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ChangED
ChangED is an educator based podcast for Pennsylvania teachers to learn more about the PA STEELS Standards and science in general. It is hosted by Andrew Kuhn and Patrice Semicek.
ChangED
Preparing Students for THEIR future, Not OUR Past
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A simple line reframed our whole approach to teaching: prepare students for their future, not our past. Sitting down with Jeff Remington from Penn State’s CSATS, we dig into what that looks like when classrooms connect directly to research, industry, and the realities of Pennsylvania’s evolving economy. Instead of one‑off PDs and “random acts of STEM‑ness,” we talk about sustained, transdisciplinary learning built on real local phenomena—data centers, smart manufacturing, clean energy, life sciences—and the skills students actually use on the job.
Jeff breaks down the new NSF‑supported STEM Teacher Corps, a multi‑year experience that pays and empowers elementary teachers to embed with researchers, return as regional leaders, and scale authentic project‑based learning. We explore convergence education—where science, math, engineering, tech, and even policy and communication blend into problems students can’t solve with a single subject. That mindset aligns cleanly with the STEELS standards’ performance expectations and higher Depth of Knowledge, shifting classrooms toward application, reasoning, and transfer.
We also get practical with AI. Rather than banning or siloing it, we position AI as the fourth teammate in student groups: a guided thought partner that raises rigor and mirrors how modern teams work. With clear guardrails, students learn to prompt, verify, and reason—while teachers model ethical use and bridge a growing skills gap. Layer in Pennsylvania’s five economic pillars—agriculture, energy, manufacturing, robotics/AI/tech, and life sciences—plus environmental sustainability, and you have a roadmap for making learning local, meaningful, and career‑ready.
If you’re ready to move from theory to practice, this conversation will give you concrete starts: choose a local phenomenon, map it to STEELS and the pillars, use AI to deepen inquiry, and build from there. Join us, share this with a colleague who’s hungry for real change, and subscribe so you never miss new ideas that help every student step into the future with confidence.
To learn more information about CSATS or to stay up on their latest information, visit: CSTATS or find them on social media (Linked In, FaceBook, & Twitter)
Want to learn more about ChangED? Check out our website at: learn.mciu.org/changed
Welcome back. I didn't hit record on here. You didn't tell me you were ready. You said we weren't going yet. Okay. Are you sure we're ready? Ready? Are you ready? I'm ready.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, welcome back to Change It. Changed Changed. The number one educational podcast in all of Pennsylvania. Creeping into the Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_00:I thought we were worldwide. Well, I like to bring it up because I did just talk to my niece in Scotland, and she said they're listening over there.
SPEAKER_01:So we are world renowned.
SPEAKER_00:With 14-year-olds in Scotland.
SPEAKER_01:I am your host, Andrew Kuhn, Education Consultant from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. And here with me is Tony.
SPEAKER_00:I'm Patrice. Thanks, Tony. I'm Patrice Semichek, also at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Educational Consultant. I forgot to say that.
SPEAKER_02:SDF. SDF, whatever title you want to give me is okay with. That's okay with me at this point.
SPEAKER_00:It's been SDF for a while, don't I shock?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I'm very excited about this podcast because we are back in our origin town when the podcast became more of a reality.
SPEAKER_00:And before when I was sitting there, actively a part of the conversation, but not allowed to be in the initial PO podcast.
SPEAKER_02:It's all on Andrew.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's interesting about history. It can be retold. It can be adjusted.
SPEAKER_00:Except the record show I was not involved in any of them. That's cool. I'm not salty.
SPEAKER_01:Moving forward we threw our jobs, have the opportunity to come up to Penn State quarterly and meet with other like-minds, but also expand our network. Better minds.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And one of those individuals is our guest today who has definitely expanded our network and also empowered us in the work that we're doing. Repeat guests. Repeat guests, backed by popular demand. So look, you're also ahead with 14 years old. Well, we're here with Jeff Remington, who works at Penn State with the Center for Science in the schools. Correct. CSATS for shorts. CSATS. You have amazing things that are going on all the time. I always learn something whenever I talk to Jeff Remington. But I know with the work and the momentum that's going on with CSATS, you are looking beyond now. You're looking beyond what's happening in the current landscape. Because there's a lot happening in the current landscape. We just left the training talking about AI and you know getting people on board. But if I understand correctly from our conversations, you're not talking about today or even tomorrow, but you're kind of looking a little further ahead. Is that right?
