Why Pop Culture needs to be a part of STEM Education

Bringing Zombies, Harry Potter and Disney fairy tales into the classroom is a great way of sparking imagination and allowing children to find meaning in STEM activities. Edward Kang and Amy Schwartzbach-Kang share how their work is inspiring children to love learning about science and maths.

While teaching in Chicago Public Schools, we noticed that many of our students already entered the classroom with preconceived ideas about science and maths. Many students thought it was just about rote memorisation for a test or that you already had to be a ‘science person’ in order to be successful. It was hard to get students to engage. We wanted to find a way to push the boundaries of STEM to let students experience how maths and science are rooted in creativity. We started The Laboratory Chicago as a way to experiment with STEM lessons and help educators connect STEM to all types of learners.

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      string(402) "... placedit within extended weekly tutorial sessions. Two othermiddle schools in Northumberland have plans to use itwith smaller ‘intervention’ groups of vulnerable children toboost their motivation, engagement and self-esteem, andin Lancashire, it has been incorporated within the OpeningMinds Curriculum (RSA project). Elsewhere, schools aim totie it in with their coaching ..."
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      string(5665) "students to findconnections between subjects.9 Just listen to yourself think!Allows students to focus on the‘how’ not the ‘what’ of learning, aka‘metacognition’, to make learning moreaccessible to them.10 Recycle it!Introduces students to the concept oflearning for transfer; making connectionsbetween school and everyday life.54stories for thinking   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 8:2How does it work?Each chapter of the story is based around a key idea asoutlined above. The teacher and students read the chaptertogether as the basis for their enquiry. The students tryout some activities and share their reactions and ideas.Following this launch lesson, the students continue theenquiry by investigating an aspect of their learning ina selected lesson or in everyday life over the followingweek. This is their Independent enquiry and can be verypowerful. It involves students reporting and reflecting ontheir learning experiences. In the follow-up session bothstudents and teachers are reporting back on what theyare learning – as a community of enquiry. This model issummarised in Table 1 below.Students involved in the trials have been acutelyattuned to the sort of feedback a particular teacher isreally prepared to accept. Where they have spotted thatno genuine enquiry is possible or welcome, they havedisengaged. But where the invitation for students to speakhonestly about their experiences has been a genuine one,the impact on student-teacher relations and classroomculture has been significant as in this example reportedby a Year 7 teacher:‘..when they saw that I genuinely wanted their help in figuringout what was going on, it really started to work. They gave megreat feedback and I explained at the end I was keeping myown ‘teacher log’ of the lessons about how much I had learnedabout them and me and the learning. They were fantastic atpinpointing what needs to change. We are moving forward–  really. Even in a short space of time, the group dynamichas visibly changed and now completely