STEAM Spark - Think STEAM Careers, Podcast with Dr. Olufade

The Mentor's Legacy: Building STEM Bridges

• Dr. Ayo Olufade • Season 3 • Episode 3

Share episode

What if the solutions to our world's most pressing challenges are locked in the minds of children who have yet to discover their potential? Jeff Remington, a Presidential Award-winning educator and Penn State outreach liaison, thinks so.

Jeff Remington, a Presidential Award-winning educator and Penn State outreach liaison, draws from powerful experiences in Haiti and 35 years in the classroom to share a transformative story. He recounts how his mentor, Dr. Rod Reig-Mortel, rose from abject poverty in Haiti to become a world-renowned cancer researcher. This mentorship journey is a testament to the concept of 'seeds bearing fruit.' It's a powerful reminder that the guidance and support we provide young minds can lead to significant achievements and contributions, creating a ripple effect of success in the future.

Jeff Remington is pivotal in bridging the gap between cutting-edge university research and K-12 classrooms at the Penn State Center for Science and Schools. The center aims to help researchers translate their work into educational experiences that provide teachers with authentic scientific practices. These experiences go beyond 'random acts of STEMness' like Mentos in Coke, focusing on real data analysis, applied math, and problem-solving as practiced by actual scientists. This practical application of scientific practices encourages collaboration between educators and researchers, enriching students' learning experiences.

Jeff Remington also reveals his role in revolutionizing Pennsylvania's science education through the 2022 STEAL standards (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Environmental Literacy). These standards are not just about teaching science, they're about preparing students for the future. They also promote transdisciplinary learning that mirrors how researchers solve complex problems, preparing students for the future workforce demands in artificial intelligence, material science, sustainable energy, and other emerging fields. It's a crucial step in shaping the future of STEM education.

Jeff Remington's call for a 'village approach' to STEM education is not just compelling, it's essential. He argues that advancing American innovation requires the active collaboration of educators, industry leaders, policymakers, and parents. This inclusive approach ensures that every child—particularly those in underserved rural and urban communities—can access authentic STEM experiences and envision themselves in these careers. It's a mission we can all participate in, and your contribution is invaluable.

Ready to join the movement to unlock young minds? Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn or through the Penn State Center for Science and Schools to discover how you can help plant seeds for the next generation of problem-solvers and innovators.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

If you could have a dinner with any historical or modern day figures in steam, who will it be and why?

Speaker 2:

So it would be one of my biggest mentors and that would be Dr Rod Rieg-Mortel. Dr Rod Rieg-Mortel was born poorest of the poor in St Mark, haiti, and he rose through abject poverty, was a Horatio Alger Award winner. I don't know if you know much about the Horatio Alger Award, but it is a rags to riches award. Oprah Winfrey won the award. Many famous people won that award. It's people who have been born in poverty and have gone on to make an incredible difference in the world and incredible achievements, rose to become a world-renowned cancer researcher and doctor at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia, sloan Kettering in New York City and eventually was one of the founders of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and has saved countless lives, has mentored countless pre-med students who have gone on to save lives themselves, and then, when he retired, he went back to Haiti to form schools to again just keep his priority of education, education, education and mentorship going. So the impact that he has made has been amazing.

Speaker 2:

He passed away about three years ago, so who would I want to spend time with? I'd like to check in with him, see the fruits of his labor have blossomed all over the world Because we plant all of us plant seeds throughout our life and we have no idea if those seeds bear fruit. But there is a point in time where you can look down and you can see those seeds bearing fruit and I am sure he is just smiling from ear to ear because he sees all these fruits that have developed.

Speaker 1:

Well, I believe, may his legacy be memorable. Legacy be memorable and I believe, indeed, he will be smiling because you are a product of his mentorship. And look at now you are doing great things, not only in the United States, but all across the world, trying to make a difference in the field of STEAM. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Speaker 2:

Dr Mortel, you know from the very beginning, was just a great mentor, both at a distance and personally, in showing the power of mentorship with the hundreds and hundreds of students that he impacted, students that would have no idea that STEM careers were possible had it not been for him.

Speaker 2:

He was a medical doctor, so of course, all the students wanted to be like him and wanted to be a medical doctor because they could see themselves through him, which was very cool.

Speaker 2:

Not all of them became medical doctors, but a lot of them pursued many different things doctors but a lot of them pursued many different things, many in the computer fields and technology fields. I think in part due to our work also down there, when we built some computer classrooms and built some STEM labs and created something in the early 2000s called a wiki, which was before there was Facebook, before there was Schoology or Blackboard or any of those learning management. The students that I had in my town of Palmyra, my school of Palmyra, created a wiki with the students in St Mark's, so we had a learning management platform and we used Skype and we used YouTube to teach each other lessons from I don't know 3,000 miles apart from Palmyra down to Haiti and back and it was just. It was the coolest thing. There was no Zoom back then, but there was Skype, yeah, so just great. All these mentors have really helped us create great things us create great things.

Speaker 1:

So was that the beginning of your interest?

Speaker 2:

you know, in mentorship and outreach, what my Haiti experience taught me was that the world has crazy problems. I mean Haiti's got crazy abject poverty. They had an earthquake while I was there working, you know, in that time period, and that's.