SPEAKER_03:I love to use the Wayne Gretzky quote. Uh, we don't skate to the puck, we skate to where the puck is going. And at this level up here, at our one research institution that's heavily invested in what the state is doing and economic initiatives, we we are seeing where that puck is going and that puck is moving fast.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. We talk so much at the intermediate unit level and even in our schools about STEM. And it's you know, STEM is is a big focus of that. So where does CSAS live into that? What does it look like in your world with the with the SEM? Is it kind of focused on you know the science, technology, uh technology, engineering, and mathematics? Is it bigger than that? Are we what do we not know that you know?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so well, let me let me just uh tell you a little bit about what CSATS is uh as a refresher for if for those of you that may not know us. We are a center in the College of Education that serves all of Penn State University, all the colleges, engineering, agriculture, whatever. We are what's called a broader impacts unit. We translate cutting-edge STEM research work by AI researchers, engineers, ag scientists, you name it. We translate that into what I like to call Curiosity Through Career Workforce Development for K-12, K-16, all across the Commonwealth as part of what's called our land grant mission. And in that, we get to do some really cool things. We get to see what's the cutting edge in these technologies. We have programs, some that pay teachers to come and embed themselves in STEM research that's happening from AI to ag to engineering to biomedical, you name it. We we have it in there. We just recently were notified that we were awarded a very big NSF grant. It's a$5 million grant for five years. It is a bit of a holdout from the Chips and Science Act dealing with the semiconductors. It was a call for and it continues to be a call for, a national STEM teacher corps. And this is to have a nationwide elite core of STEM teachers that are practicing teachers in the classroom. But over the next five years, um, institutions like ours, there's only seven institutions that were awarded this in the whole United States. Institutions like ours will be on a call to try uh and recruit 27 elementary teachers that want to become these super STEM teachers to elevate their peers, to elevate their students, to elevate their schools, their regions. This grant, this$5 million grant, is in conjunction with two other states, West Virginia University and all of West Virginia, and the College of New Jersey and all of New Jersey.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So we're seeking 27 teachers for this, okay to five teachers, nine teachers for each state. So we're looking for nine teachers in Pennsylvania. These teachers will get$10,000 a year as a stipend. They're just going to stay in the classroom. Their summers are going to be pretty much spent doing work with us as we're going to show them where the puck is going, really get them supercharged, support them, give them the capacity that during the school years, then over the next four to five years, they will go back into their schools, into their regions, statewide, and even mid-Atlantic and do this work to get teachers to this next level. So if you're interested, yeah, stay tuned to us by subscribing to our newsletter. And you can find that at a subscription at CSATS.psu.edu or look for us at CSATS on LinkedIn, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
SPEAKER_00:I'm a little sad I'm not in the classroom anymore because that seems like such a powerful way of embedding it, trying it out. And then the first time I heard you speak was about things you were doing in your classroom. So I think that the impact, while we're at IUs, we can talk about theory and things that they should be doing. Hearing from someone who is practically like implementing it as is and living it and breathing it and perfecting it is going to be so much more impactful and such a game changer. I'm so jealous.
SPEAKER_03:I I feel it's like it's like learning a language. Yeah. Theoretically learn a language in class, but unless you're immersed and embedded in it, exactly. Yes, you don't really get it unless you see it in the context. And that's what this is gonna be. This is gonna be an immersion. They're gonna be ambassador wanting to have a teacher. They're gonna be an ambassador.
SPEAKER_02:This is near and dear to me because I taught fourth and fifth grade for 10 years, and then I was an elementary principal. And we did have a STEM class, but it was kind of thrown together last minute as a special. They always grabbed the techie teacher, you know, in the school, and they did their best, and they were awesome at what they did. I'll qualify.
SPEAKER_03:It's not gonna be random acts of STEM-ness. Yes. That's sort of the thing.
SPEAKER_00:It is STEM infusion.
