-and-pbl/2/

REALM Project

REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) is a research project conducted by OCLC (a global library cooperative), the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle (a global science and technology research institution). It will produce science-based information about how materials can be handled to mitigate COVID-19 exposure to staff and visitors of archives, libraries, and museums. Battelle has contributed data to guide the reopening process.  Currently in the third stage of the project, the partnership is monitoring the protocols that have been developed.
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https://www.oclc.org/realm/home.html

EvaluatinG Computer Workshops at the Science Museum

Dafni Konstantinidi-Sofrona has reported on research about how computer workshops are interfacing with and supporting science learning in informal settings. 
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The CoderDojo workshops at the Science Museum, London, United Kingdom, are part of the CoderDojo global movement of free, volunteer-led, community-based programming clubs for young people. CoderDojo believes that an understanding of programming languages is increasingly important in the modern world, that it’s easier to learn these skills early, and that nobody should be denied the opportunity to do so.
https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-march-april-2021/evaluation-computing

Larry Ferlazzo offers “Ten Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for the Science Classroom” in Education Week

This column summarizes the culturally responsive teaching experiences and recommendations of 4 teachers, such as:
  • “Help students connect their life experiences to learning science.” (Autumn Kelly)
  • “Culturally responsive teaching is a shift in mindset…” (Tara C. Dole and Mandi S. White)
  • “Incorporate students’ fund of knowledge…” (Anthony Nesbitt)
Read more about Ferlazzo’s interviews on the topic in Education Week, February 15, 2021.
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-ten-culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies-for-the-science-classroom/2021/02

Building an Anti-racist Science Classroom

NSTA’s (National Science Teaching Assn.) Next Gen Navigator features a blog on ways to create a supportive and equitable environment in the science classroom. Some suggestions from the blog are listed below.
  1. Create a culture of discourse on social justice. Science teachers have a responsibility to practice the nature of science in their classrooms, which includes arguing from evidence on societal issues that directly impact our BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color) students. All students must feel heard and validated while participating in the science and engineering practices innovated by the Next Generation of Science Standards’ Framework.
  2. Cultivate learning experiences that embrace each student. Actively seek phenomena that speak to the cultures, communities, and lived identities of all students. We must advocate for increased diversity in our curriculum and instruction and amplify the voices of scientists of color that speak to their contributions to STEM.
  3. Dismantle structural and systemic inequities in science education. Anti-racist teaching is not just for educators of color; it is also for all teachers. This creates an allyship in which students of all backgrounds see a united front against racism and structurally racist practices. This involves highlighting scientists of color and emphasizing historical science practices that celebrate the achievements of scientists from BIPOC backgrounds.

Read the entire blog at https://www.nsta.org/blog/building-anti-racist-science-classroom
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Applying Research Thought Leader Wisdom

2/21/2021

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The Collaborative’s Research Thought Leaders help provide the strong research foundation upon which the Collaborative’s work rests. Each Thought Leader is nationally and internationally recognized in their own field and brings an extensive depth of experience and expertise. They also are adept at working across disciplines.
In our previous newsletters, we brought you interviews with each of our Thought Leaders. This new series will consider how you might apply some of their most important ideas in your STEAM work. To do so, we’ll use examples of the Collaborative’s successful application of these ideas in K-12 classroom implementation and teacher professional development. This first in a series of articles looks at STEAM’s relation to creativity and innovation. Future series articles will look at such topics as equity; interdisciplinarity; applications of these concepts to learning settings; STEAM educator training; and creating effective STEAM models. The easily readable information below is built upon the Thought Leaders’ newsletter interviews, on conversations with them, and on an in-person convening in Washington, DC, that was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
 
Creativity and Innovation
For the Collaborative, the definition of creativity relates to novel ideas, while innovation refers to the application of those novel ideas to appropriate uses.

THOUGHT LEADER INPUT
  • Let Them Play the Music. Creativity in Education Thought Leader Bonnie Cramond, PhD, cites University of Georgia mathematics professor Jason Cantarella, PhD, who said, “If we taught music like they teach math in schools, we would only teach the music scales and not get to play the beautiful music”. In addition to teaching the required content (the “scales”), she points out, we also must integrate the wonder that’s found in all disciplines when using creativity. She adds that creativity is found not just in the arts, but that it also is involved in any human endeavor. For, she points out, creativity is looking at something in a different way, solving a problem in a new way, or expressing something in an original manner. This is greatly needed in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Math), as this is where our greatest breakthroughs are developed, she adds.
  • Innovative Cognition. Neuroscience Thought Leader, Sandi Chapman, PhD, agrees with the importance of the use of these concepts across disciplines. She adds that innovative cognition is the most powerful function of the human brain, for our brain was designed to create new knowledge – not just to be a fact storage-retrieval machine. Innovative thinking, she points out, is important in all types of disciplines, from sciences, technology, engineering, and math to the arts and humanities. To improve the well-being of our society, she adds, we must introduce innovative cognition starting in youth to build a lifelong desire for ingenuity.
  • SMART Strategies. Dr. Chapman adds that there are specific strategies to promote these innovative thinking skills. These include: 1) Strategic attention, where information is narrowed down to the information most applicable to the situation; 2) integrated reasoning, where you get the “Big Idea” of what your problem is about, then integrate across disciplines, as well as apply the synthesis to your life; and 3) innovation, where you can use multiple approaches to create change.
  • Transfer. Arts Thought Leader Rob Horowitz, PhD, agrees with the importance of synthesizing across disciplines and points out how creativity, imagination, and the willingness to express oneself also are applied in the STEM world. He adds that while cognitive, social, and personal competencies, such as fluency, imagination, and collaboration, can transfer from the arts to other disicplines, other disciplines’ competencies, such as problem-solving, can transfer back to the arts. This can be a mutually-reinforcing system where each discipline’s processes and competencies can reinforce those of other disciplines, he says.
  • Imagination. Science Thought Leader Hubert Dyasi, PhD, agrees with Dr. Horowitz that imagination is an important element in science that is not stressed enough. That’s how scientists move from data to generalizations to modeling, he says. He adds that visualization and imagination are important in helping students “see” science ideas.
  • Connecting Seemingly Unrelated Ideas. Dr. Chapman notes that the use of creative thinking and imagination inspires students to generate as many ideas as they can across disciplines, based on meaningfulness, then apply these ideas to solve a problem. This, she says, helps students connect seemingly unrelated ideas.
  • Process. All Thought Leaders point to the primary importance of integrating processes and competencies across disciplines, in addition to teaching the fact-based content. In this, they say, we want to include failure, feedback, and multiple iterations, for in doing this we are allowing the brain to do important work.