different charactersare contributing to the group work  and taking a lead.’Some schools such as Community School in Somerset,are using this enquiry-based approach within speciallytimetabled ‘Learning to Learn’ sessions. Others, such asCorbridge Middle School, Northumberland have placedit within extended weekly tutorial sessions. Two othermiddle schools in Northumberland have plans to use itwith smaller ‘intervention’ groups of vulnerable children toboost their motivation, engagement and self-esteem, andin Lancashire, it has been incorporated within the OpeningMinds Curriculum (RSA project). Elsewhere, schools aim totie it in with their coaching programme and base their CPDprogramme around the issues that emerge from the jointstudent/teacher enquiries.Table 155Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 8:2www.teachthinking.com   stories for thinking‘That was just typical,’ Jaz complained, as they trailedround the orienteering course behind a couple ofover-enthusiastic team mates. ‘I get landed with theduff seat between the clipboards and the teachers,while all the trendy kids make room for you at theback. How did you get to be so popular all of asudden?’eLfi looked thoughtful. ‘It works like this with humans,’he said, ‘if you want to fit in, all you have to do is agreewith them, and support everything that they say.’They walked in silence for a while. ‘I have a date onSaturday with a couple of girls,’ eLfi added.‘You WHAT?!’ Jaz exploded. ‘With two of them? Youcan’t! What are you going do when they realisethat you’ve got more in common with their mobilephones?!’‘You’re right,’ said eLfi, ‘For some reason I do feel moreattracted to their mobile phones.’‘Hey! You two! Get a move on!’ The others hadstopped at a cross roads. ‘Are you going to help usor what?’‘You’re the ones with the map,’ Jaz replied.‘I think we turn right,’ said a boy, holding the mapupside down.‘Yeah, so do I,’ said eLfi.‘No we don’t,’ said a freckled girl, ‘We’ve got to go eastremember? So that means left … I think.’‘Yeah, we’ve got to go east,’ eLfi agreed.‘So basically, we’re lost?’ said Jaz.‘Lost,’ repeated eLfi.‘Actually, we’ve been lost for the last couple of hours,’admitted the freckled girl, rubbing her glasses on hersleeve.‘Yeah, we have,’ eLfi nodded. ‘eLfi!’ Jaz hissed, ‘Will you stop it! We need to figure outwhat to do, and just agreeing with everyone all the timeand repeating what they say, isn’t going to help us!’eLfi looked confused. He opened his mouth to agree,thought better of it, tripped over his rucksac and fellbackwards into an electric fence. There was a large, blueflash, then a wisp of smoke. Everyone stopped talking.Story extract56stories for thinking   www.teachthinking.comTeaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 8:2Students involved in the trials have been acutely attuned tothe sort of feedback a particular teacher is really preparedto accept. Where they have spotted that no genuineenquiry is possible or welcome, they have disengaged. Butwhere the invitation for students to speak honestly abouttheir experiences has been a genuine one, the impacton student-teacher relations and classroom culture hasbeen significant as in this example reported by a Year 7teacher:‘..when they saw that I genuinely wanted their help in figuringout what was going on, it really started to work. They gaveme great feedback and I explained at the end I was keepingmy own ‘teacher log’ of"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Telling stories

