Dr. Jackie Speake the Science Geek's Blog

STEM - Alphabet Soup for Everyone! Recently, I was asked the question, "H ow did the arts get added to STEM curricula?" I hesitated for a moment, knowing this person was really asking how the STEAM movement began, and I thought to myself, "aren't we still trying to get the STEM movement rolling?" I thought back to my recent past as a District Administrator  in the Curriculum and Instruction department in a school district    that served more than 100,000 students where every school was competing for the "top" students to enroll in their STEM Academy. I remember asking the obvious question, "What makes this school’s STEM curriculum a STEM program?” More times than I can count, this question resulted in the following answer: "The STEM Academy is designed for our gifted students."  Ummm, what?  They would continue: "...and since we are a magnet school for the arts, it is really a STEAM program."  Ummm, what?  ...

Posted by Learning Sciences International on September, 27, 2018 https://blog.learningsciences.com/2018/09/27/math-tricks-just-say-no/  Things that make you go hmmmm…. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say, “I am not a math person,” well, I would not be rich but I would have a decent amount of spare cash to invest (that’s what we math people do with our spare cash … no, not really, but we should). But this statement leads me to a question: Would this same self-proclaimed innumerate person also claim to be illiterate? What is so scary about mathematics and do we assume our students share this same “irrational” fear of mathematics (pun intended) so we use tricks to make it less scary? Math tricks do NOT help kids learn and can even hinder their progress! We know the tricks – we learned them. Remember these tricks? If not, Google them – they are everywhere! For example: o rder of operations ( Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally ); the butterfly meth...

Learning Sciences International posted this blog on 08/27/2018:  Modeling With Mathematics: What it Is and How it Aligns With the Standards-Driven Classroom http://blog.learningsciences.com/2018/08/27/modeling-with-mathematics-what-is-it/  Modeling with Mathematics - what is it? I recently facilitated a teacher training on the College and Career Ready (CCR) Standards for Mathematics, and we discussed the eight standards for mathematical practice. For more information on all eight practices you can check out the following website: www.corestandards.org/Math/Practice . Unlike the Next Generation Science Standards ( www.nextgenscience.org ), the mathematics practices are not embedded in the content standards and are listed separately within the CCR documents. However, the mathematical practices are designed to be integrated into the mathematics lessons as student behaviors to promote critical thinking and reasoning. Needless to say, the importance of ensuring these pr...

You can't fight physics! So my husband's parents were in town this past weekend and we decided to go to the Museum of Natural History. My husband's mother is a polio survivor so she uses crutches to get around...everywhere. Needless to say, we requested a wheel chair from the Museum so we could "easily" move through the exhibits. We will get back to this word - easily - in a bit. So the tour started off in the Rocks, Mineral, and Gens exhibit. This took about one hour so I knew we needed to make some choices on which exhibits were the priority to visit or else we were going to be at the museum until midnight. Thank fully, the dinosaurs are right after the rocks and minerals exhibit so I knew I was going to see my favorite exhibit, and I always linger at  Archaeopteryx   because it's just really cool! Here is a link for anyone not obsessed with the common ancestors and the missing link: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/birds/archaeopteryx.html.  ...

Actually, this is my first official blog article and it was based on the research I did for an interview I had through Learning Sciences International (LSI) for for an EdWeek article:   http://blog.learningsciences.com/2018/05/30/ protecting-student-data / .  Protecting Student Data in the Age of Cambridge Analytica Recently I was asked the following question, “How do districts ensure student data and information is protected?” This question was precipitated by the recent disclosure Cambridge Analytica ’s use of Facebook data. If you have unsubscribed from the news (personally, I unsubscribe for days at a time for a brief respite from reality), the New York Times article, “ Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: What You Need to Know ,” should bring you up to speed. As I thought about the question, I realized my answer would require some research. I have worked at the school district level for 15 years (state level for two years) and have taken for granted that ...

My first blog!!!! Welcome to Pittsburgh! Let stream of consciousness prevail! From Florida to Pennsylvania Long story short... I fell in love, got married, and moved to Pittsburgh to be with my new husband who had just started a new and career-changing job in western PA. We moved over the Thanksgiving weekend - just before the end of eight months of Florida summer and the beginning of Pittsburgh winter.  Now don't get me wrong... I grew up in Maryland and the family went skiing every winter so I have experienced cold weather - sleet, snow, freezing rain - it is the reason I relocated to Florida after I graduated from UMCP (go Terrapins!). But I can tell you, after 20+ years in south Florida where sticking to your car seat and sweating in areas that cannot possibly have sweat glands, you forget how cold really feels. And I am not talking about the three weeks in south Florida (almost ten weeks in Tallahassee - I lived there for a couple of years) where it gets "c...