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​APPLICATION
  • The Collaborative’s National Endowment for the Arts-supported multi-year and multi-session teacher professional development (PD) effective practices project addresses these important Thought Leader concepts. It first trains K-12 classroom teachers from all disciplines across the US in the Collaborative’s creative and innovative thinking skills and their application to effective STEAM practices. The development of these thinking skills was a collective effort by Collaborative members who are leaders in the arts, STEM, humanities, and higher education. These skills and their usage are continuously improved, based on feedback from the Collaborative’s studies of these thinking skills in action. A number of teachers in the PD project said these thinking skills and their application was one of the most important and useful things they learned in the training. Teachers also have said that these thinking skills are so valuable, they are making a poster to use each time they plan lessons.
  • These thinking skills are assessed by the Collaborative’s thinking skills rubric. Another rubric, addressing interdisciplinarity, will be addressed in the next newsletter. It is these rubrics and the thinking skills they are assessing that, among other things, are looking at this important concept of transfer among disciplines, Dr. Horowitz points, out,
  • The thinking skills also are taught to administrators who are another important part of this Collaborative PD. This training better equips them to provide effective STEAM leadership for those with whom they work.
  • The importance of these thinking skills was validated in a recent Collaborative study of students across the US. It found that use of the Collaborative’s thinking skills and STEAM lessons increased creative thinking 188% in elementary students and 126% in secondary students. Importantly, this growth was the same for white and other ethnic groups.
  • Other aspects of the study found that elementary students who participated in the STEAM instruction reported significant gains between pre- and post-intervention in their enjoyment of school in general, learning math, learning science, and thinking outside the box. Among secondary students, students who received the STEAM instruction reported significantly more enjoyment of school, enjoyment of math, interest in science, perception of the importance of cross-disciplinary work and perception of the arts’ helping to learn science than students in traditional art and science classes.
  • In the Collaborative’s STEAM lessons, students creatively integrate STEM and the arts with innovative approaches advocated by the Thought Leaders. They use imagination that the Thought Leaders say is so important. They visualize science principles that Dr. Dyasi points out is important. They are using their brains for processing and use the mandated content instead of just memorizing it, as Dr. Chapman points out is important. These students, as Dr. Cantarella points out, do, indeed “play the music”.
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COLLABORATIVE STATES STEAM POSITION

2/21/2021

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In its position as a national STEAM education trailblazer, the Innovation Collaborative has adopted its position on STEAM education.
 
This position was thoughtfully developed by a team of Collaborative leaders representing arts, science, and humanities institutions, with continuous input by all Collaborative members across disciplines and learning settings.
 
In this position statement, the Collaborative emphasizes the importance of equity, curiosity, and the application of competencies and practices across disciplines. These competencies and practices include, but are not limited to, fluency, originality, imagination, collaboration, problem-solving, risk-taking, and persistence. See Applying Research Thought Leader Wisdom article in this newsletter for more on applying creativity and innovation.
 
The Collaborative’s STEAM position also emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary learning. In this approach, boundaries are erased among disciplines, increasing learning in addition to cognitive and affective growth.

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COVID-19: innovation continues

2/21/2021

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In the last newsletter we summarized just a few of the ways in which educators and guides have innovated to provide effective COVID learning environments when traditional methods were not possible. Over the past year, this process has progressed with additional thoughtful approaches and also research-based analyses of where we are and how we might move forward.

Coping through Literature and the Arts
More and more, thought leaders are looking beyond the current health crisis to plan for recovery. This includes not only economic and structural measures but also intense attention to psychological and emotional crises that the pandemic has caused.  Increasingly, writers are recognizing the important role that literature and the arts have and must continue to play in this process. Here are just a few of the resources and articles that have appeared in the past few months:

Trade Literature to Help Students Understand
(Recommended by Angela Ding at Worlddreader.Org)

The Unwelcome Stranger, by Drew Edwards & Diana Nawatene
            A grandfather advises children how to cope and be kind.

I Love You, by Michael Ross
            Kwizera does not understand why she cannot be physically with her grandparents.

Coronavirus: A Book for Children, by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson, Nia Roberts, & Axel Scheffler
            This non-fiction book answers questions children might have about the coronavirus.

Hello, My Name is Coronavirus, by Manuela Molina Cruz
            An informative book narrated by the virus, itself.

My Hero Is You, by Helen Patuck
            Sarah is upset because she cannot go to school. She feels unsafe. An imaginary dragon gives her comfort.
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The Virus-Stopping Champion by, Hilary Rogers
            A short story convinces children that they, too, can be champions.

Read more at https://www.worldreader.org/now/6-books-to-help-your-children-understand-the-coronavirus/
  
Poetry for the Pandemic
And the People Stayed Home (Family Book, Coronavirus Kids Book, Nature Book), by Kitty O'Meara
            A beautifully-illustrated poem that reflects the angst of in today’s world.


Arts for an Anxious World - and More

How Art Helps Us Make Sense of COVID 19’s Incredible Toll. (from National Geographic)
Contributed by Collaborative Innovation Fellow Julie Olson

In a field outside of JFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, DC, artist Susan Brennan Firstenberg’s art helps Americans visualize our shared grief—a flag for every one of our COVID deaths. People come and help, praying and giving physical manifestation to what we are all experiencing. That is one of many memorials that have bloomed across the country. Another is by a thirteen-year old student in Sherman Oaks, California, who is spearheading the creation of a quilt. Eventually, all panels of this quilt will be assembled. Like these exhibits, other art installations throughout the country are addressing the country’s shared COVID experiences. 
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/11/how-art-helps-make-sense-covid-19-incomprehensible-toll/

Our Kids Need Arts Education More than Ever: Here’s What’s Lost Without It (from Time)
Frank Gehry calls on President Biden to empower school-age children to help heal themselves by restoring arts education because the arts…(help them) express and channel their emotions…and find their spirit’s song. He urges this emphasis on the arts so that children have the creative powers necessary to solve the problems we are leaving behind.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/our-kids-need-arts-education-now-more-than-ever-heres-what-is-lost-without-it/ar-BB1c6Q9j?ocid=msedgdhp/
 
