STEM Education

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by RoaminRebel

There already are explosions... of foreign visa holders who are taking those science jobs kids...

And what's interesting is that my foreign exchange students tell me that their teachers don't do exciting demos. I had a German foreign exchange student who thought it just ridiculous that I did the exploding pumpkin demo. He went back and told his teachers about it and they couldn't believe I did something like that. The teacher emailed me and asked me why we do silly things like that.

The real difference between education here and education abroad is not that things are made more exciting. It's that the students there consider it their job to learn while our students expect to be entertained. Hence the explosion of foreign scientists and engineers. Learning science requires hard work and that is the one thing we're not allowed to require from our students. Here, we blame everyone except the student when they fail to learn. Just look at the first post in this thread blaming our inability to compete in STEM on teachers not doing more explosions because that's the problem with education, not enough explosions. It couldn't be our kids just don't do the hard work it takes to succeed now could it?

What is wrong with education here is our attitude towards learning. Particularly the attitude of the learner which is "Entertain me".

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by Bhaalspawn

.....Get some 2 Liter bottles of Coca-Cola and some Mentos...

A better and cheaper demo is the freezing seltzer bottle demo. Same concept but it also ties in freezing point depression and leaves the students wondering what happened. Instead of wasting class time walking outside, we spend class time with the students trying to figure out what happened.

I'm not a fan of mentos and coke because of the cost (2 bottles of Coke and 2 packs of mentos per class and it comes out of my pocket), set up time and class time lost just walking outside and back in. I lose half a class period to the demo and the kids make zero connections to chemistry with the demo because they've seen it many times before. The seltzer water demo, can be ready to go when the bell rings and it's something most haven't seen before.

For those who haven't done it, you cool a glass bottle of seltzer water to around -8 C (The object is to cool the bottle to just above the freezing point of the contents - you can do this by making a salt/ice bath) then give it to a student and ask them to just break the seal on the cap. When the student does this, the contents of the bottle will immediately freeze. Then you let the class try and figure out what just happened. I've never seen Coke and Mentos result in a discussion of the actual chemistry involved the way this one does. Kids see Coke and Mentos as entertainment only. They don't make the connections. I end up telling them the connections and that is met with little interest. With the seltzer bottle demo, I let the students figure it out. In 6 years I've only had one class where someone didn't figure it out. When a student does get it, the rest of the class goes silent as the light bulb clicks on. All of this takes less time than taking an entire class outside, setting up the Coke and Mentos experiment and walking back into class and is less disruptive. Have you ever tried to get a class back in order and start teaching after an excursion outside?

[Bettafish]

I like scary math teachers much more than fun math teachers. Math is supposed to be serious and be appreciated.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

I like scary math teachers much more than fun math teachers. Math is supposed to be serious and be appreciated.

Math is cool...so is science... I prefer a serious teacher who knows their subject to fun any day of the week.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

Math is cool...so is science... I prefer a serious teacher who knows their subject to fun any day of the week.

I prefer teachers that can be both...and given your results with your students and the results of the fun, but serious Chem teacher at our kids' school, I say that fun and serious produces better students...

[Bhaalspawn]

Originally Posted by RoaminRebel

There already are explosions... of foreign visa holders who are taking those science jobs kids...

Our universities need armies of foreign grad students so that the professors can conduct their research. What laypeople don't understand is that the science field is a pyramid scam/scheme that relies on having low-wage graduate students to do the research work (as opposed to reasonably paid scientists with permanent jobs).

Is America's Science Education Gap Caused By Career Planning Fears? - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society

Becoming an MD or electrical engineer are still pretty good career moves, but science as a profession is a bad gamble.