SPEAKER_03:It is gonna be authentic workforce development. It's a dream. It is really gonna be amazing. That's not the only thing we got. Of course not. Of course not. So we will be working with the government of Pennsylvania to do a series of AI K-12 town halls across Pennsylvania. We'll be doing this uh seven regional town halls and one online. We'll look for that in the fall, uh, late fall of 25 and in the spring of 26. It'll be coming to a Penn State Commonwealth campus near you. We are going to bring with us on this town hall roadshow a panel of experts from up here at Penn State that are AI researchers and policy researchers, evaluators, and seasoned teachers that have decades of K-12 experience to bring that practical booth on the ground. Again, stay tuned with our social media or our newsletter to be in touch with this. It is also gonna be this town hall is also gonna be a listening session. We're gonna understand what are people feeling in K-12. Yeah, what are fears, what are hopes? Our evaluator is gonna take all that into account, and we'll be able to have a detailed report when we're done to help inform where Pennsylvania wants to go from here.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:As if that's not enough, the National Academies of Science have a report that you can currently look at. It's um the K-12 Rural STEM and Workforce Development report that they have out that is very very salient across the country, but very salient right here in Pennsylvania. They have reached out to us, and we are in the early stages of a potential summit around that in late spring, early summer next year. Again, very early stages. But if you want to keep in touch with us, yeah, follow us on socials, and that kind of blends into what we're really going to be talking about today. I will say, follow us on our on our socials and all. You will see we have tons of other opportunities, too many to mention here, that come up on a regular basis, depending on what's happening with Penn State researchers. I mean, we are cutting edges. What are they doing next week? Well, let's build a program.
SPEAKER_00:It's very cool. That's how we we that's how we came together. Yeah, that's how we came together. We were out of CSAS training on YES, yeah, engineering. And the the program itself was phenomenal. The whole experience was amazing. I can't say enough about the amazing things you guys do here and the partners that you have. So yeah, we talked about everybody.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, uh being used. That's that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Two years later, that's awesome. Dr. Christine Cunningham. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:She is a rock star.
SPEAKER_00:It was it was a fabulous, a fabulous week. It was great.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_01:And for our listeners, if you put in the promo code change ed, you get zero off. A signed picture for Andrew.
SPEAKER_00:That's only picture of Andrew with no facial hair. That's what you get assigned naked face picture of Andrew here and buying.
SPEAKER_01:The one thing that I that I am excited about that as well is that what you said with West Virginia and with New Jersey, they're still in our area, right? So it's a great opportunity for collaboration and working together. What stood out to me most, even when you two were talking about it, is that one-off PDs are moving into the pasting in the past.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and they should be because they're not effective. We all know they're not effective.
SPEAKER_01:But the buck is nowhere near there, right? Yeah, there is no buck. And so, but this opportunity is like we're saying, I think it's the life changing actually, because then you can't unsee that anymore. You look at everything that way, and it would take an entire career of once-a-day original development and not even get close to where you'll be after your first summer of doing this. Yes, and you've got five pack summers. Yeah. So the multiplication factor is tremendous, not only in their own career, but then within the schools and where they're working and there are the educators. So the vacuum effect, which I imagine was a big part of how this was planned, is tremendous. Yes. You have this buy-in that's like, no, no, no, keep working, keep doing it. Yes. And would even be tremendous as we rolled out steels to have been able to do something like this where you had educators. Just embedded learning itself is just yeah, but just like how can we pause and like you just really soak this in, and then it would just the buy-in would be different because you've got people who are just so committed. Yeah, yeah. Versus you're trying to do the old, you're trying to learn the new, you're you know, you're sprinkling it in. So I I definitely applaud this work. And Tony's already filling out his application. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm looking into I love that we're maybe I'll go back. I love that we're talking about K-12 workforce development already because I don't think us as elementary folk understand the impact that we have further down the line with STEM careers and STEM practice because you just said I'm gonna use that random acts of stemness. Yeah, I'm gonna use that forever now. Thank you. Yeah, I think it's so important for these young because they can you speak to that a little bit of where that comes from and and the research done behind it.