From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in widespread and ongoing changes to how the K–12 education system functions, including disruptions to science teaching and learning environments. This report describes high-quality instruction today, with tips for administrators, teachers and others. It emphasizes quality and equity, giving advice for managing and monitoring instruction. The free publication is available for download from the National Academies.
https://www.nap.edu/resource/25909/interactive/?fbclid=IwAR0cufKezzb_-cCrlbi4skWinZk5SXkD2VQRlFV2zWdxZ86y-6qw8sy-xTw#.X3ZJmWof3RA.facebook

And for lightness and pure joy…
Pre-K Teacher Goes Viral After Sharing Virtual Classroom Dance Parties: “It’s About Bringing That Joy Factor”
Azel Prather, Jr., went viral when he shared his virtual pre-school dance party on YouTube. Pre-pandemic, Prather taught preschool at Kipp DC Arts and Technology Academy in Washington, DC. He has long recognized those children who were “dancing in their seats” when they were supposed to be learning sight words. Dance was part of the program then and it is now, through Instagram and other social media tools.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/pre-k-teacher-goes-viral-after-sharing-virtualclassroom-dance-parties-its-about-bringing-that-joy-factor-165553012.html
The approaches above are different, but the message is clear.  Moving forward, education will never be the same.​
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SURVEY DEMONSTRATES DEEP IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THEATRE EDUCATION

2/21/2021

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​The Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) August survey, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Theatre Education,” has confirmed the profound effect of the pandemic on school theatre throughout the United States, leaving many programs at significant risk in the coming years.

The survey queried more than 11,000 middle and high school theatre educators about the status of their programs in the pandemic environment. Nearly 2,400 teachers responded, offering a snapshot of how COVID-19 has reshaped both their teaching methods and student learning opportunities.

Analysis shows programs have suffered substantial revenue losses, with 91% of schools forced to cancel performances in spring 2020. For many programs, ticket revenue provides the main source of funding, as 44% receive no financial support from their districts. Money lost to investments in canceled productions coupled with lack of spring ticket sales created a ripple effect on current season budgets. In fact, 22% of programs faced cuts for the 2020-21 academic year.

Many survey respondents reported 2019-20 revenue losses that were substantially more than they earned, and it is likely the economic downturn will limit other funding support this school year and beyond. For teachers, the impact raises short-term concerns about student recruitment, morale, and motivation as well as longer-term uncertainty about reductions in program capacity, external funding, and student opportunities.

According to James Palmarini, Collaborative Advisory Council member and EdTA policy and advocacy advisor, the cancellations and lost revenue numbers were not unexpected, but still troubling. “We knew many theatre programs had to cancel their shows in the spring, but the numbers regarding those lost productions and revenue are still very sobering,” he said.

Palmarini added there was hope from respondents for the current school year, with 59% answering “maybe” and 19% “yes” to a question regarding whether they thought they would produce a live show in 2020 or 2021, and 97% indicating they were returning to their positions in fall 2020.

Seventy-five percent of educators stated they were starting the school year entirely virtually or in a hybrid model. The data on how they are adapting to the virtual environment suggests a broad range of strategies, with no predominant mode for reaching students. In the spring of 2020, the most frequently realized instructional strategies were virtual lessons taught asynchronously and available on-demand; project-based lessons spanning multiple class periods; instructional videos or digital games; and digital versions of lesson packets with worksheets.

EdTA will conduct a follow up survey in the Summer of 2021.
For a comprehensive summary of the survey results visit the EdTA Rapid Response Advocacy Center.

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NATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED IN SUPPORT OF ARTS EDUCATION

2/21/2021

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The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) has launched Arts ARE Education, a national campaign encouraging school districts to continue to fund and support K-12 arts education programs in the 2021-22 school year. Given expected state and district budget cuts, calls for remedial education in tested subject areas, and the continued need for PPE equipment, NCCAS expects that arts programs across all disciplines will be at risk.
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The campaign asks advocates of all ages to take these action steps through its website:   
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  • Sign the Arts ARE Education Pledge committing your support for arts education.
  • Reach out to your district school board, asking them to pass the Arts ARE Education Resolution committing that they will continue funding for district arts education programs next school year.
  • Write a letter to your state legislators urging them to support full funding for arts education in their district and asking them to reach out to the schools in their districts to do the same.
  • Participate in the Arts Education Capitol Hill month in March, in which advocates will make virtual visits to Senate and House legislators to make the case for arts education support at the federal level through the Department of Education. More details will be posted on the website in the coming weeks regarding how to participate and prepare for the Capitol Hill visits.
Campaign manager James Palmarini, member of the Collaborative Advisory Council, said the initiative’s launch is the beginning of a long-term effort to mobilize supporters of arts education for all students. “While the current campaign focus is on district budgeting for the 2021-22 school year, I fully expect the need for this effort to continue for a considerable time. Even with federal assistance, the impact of the pandemic and the resulting economic fallout will be shaping public education for many years.”
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He added that the campaign is also mindful that students of color in high poverty districts are most likely to lose arts education access, given the limited resources the districts will have to continue with arts programs. “I think the Arts ARE Education campaign offers theatre education (and all arts education) advocates a great opportunity to raise their voices in a very grassroots way that can make a real difference for our students and the fields of theatre and all arts education.”

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INNOVATIVE LIVES CONTINUES TO INSPIRE ONLINE

2/14/2021

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The Smithsonian has announced the 2021 Innovative Lives series.  Over the past 25 years, the Institution’s Lemelson Center has hosted the Innovative Lives program series featuring more than 85 inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs.  Attendees can participate in informal chats.
This year, Lemelson programs focus on diversity and inclusion in the invention ecosystem.
The webinars in the series are open for free registration. Below are upcoming events.
March 10: Growing Up with an Inventor and Sharing their Story through Film will feature documentary filmmakers Rob Lemelson and Cindy Yoon sharing stories and film clips from documentaries about their famous inventor-fathers.
April 14: Marilyn Hamilton, co-inventor of the Quickie Wheelchair, will speak with NMAH (National Museum of American History) curator Katherine Ott about her life as an athlete and inventor.
May 12: Sarah Will, Paralympic skier and accessibility advocate, and Mike Schultz, inventor of the Moto Knee and Versa Foot, will come together to talk with NMAH sports curator Jane Rogers about their respective careers.
 