Speaker 2:

every country has crazy problems's complex problems are hidden in the minds of our youth wherever they are in the world, wherever they are in the world, you know, born, unborn, whatever race, whatever ethnicity, poor, rich, and it is on us, as the adult humans on this planet, to cultivate their minds to solve the world's problems. When people complain and say there's too many problems in the world, I feel like what our role is to solve those problems is to mentor and develop the young minds out there to solve those problems. I totally believe the answers to the world's problems are in the untapped minds of all the youth.

Speaker 1:

Are we doing enough to mentor young minds in your own experience around the?

Speaker 2:

world to the different potential academic fields and careers, if they don't have the basic? If you've ever heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs just the basic things you need to survive. You need that before you can actually start doing intellectual pursuits with any vigor. I feel like all those things are needed and they're all part of the puzzle to solving the world's problems. It comes down to children, will you?

Speaker 1:

consider yourself a STEAM nerd. What's one STEAM topic or project that excites you the most? I ask that question because I'm an educator, and so are you, and I'm pretty sure you have had an experience with students who don't want to be referred to as nerds, and I always tell my students there's nothing wrong with being a nerd, right? So what is your take on this?

Speaker 2:

So I am a STEM nerd of whatever the next biggest thing is. I just love the future of whatever research or technology or engineering is coming down the pike. Engineering is coming down the pike. I was always that way as a teacher Felt. Like you know, I always wanted to bring the cutting edge into my classroom throughout my 35 years, and this current role that I have as a Penn State liaison is perfect for that, because that is our unit's role. We are finding out what's the latest cutting edge thing researchers are doing, and we translate their work and put them into K to 12 classrooms. So it is just the coolest, nerdiest, funnest thing you can do.

Speaker 2:

It's like living in a TED talk, if you're familiar with TED talks. Every week I'm learning something new. We're learning something new at our department From every researcher you can imagine from ag to medical, to AI, to engineering, to space. It's just unbelievable.

Speaker 1:

It's great to be a nerd. So am I. I'm a nerd. I'm proud of it. So let's talk about STEAM education and outreach. So right now you are a liaison and an outreach liaison at Penn State Center for Science and the schools. Can you tell us what is this center and what are some of the key initiatives you're involved with?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. So most universities, if they have something called a center, a center usually lives inside a college in that university and serves just that college. So like there might be a center in the College of Engineering, there might be a center in the psychology in the College of Education, we are a center that acts like an institute. So if you're in higher ed, an institute is something that serves all colleges within a university. So that's kind of how we act. We are a center but we act more like an institute. We serve all of Penn State, all the branch campuses or Commonwealth campuses of Penn State, and what we do is we help the researchers achieve their grants, their grant proposals.

Speaker 2:

So if you are at an R1 university, which stands for a major research university, like University of Maryland, university of Pennsylvania, penn State, and you're a researcher that wants to get a federal grant, federal grants are judged on two merits. Merit number one is called intellectual merit. An intellectual merit is what is it you're doing in your research that would impress peer researchers? Ok, that may be the things that you and I don't understand, but if you're in that research community that would be very impressive. But the second thing that's required is called broader impacts and broader impacts it sounds exactly what it is. It's also called research impacts. What is that researcher doing to give back to the people of the United States for them, you know, through federal agencies, you know, allowing them some grant money, some of their taxpayer money to do research.

Speaker 2:

So the federal government has several buckets that can be used for broader impacts workforce development, national security infrastructure, k-12 STEM. So what our unit does is when a researcher is going for a grant, they're really good about writing the grant based on their research, because that's what they're experts at. But researchers don't really have time to figure out how to translate their research into a K-12 classroom or into workforce development. So those are the things that we are all specialized in at the Center for Science. In the School, we're specialized in translating that into programs that bolster workforce development and that bolster K-12 STEM education. So we take whatever that researcher happens to be working on and we translate it into programs. We had a researcher, I think two years ago, that had an anti-earthquake machine. If you can imagine that, what a cool thing. That researcher found out that earthquakes really don't seem to affect forests. I don't know if you've ever noticed that, but you never look on TV and see that, no, I've never really noticed, really this forest has been devastated by an earthquake.

Speaker 2:

It really doesn't happen. Because the trees act like resonators Wow and they repel the incoming wave of the earthquake. So this professor created these simulated resonator beams or poles and, through simulations, could model an earthquake coming in and the resonators would be like the natural trees and would protect structures like buildings and things like that. So like those are the kinds of things that we're learning and then transferring that, creating a mathematical computer model that teachers and students can use to protect their school from an earthquake. You know, just amazing, jaw-dropping cool stuff.

Speaker 1:

Oh my God, this is epic. I've never really thought about that. What a concept to bring to my classroom. Wow, wow, that is great. Your outreach, I mean your center really does a lot, because I believe a lot of us scientists and researchers could use centers such as yours. Yeah, you're absolutely right. We're good in our research and you know whatever we do, but when it comes to writing the grants and meeting all the requirements of the grants, I think that's a different topic. So I wonder do you collaborate with other centers? Are there centers like yours across Pennsylvania, across the country?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so there's a professional group called ARIS A-R-I-S. It's Advancing Research Impact in Science, research impact in science, and they are professionals that you know most universities throughout the United States and we meet once a year and we share best practices and what we do. So we are all connected and networked and it just depends on the university. Some universities have really good broader impacts infrastructure built into the university so those universities are highly competitive about getting grants and can out compete other institutions that may not have such a good broader impacts unit with them. So so yeah, there's there's a whole broader impacts research, research impacts ecosystem throughout the country.