SPEAKER_03:I'll tell you a little bit about random acts of stemness. To me, I feel like it's what I did when I started teaching 35 years ago. Yeah. Well, actually, it was four years ago now. I wanted to be, and I think young teachers want this. It's self-gratifying. It's like being that teacher. Being this being the star on the stage. So I would set myself on fire, set students on fire, literally. I would eat kissing cockroaches, I would just do like Mr. Wizard stuff all the time. Yeah, edutainment. Yeah. And like five years down the road, I realized I thought that would hook the kids into wanting to learn deeper. And it never really did. They kept saying, Mr. Rem, burn something else, close something else up. Like they wanted to be entertained. Eat another leg. They didn't, yeah, they didn't really want to learn. And then I started to dive into other things, got involved in seeing what researchers were doing at the College of Medicine, and realized what I was doing was nothing like what was happening in real lab. So, like, what can I do to get kids there? So that really is the whole concept of like thinking about STEM workforce development. And elementary is the key because I think business and industry right now, they think that if they get kids their senior year, they're golden. No, that's what kids have to make their decision, like start thinking about this. And parents, parents have to be educated. I would say by you know mid to late elementary school, so that they can start thinking about those tracks in middle school to get there. Uh, for instance, right now, smart manufacturing and manufacturing is a big thing right now. It's a big initiative. And if you talk to parents, parents would think, oh, like they think steel mills and things like that. The manufacturing is totally different now. It is clean manufacturing, smart manufacturing. Technicians can have family sustaining careers with plenty of advancement and college paid for by these companies with as little as one extra year of work after high school to get these smart manufacturing technician jobs.
SPEAKER_00:There's a whole world out there that we just don't even know or allow access to. Like we just don't even know about any of it.
SPEAKER_02:Education doesn't understand the business world, and the business world doesn't understand education in a lot of sectors. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. What's so impactful to go off of what you were saying earlier, Sony, that as educators, we know what we know. So if you teach in middle school, you say, I'm getting you ready for high school. But really, we actually don't know that for sure. We just know what our experience was. So we're telling you what you'll need to do when we went to high school. Yeah. But even that landscape is changing, it's evolving. And so we don't always necessarily know. So getting them ready for the workforce, we think we're doing what we can to get them ready.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we're still heavily pushing a four-year degree. That's the other thing that I think we have to get outside of our box. Like not everyone needs a four-year degree anymore, or take the year to work for a company, figure out what you actually do and don't like. Because 18's a really young age to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_03:We want to prepare students for their future, not our past. Yeah. I read a lot of other people's quotes, so I don't know where that one came from.
SPEAKER_01:But somebody my out-of-the-gate question, which you correctly renavigated us to a better starting spot, was about STEM education. And I think my question for that is it feels like there's so much more to STEM. Yeah. Especially when we talk with you about it. I've heard you talk about convergence education and what that looks like. And I feel like we can dive more into that if you're up for that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So here's really how I'd like to frame this. I'd like to frame this as convergence education, steel standards, implementation, which they're coming in.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And also Pennsylvania's five economic pillars. They all this is like we never talk about that. This is the perfect point that all these things are blending together. And I feel like K-12, we are poised in Pennsylvania for this. And this is really that whole vision of curiosity through career. We need to know what these five pillars are in Pennsylvania if we want to keep our homegrown talent gear.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I'm going to just take you back a little bit. At a prior podcast, right here, Change Ed, we talked about convergence education. And for a quick refresher of that, if you are implementing skills in a deep way, you are working towards convergence education because it is what's called transdisciplinary. Yeah. Not necessarily cross-disciplinary or interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary. There's an evolution there. There's a continuum. Transdisciplinary is sort of think of project-based learning with a sort of a stem frame to it. And those subjects are blended together so well that it's hard to separate when you're talking about one subject or another subject. That is the reality of what real world is about. When you are in the workforce, you're not just, oh, wait a minute. It's map time. Okay, I can't do any other thing. No more media. I've got to do my map. It's not. All those things are coming together. So that is really convergence. And convergence really is shared in a couple of places. So if you want to find convergence education, you can Google convergence education and you'll find it on the Department of Energy website. You'll find it on the Lemmelson MIT website. But mirroring convergence education, really, there's other convergence that came first. And people thought this should be happening in education to prepare people for the real world. So there's convergence research. And we are right now on an R1 campus at Penn State, and it is happening everywhere where all sorts of different colleges, engineering, ag, AI, are all working together to collaborate on solving complex problems that are going to help the world. But also, since we are a state land grant, we are also helping the economy of Pennsylvania by using AI and using robotics and using engineering to help increase farm yields in Pennsylvania, those kind of things. So there's that convergence research. And then there's industrial