14 Feb 2008

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      string(5747) "Science goeS pop! Cross CurriCulum ProjeCt Plan80Volume5.3nCreativeTeaching&LearningChildren love films, TV shows, computergames and books. If you pick the right ones,they can also teach children a lot about theworld. Or at very least inspire kids to findout more.Contrary to traditional belief, popular culture is notthe enemy of good teaching. Nor of creativity. Justencourage children to look beyond the superficial, inthe action and outcome, towards deeper themes andconcepts – to see context and the bigger picture. Ifsomething looks fantastic in a film, book, or TV show,how is it explained? How does it work? And mostimportantly, what links does it have to what is, was,or might soon be going on in the real world?Popular culture can tell us about technology,maths, history, geography… pretty much anythingreally. It can help us engage with the world. It’sinteresting, entertaining, but look deep enough andthere are serious themes.Science, in particular, permeates popular culture– especially with the current popularity of superheroand dystopian genres. Of course, the writers usea great deal of creative licence in these films, TVshows, books and video games, but look past thatand you’ll see links to a wide range of science topics.This project aims to highlight some of those links.Although mainly science-based, the activities arecross-curricular in nature and can be used with pupilsin Key Stages 2-4. A few activities are appropriate foruse with younger children also.Using popular culture in the classroom can be a great way to hookchildren into topics they might not otherwise engage with. CrispinAndrews joins forces with the team at Creative Teaching and Learning toprovide a series of cross-curricular activities related to recent films, videogames and more – with a particular focus on science.Sciencegoes pop!Science goeS pop! Cross CurriCulum ProjeCt Plan81Volume5.3nCreativeTeaching&LearningEngineering, extinction and ethicsA genetically engineered racoon named Rocketstarred in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, releasedinto cinemas August 2014 and now out on DVD.But did you know that scientists have geneticallyengineered glow-in-the-dark cats, phosphorus-eating pigs, pollution-fighting plants, cabbages withscorpion venom that kill caterpillars and bananas as acholera vaccine?An American scientist, Ben Novak, is trying touse genetic engineering to bring back the extinctpassenger pigeon. The passenger pigeon was wipedout by humans in the 19th century and the last one –called Martha after George Washington’s wife – diedin September 1914 in Cincinnati Zoo. There used tobe billions of passenger pigeons across eastern USA.To try to bring the pigeon back from extinction,Novak is using DNA taken from stuffed museumspecimens. However, he can’t get all the DNA heneeds from stuffed birds. DNA starts to degrade assoon as a living organism dies, and these pigeonshave been dead for over 100 years. To get over thisproblem, Novak is using the band-tailed pigeon – thepassenger’s closest living relative – to provide themissing DNA. He’s waiting for two breakthroughsin genetic engineering before he can start puttingpassenger pigeon DNA into band-tailed pigeoneggs. He reckons it’ll be 15 years before the firstpassenger pigeon is born and a further 50 beforethere are flocks of the pigeons back in NorthAmerican skies.Scientists are trying to genetically engineer otherextinct animals, including the Australian gastricbrooding frog, a frog that gives birth through itsmouth, and the aurochs, an extinct cow that used toroam the plains of Europe and Central Asia. Longershots are the thylacine, a wolf-like marsupial predatorfrom Tasmania, killed off by European settlers aroundthe same time as the passenger pigeon; and Steller’ssea cow, a North Pacific manatee, bigger than anelephant, hunted to extinction in the 18th Century;as well as the dodo, moa and of course, the woollymammoth.Many conservation groups aren’t too impressedwith all this. They think the money should be spenton helping living animals. Sounds like a good hook fora debate on scientific ethics.Science goeS pop! Cross CurriCulum ProjeCt Plan82Volume5.3nCreativeTeaching&LearningActivity 1: Extinct and endangered animalsDescription A research activity focusing on the reasons for the extinction and criticalendangerment of animals both past and present.Curriculum focus Science – animals, changes in environment, extinctionResearch and information skills – identify prior knowledge, locate and accessinformation, organise informationProcedure Introduce pupils to the concept of extinction. Explain that there are manyreasons why animals become extinct, and a lot of them involve humans.Tell pupils they are going to research the five extinct animals listed on Activitysheet 1a and fill in the fact files provided in Activity sheet 1b. In their research,students focus on where the animal lived, when and why it became extinct, andwhether humans are to blame for its extinction.Next, explain to pupils that there are some animals that are not yet extinct butsoon might be if we do not intervene. Pupils now research three animals withthe conservation status of ‘critically endangered’. They can research their ownor choose from the list found in Activity sheet 1a.Pupils use their research to fill in the blank fact files provided in Activity sheet1c. This time, they will need to find out where the animal lives, how manyanimals are left, why the animal might become extinct and what we can do toprevent this.Download this resource pack"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Project Plan: Science goes pop!