Speaker 1:

How do you engage K-12 educators and students in meaningful STEAM learning experience? And I actually want to tie to what you do also in terms of grants. Let's say an educator K-12 educator is interested in writing a grant. Can they reach out to you? Do you work with K-12 educators to write a grant or is it your center? Is it more dedicated to Pennsylvania or the collegial or university setting?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so usually. So it's not a bad idea at all for K to 12 teachers to find who is their big R1 university near them and see if they can reach out. If they Google broader impacts at that university, they can usually find a broader impacts department. It's usually good for them to connect. But usually the way broader impacts works is broader impacts is directly working with the researcher and it's the researcher that needs connections to K to 12. So these broader impacts professionals have those connections.

Speaker 2:

I've been in the classroom for 35 years, been in education, got lots of connections and a lot of respected connections. So that's part of why I'm in this role, in a lot of respected connections. So that's part of why I'm in this role. So then I would reach out to schools and say, hey, we have this grant. We will pay you to come and get professional development on this really cool thing because it's built into the grant to you know in many cases that they can get a stipend for coming to the professional development. We feed them. In some cases we pay for their transportation, in some cases we'll pay for their lodging and then we will also pay to make sure that they implement those new things that they've learned in their classroom and support them on their journeys.

Speaker 2:

We have in the summer something called Research Experience for Teachers where K-12 teachers can shadow a researcher doing actual research, in some cases in person, in some cases even remotely. They can do it from the comfort of their home through computer, data mining and whatnot. They do that for six weeks and then we usually spend the seventh week talking them through of what they've learned, and then that seventh week our professionals kind of have them pivot and take that learning and figure out a way to implement that in their classroom as a learning experience for their students, usually people that participate in our RITs. They'll earn $6,000 in the summer for doing this. They will grow professionally. Their students will just grow to a whole nother level.

Speaker 2:

We've had a number of our teachers who've been involved in our programs go on to win the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching because they really understand science. Most undergraduate, pre service science education classes don't really teach, they teach, they don't really teach the way that researchers are actually doing their research. So that's kind of a neat, you know niche thing that our unit does.

Speaker 1:

This is really good. This is very informative. I love that information. You know I don't know if many teachers or educators know about this I've seen you know information that you have sent out for teachers to participate in this kind of workshop, or I think you call it workshop right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah workshops usually. I have seen that, but I don't know if many teachers really know how it works. But I think, hearing you talk about it, I think now, hopefully, it will make a lot of sense to many of us. You have worked extensively in STEAM, outreach and advocacy. What are some of the biggest barriers preventing underrepresented students from pursuing STEAM careers?

Speaker 1:

And I actually want to, before you even answer that question, I want to even ask you what are some of the biggest barriers preventing teachers, k-12 teachers actually connecting with your center? Because I mean, if you were to give, because you're giving workshop to teachers, connecting teachers with you know investigators in the university, in the research right, I think that it's it will be beneficial for that type of collaboration because the teachers are learning, you know state-of-the-art, you know techniques that they can bring into the classroom. Yes, but now my question is, I guess in my mind I'm wondering are teachers taking advantage of this? And if they are, you know you can share. And if they're not, so what? In your experience, what is the biggest or what are some of the biggest barriers that is preventing that from happening? Because this is a great opportunity in my mind.

Speaker 2:

It is a great opportunity. So some barriers would be. The stuff we are doing is unlike anything these teachers have ever been taught in their undergraduate education. They've not been taught to teach like this. This is authentic STEM. This is the way the world operates with STEM. Way the world operates with STEM. It's unsiloed, it's convergence, it is high applied math, it is high data analysis.

Speaker 2:

So, you know, I think it's natural for people who haven't been involved in that to be a little fearful of can I handle that, you know, but really I think anybody can and we really we really support them on their journeys and once they most of our people are frequent flyers, like once they've come to one of our, one of our workshops, they they continue Cause they see I can do this and they see how engaged their students become and they think they can do this.

Speaker 2:

So that's a barrier. And then also, people have very busy lives and family commitments During the school year. Our activity, our workshops, are on the weekends, you know, and that's just tricky. For many of our workshops they have to come to either our main campus or one of our branch campuses. We have a few that are remote, but you know those are. Those are. Those are some of the barriers, but those that have overcome those, those you know, perceived barriers, they, they love it and they are frequent flyers and, like I said, gone on to win awards and have really transformed their classrooms and their schools.

Speaker 1:

So this is another follow-up question In order to participate in your workshop, do you have to be a teacher teaching in Pennsylvania, or can you be a teacher teaching in Pennsylvania, or can you be a teacher from any of the 50 states?

Speaker 2:

So that's a very good question. So Penn State is what's called a land-grant university and if you're a land-grant university you have an obligation to give back to the commonwealth of the state that your university is housed in. So our first priority is serving all the people of Pennsylvania, but we serve all 50 states and have had participants from all 50 states involved in our programming and as far as educators are concerned, k-12 is our priority. But we've also had a lot of what's called OST. People participate, that's out of school time, that would be after school space and those types of positions. But primarily our priority would be K-12 first and then others as space allows.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. And then, in regards to students and children, do you see any, let's say, in terms of barriers, preventing? First of all, I should ask do you work with children or just adults?