convergence where you have such big, large-scale projects going on that even in the business and industry sector, you've got to have a lot of different disciplines coming together. I would say what's the perfect frame for this? The perfect frame for this right now is AI sustainability. So we're currently in a geopolitical race for AI supremacy. So that's something to think about. Really, it's like a space race right now, or if you want to call it kind of an arms race. It's it's really a lot of people are thinking whoever dominates AI right now will have an edge cool geopolitically in the world. So that um that's something to think about. That's something to think about. Like, do we want the United States to be that? Do we want another country to be that? I kind of like the United States to be that. So that's a big overarching driver. AI requires advanced semiconductor technology. AI has a voracious appetite for electrons. Yeah. It doesn't care where those electrons are coming from, it just wants a steady flow of electrons or energy. And AI faces extreme environmental sustainability challenges with water usage to cool these giant data centers, energy, carbon emissions. And you really can break it down to what's called embodied carbon emissions. And that is like all the carbon emissions and energy that's needed to build the technology, the infrastructure. And then once it's there, then there's operational carbon emissions. And that is just keeping the lights running in these data centers, huge amount. So, like that is a huge thing. And there's a lot of regulations out there that have been existing for years and years and years. And the regulations may not have kept pace with what we have to do to get these all set. Yeah. So it's complicated. I understand we need sustainability and environment, but I also understand we we're in a geopolitical race. So we we really need to think about how to manage both.
SPEAKER_00:Manage both.
SPEAKER_03:And this is where I believe our students need this critical thinking to weigh all these things down, to weigh all these things so we can be informed. So industrial convergence, it is having that challenge of having like at the table for these data centers, energy institutions, construction institutions, sustainability institutions, policy and regulatory institutions all working together to solve these challenges of getting these data centers up and running so that we can have a global competitive edge. And then on the research convergence side, we are looking here at Penn State and other universities. How can we make semiconductors more efficient so they don't have to use so much energy? Yeah. How can we make the social aspect of prompting and letting people know that the energy uses of prompting and as there's smarter ways to prompt that as a social science that we could save energy? Like a lot of times we think hardware, but people's behavior can help with this as well. So that's convergence education and all that. So really the PA steel standards are built for that. And we're going to get to the PA steel standards in a minute, but I want to raise your awareness of what's called the Pennsylvania's five economic pillars. So I don't know how many people know that, but there is an organization in Pennsylvania called Team PA. Team PA is an awesome public-private partnership. They sit in Harrisburg. On their board is the governor, a lot of key Senate and House legislators. You think of the Fortune 500 companies in Pennsylvania, a lot of them sit on the board of Team PA. President Ben Aputi sits on the board. A lot of very big movers and shakers are on this board. And this board and Team PA is really there to advise Pennsylvania on economic development and economic priorities. So they are an independent think tank that does an awful lot of research, and they use convergence as well in their research to find out asset mapping Pennsylvania. Where are our strengths economically and with workforce? Like where are we at? And they've identified five pillars that I think you will agree. This Pennsylvania is pretty good at this. Agriculture. Energy next to Texas, we might be the number two energy state in the country. Um having energy available. Wow. We have natural gas, we have, I think, the second largest nuclear fleet of any other state. We've got biogas, we've got wind, we've got solar, we've got hydro, geothermal. I mean, we have it all oil and gas, coal, like we've got it all here. So we are an energy state. We have been known for manufacturing. Yeah. And our manufacturing is evolving from mom and dad's old manufacturing to this smart manufacturing that is AI driven, robotics-driven, automated. We are also a hub for robotics, AI, and tech. Think of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and even think of the Philly area, a lot of tech and AI and semiconductor hotbeds there. And then the life sciences. Again, think of UPMC out in Pittsburgh. Think of all the biotech firms in Philadelphia. So those are the five sectors. So if we want to have Pennsylvania thrive in the economy, we've got to think about them for a lens, K-12 to have a homegrown workforce so that we can really bolster things up. At Penn State and CSATS, all our programming at CSATS really hints those five pillars. We bring teachers in here working on solar. We have the Brizelle reactor. We have all these things that are available there in those five things. But we add CSATs, we had a sixth pillar, and that sixth pillar is environmental sustainability. It is written into our state constitution that we respect our land, our woods. And that's why we have environmental standards embedded in the steel skin. And pulled out. They're like pulled out. They are pulled out. Not many other states have that. So again, that's something with CSATs that we do this training. And again, as STEM pioneers, you know, highlight that for that. I feel like in K-12, we have to be aware of where the state is going with these economic sectors that are really all STEM sectors. Yeah. They're all part of convergence. And here we come with the steals. This is perfect. Yeah. Because the steels are set for this convergence education. Now, prior to the steals, we had the 2002 academic standards, which were conceived at Dickinson College in 1996. And until I I guess it was last year, the the PSSAs and all were still tied to those 2002 1996 standards. To give you some context, in 2004, Google became public. And in 2007, the iPhone came to the market. Oh my god. Okay. So just a little.