27 Mar 2015

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      string(409) "... activities sortedinto the relevant curriculum area.The Barefoot Computing project is a fantastic resource forprimary teachers looking for straightforward explanations ofkey computing concepts and fun cross-curricular activities toteach them. Helpfully, the ‘Plan your curriculum’ page mapsout the site’s resources according to the statements in the KS1and 2 programmes ..."
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      string(5611) "with amultiple-choice test to check understanding.Other BBC computing resources include: the Technobabblegame maker, a platform for kids to design, build and showoff their own arcade-style computer game; CBBC Stay Safe,a compilation of games, clips and music videos from kids’programmes like Horrible Histories, illustrating the importanceof internet safety; and ‘Doctor Who: The Doctor and theDalek’, an intergalactic quest-based game which gets pupilsdeveloping key programming concepts such as selection,repetition and variables as they play. The game is available inmost browsers but also as an iOS and Android app, and theBBC have provided a teacher’s resource pack to support itsuse in the classroom.Another resource worth mentioning here is BBC Webwise,which provides a range of video and written guides to helppeople of all ages develop their digital skills and awareness.Aside from the obvious informative benefits, Webwise couldinspire pupils to create their own videos for peers, youngersiblings or grandparents which explain different computingconcepts. After all, what better way to cement knowledgethan to teach it to somebody else?BBC Schools Computing(www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/computing) Key Stages 1-4QuickStart Computing(www.quickstartcomputing.org) Key Stages 1-4http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/computinghttp://www.quickstartcomputing.orgVolume6.1nCreativeTeaching&Learning73e-learningAs its name suggests, Computing Science For Fun exploresthe exciting side of computer science – that is, the interestingways the technology and theory pupils are learning about areapplied to the real world. The many articles on this site arefrom the free tech magazine, CS4FN. You can download fullissues of the magazine or explore individual articles in theirextensive archive.The articles themselves are generally quite short and newsy,with many references to popular culture, including the futureof wearable technology like Katy Perry’s glowing LED gownof 2010, how a Harry Potter style invisibility cloak might becreated through nano-machines individually refracting light,the launch of a fan-built virtual training environment foraspiring Jedi, and a selection of computer science-based plotholes in famous movies. You can search by date or by topic,of which there are a wide range, including computer crime,cryptography, fashion, philosophy, cyborgs, linguistics, womenin computer science, music and more. There are also a numberof logic puzzles, codes and ciphers pupils may enjoy solving,as well as some interesting maths and computer-based magicto try. Overall, it’s a great way to show all pupils the relevance,possibilities and plain brilliance of computer science in theirschool lives and beyond.Head to the ‘Resources for teachers’ page for a link toCS4FN’s sister site, Teaching London Computing. Here you’llfind lesson plans and activities to use in your teaching, mostof which don’t require access to a computer. This site isn’tthe easiest to navigate, but it’s definitely worth a rummage. Ifyou’re feeling overwhelmed, head to ‘Resources for teachers’ inthe top tab, then ‘Developing computational thinking’, whichorganises activities according to core concepts (algorithms,decomposition, generalisation, etc.), or ‘Interdisciplinarycomputational thinking’, where you’ll find the activities sortedinto the relevant curriculum area.The Barefoot Computing project is a fantastic resource forprimary teachers looking for straightforward explanations ofkey computing concepts and fun cross-curricular activities toteach them. Helpfully, the ‘Plan your curriculum’ page mapsout the site’s resources according to the statements in the KS1and 2 programmes of study. This is a simple yet useful feature,and one of the few sites I’ve seen to do so. Simply click yourchosen objective, and you’ll find a collation of key conceptsand approaches to teaching this aspect of the curriculum, aswell as a range of activities to do so.Barefoot is supported by Computing At School, but CASmembers will need to create a separate account to access itsresources. Beginners may prefer to start on the ‘Learn computerscience’ page, which provides clear and detailed explanationsof a range of key computing concepts such as repetition, logicand abstraction. Each of these pages gives a definition of theconcept, considers why it is so important and explains whereit fits in across the wider primary curriculum. You’ll also find arange of relevant activities to teach the concept or skill, linkedto different areas of the curriculum.The activities themselves are a mix of online and offlineactivities. There’s a great unplugged introduction to algorithms,for example, where pupils write and refine an algorithm thathelps their friends draw a crazy character. Other activities thatdon’t require computers include: a ‘guess what’ drawing gameto learn about abstraction, a partnered sudoku solving activityto explore logic, and choreographing and teaching a sequenceof movements to the rest of the class through decomposition.Most of the online activities are Scratch-based, which the majorityof teachers will now be familiar with, and cross-curricular innature. Highlights include: programming an animation to showhow fossils are made, creating a maths quiz, and detecting andcorrecting errors in an animation of the water cycle.Barefoot Computing(barefootcas.org.uk) Key Stages 1-2Computer Science For Fun(www.cs4fn.org) Key Stage"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Connected computing