Speaker 2:

So, most of our work is with adults, but we do run some student competitions. We have the Pennsylvania Energy Challenge, which is a solar competition, and then we also have what's called the Kid Wind Challenge. These are both national competitions that involve for us. It involves our College of Engineering, involve for us. It involves our College of Engineering, where students engineer wind turbines to generate electricity and they're rated on how much electricity their wind turbine will create. Same thing with our solar challenge. They have solar arrays and they figure out how to get it to generate the most electricity. And again, these have competitions that we have regional competitions at our Commonwealth campuses. That goes to a state competition at our main campus and then from there they go to Worlds. And again, I will say, not to brag, but Pennsylvania has represented itself very well at World competitions. You know, for the students and the teams that have come to us.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you're bragging, now I am.

Speaker 2:

We've got great people Stephanie Clixball and Amber Cesar are kid winning solar people and Susan Stewart's our engineer. They are just, they're phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you so much for sharing that. That's all good. You have the right to brag. How do you ensure equity and accessibility in STEM education? Well, now we're talking, now that I know that your focus is adults teachers but for teachers that are in the rural schools, on the privileged community in Pennsylvania, how do you ensure that there is equity and accessibility? The reason why I asked that question, because I know we're in a really difficult point right now when it comes to I don't want anyone to think in terms of the political thing that is happening, because I mentioned equity and accessibility and immediately I'm pretty sure many minds will go to DEI. But let me clarify what I mean. We all know that. You know the rural schools are on the south, right? Yeah, so, and the whole idea is, and the teachers in the rural schools also need resources 100%.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so how do you ensure?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I'd say you've got a good characterization of that. So you know, rural people with disabilities, I mean there's just, you know, making it accessible to everyone just is a huge umbrella full of different circumstances. So where I taught for 35 years was sort of a county that had a lot of farming in it and I thought that was rural. And until I moved up to State College and north of State College it's the Allegheny National Forest and that's as rural as can be. So I've really learned both the challenges. So I kind of taught in a suburban school and even though I may have thought there were challenges in a suburban school, there really weren't. The two big school populations I see in Pennsylvania that have the most challenges are urban schools on the one hand and rural schools on the other hand, on the one hand and rural schools on the other hand, and I would say their challenges are both daunting in how they have to deliver K-12 education.

Speaker 2:

So we really work with as many teachers as we can from any setting but we really understand rural education, we understand urban education and we understand suburban education. So we will work with any. But on a side note, I want to share something that another good mentor of mine, dr Calvin Mackey from STEM NOLA, that he taught me. So you know, many universities have something called outreach. You know many universities have something called outreach, and just the comment that Calvin Mackey said to me really made me think about this. So when universities have outreach, typically that outreach means that those students and those families have to come to you and in so doing you've already put barriers there because some families don't have the means to come to that university for an outreach activity or may just feel embarrassed to come to a university for whatever reason. So Calvin Mackey said to me no, jeff, don't think of it as outreach, think of it as reaching out, and that's his secret sauce reaching out, going to where people are at and where they are most comfortable. So you're eliminating barriers of. You know, whether it's psychological discomfort or physical discomfort or financial discomfort, you are going to them.

Speaker 2:

And that's really the key to how he does STEM NOLA. Like he'll go to a community and he'll even look for in a community he'll drown to the point, drill down to the point where, in a community, where's the place that the least number of people would be negatively impacted? So like, if he had it at let's say it was, you know an activity hall of a church, that it was one religion, he would choose not to do that because maybe if you didn't belong to that church or believe in that religion, it would be a barrier from you going there. So, like, he even goes, drills down to the point what's a neutral spot that everybody in the community would agree on? This is a mutual neutral spot. Let's go there. So not just outreach, reaching out, going to people where they're at in their life, where they're at in their comfortability, and giving them the honor to show that I'm going to come to you.

Speaker 1:

So what strategy have been the most effective in fostering diverse and inclusive STEAM learning environment, in your view?

Speaker 2:

I just think for any environment would be early exposure, having kids try on STEM identities and having parents be aware of STEM identities, because there are so many pathways right now into high paying STEM careers with advancement that are sub-baccalaureate required. Technicians Like you wouldn't have to go to a four-year college. You could get into like a semiconductor technician, smart manufacturing technician like those could be one year post high school, two years post high school or maybe, if you have a good CTC career and technology center, it can be right from that career and technology center into a high-paying job with career advancement that the company will pay for your, your education and you wouldn't have to incur college debt. So there's many pathways out there that didn't exist, I think, when you and I were young.

Speaker 2:

But if kids and parents don't know that these pathways exist and when I say no, they exist, like upper elementary, they got to start to figure this out and know that these pathways exist. And when I say know they exist, like upper elementary, they got to start to figure this out and know that these pathways exist because they're going to have to make decisions their eighth grade year to get into those pathways. You know if you're talking about these pathways. Their junior senior year, it's in high school. It's too late for many of these, so I would say what's the best way? The best way is you try on STEM identities and early exposure to these amazing and very much needed STEM careers.