SPEAKER_00:Well, the world's changed quite a bit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think also when I talk to my kids, we were talking about when each one of them were born. And then they said, Dad, when were you born? And I said, it started with the 19. And I told them everything they're like, you were born in the 19th century.
SPEAKER_00:You're born in the 1900s? I'm like, no, not the 1900s. The 80s.
SPEAKER_01:But when you were saying that, that's where my mind. Since we know that we have a large community of 14-year-olds who listen to us, yeah. We can tell them how cool we are. We know that this is in the 19s. Yeah. So you know, their perspective is like that was forever ago. Yeah. And the fact that that went all the way up until Steel's officially this year. Yeah. That's a long journey for so much has changed. Yeah. So much has changed.
SPEAKER_00:Tank everything, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'll go back and kind of talk about my perspective is my teaching career and the peers that I taught with who were awesome at Palmyra School District. So, you know, we did do random asset stemness, but something that Palmyra did from the very beginning were PBLs. In middle school, we had block scheduling, we had teaming. So we had control over that. We all felt that we wanted to do project-based learning. And back in the day, we did project-based learning called Future World, where we really had students evaluate the different types of energy sources, ag sources. Like back 35, 40 years ago, we were doing the work that's upon us right now. Nice. Where kids would have to form companies like nuclear companies and that, and prove that they could be marketable and sustainable for the environment. Like those kids had to do that. And then we also did other ones. I remember we did a grasshopper field study. The point I'm making with this is when we did those and we had to tie them to the 2002 standards, it was laborious beyond laborious because those standards were not meant for convergence transdisciplinary. So I just remember going through, you know, page after page after page, trying to make all the different connections. And there was no PA context with the old standards. There was no connection to any other discipline like environment or math or social studies or language arts or career. These new standards are totally set up for that. And if that's not enough, the old standards were really stuck at low blooms taxonomy. Yes, they really were. And I like to think of things more than Bloom. I like to think of um Webb's depth of knowledge. Because typically, that's how DRC, the contractor for the PSSE and those, they really think about DOK's depth of knowledge. And again, the old standards, for the most part, they lived at a DOK level of one or two, which is just very low, low-hanging bar, no challenge.
SPEAKER_00:Memorization.
SPEAKER_03:Memorization. And really the SEALs are going to be pushing DOKs of three and four, which is the authentic application. So again, this is really perfect. And the the SEAL standards really is talking about performance expectations. And that language wasn't in the old standards. Like, what is it that the students are physically going to show you or have to do? And that's real world. That is totally real world. It's exciting. Because your phone can do all low-level stuff. Yes. But it's the critical thinking that's going to make you more employable in this AI-driven world. And these standards are really designed to do that. And again, you're going to see that these standards have ties to local context and local phenomena. Career-ready standards are right there. They're built right in there. And then you can see that they also have the ag standards correlated there. PA core standards are in there. Like it is all, it's the complete package. So if you were doing a PBL, and if you're new to PBLs, I would say take baby steps, just get your feet wet a little bit and make a little diverted. Just a little diverse. Yeah. And let's see like what you can add each year with a little bit more delving into this PBL because that's going to get you your convergence. That's going to get you to the things you need to really be with this. I'm also going to say a thing about AI. I would also think about having you consider doing horizontal implementation of AI, where students are using AI as a thought partner in this whole process. Again, in line with your school district's policy, but as a thought partner, here's how I would see it. Like if I was back in the classroom teaching and I was doing project-based learning and I had students like traditionally in groups of four, I would have my students now in a group of three and have that fourth person be the AI thought partner. Love it. And I would elevate the rigor and say, and then the kids may say, well, this is so hard. Like you have a thought partner now. You're going to have to use this for employability. As a matter of fact, right now, our students who graduated last year, a lot of the questions they got, the graduated from Kent State from their employers, how well do you interact with AI? And I would say if you had two equally qualified candidates for a job, one understood AI and one didn't. The one who understands AI is going to get the job. Yeah, there's no good.