Register for Growing Up with an Inventor​
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Meet Research Thought Leader Rob Horowitz, Ed.D.

11/10/2020

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​Rob Horowitz, Ed.D.
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Executive Director, ArtsResearch and Associate Director, Center for Arts Education Research, Teachers College, Columbia University. He is known for his arts education research that demonstrates the important relationships between in-school arts learning and cognitive, social, and personal competencies. 
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The Collaborative’s Research Thought Leaders help provide the strong foundation upon which the Collaborative’s work rests. Each Thought Leader is nationally and internationally recognized in his/her own field and brings an extensive depth of experience and expertise. They also are adept at working across disciplines. 

A Thought Leader is featured in each Collaborative newsletter. In this issue, we visit with Rob Horowitz, Ed.D., whose expertise and research in arts education helps inform the work of the Collaborative. In a conversation with Collaborative Executive Director Lucinda Presley, Rob talked about his work and its relationship to the Collaborative.

Tell us about your career.
I was originally a working musician, but was always interested in education. I had three major educational experiences that helped prepare me for my work. In my first experience, I became a teacher in New York City. Because I wanted to make a difference, I taught music, computer science, social studies, and a lot of other things at an alternative high school for students who had dropped out or been suspended. I became the tech coordinator for the school. I helped these students get their alternative degrees. I helped a lot of students, but there were also were a lot of challenges. In that job, I learned a lot about education, city politics, and how schools work. It was an enormously educational experience for me. I had an undergraduate degree in music and history, so, while I was teaching at the alternative school, I went to Teachers College at Columbia for a master’s degree in music education. I liked it so much, I stayed for another master’s in music ed. and then a doctorate in music ed. My dissertation was on assessment of jazz improvisation. I ended up leaving the teaching job and concentrating on those degrees. I loved research.

When I graduated, I ended up, in the 1990s, working for ArtsVision, a consulting firm based in New York City that did work all over the U.S. In this, my second educational experience, I helped ArtsVision with evaluation and assessment projects and curriculum and program development. We worked to re-energize arts education in New York City, which had been in decline for a number of years. The project resulted in a $36 million grant for NYC arts education, with $12 million provided by the Annenberg Foundation. For me, this was one of my main educational experiences because I learned about public policy, foundations, cultural groups, and their relationship to school systems. I also learned about how partnerships and collaboration work from all perspectives – from the funding to the teaching/practitioner side. Our work became the catalyst for New York City school districts to start emphasizing arts education once again.

Tell us about your research.
The Center for Arts Education Research at Teachers College, Columbia was awarded a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and GE Fund to study transfer, or how the arts can influence other kinds of learning. It was the largest study in a monograph, Champions of Change, that was published by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Champions of Change has been widely distributed, and still has a strong internet life. Our study was called “Learning in and Through the Arts” (LIATA). My full-time job to manage that grant for a few years was my third major educational experience. I learned how to manage a large grant, how to think about transfer, and how the arts might influence other spheres of learning. The transfer model that we worked on and the ways of thinking about it has influenced my work ever since. (For more information on this transfer study, see the article “Transfer between Disciplines: A New Perspective” in this newsletter.) We developed a model which helped show that there are ways of thinking, feeling, and doing – competencies – that are unique to the arts and that also are applicable to other areas. Our model identified cognitive, social, and personal competencies and dispositions that are inherent to the arts and also applicable in other domains, that may provide the pathways to transfer. The model has been consistent with other models with some overlapping categories, such as Hetland and Winner’s Studio Habits of Mind at Project Zero, aspects of 21st Century Skills and CASEL’s Social-Emotional Learning Competencies. The consistency is encouraging and indicates we are collectively on our way to better understanding how the arts influence human development.

Mary Hafeli, who worked on that project with me, and I were recently funded by the National Endowment for the Arts to reopen some of the LIATA data and do a secondary analysis.  We found strong relationships between elaborative thinking skills and visual arts and drama. We also found that the outcomes we described in LIATA were strongest when there was effective collaboration between classroom teachers and arts specialists. 

What have you discovered in your research that points to the importance of the Collaborative’s work?
From my standpoint, we can look at some of these areas we identified in LIATA and see whether or not they are applied in other areas. For instance, it is interesting to observe how creativity, imagination, and the willingness to express oneself are applied in the STEM world. All the things we found in our LIATA transfer study can be carried through to other areas. It’s important to look at how those competencies learned in the arts are reapplied in other areas – or vice versa. That is what the Collaborative is doing with its rubrics and and thinking skills – looking at transfer across disciplines. 

How do you think the Collaborative is moving the arts and arts education fields forward?
Certainly we need this type of work across disciplines where we all learn from each other, where we can delve into these bigger questions, and where we engage in those questions of ways of thinking, ways of doing, and how these interact across subjects. This is so important. It’s important, too, that the Collaboratve is returning us to that, moving us out of our silos so that educators can think about those relationships. The arts very much needs this to help the arts teachers come out of their classrooms and interact with other teachers, for it’s important for them to be a part of their communities.  

What steps need to be taken in the future for K-12, out-of-school, and higher education to provide a firm foundation for the STEAM movement?
This is a big question. I’m coming at this from the arts, and I know other Thought Leaders are coming at it from other disciplines. But, from my perspective, when talking about STEAM, we want to make sure that the arts experience has integrity as an arts experience. In other words, children are engaging in artistic thinking as part of the STEAM project, and I think the Collaborative has done a great job with that. There’s also expression, representation, and those cognitive, social, and personal areas that are part of the experience. To be STEAM, it must have some form of visual or performing arts in order to access the important arts competencies.

How do you see the Thought Leaders and the Collaborative benefitting from their work together? 
Talking to people from different disciplines with different approaches is just amazing. The conversations we’ve had in our Thought Leader meetings and in our Collaborative meetings are some of the best conversations I’ve had in the last couple of years. This gives me a chance to really hear and explore things I might not have thought about, such as how someone is going to learn science or what that experience is like. This reflects on all our work and it’s one of the reasons I liked working on the LIATA project so much. We are all so focused on finishing whatever we are working on that we often don’t have the chance to step back and take a look at what it all means – why are we doing this and how we think about things more broadly. We are all so focused on the practical, but here, in the Collaborative, we also are thinking conceptually, and it’s very stimulating.