Speaker 1:

So well, you said are we doing enough in K through 12 in order to integrate an institute? You know a great idea like that. Should we? I mean, are we doing enough?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So from my experience being in K-12 education for 35 years and being in this role I feel like we could be doing more, because really a lot of those you know if it was a career thing, that was something that the school counselor was tagged on doing. You know, if I was a classroom teacher, I didn't have to teach anything about careers because I'm teaching my subject area. That's the counselor's going to do that. But really, you think of post-pandemic what's the majority of the counselor's time spent on? It's spent on social, emotional learning. Just a small fraction of their time, like on the back burner, is career development because they've got to put out the fires. You know of all the situations that we're in.

Speaker 2:

So this is a group and a community lift and teachers, like when you're in your classroom I lived it for for 35 years you are so focused on your classroom and all the demands, that you lose awareness of all the amazing jobs and career pathways that are out there that could be directly related to the subject that you're teaching. So there's a big community group lift we can do there and there's there's vehicles out there to help with that lift, called STEM ecosystems. No matter where you live in the United States, you're pretty close to a STEM ecosystem that has passionate people that can help bridge those gaps. So could we be doing more? We absolutely could be doing more. And do we need to do more? We do because it's a matter of national security, economic security, workforce development, all of us, old folks, we are part of the silver tsunami that's all retiring with the boomers. There's not a generation below us that has the numbers to replace all of America understanding the critical need for workforce development and the critical need for our national security to be world leaders in this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Now we have another dynamic with all the budget cuts, so do private organizations now need to step up their effort. It's going to be a take a village effort.

Speaker 2:

It's going to be everybody all hands on deck. And there was just a you can Google this it's called VAST and it is the Vision for American Science and Technology, unleashing American Potential. It's a report that just came out from business, industry, academics and that's pretty much what the report is saying. This is an all hands on deck moment.

Speaker 1:

It's going to take a village, it's going to take all of us, but for American prosperity we need to do it Absolutely, because, as I've mentioned and said and written, there's a lot of competition out there, so it takes a village. You're absolutely correct to steal academic standard. Can you talk about what it is? What is the process and what does it mean for the future of STEM education?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks, I'm going to back up a little bit. So in 2002, I was fortunate to have received something called the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, where you go to the White House, you get a citation and all that sort of stuff and really they give you a little bit of a training in how to be an advocate for STEM education as part of workforce development and national security economic development. So since that award was put into law it was an act of Congress. What is it 41 years ago now? 42 years ago, there have been literally thousands of PAMS awardees every year, two awardees one for math, one for science from each state is awarded it. So a few years ago, in 2017, they thought let's see if we can supercharge all those awardees and let's see if we can pick 10 and really give them advanced training on advocacy media, social media, to see if they can move the needle. And I was fortunate enough from all the PAMS awardees to be selected as one of the 10 and got this superpower training.

Speaker 2:

At that time I was teaching in middle school and I was teaching other teachers at Lebanon Valley College and our Pennsylvania science standards were being used and they were conceived in 1996, but put into action in 2002. And here this was, let's say, around 2015, 2016. We've been using these same standards and assessing our kids to these standards in Pennsylvania that were way older than iPhones, that were way older than iPhones, older than Google, older than computers. And I'm like this cannot work for us to be competitive as a state in workforce development If we're tying our STEM learning to something from 1996, and here it is 2015. So when this opportunity came up, I got the training and here it is 2015. So when this opportunity came up, I got the training. And then they said to us you know, you can pick a goal of what you want to do. To move the needle in STEM education. I thought I want to have Pennsylvania adopt new standards and by this point, the next generation science standards have been out for about three or four years and they are a type of they revolutionize the way science is learned by making it less random acts of stemness and more authentic stem, convergent, stem, solving complex problems by simulating what real researchers do.

Speaker 2:

So started a grassroots campaign, did a lot of social media, did op-eds in all the major cities, did a lot of shoe leather advocacy at Harrisburg and the Capitol there Just really went all out, got people energized, did road shows and, through the help of many and the cooperation of many, we got the State Board of Education and the state legislature to move forward and we got these 2022, it's called steel standards in a tip to Pennsylvania steel history.

Speaker 2:

But science, technology, engineering and environmental literacy and sustainability standards and they are. Many people are saying they're the best standards for STEM that are out there in the country because they have elements of the next generation science standards, but they also have environmental literacy standards that are unparalleled and they have ag standards rolled in there and they also have technology and engineering standards. Last week, I was at a convening of the Chesapeake Bay Consortium of the five states down just outside of Washington DC great and praising how great our standards were because of that environmental literacy component, and that's what this Chesapeake Bay convening was all about. So that, in a nutshell, is what the STEALs are and currently, right now, we are helping people implement those STEAL standards because it's a totally different way of teaching and it's tricky for people to wrap their head around to teach in a way that they've never been taught themselves and it's tricky for people to wrap their head around to teach in a way that they've never been taught themselves and they've never experienced as a student Congratulations.

