This week in education news, new research by the National Women’s Business Council supports women in STEM; David Berliner explains what is really happening in America’s public schools; Louisiana will phase new science standards into classroom by the 2018-19 school year; and parents are the key to getting high school students interested in STEM, according to a new study from the University of Virginia.

On the Commercialization Path: New Research Supports Women In STEM

While women make up more than half of all college students and now surpass men in attaining undergraduate degrees, the National Women’s Business Council’s new report, On the Commercialization Path: Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property Outputs among Women in STEM, reveals that women are underrepresented among students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Click here to read the article featured in The Hill.

What The Numbers Really Tell Us About America’s Public Schools

David Berliner discusses what is really happening in America’s public schools today as opposed to what the media and politicians say is happening. Click here to read the post featured on The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog.

New Science Standards To Be Phased Into Louisiana Classrooms

Louisiana’s new science standards for public schools will be phased into classrooms, taking full effect by the 2018-19 school year. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education gave final approval earlier this week to the rewrite of the state’s 2-decades-old teaching benchmarks with no discussion. Click here to read the article by Associated Press.

Study: To Get High School Students Interested In STEM, Invest In Parents

When parents of high schoolers are given guidance on how to talk about the importance of science and math, their children are more likely to score well on a STEM standardized test and, years later, pursue a STEM career, according to a recent study from the University of Virginia. Click here to read the article on Education Week’s Curriculum Matters blog.

What Happens To Education Spending If The Budget Stays In A Holding Pattern

Right now, the federal budget is operating on a “continuing resolution” through April 28 that essentially holds fiscal year 2017 spending levels at their fiscal 2016 amounts. In this article, Andrew Ujifusa examines how a few programs in the Every Students Succeeds Act would be affected if Congress approves a continuing resolution for the rest of the fiscal 2017. Click here to read the article featured in Education Week.

A New Technology Is Fundamentally Changing Learning—Here’s How

Middle school students across the U.S. are learning how the body works by studying the anatomy of a frog, a vertebrate with an organ system similar to that of humans. But unlike school lab work that uses real specimens or images of a virtual frog on a screen, a new approach to this standard experiment is taking the act of learning to a unique interactive level, thanks to the use of technology known as blended reality. Click here to read the article featured in eSchool News.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

The Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs (CLPA) team strives to keep NSTA members, teachers, science education leaders, and the general public informed about NSTA programs, products, and services and key science education issues and legislation. In the association’s role as the national voice for science education, its CLPA team actively promotes NSTA’s positions on science education issues and communicates key NSTA messages to essential audiences.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Follow NSTA

I still have the wooden unit blocks that were central to many of my childhood play scenarios. The wooden blocks did not stick or snap together so we had to consider balance and how to make a sturdy base to support our structures. They were the materials we used to make models—building beds and shelter for our dolls, walls to separate MY space from YOUR space, and paths around our wooden block village. Making and using models is one of the Next Generation Science Standards essential science and engineering practices, and the NGSS K-2 Engineering Design performance expectation K-2-ETS1-2, using a model to illustrate how form helps an object function. Models can be sketches, drawings, or physical models. 

When young children play with blocks, teachers have many opportunities to support the children’s language development and mathematical skills, and strengthen their spatial abilities. The book Creative Block Play: A Comprehensive Guide to Learning through Building by Rosanne Hansel (Redleaf 2016) provides guidance on how to understand what children learn through building with blocks and strategies to increase the learning opportunities in the “block area.” 

Wooden unit blocks have been a staple in early childhood programs since they were designed in 1913 by educator Caroline Pratt (Hewitt, 2001) with a single rectangular prism unit block having the proportions 1:2:4, and measuring 1-3/8 by 2-3/4 by 5-1/2 inches, and many other shapes based on this unit. They meet the needs of children to learn through play and the needs of educators for materials that address many areas of the curriculum and can survive years of use by children. A set of 300-400 quality wooden unit blocks will provide hours of learning for generations of children and costs about the same as 2-4 tablets. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every early childhood program had both these forms of technology? 

Here’s an example of how one teacher strengthened a child’s math and problem-solving skills while supporting his developing self regulation.

Jeremiah was still adding blocks to his “house” structure when it was time for breakfast. Knowing that children often need help making transitions, Ms Carrie posed a problem to those in the block area: “You may put away the blocks you are working with, or you may move your structure out of the way so there will be room for circle time later.” “How can I move it?” asked Jeremiah. Ms Carrie counted the blocks on one side, saying, “You have 1, 2, 3, 4 blocks on this side wall of your house and we can rebuild this wall right over here.” She helped him carefully move and rebuild that wall. “Which shapes did you use for the roof up on top of the walls? How many blocks did you use for the opposite wall?” she asked as they counted, noted the position and rebuilt the house in a new location.

Moving and rebuilding the house structure, together with a teacher, also supported Jeremiah in learning vocabulary (side, roof, rebuild, opposite) and developing spatial ability to “translate” (move a shape without rotating it) and his “part-whole integration” (knowing how parts fit together to form a whole). 

Do you have a favorite block-building memory? How can you support young children in making their own memories as they play with blocks?

Hewitt, K (2001). Blocks as a tool for learning: Historical and contemporary perspectives. Young Children 56(1): 6-13. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/Hewitt0101.pdf