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Carnegie Science Fall 2015 19 The Real World Battelle Education has operated in more than 35 schools since 2006 to engage students in transdisciplinary problem-based learning by addressing real-world issues. The teachers serve as facilitators to help teams solve problems rather than presenting solutions in a lecture. Some projects mimic the real world of Battelle and other research organizations. One extraordinary Battelle project serves as a vivid example. This project which took more than 10 years to complete and involved 39 Battelle staff in partnership with surgeons and others developed a revolutionary system known as neural bridging. This system bypasses the spinal cord to help quadriplegics regain some movement in their hands and arms. The projects compelling story features an athletic 19-year-old who had a diving accident leaving his limbs useless. In an unprecedented medical trial he had brain surgery to implant a chip in his brain. This chip monitors the brain activity that directs the hand to move relays it to a computer with Battelle software which translates that activity to a language that muscles can understand to open and close the hand. The signals go to a forearm cuff also invented at Battelle which makes the hand move in the way the brain was thinking. The successful trial required that the doctors and engineers had the vision drive confidence and teamwork to create this life-changing product. It is those qualities that underlie a STEM education. A STEM Model The schools where Battelle is involved teach their students to work in the same way. One school uses a design cycle framework for a given problem. It begins with teams of students who brainstorm about how to solve an assigned problem design a solution build it evaluate and test their models modify what does not work and share their results with others to reinforce what they learned. As one student said it is all hands-on and fun to get things to work. The fact that solutions do not always work is where the learning begins. The Finished Person Kennedy talked about how many in the STEM community make the workforce argument to advocate for a STEM education noting that it prepares kids for work in the real world. It certainly does. But a student named Jack who graduated from the Metro Early College High School where Kennedy taught summed up a better reason why STEM is so important. After high school he graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in business and he is now a local entrepreneurfilm maker.I dont remember very much curriculum and I dont think thats an uncommon thing Jack said.But I do remember the excitement that I learned to have when it came to solving a problem . . . I do not forget my education . . . every single day when I am working in the field I use the Metro habits we call them critical thinker inquiring learner collaborator active and responsible decision maker and engaged learner. Those are constantly just burned into the way that I approach things. on Engineering Camps The National Society of Black Engineers manages a summer engineering program in 17 camps in different cities. About 4800 third through fifth graders get high-quality STEM experiences. These young people get so excited. They are actually building toys. They are building rocket-propelled vehicles fuel-cell cars solar cars. They learn how to translate potential energy into kinetic energy with the vehicles that they build. So during the course of the week they are building and learning key science conceptsNewtons three laws. They are learning about velocity and acceleration and other physics terms. Every Friday is Competition Friday. Teams of young people compete with one another with their vehicles not just how fast but also how accurate and then they also give oral presentations about what they have learned. So the learning is reinforced. I was in New Orleans visiting my first camp and the fifth grade team chose to use a talk show format to demonstrate their knowledge. The host asked the guests to tell him about velocity or can you talk a little about acceleration So they are reinforcing their learning and they are excited about it. We invite professionals from the communities to judge the competition as volunteers. We train them to evaluate the students performance. There is a remarkable interest in learning. When you see 300 young people reciting Newtons three laws its wonderful. Karl Reid STEM educators need to encourage students to dream beyond what is currently possible like Battelles innovators. Image courtesy Battelle