Sustainable Development in the Classroom: How Changing the World and STEM Connect

By Elizabeth Lipscomb, Vice President, Strategic Alliances, Discovery Education

Since the dawn of formal education, students have been looking up from their work and asking, “Why do I need to know this?”

为了使今天的年轻人为明天的工作做好准备，我们需要他们了解他们将如何在未来职业的背景下使用他们在课堂上获得的知识和技能。在15年以上的时间里，Discovery Education一直在做到这一点，使世界各地的教育工作者都使用重新想象K-12教育的工具，并使学生在课堂上学习的知识与他们的学校隔离墙以外的成功生活有关。

简而言之，我们认为学生必须“看到它是它。”

But just connecting the dots between classrooms and careers misses an important part of the equation. According to the2016 Deloitte Millennial survey，有84％的千禧一代认为使世界变得更美好是他们的责任。科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）不仅为快速增长的市场中的工作付费工作提供了关键，而且还解决了社会和年轻人想要解决的全球挑战。如果学生们为使世界变得更美好而着手，那么他们应该放心掌握词干。

Consider what's happening in New York this week. All 193-member states of the United Nation’s General Assembly have gathered to discuss a broad array of social, humanitarian and cultural issues that fall under their remit. Take a quick glance at the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals that will guide UN Development Programme policy and funding until 2030. These 17 goals aim to “end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity"– and they can be achieved only with the help of STEM.

同样，美国国家工程学院要求由18名工程师组成的委员会 - 包括Google联合创始人Larry Page，Genomics Pionomics Pioneer J. Craig Venter和未来主义者Ray Kurzweil之类的名人 - 一个简单的问题：我们如何改善地球上的生活？经过一年的思考，他们提出了本世纪最大的工程挑战，试图促使新兴的工程师进入source solutions这可以改善地球上的生活，并提高可持续性，健康，安全和生活乐趣。金博宝怎么注册From providing energy and clean water, to improving healthcare, to fighting hunger, solutions to the world’s most pressing problems lie in the hands of mechanical and chemical engineers, computer scientists and technologists – people with hearts set on making the world a better place and minds set on using STEM to do so.

When you frame STEM in the context of global change and social good, something interesting happens – more students want in. Many universities are offering engineering programs focused on social good and attracting more diverse student populations in the process. The truth is, however, that college is often too late to start engaging potential agents of change. We need to start earlier – in elementary and middle school – to build a foundation that will carry students through their education and career. That’s why Discovery Education developed STEM Connect, a web-based supplemental K-8 resource that empowers teachers to create STEM learning experiences by incorporating real-world challenges. And to determine what those challenges are, we looked to the UN SDGs and partnered with the National Academy of Engineering.

STEM Connect的开发是为了帮助学生对他们关心的全球问题有更深入的了解，并了解他们可以使用的工程设计过程。学生从事动手活动，这是最近发表的一项研究Life Sciences Education表演，吸引更广泛，更多样化的学生受众。例如，在一个单元中可持续农业以养活地球（与联合国可持续发展目标＃2，零饥饿相关），中学生面临设计和建立印度社区的有机堆肥系统的挑战，然后说服他们的班级，他们的有机堆肥方法实际上将使所涉及的社区受益。188bet网址怎么打不开更重要的是，公司正在加入对话，帮助我们通过将这些挑战固定在现实世界的创新中，并向服务不足的学生群体展示相关职业，从而提高这些挑战。通过STEM Connect，学生不仅了解他们如何谋生，而且还学习如何有所作为。

As that one small example illustrates, it’s clear that we can’t limit students' understanding of STEM to these traditional subject areas. For instance, you can design the best organic composting system in the world, but if you can’t craft a convincing narrative to persuade a community to adopt it, it won’t do much good. Just as the UN SDGs present 17 complex, interconnected goals working in the spirit of partnership and pragmatism, science, technology, engineering, and math, must partner with literacy, creative arts and social studies to create an interdisciplinary STEM culture in schools.

我们知道今天的学生与众不同。除了成为我们世界有史以来最精通技术的一代人之外，他们还深有希望使世界变得更美好的地方。为了使这些学生为未来做好准备，不仅是为了我们的经济，而且为了社会的利益，让我们像未来一样教书的词干取决于它 - 因为事实是，它确实如此。