Speaker 1:

So a follow-up question how to side? I know you have an element of NGSS in steel, so putting it side by side. You know people that, like me, who have been trained on NGSS, probably will have hesitation in using a different type of standard because in my mind I'm just saying what could be better than NGSS?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so if you put them side by side, the way they're formatted, it looks similar. They have performance expectations and they have, you know, the science and engineering practices, the cross-cutting concepts and the disciplinary core ideas. But the richness of this is it has local context for Pennsylvania, it's got workforce development built in for Pennsylvania and it's got tie-ins to other Pennsylvania academic subjects. So I was a big doer and believer of project-based learning when I was teaching in Pennsylvania for 35 years and under the old standards it was so hard to do project-based learning because it wasn't built for that. It wasn't built for convergence. The old standards were built for being siloed in your subject areas.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yes, that's no good, no the way we built Steeles.

Speaker 2:

It is totally built for. It is a launching pad for convergence, transdisciplinary education projects, which is really what's happening in business and industry and what's happening here at Penn State in research. It is convergence research, transdisciplinary research. The problems the world has are so complex. You need multiple disciplines coming together, thinking together on how to solve, to rally around a problem and solve it. That's what those steel standards do. Hopefully they're fully utilized so that they can do that.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Do you know how many states have adopted the steel standard?

Speaker 2:

Well, it would be the NGSS. I'm thinking we're probably well over half of the 50 states have adopted NGSS, or what we call three-dimensional standards. It could be as much as three-quarters of the United States have adopted NGSS. I don't know for sure. That would be an easy, quick Google, but I'm guessing it's probably somewhere between a half and three quarters of the states have adopted what's called three-dimensional or NGSS type standards.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you so much. Maybe it's my misconception. I thought the steel standard is different from NGSS.

Speaker 2:

It is. It is, but they're similar in that they're both three-dimensional and they both have performance expectations instead of regular standards, I guess. But there is more the steel standards in Pennsylvania are far richer than NGSS alone Okay, than NGSS alone.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad that we're talking about this because many people may not know about the steel standards and I'm an advocate of knowing or having knowledge in different standards. It's very, very important for us. So thank you so much for sharing. You've talked so much about steel standards and you've done a great job actually articulating how the steel standards actually facilitates the collaboration between the different workforce and education and all that and integration of disciplines. So I don't know whether this question is redundant or not, but how do you see the policy, education and industry collaboration working together to advance STEAM education?

Speaker 2:

So I would say again I just posted on this on my LinkedIn today on VAST again. So it's a document that just recently came out Vision for American Science and Technology, unleashing American Potential. To me this has a pretty good blueprint of answering that question that you just asked. So, again, if you're viewing this and you can Google VAST or look at my LinkedIn post today, you'll get a sense that this takes an all America village approach to that question.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. I cannot wait to read that. I'm going to go once we finish this podcast. I'm going to go once we finish this podcast, I'm going to go to your site to check it out. Definitely, what can state and national leaders do to strengthen STEAM ecosystem and ensure better workforce preparation?

Speaker 2:

Very simple Line item in the state budget, Line item in the state budget. And then also get business and industry partnerships, maybe tax incentives or tax credits to business and industry that you know contribute in some way, shape or form to what I call curiosity, career, STEM, workforce development. To me think that that may actually be one of the keys.

Speaker 1:

Now the question is how do we galvanize and get parents more involved? Our parents, including me when our children are very, very small, we're very, very involved, but as they grow a little older, so for one reason or the other.

Speaker 1:

You know we're not as involved, but I think that that is even more. You know more time, that is more reason for us to be really truly involved. But so that is just my take, but I like your answers. This is I think the government will do this. I did my own research a while ago. I was just amazed how much money that has been allocated to STEAM education. It's just incredible, and I believe that there is a section in my dissertation that I also included. I included that conversation with data, of course, because my interest was if we're spending so much money in steam, why are we not? Why are we 25th or 20-something in math and science comparable to the other industrial I mean countries? So I think that the government, they're doing their part, but I'm wondering there may be other people, or maybe the parents, the community that needs to do their part. But again, I'm not accusing anyone, but I'm just wondering.

Speaker 1:

I'm thinking out loud what trends or innovation in STEM education excites or do you see currently, and which one excites you the most?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm going to go. I know I keep saying this, but I'm going to go back to the VAST report, because the VAST report is spot on with what I've been seeing AI, artificial intelligence, material science and I will just say we work with a lot of those researchers frequently at Penn State the AI researchers, the material science researchers. Those two things, I think, are really going to change a lot of problems in the world, because the material science is going to have the physical connectedness to solve the problem and the ai is going to have the creative mind to solve the problem. Um, in addition to that, uh, new and sustainable energy sources. Uh, because ai is, as you know, is driven by these data centers and the phenomenon we're seeing now is these data centers want to be located near nuclear power plants because they have commitments to be green by 2030, 2035.

Speaker 2:

And solar and wind are not reliable enough. Nuclear is AI. Material science and sustainable energy are three big, fascinating areas that can help solve a lot of problems. In STEM, I would also say biomedical and agriculture. You still have to feed people. You still have to innovate when it comes to keeping people healthy. So, boy, I get excited about all of them and the fortunate thing for my job is I get to work with all those researchers and just see what's the latest thing coming down the track.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for saying that. I like the fact that you mentioned the data center and energy, because you're right. A few months ago, when I read an article by, I believe, elon Musk that was talking about the present issue in the near future is energy, and I was wondering we have abundance of energy. We have a lot of nuclear energy, right. I mean we derive a lot of energy from nuclear power plants, right. But again, we in the United States are industrialized, developed countries. We, we have the luxury, but other countries literally don't. So I do understand, but I'm thinking from the perspective of being in a developed country with a lot of energy, right. So I couldn't conceive it until recently when I started reading more about the data I mean data plants, data station and the amount of energy that is needed.

