Hi Everyone! Thank you for taking the time to watch our video. When teaching science, we often struggle with how to prepare students for the real world. What science will students need to know in their everyday lives? In their future careers? Is it even possible to teach authentic science, and authentic science communication, in a classroom context? With these thoughts in mind, we hope that the questions below will help us continue this  discussion with you.

FOR EVERYONE: Can and should authentic STEM practice be done in the classroom, while still supporting student learning?

FOR TEACHERS: How can insights from professional STEM workplaces help inform your lesson planning and teaching, especially for interpreting NGSS science and engineering practices?

FOR RESEARCHERS: In what ways could research on STEM practices in workplace contexts answer important questions in your research area?

Benjamin, Anne and colleagues,

Thanks for a fascinating discussion of the relationship between the technical skills included in STEM classes and the need for learning how to effectively communication results. The math discussion brings up lessons from the math reform movement which posited different modalities for student learning. Originally called the Rule of 3, it became the Rule of 4 and in a recent book I and colleagues called it the Rule of 5: presenting concepts verbally, symbolically, algorithmically (e.g. numerically), graphically, and through real-world data. Given that students have potentially quite different learning styles, including all approaches can lead to benefiting all students. I wonder if you have been considering how such different learning modalities fit into the need for developing communications skills. Encouraging students to be able to communicate in multiple ways may be beneficial. Does this align with your experiences at all?

Cheers,

          Lou

Hi Louis,

I would definitely like to learn more about the Rule of 5 that you described. I think what really stands out in our data on communication and math use in the optics and photonics industry is that presenting concepts verbally, symbolically, algorithmically, graphically, and through real-world data are all important for different goals and contexts. For instance, an employee may need to use math symbolically or algorithmically when testing a new process or design. Then, they may need to present math to clients graphically and verbally in order to communicate effectively for planning purposes. Communication in multiple ways may also be beneficial as you suggest, and your discussion poses some interesting considerations for communicating mathematics in different situations.

Thank you for this great video! Your emphasis on the "why" of communication really resonated with me, and is something I want to be sure to emphasize in my own courses.

As part of our NSF-funded S-STEM program, I teach a research and writing enhanced introductory statistics course. One of the first assignments I have for the students is reading Edward Tufte's Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions. This short (and cheap!) booklet presents two contrasting case studies where evidence was presented effectively (Jon Snow and the Cholera Epidemic in London) and not effectively (the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger). Every time I use this assignment, I am amazed by student reactions. They always seem to come away with an appreciation for the importance of good scientific communication. Do you have any good resources that you would recommend? 

For your discussion questions, authentic STEM practice should be done in the classroom! The "can" gets a little harder. The students in my course were all in the second semester of their first year and had STEM majors that spanned all of those offered at our institution. That meant it was challenging for us to do anything that required deep subject matter knowledge (i.e., something truly "authentic"). My major course assignments included a literature review on a topic where scientists might have a different opinion than the public and designing an empirical study using online games, writing about it, and giving a poster presentation. One semester I had the students create an animated PSA on their literature review topic. I think more authentic practice can be more easily implemented in upper level courses, but doing that well would require devoting time to scientific communication.

Thanks for sharing this fascinating project! I am very interested in questions you are asking around the ways in which employees learn on the job and the ways in which math and other technical subjects are intertwined with social contexts. This might be beyond the scope of your work, but I'm curious about any insight you may be gaining on how to support employee's STEM learning and practices as they unfold in the workplace. Thank you! 

Such an interesting idea! I am curious as to whether there are specific types of skills/traits you often see lacking when students are transferring from the school classroom into the workplace? 

Benjamin, Anne, and Kelly,

I'm intrigued by this work.  It puts front and center the need for more learning and collaboration between industry and education to improve how we learn, work and develop together.  This type of analysis, I think, has potential for engaging students in learning experiences which truly develop them for future work and don't distill out the interpersonal and social interactions, but acknowledge that we don't learn and work in isolation.

In your work what mathematical concepts and mathematical practices do you see as foundational for students?

Dave

Nice project, thanks for sharing!  I would imagine that seeing how workplaces require communication with different types of stakeholders would also help students recognize and value the transferable skills developed in their non-STEM courses too. Do you find this to be the case?