It’s also really rewarding being a Thought Leader because in these rich conversations with Thought Leaders in other disciplines, such as science education and neuroscience, we are thinking about similar issues but from different points of view. I feel that there’s a consensus that the kind of transfer we are talking about, which is very hard to capture statistically, is conceptually what we all do in a way. We all learn in one context and apply that learning in another context – that’s what life and learning is. It’s not about subject to subject, say art to STEM, though there is some of that. Instead, it’s a way of thinking about things, say, about imagination and creativity. Since our subjects do get siloed in schools, this is helping because children work across those connections, integrating artistic thinking and STEM thinking.

Do you have any other thoughts you’d like to share?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the situations we are in because of COVID. As children go back to school, the arts are more important than ever because they bring a sense of community to the school. They also create a sense of identity and a way for children to relate to each other in multifacted ways. Though it’s tough times and children need to learn the basic skills and not fall behind, they also need to be able to feel, to express and make connections, and this is where the arts are so important in developing those cognitive, social, and personal skills. We must be vigilant to make sure that the arts and these skills are kept in place. This is not just arts for the arts’ own sake, as important as that is; it’s because these competencies that the arts engender benefit so many other areas central to their development. The arts content is the pathway for the development of these important competencies. It’s these competencies that enrich children’s lives for years to come.

Resources that address Dr. Horowitz’ research:

Learning In and Through the Arts – Champions of Change

NEA Secondary Analysis of Learning In and Through the Arts

Critical Links

What You See Is What You Get: The Development of an Observation Strategy, VSA, Contours of Inclusion

English Language Acquisition Through Dance and Theater: Impact and Pathways

Connections: The Arts and Cognitive, Social, and Personal Development, in Partnering Arts Education: A Working Model from ArtsConnection, Dana Foundation



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Transfer between Disciplines: A New Perspective

11/10/2020

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Transfer, in the education world, is where competencies, skills, practices, processes, and/or content from one discipline can be applied to another discipline or context. It is an important issue to consider as we work to give today’s students vital creative (novel idea) and innovative (applying the novel idea) thinking skills for academic success and strong workforce preparation. The concept of mutual transfer among disciplines underpins the Collaborative’s goals of promoting creative and innovative thinking for K-12 and out-of-school-time students by focusing on disciplinary practices, processes, and competencies as students learn the required content. 

The Collaborative’s arts Research Thought Leader, Rob Horowitz, Ed.D. (See “Meet Research Thought Leader” article in this newsletter.) has done significant research on the concept of transfer, having explored this concept for over 20 years. He and his colleagues have developed a strong transfer model that has received significant recognition, including its dissemination by Arts Education Partnership (AEP), the national arts organization that supports arts practice through research and policy. 

This model is found in Dr. Horowitz’ work, “Learning in and Through the Arts: The Question of Transfer” (https://scinapse.io/papers/2119313428 and https://www.aep-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/Champions-of-Change_The-Impact-of-Arts-on-Learning.pdf). It looks at the issue of transfer more broadly and deeply than before. It points to competencies acquired in arts learning that are applicable in other subjects and to life in general. The arts content and skills, Dr. Horowitz says, though important in their own rights, can provide these pathways for transfer. 

The compentencies in this transfer model are cognitive development, social development, and personal development. Cognitive competencies include creative thinking skills such as fluency, originality, imagination, and elaboration, in addition to focused perception. These, then, facilitate the ability to change perspectives, express ideas, and create meaning. The social/emotional competencies include the abilties to collaborate, communicate, and empathize. The personal, or affective, learning competencies include risk-taking, persistence, self-confidence, and the student’s ownership of his/her learning. All of these, he points out, can be carried over to other disciplines and contexts. 

As examples of this transfer in action, he points to the long history of science where famous scientists worked across disciplines. This includes the naturalist John James Audubon, who used art as a way to understand and record his scientific observations of birds, and Leonardo daVinci, who used art to understand scientific phenomena, including dissections of the human anatomy, and to conceptualize his engineering designs. These men transferred art skills and competencies into scientific fields to promote their own understanding and to communicate meaning. 

As important as the transfer of arts competencies to other disciplines is, he says, it is important to note that transfer of practices or competencies also can be conveyed from other disciplines to the arts. His study on transfer went beyond the concepts from the 1980s and 1990s that saw transfer as unidirectional from the arts to enhance learning in other subjects, such as arts enhancing test scores. It noted that skills engendered in other disciplines, such as creativity and critical and divergent thinking, can transfer back to enhance arts learning. This can be promoted, he points out, by shared ways of thinking between disciplines so that transfer then could be multidirectional, interactive, and dynamic. 

The implications from this research, he points out, resonate strongly with the Collborative’s work. The Collaborative’s research has documented the importance of transdisciplinary learning where students integrate different disciplines’ practices, competencies, and content interdependently and simultaneously, seeing that one discipline cannot complete the task without the other. This, in turn, contributes to a deeper understanding of each discipline to achieve an overarching synthesis. This synthesis can help solve problems, explain phenomena, create a product, and more.  “It’s important that educators think about these relationships and move out of our silos,” he points out, to provide our students even richer and more valuable educational opportunities. 

An example of this transdisciplinary learning where different disciplines’ practices, competencies, and content are multidirectional, interactive, and dynamic occurred with 95 second grade underserved rural students (see image). They were given the problem of using the Elements of Art to invent a 3D wheel that could navigate Mars’ sandy and rocky surface. Through initial hands-on experiences integrating both disciplines, they combined their grade-level science concepts of texture, mass, rolling, and spinning with art concepts of line, shape, texture, and form (related to mass). They also integrated disciplinary practices such as (science) observing, asking questions, experimenting, developing a solution, testing, evaluating, using data to develop a conclusion, and (art) creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. They then used these science and art concepts to design and make their invention and write a team presentation that would show how well their invention solved the problem. One two-person student team creatively thought of their wheel having feet with magnets on them to “stick” to Mars’s magnetic soil that is high in iron oxide. They also added scoops to the wheel to scoop up the soil to test it. In their experiences, they didn’t separate the disciplines’ concepts and practices by thinking “I’m doing art now” or “I’m doing science now”. Their inventing process transcended each of the disciplines, driven by a strong synthesis that was richer than each individual discipline and that solved their problem, like in a real-world scenario. In the process, the students used many of the cognitive, social, and personal competencies outlined in Dr. Horowitz’ model. Assessments showed strong student integration skills and understanding of content. An increase in creative thinking was evident in 89% of the students. In addition, 100% of the teachers believed these experiences developed students’ critical thinking skills. One teacher said, “This enhanced my students because the kids got to use their own creative thinking and it brought them joy and they found a purpose they’ve never had before”. 