3 Dec 2015

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      string(4931) "the most to them: theirparents.As an external observer of this process, I had many doubts.I still maintain that it islogistically very difficultindeed, but if I had anydoubts as to the valueof this approach, theywere destroyed in thefinal moments of everyfilmed presentation. Asthe teacher walks tothe camera to switchit off, in every case,there is an interactionbetween child andparent, in which theparent leans forwardand pats, hugs, kisses ortousles the hair of thechild, mouthing silentlycomments such as ‘welldone’. And the child sitswith pink cheeks and asilent smile full of pride,basking in the knowledge that they are loved, valued andadmired. Measure that.The title of this piece comes from a famous quotation,that meaningful assessment is an ‘Act of Love’ (Rinaldi2006)More to comeCultural Studies at Kingstone SchoolCultural Studies is offered as a subject to year 7pupils and consists of RE, geography, history, PHSE,citizenship, drama, ICT, music and dance with someelements of Literacy. Each half term unit consistsof a topic through which all the above subjects aredelivered through creative pedagogies includingDrama in Education and Mantle of the Expert.Topics include Child Labour, The Holocaust, NaturalDisasters, British Identity and so on. Each class has15 hours across a fortnight and is taught by one ortwo teachers who will be specialists in one of theabove subjects. The model is intended to bridge thegap between primary and secondary school and todevelop skills of autonomy, collaboration, creativity,empathy and thinking which are embodied in the fiveCs of the Cultural Studies Learning Contract:I commitI collaborateI consider and am considerateI communicateI create63Teaching Thinking&Creativity  Vol 9:3www.teachingtimes.co.uk   Creativity, Culture & Education (CCE)Following on from Cultural Studies in Year 7, pupilsmove onto a Curriculum for Confidence in Year 8in which they study a range of social, emotional andpersonal skills within Dramatic contexts which covertheir RE, Drama and PHSE curriculum time. Again,gains in pupil engagement, confidence and oracy areclear in the research undertaken by Dr Elaine Millard.In 2008, the school began to plan for a newprogramme for Year 9 in which Science, Maths andTechnology will be taught together within a Mantleof the Expert Frame (see www.mantleoftheexpert.com). Working with Luke Abbot as a creative partner,the three departments are developing an integratedcurriculum which creates fictional enterprisesthrough which the students acquire a practicalknowledge of all three subjects in addition to thebusiness and communication skills required to run anenterprise. For those interested in finding out more,the school is holding a conference on July 2nd 2009.ReferencesRose, J (Dec 8th 2008) The Interim Report onThe Primary Curriculum ReviewLondon, DCSF.Claxton, G (2002) Building Learning Power, Bristol,TLODCSF (2007 http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/assessment/app (last accessed31/12/2008)Rinaldi, C (2006) In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia:Listening, researching and learning, London, Routledge,Chapter 4 ;documentation and assessment.Subscribersget MOREWhen you subscribe to Teaching Thinking and Creativitymagazine, not only do you get the leading curriculum magazine,you also gain access to a wide range of benefits. These include:The Creative Curriculum ZoneSubscribers gain exclusive access to the specific CreativeCurriculum Zone on www.teachingtimes.co.uk website thatprovides additional articles, resources, debates and forums forcurriculum development.The Article LibraryOver 10 years Teaching Thinking and Creativity magazinehas developed a unique archive of the best practice across allsubjects in the curriculum. Subscribers get free access to thisinvaluable CPD resource.Special DiscountsTeaching Thinking and Creativity magazine has produced someof the most exciting learning resources available and subscribersare entitled to special discounts, these include;Intelligent Learning; the acclaimed thinking skills trainingprogramme for all staff. Six half hour training videos withextensive support materials for peer-delivery in your school.Ordinary price £235; subscribers receive a £50 reduction.Resource Packs; These include cross-curriculum resourcepacks based on the ideas of Kieran Egan and Heathcote’s‘Mantle of The Expert’ on ‘The Arctic’, ‘The River Child’, andThe Mountain Child’. Imaginative classroom resources withserious pedagogic underpinning. Subscribers receive a20 per cent reduction.To subscribe: Call 0121 224 7599 (Quote TTCA09)or visit www.teachingtimes.co.ukor see inside back cover for subscription form.For further information please emailsandie@imaginativeminds.co.ukor telephone 0121 224 7578.■■For Subscribers Only"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Assessment as an act of love

18 Jun 2009

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