Recent posts
Why do students drop out of STEM majors: deteriorated interest, low grades, loss of passion.
The president’s call for more engineers and STEM educators is focused on the wrong level of education according to a New York Times article .
Where enthusiasm for STEM subjects is ignited at a young age, it appears to fizzle out as students reach higher levels of education. The article cites a study from the University of California Los Angeles.
What is driving students out of STEM degrees? One engineering professor described the situation as “the math-science death march.”–caused by rigorous coursework, difficult grading scales, loss of passion, easier classes in other majors and most importantly too many classes based on theory and memorization and not enough practical application.
Educators fear that the study of engineering has not evolved to meet the needs of students in the age of technology, action, and hands on learning.
‘Other deterrents are the tough freshman classes, typically followed by two years of fairly abstract courses leading to a senior research or design project. “It’s dry and hard to get through, so if you can create an oasis in there, it would be a good thing,” says Dr. Goldberg, who retired last year as an engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.’
Many students and professors take issue with the static style of STEM education calling for more interaction and innovation in the classroom.
The take home point is nationally students are losing interests because they are not building confidence in their knowledge, skills, values, and identities as an engineer–the same factors needed to create an epistemic frame. As educators look for engaging ways to teach the process of engineering thinking and design, opportunity and need for epistemic games like Nephrotex is greater than ever.
Epistemic learning through mentored games like Nephrotex may provide the solution to the so called “math-science death march.”
It’s Confidence, Not Competence
According to an MIT report on women in science and engineering, it turns out women leave the field of engineering because of a lack of confidence, not because they want to start a family or have lower technical abilities. Read more in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Physics and Poetry
Professions that depend on STEM skills are the second-fastest professional group in the United States according to New York Times blogger Motoko Rich, who references a Georgetown University study. Occupational fields like manufacturing, utilities, transportation and mining, and even sales and management are demanding that workers have a STEM background. In an increasingly technical global marketplace, it’s become a necessity to be able to communicate with engineers and computer scientists in collaborative projects or to sell a product.
So even if young people don’t plan on majoring only in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, it’s beneficial for them to have some understanding of the STEM world and ways of thinking. Students can complete a double major in STEM and another field, participate in STEM extra-curricular activities and competitions, or play epistemic games like Nephrotex and Land Science that simulate professional workplaces.
Rich sums it up best, “physics and poetry, anyone?”
Dr. Naomi Chesler invited to attend Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium
Dr. Naomi Chesler, the Co-PI on the Nephrotex Project and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been invited to attend the Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium. The symposium, which will take place November 13-16 in Irvine, CA, brings together sixty-five of the nation’s most engaged and innovative engineering educators and will create a “unique venue for engineering faculty members to share and explore interesting and effective innovations in teaching and learning,” said NAE President Charles M. Vest.
The 2011 Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium is sponsored by the O’Donnell Foundation.
David Shaffer speaking at ASU February 2, 2012
David Shaffer will be the guest speaker at Advances in Learning Lecture series at Arizona State University on Feb 2. See the flier for more details.
Students Feel High School Insufficiently Prepared Them for STEM Majors
Today, Microsoft released a survey indicating that only 20% of students in STEM fields felt that their high school courses sufficiently prepared them for college-level work, despite the fact that 55% of them decided to pursue STEM fields when they were still in high school. The majority of students and parents of K-12 students agreed that the U.S. does a “poor job” of teaching STEM courses compared to other countries.
We continue to stress that expecting students to simply memorize and recite formulas and concepts is poor teaching. Students need to be taught the ways in which professionals in STEM fields use those formulas and concepts as problem solving tools. Students who play epistemic games are better prepared for the work that lies ahead. In epistemic games such as Nephrotex and Land Science, mentors who play the role of professionals encourage students to reflect on their actions in the game and make connections between values, skills, and knowledge in their STEM domain.
The right kind of telling: an analysis of feedback and learning in a journalism epistemic game
Hatfield, D. (2011) The right kind of telling: an Analysis of feedback and learning in a journalism epistemic game. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/hatfield_dissertation_print_final.pdf
Congratulations to our two new graduates!
Congratulations to both Elizabeth Bagley and David Hatfield, the newest ‘Drs.’ of the Epistemic Games group.
Elizabeth is moving on to a post doc position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, while David will being staying on as Tech Director of our group.
Both Elizabeth and David’s dissertations will be available on this website.
Stop Talking and Type: Mentoring in a Virtual and Face-to-Face Environmental Education Environment
Bagley, Elizabeth A. S. (2011) Stop Talking and Type: Mentoring in a Virtual and Face-to-Face Environmental Education Environment. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Bagley-Dissertation-FINAL.pdf
David Williamson Shaffer in Paris for Design Education seminar
As a featured speaker at the Design Education seminar in Paris, France (June 2011), David discussed the idea of ‘mastery’ and what it means in education. In particular, he talked about the importance of learning to think with technology, not just from technology.
A copy of his slide presentation can be found on slideshare, and a video of the entire seminar is made available by Think Digital (David’s presentation can be found about 55 minutes in).
In addition to being a featured speaker, David was interviewed by Julien Llanas of Académie de Créteil.
The Epistemic Games Group
The Epistemic Games Group is made up of researchers, educators, and game designers who create games in which players see what it is like to live in the world of adults. They learn ways of thinking that matter in the digital age.
If you’re interested in building and studying epistemic games and the future of education, find out more about who we are, and what we do. We’re always interested in talking with potential collaborators and new epistemic gamers….