This is evidence of an important takeaway from Dr. Horowitz’ study on transfer. He emphasizes that, while it is important that competencies engendered by arts learning can transfer from the arts to other subjects, it also is important to understand that important competencies used in a variety of other disciplines and can transfer back to the arts, and then go back and forth, with no one discipline having priority over another. This way, the strength of each discipline can flow to enhance other disciplines, and, ultimately, students’ learning and thinking for the present and for their futures.

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National education institutions address covid-19

11/10/2020

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​Collaborative member national education institutions have risen to the challenge to help their stakeholders adapt to the current COVID challenges. We asked representatives from these institutions to give us the top 3 strategies that their institutions are using to effectively address COVID for their stakeholders. 

Below are impressive strategies that these institutions are using. These strategies can benefit the entire STEAM field.

Crayola
Cheri Sterman, Director of Education
At Crayola Education we are meeting teachers where they are and bringing a message of new opportunities to the discussions.
  • We’re offering remote professional development courses that demonstrate best practices in remote instruction.
  • To build educators’ remote instruction confidence and effectiveness, we are immersing them in arts-infused experiences that increase their engagement and that they can use with students.
  • We’re providing resources that help families and educators co-educate and CREATE™ Relationships with each other. A silver lining in the pandemic cloud is that families and educators are partnering in deeper ways.

Dramatic Results
Christi Wilkins, Executive Director
We are transforming our delivery to engage with our students/families/collaborators by:
  • Emphasizing Human Centered Design (Design Thinking) strategies into everything we do with special emphasis on student engagement
  • Celebrating "failure" and "risk taking" as a staff to keep us innovating and responsive to our students' needs
  • Continually (and rapidly!) iterating, based on active feedback solicited from our "users" - students, families and our collaborators.

Educational Theatre Association
Jim Palmarini, Director of Educational Policy, Reimagined the student-driven  International Thespian Festival (ITF) and the annual EdTA Conference for teachers as virtual events (2,000+ attendees for ITF-V and 900+ for Conference)
  • Expanded Theatre Educator Pro,  our professional development website for teachers, to include virtual or hybrid standards-based K-12 lesson plans, curriculum, and production strategies, through webinars, downloadable content, and extensive links to curated tools and resources.
  • Created and disseminated the EdTA Recommendations for Reopening School Theatre Programs guide, detailing best practices for ensuring the wellbeing of students, teachers, and school staff as they re-enter the teaching and learning environment in the 2020-21 school year, with specific advisories to help teachers and leaders answer the question: “What is safely possible for our school and our students under state and district health rules.”

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association
Steve Barbato, Executive Director
  • ITEEA Open Access At-Home Resources for Educators: In mid-March, ITEEA began compiling the resources below as a way to support educators through the unprecedented period of “social distancing” designed to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus. The list continues to grow and there is now functionality built in that allows educators to easily add new resources to share with colleagues.  
  • Developed an Online Learning Toolkit for the 2020-21 REACH Challenge! These downloadable resources provide educators and team leads with everything they need to complete a design-thinking project. Each section includes ready-made lesson plans, slide presentations, worksheets, hands-on activities, and inspiring explorations aligned with the ITEEA “Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy” and “Next Generation Science Standards” (NGSS). The toolkit is designed to bring technology and engineering to life for high school and college students, giving them the opportunity to use their STEM skills to help overcome human challenges for social good, making a real-world difference in the lives of those around them. ITEEA’s REACH Challenge is an impactful Adaptive & Assistive Technology (AT) design-thinking project for middle school, high school, and college level STEM programs, showcasing ITEEA’s mission that "Technology and Engineering Bring STEM to Life"! Teachers are guided through a series of lessons to lead their students in using their STEM skills to REACH a member of their community who has a challenge to overcome. This innovative project shows teachers how they can help students use their STEM skills to help overcome human challenges for social good, making a real-world difference in the lives of those around them.
  • ITEEA’s STEM Center for Teaching and Learning (STEM CTL) has created a totally virtual option for all the professional learning opportunities to deliver Engineering by Design™ courses and much more. Examples include our Digital learning and safety Micro-badging online course series. These include online STEM education micro-badging mini courses now available for a Digital Literacy Micro-badging Series and a STEM Education Safety Micro-badging Series.
 
National Association of Gifted Children
Bess Wilson, Immediate Past Research Network Chair; Assistant Professor, Department of Foundations and Secondary Education, University of North Florida
  • Giving flexibility to instructors, students, and staff regarding content/course delivery modes
  • Providing additional professional development to instructional faculty on engaging and best practices in online and digital instructional design
  • Increasing our universal design so that all learners can access our materials in online environments
  • Providing additional support to students and partners in times of crisis (e.g., counseling, ombudsman, etc.)

National Dance Educators Association
Susan McGreevy, Executive Director
  • Developed a webinar series around strategies for transitioning to online learning available on demand through the NDEO website www.NDEO.org
  • Provide bi-monthly virtual chat sessions for special interest groups (SIG) for K-12, Higher Ed., and Private Sector groups. 
  • Created a new course, taught by four professors, through our Online Professional Development Institute: “How to Create an Online Course”. Seventy-five teachers enrolled in the course when it was offered for the first time this past summer.  