Speaker 1:

I think you're on to something. You're absolutely correct in that If I was planning my career path as a young person, this is what I would be thinking, but this is just me. What advice will you give to students who are uncertain about their career path in STEAM? And that even applies to you know, an adult who is now trying to do a career change, because things are changing. When I developed this question a while ago. I don't have enough knowledge for this or this.

Speaker 2:

AI is the great translator. It can help translate complex things to help you understand them better. There is more fluidity or flexibility in going from one job to another with micro-credentialing, where micro-credentialing is going to be more valued as we go through time, to learn specific skills, because new skills are needed in new emerging technologies and jobs and I think it's very easy to pivot.

Speaker 2:

I think a key thing you got to have is a growth mindset, and that mindset is that you can always improve. And the thing about growth mindset is you could always improve if you think you're very poor at something or if you think you're the best. Lebron James has a very strong growth mindset. If there was a basketball player that could have, like, really not put a lot of time in and practice and listen to criticism and this and that it would be LeBron James. But he continues to work every day very hard to get better than he already is and better than he was yesterday. And there's so many athletes that have that growth mindset and those are the athletes that really shine. And the same thing can be applied to STEM is just think of that growth mindset that you can always improve. You can always get better.

Speaker 1:

I never thought about growth mindset and STEAM will go hand in hand, but hearing you talk about it right now, it does make sense. That is great. That is really great. So how can educators better prepare their students for real-world application of STEAM?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I would say what we try and do is take teachers on a journey from what I would call random acts of stemness to authentic stem. And what is random acts of stemness? Random acts of stemness are more transactional, they're shallow. They don't have a long range vision of purpose, of where things are going.

Speaker 2:

I'll give you an example putting mentos in Coke. Is there a benefit for that? It's a cool thing to see. It does get kids excited, but it's shallow beyond that point. You know how motivated are kids to really find out what's going on and that's not really the work of researchers. I've been up at Penn State for three years, gone into multiple, multiple labs. I have yet to see a researcher put Coke and Mentos. I have yet to see a researcher make a jello mold of a cell. Like those kinds of modeling and demonstration. There might be a little pedagogical value to it. But what teachers and students really need to be engaged in is the authentic work of research, and that is applied math, data analysis, computer programming. So many of these researchers are computer programmers because they've got to write programs for the specific data that needs to be figured out, unique to their work. So those are the experiences like more towards the authentic in what you would find in the next generation science standards is the science and education practices. That's what we need more of.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for sharing that. What's one advice you give educators, students, policymaker about advancing STEAM education?

Speaker 2:

I would say the whole. It takes a village approach that if it's just on the shoulders of K-12 educators, that's not enough. K-12 educators need support from a whole village and it's not just to be appreciated, it's to feel appreciated and respected, and those connections with business and industry, with parents, with policymakers. We all have to be paddling in the same direction for making our country as prosperous as it can be in STEM.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. How can listeners connect with you or get involved in STEAM outreach program like yours?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn, so they can easily find me on LinkedIn. And then for us, we are the Penn State Center for Science in the Schools, Penn State CSATS. Just Google that you'll find us. And if you're not in Pennsylvania, you can probably Google ARIS A-R-I-S, and that is a national organization of broader impacts professionals that do the kinds of work that our unit does at Penn State, but they do it at all other major R1 universities, big research universities throughout the country.

Speaker 1:

What's next for you in your work with STEAM, outreach and policy? What's next?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think, just keep you know, showing up every day, doing as much as I can, because, again, I am a firm believer that the answers to all the world's problems are in the minds of our youth, no matter where they are on the planet. If we're overlooking one of those minds, that could be the mind that had the key answer we were waiting for to cure cancer or something like that, and that's what Haiti showed me. I saw brilliance in some of those students student that I worked with in Haiti that took to computer programming like a fish takes to water and ended up, during the pandemic, founding a app company called Dakla that helped navigate Haiti through the pandemic and probably saved thousands of lives. So you, just you don't know what seeds you plant and how those minds are going to use that for good.

Speaker 1:

That's powerful, sir. That is powerful. A quick fire fund question, and then we're going to end. So if I was to ask you what is one of your favorite STEM experiment, or STEAM experiment, what will it be?

Speaker 2:

So, it's not going to be a random act of STEMness.

Speaker 2:

It's going to be an authentic activity and it's one that I did for about 30 years and it's called a grasshopper field study. It's a project-based learning where we took all of our seventh graders about 300 of them out in fields and these fields were plotted out and we caught all the grasshoppers in those fields. Different groups were assigned different fields, whoa each field. Then, once the grasshopper was harvested safely, you know, still alive we put a little nail polish as a tag on their legs, specific to that plot. Wow, gathered them all up, counted them, destroyed half of the plots by cutting the grass down to the ground, re-released all the grasshoppers to their original plots, came back a couple days later, recaptured all the grasshoppers, coded them by what tags we saw to see if the grasshoppers moved from where the habitat was damaged to not.

