Why is STEM so important in Michigan right now? Because Michigan businesses need STEM educated workers and currently those workers are not available. Businesses struggle to understand why it appears public education is not producing the workforce they need, while educators are attempting to teach kids collaboration, creative thinking and other 21st Century Skills, while navigating another legislative edict, state standards, and school district goals. Our guest Drea Weiner from MiSTEM is attempting to repair that disconnect, and helping to make education applicable to a real world setting by fitting STEM into the curriculum to meet the needs that businesses are desperately crying out for.

Elementary is Engineering Workshop

November 26th

TCAPS Sabin Data Center

 

Acronym List

MiSTEM - Michigan Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Network

TBAISD - Traverse Bay Intermediate School District

CHAREMISD - Charelvoix - Emmet Intermediate School District

ELA - English Language Arts

REMC - Regional Education Materials Center

METS - Michigan Education Technology Specialists

EVR - Experience Verification Route

EIE - Elementary is Engineering

REMC RITS - REMC Instructional Technology Specialists

SEL - Social Emotional Learning

DigCit - Digital Citizenship

 

 

Full Transcript:

Drea Weiner 0:02 I'm pretending like I know what I'm doing but I don't actually know what I'm doing most days.

Larry Burden 0:11 The most important thing we can teach our kids is to recognize that everybody's just winging it.

Drea Weiner 0:15 Because you need to integrate that with your content.

Larry Burden 0:19 I want to do that. That looks like more fun.

Larry Burden 0:26 It's Episode 97 of the EdTechLoop podcast. My name is Larry Burden and she's been attempting to 3D print snow tires for her Hyundai Elantra, it's Danelle Brostrom, and we are also joined by Northern Michigan Sensei of STEM, it's Drea Weiner. Multiple snow days have allowed for additional time to meditate on this week's moment of Zen.

Moment of Zen 0:47 To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake. It is necessary to stand out in the cold.

Larry Burden 0:52 After several field attempts to brave the icy roads we've decided to stay home and fabricate this week's meat of the show. STEM heats up in Northern Michigan.

Danelle Brostrom 1:03 I wasn't ready for any of that Larry.

Larry Burden 1:03 I worked really hard to come up with a title.

Danelle Brostrom 1:03 It took you all week to write, didn't it?

Larry Burden 1:04 So I worked...

Larry Burden 1:10 Naw, about the last 15 minutes. Come on, there's no prep here. Okay, so thank you for joining us Drea, because I know your schedule is crazy. We've got tons of questions about what you do and what's happening with STEM in northern Michigan. I don't think we've actually covered a lot of STEM so far this year now so fill us in.

Drea Weiner 1:34 First one in. So yeah, so I'm the Regional Director for the MiSTEM network, and the MiSTEM network is a statewide effort to make sure that there's a cross curricular look at science, technology, engineering and mathematics, are we teaching those areas, are we teaching them in an integrated way, are we teaching them in a way that prepare our students for life beyond school, are we teaching them in a way that's applicable to the workforce. So that's kind of MiSTEM network, in a nutshell. I can talk to you about that for like hours on end but we'll, we'll end on that particular note.

Larry Burden 2:07 go ahead, you've got questions galore. Don't wait for me to just jump right in.

Danelle Brostrom 2:11 No, I'm just curious about the connection with business, you know and typically in schools we think about how, how we're teaching these skills, kind of on our own. Can you talk to me about the connection with business, why is that important?

Drea Weiner 2:22 So I would say that this is important because right now in Michigan, businesses do not want to engage, they do not want to invest in education. They do not