National Science Teachers Association
Tricia Shelton, Director of Professional Learning and Standards Implementation
  • NSTA launched the NSTA Daily Do in the spring. New Daily Dos continue to be released daily (M-F) https://www.nsta.org/resources/daily-do
    1. “To help introduce both teachers and families to phenomena-based learning, The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) has been developing a series of short “Daily Dos”— tasks that embed sensemaking and can be completed remotely.”  This is a quote from NAP Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis (2020).
    2.  These lesson plans can be delivered in a face-to-face, hybrid, or remote setting supporting the multiple environments teachers are navigating.
    3. The lesson plans focus on sensemaking (strategies and guidance to support ALL students).
  • NSTA developed Distance Learning professional learning and resources. https://www.nsta.org/distance-learning
    1. The resources are adaptable for synchronous, asynchronous (aided by technology), and asynchronous (no technology).
    2. The Distance Learning strategies and tools are focused on multiple aspects of sensemaking (experiencing phenomena, engaging in science and engineering practices, and sharing ideas).
    3. The Distance Learning professional learning utilizes a suite of tools to create a learning community where students virtually work together (synchronously or asynchronously).
  • NSTA has partnered with organizations like CSSS and NSELA to share Back to School Guidance for 2020-21 and to share teacher stories from the classroom
    • http://cosss.org/resources/Documents/back-to-school-docs-2020/CSSS%202020%20Back-to-School%20Considerations-full.pdf
    • https://www.nsta.org/distance-learning​


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designing STEAM ECOSYSTEMS

11/10/2020

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By Christi Wilkins, Collaborative member and Executive Director of Dramatic Results
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The Collaborative’s spring, 2020 newsletter included information about the Dramatic Results™ panel presentation at the Arts Education Partnership’s Annual Convening (fall, 2019) titled Systemically STEAM: Tips for Forming a STEAM Ecosystems. Dramatic Results also presented at the 2020 SLECoP Virtual Convening (October, 2020). In this session, titled Resilience and Resolve – The Power of Thriving STEAM Learning Ecosystems, presenters shared their successes and failures in integrating the arts with STEM through a cultural/psycho-social framework. 

The session documented Dramatic Results’™ work when its own resilience and resolve were put to the test this past spring. As schools across the world adjusted to the current global health crisis, the agency swiftly pivoted its in-person operations within four weeks, replacing all in-person programs with live, virtual STEAM programs using Zoom.  As a direct result of their investment in cross-sector dissemination and community-building efforts, they have expanded their original 7-member local STEAM Ecosystem (including: U.S. Sailing Center; Long Beach Public Library; Historical Society of Long Beach; Growing Experience; an urban farm located on the grounds of a housing project; engineers from Boeing and Northrop Grumman; a Bravo TV chef; and The Social Justice Sewing Academy) into a regional and national collaboration with Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum of Design, a digital artist from Fab Labs, a neuroscientist from Duke University’s TIP Program, Start Science, and ReDiscover.

By leveraging its growing STEAM Ecosystem, Dramatic Results™ has been able to offer engaging online classes on topics that include cyborg prototyping, genetics of “dragon breeding,” design thinking in healthcare, video game design, photography, movie-making, and mixed media art. Students responded to the new format almost immediately, with consistent levels of engagement, especially through the site’s chat.

Dramatic Results™ is further expanding its STEAM Ecosystem reach to serve Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) in Maryland, a rural community with few resources. This fall, CCPS will serve its first virtual STEAM cohort, which will provide under-resourced gifted girls across six middle schools an after-school “hands-on” live virtual STEAM program. 

You can learn more about Dramatic Results™ and how to start building a STEAM Ecosystem in your community. Download a FREE copy of the Dramatic Results™ STEAM Mapping Tool™ here.



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Innovation Collaborative: The Strategic Plan

11/9/2020

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By: Jonathan Katz, Collaborative Strategic Planning Committee Chair and Collaborative Strategic Advisor

Mission
The Innovation Collaborative is a national transdisciplinary¹ forum to foster creativity,² innovation,³ and equity⁴ in teaching and learning.

Purpose  
The Innovation Collaborative provides information about how effective intersections of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM) can reinforce innovative  thinking. To that end, it identifies, conducts, and disseminates research. By supporting teaching and lifelong learning, the Collaborative encourages networking and collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and individuals in both in-school (formal) and out-of-school (informal) settings and the intersections of the two.

​Vision
We envision a diverse, equitable, and inclusive society where:
  1. Individuals and Institutions
    1. Have an integrated view of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM); and
    2.  Look at the world creatively and innovatively; and
    3. Identify and solve important problems, from the local to global scale
  2. Education
    1.  Is an integrated system that addresses cultural, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries; and
    2. Employs seamless transdisciplinary learning and effective problem-solving experiences in all cultures; and 
    3. Engages, empowers, and prepares students for college and career, and prepares adults for productive lives.

Goal 1: Improving Practice 
To promote and share research about the many ways that the intersections of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM) promote creative and innovative thinking in all audiences and demographics
  1. Stimulate Research
    1. Determine effective practices that promote creative and innovative thinking at the arts, sciences, technology, engineering, math, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in in-school and out-of-school learning settings. 
    2. Stimulate research across institutional boundaries that studies the effects and implications of these intersections.
  2.  Apply Research to Practice
    1. Purposefully develop effective STEAM practices to meet the needs of diverse learners.
    2. Apply research findings from the Collaborative and other sources to practice in in-school and out-of-school learning settings.
    3. Develop tools and resources for individuals to self-assess and reflect on how they are applying this research to their practice.
  3.  Establish Research-based Infrastructure
    1. Provide a diverse, research-based foundation for the movement that connects the arts, STEM, and the humanities in a variety of learning settings.
    2. Work with cross-institutional partnerships to support this movement.

Goal 2: Collaboration
To create equitable opportunities for individuals and institutions to convene and share in interdisciplinary conversations, collaborations, and experiences that lead to a shared vocabulary, a common understanding of the value of these intersections, and an appreciation for their applications
  1. Convene
    1.  Convene Research Thought Leaders to collaborate and to advise on the Collaborative’s work.
    2. Convene networks and fields of practice to promote the importance of arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in learning.
  2. Disseminate
    1. Disseminate existing research.
    2. Host symposia, present at conferences, and publish findings.
  3. Proliferate
    1. Promote collaboration across individuals, institutions, and disciplines within the Collaborative.
    2. Promote collaboration with individuals and institutions outside of the Collaborative.
    3. Link researchers and/or practitioners across the arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) to grow the STEAM field and to promote Collaborative goals.
    4. Share findings, strategies, and outcomes of these collaborations.