Speaker 2:

We used authentic math called the Lincoln Index to track that migration. And I will tell you, in 30, 35 years of teaching I've had so many students share with me how impactful that science activity was. But I've never had a student come back to me and say, mr Rem, that was the best test prep day we've ever had or the best worksheet we've ever had. It is those authentic experiences where they are trying on the identity of what a researcher would actually do.

Speaker 2:

Is there a book somewhere? Anyone written a book that compiles this authentic, you know, type of science experiment? If your viewers would just Google citizen science and project-based learning, you will find lots of examples. Okay, so a note of caution. I do a lot of work with AI, yes, and AI is good and it's going to get good. There's a lot of programs out there that will write lesson plans for you through AI. Most of the lessons, so it's gleaning this information. The training set for this is what's on the internet. Most of the lessons on the internet are low-hanging fruit lessons. They're not challenging lessons Like project-based learning. Citizen science lessons are probably less than 5% of the lessons that are out there. So if you're a brand new teacher and you're relying on AI to write your lessons, I'll say you know, just be very careful in how you do your prompts so that you get a high quality lesson from it.

Speaker 1:

Jeff, maybe you can write a book. Oh yes, sir, you're going to be the Atari on this one, all right.

Speaker 2:

What is the biggest myth about STEAM that you love to debunk? It is that random acts of STEMness. Because I see it now that I'm up here at a university at Penn State, that kids think that these canned labs that they do and these demonstrations that they do, like Mentos and Coke, and they think that's what science is really about. And it's funny we have Penn State is known around the world for our meteorology department and we'll get a lot of freshmen come in and they'll see the local weatherman on the news and they're like that's what I want to do and then they realize how much calculus and statistical modeling is involved in meteorology. Is these random acts of stemness where you're not really giving an accurate picture, as an educator, of what research scientists and engineers really do day in and day out? You know it is far deeper than that, than a simple transactional random act of stemness.

Speaker 1:

Excellent If you were to recommend a book and I know there's a book coming from you very soon, or maybe you can start your own podcast. Yeah, what will you recommend for aspiring? You know educators, you know parents, students.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm not so much of a I'm not so much of a sit down book person, but I like to listen to podcasts. So, like Science Friday, I enjoy I've enjoyed anything from David Attenborough and the BBC. As my students will tell you, I'm a nerd when it comes to David Attenborough. And NOVA is another good thing, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for that. Today has been. The conversation has been quite insightful, jeff. It's been incredible. I just want to thank you a lot for taking your time, your precious time.

Speaker 1:

I know you're busy sharing your insight and experience and passion when it comes to STEAM education, mentorship and workforce me that our team was the importance of hands-on learning and mentorship in STEAM, breaking down barriers for underrepresented communities like, for example, community in the rural part of our country, providing accessibility and equity and how to collaborate between education industries policy. And you even suggest a good read, which is vast, that you posted on your LinkedIn. I really cannot wait to go and check it out. Jeff, your work at the Penn State Center for Science and School and your advocacy for STEAM outreach is truly inspiring. I want to thank you for your dedication to shaping the next generation of STEAM professionals To our readers.

Speaker 1:

What are your key takeaway from today's discussion? Let's keep the conversation going, connect with us, connect with Jeff Remington and connect with us also on social media and share your thoughts and let us know how you are making an impact in steam. And I would like to also, uh, share good news that I just recently wrote a book. Um, so I don't know if you can see it, but the name of the book is Glucose the Duck Go to a Party. So it is a fun, fun, fun book. It's a children's book and I wrote this book as a way of exposing children to science vocabulary terms at an early age so that by the time they get to high school or middle school they are very much familiar with the vocabulary terms. And this book also talks a little bit about diabetes.

Speaker 1:

Know the high glucose in the blood right, yeah and and you know the uh, you know nuts or the insulin issues you know in in the blood not being able to work effectively in addressing, uh, the high level of know glucose or sugar in the blood system. I think it's going to be a fun, but I wrote it in a way whereby it's sort of like a storytelling. You know it helps the parents to have a conversation, in a story you know way, with their children and while you're doing that, you're also introducing those vocabulary terms to the children, for example, insulin right, glucose right, glycolysis. You know, trying to introduce the young children to those terms at an early stage so that by the time they are of age or they come across this science terms in the science classroom, they're very much familiar with it. I would like to encourage everyone to check it out, buy it, so that we can continue to do the work of this podcast. So this is just my way of thinking outside the box. That's the way to, you know, support this podcast and the things that we're doing, trying to bring more awareness to the benefit of STEAM.

Speaker 1:

I would like to thank everyone for listening to us, for taking your time. Please stay in touch, stay connected, visit our website at steamsparkscom and watch and subscribe to our YouTube station, which is Steam Spark YouTube station. I listen on Spotify, apple's podcast and Buzzsprout and more. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. It helps us continue to bring valuable conversation with people like Jeff Remington, as you can see, an expert in STEAM outreach. Thank you for turning into STEAM Spark Think, steam Career Podcast, where we ignite curiosity, inspire learning and empower the future of STEAM. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep being curious, like Jeff has said. Keep exploring and keep sparking change, like Jeff. Thank you Until next time. Bye everyone, thank you, until next time. Bye everyone, thank you.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Dr. Ayo Olufade, Ph.D

Host