​Goal 3: Policy Development and Implementation
To identify shared beliefs among individuals and institutions regarding the importance of the arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in teaching and learning, resulting in a policy agenda and individual policy statements that form the foundation of equitable collective efforts
  1. Identify and Articulate
    1. Identify shared beliefs regarding transdisciplinary teaching and learning.
    2. Identify opportunities within education policy and legislation to further support these shared beliefs.
  2. Create
    1. Create individual position statements on shared policies/practices in transdisciplinary education that support creativity and innovation.
    2. Create an annual legislative agenda focusing on key opportunities that support the Collaborative’s mission and vision.
  3. Educate and Inform
    1. Share position statements and annual legislative agenda with policymakers at the national and state levels.
    2. Distribute position statements and annual legislative agenda throughout the Collaborative member institutions.
    3. Support and monitor efforts by Collaborative members to share position statements and annual legislative agenda with their primary stakeholders.
    4. Join with other education stakeholders to bring the Collaborative’s position statements and annual legislative agenda into other related efforts.

​DEFINITIONS

Transdisciplinary¹
  • Transdisciplinarity is the full integration of different disciplines that achieves a synthesis that transcends, through shared concepts and processes, the individual disciplines.  
  • Transdisciplinary learning requires students to work on different disciplines interdependently and simultaneously, seeing that one discipline cannot complete the task without the other. This learning helps students understand that the disciplines rely on each other to contribute to a deeper understanding of each discipline and to achieve an overarching synthesis. This synthesis can help produce higher cognition that would be unlikely through addressing the disciplines individually. It can help solve problems, explain phenomena, create a product, and more. 
  • An example of transdisciplinarity.
    • Second grade students were given the problem of inventing a 3D wheel that could navigate Mars’ sandy and rocky surface. Through initial hands-on experiences integrating both disciplines, they combined their grade-level science concepts of texture, mass, rolling, and spinning with art concepts of line, shape, texture, and form. They also integrated disciplinary processes such as (science) observing, asking questions, experimenting, developing a solution, testing, evaluating, using data to develop a conclusion, and (art) creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. In teams, they then used these science and art concepts to design and make their invention and write a team presentation that would show how well their invention solved the problem. 
    • In their experiences, they didn’t separate the disciplines’ concepts and processes by thinking “I’m doing art now” or “I’m doing science now” or “I’m doing language arts now”. Their inventing process transcended each of the disciplines, driven by a strong synthesis that was richer than each individual discipline and that solved their problem, like in a real-world scenario.​

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Creative Thinking²
  • Creative thinking is the process of generating novel and valuable ideas that can then be explored and/or expressed. 
  • An example of creative thinking.
    • The same second grade students in the transdisciplinary example above used creative thinking by brainstorming in teams to generate novel and valuable ideas to create a wheel to navigate on Mars. They did this by narrowing the problem to make it doable, synthesizing the science and art concepts, and coming up with lots of ideas. 
    • The student team in the image above creatively thought of their wheel having feet with magnets on them to “stick” to Mars’s magnetic soil that is high in iron oxide. They also added scoops to the wheel to scoop up the soil to test it.

​Innovative Thinking³
  • Innovative thinking is the process of taking creative ideas to appropriate applications.
  • An example of innovative thinking.
    • The second grade students discussed above used innovative thinking when they narrowed down their many creative ideas to choose one idea that best addressed the appropriate application, crafting their wheel to meet the Mars criteria. They did this by first drawing their final wheel design and labeling it with the science and art concepts. Next, they created their wheel in 3D and tested it, making adjustments to improve their wheel.

Equity⁴
  • Equity is the intentional consideration, formulation, and implementation of practices, policies, and procedures within an organization to deter systemic biases that can hinder the measurable outcome of programming as well as create barriers that can affect student achievement within demographic subgroups in comparison to institutional expectations and performance standards.  Equity fosters accountability between stakeholders involved in the decision-making process and those designated to perform within the organization.
    • An example of equity.
      • During this period of virtual teaching across the country, conversations are necessary to develop plans of action regarding student accessibility to electronic devices, availability and reliability of Internet services, as well as teacher competency with technology skill, to name a few programmatic practices that can affect student achievement.
  • Diversity, within the context of this Collaborative, refers to the demographic subgroups within educational institutions as defined by the US Department of Education in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The four accountability groups defined in ESSA, Section 1111(b)(2)(C)(v) are: 
    • Students from economically disadvantaged environments,
    • Students from major racial and ethnic groups, 
    • Students with disabilities, and 
    • Students with limited English proficiency. 
  • Further, the Collaborative extends the meaning of student diversity by including a focus on populations and the intersections of these groups: 
    • Students who identify as female,
    • Students from geographically underserved areas,  
    • Students in alternative education programs, and 
    • Students who are gifted and talented. 
  • Inclusion is an opportunity to reach all stakeholders by consciously being mindful of their needs. Inclusion promotes analysis and evaluation in order to determine needs.
    • An example of inclusion.
      • Virtual teaching is a learning curve for all stakeholders, including students, teachers, parents, curriculum designers, and central office personnel.  Everyone’s need is different and must be identified to address the overarching plan of action to ensure that virtual teaching is successful.

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Collaborative Online K-12 Teacher Professional Development Grows in 2020-21

11/8/2020

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In response to COVID and the Collaborative’s focus on diversity, the Collaborative is growing its National Endowment for the Arts-funded national online teacher professional development for 2020-21.

A number of K-12 teachers completed the first iteration of this professional development in the spring semester, 2020. Due to COVID, all experiences for teachers and students were virtual. Teachers who completed the course commented on the effectiveness of the course and its strategies, lessons, and examples. Since all their experiences were entirely virtual, they will be able to return to the course in 2020-21 and apply the lessons and the Collaborative’s research-validated assessments in their in-person classrooms with students. 

They will be joined by teachers who were not able to complete the course in spring, 2020, in addition to teachers whom the Collaborative is recruiting for this opportunity. This includes teachers of color and teachers of diverse students who are being recruited.

For those teachers who are new to this K-12 online professional development in academic year 2020-21, there will be an an additional focus  on culturally responsive teaching (CRT).  Many STEAM strategies strongly dovetail with CRT strategies. This year, the project will look at effective strategies for integrating CRT with the online STEAM teacher professional development. (Please see Culturally Responsive Teaching and Collaborative K-12 STEAM Effective Practices in this newsletter.)

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