SPEAKER_00:So this has to be something that we also And they're looking in a safe space, a positive environment, and they're being taught how to critically consume it. That's the part that I think that sometimes we neglect a little bit, is that we say, yeah, use AI, either use AI or don't use it at all. Well yes. We can't, we can't just let them go on their own. And we can't just say don't ever use it. So we need to make sure using the steel standards, I think is the perfect opportunity to give them that safe space to try something out as a critical thought partner, which will then help them consume information later on because it's only as good as what you put in. So they're still getting things put out through AI right now that are may or may not be true. So it's a really cool way of getting them used to using AI in a productive and safe environment.
SPEAKER_03:100%. And I've been doing AI workshops for the past three years around the state. And here's a minor concern I have. Yeah. The minor concern I have is when I go in and survey teachers who I'm doing this professional development, how many have used AI in your personal life? Lately, it's been less than 25%.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. So here's the deal. If teachers are going to be having their students use AI, they've got to use it themselves to understand what it's like. To me, it's like having a driver-ed teacher who consistently takes the bus and almost never drives. Be your driver ed teacher. You wouldn't want to have that. You know? And AI is not a subject siloed thing. It's not just a computer science thing. It's not just a reference library thing. It is in every fabric of the city.
SPEAKER_00:People don't understand how the complexity of AI. It's not just Gemini or Claude. There's so much more out there that we just don't even access. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I love that we have an employee of the Penn State College of Education with us saying use AI because I always still get the AI is getting. And the way that you just put the thought partner, I think, is brilliant as the fourth person, the fourth member in that group of your PBL group. Again, all over the state.
SPEAKER_03:Well, again, thinking about thinking about the workforce aspect of it, if you are denying kids the ability to use safely, as you say, with guardrails and under guidance, if they don't have the ability to use AI in K-12, we are setting them at a disadvantage for states like Ohio that have formal policies and things ready to go. So say that again. That's great. Ready to go.
SPEAKER_02:Formal policy, ready to go. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Also use they're they're using it. We can't be foolish enough to believe that the kids are not using these tools outside of school. Yes. To your point, really strongly feeling is if I don't, as an educator, set them up to practice it in a safe space, they're going to use their powers for not such good things. Yes. And we need to be protecting our kids. And I don't think they're going to go out and most of them are going to directly do things they shouldn't be doing. I think it's going to be I didn't even know I shouldn't have done this. And so I think that's where we're doing them a disservice by not teaching them everything that needs to be taught.
SPEAKER_03:Or they won't have the critical thinking to like they're just going to think it's the magic answer. Whatever is fit out from my perspective.
SPEAKER_00:Already in a very consuming culture right now. They just consume, consume, consume. And I I I love this. I want I want to education. I'm going to be Jeff's best friend. That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, again, in Pennsylvania, we're at this phenomenal apex right now of all these things coming together. I was at IU28's summit about a month ago because they are putting in a ginormous, it's going to be the largest natural gas-powered data center in North America. Wow. And it's going to sit in IU28, Homer City.
SPEAKER_04:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:And their whole call on this summit was Curiosity through career workforce development for this new age of data centers. And the head workforce development person from Amazon was there, as well as many other big players. Wow. And when questioned, the Amazon representative said, you know, what people were saying, what do the students need? He said, they need essentially the convergence education, those critical thinking that, you know, transdisciplinary, problem solving, future work. What they don't need is how we learned. I love roadblock. We don't, yeah. So that's that's what tech is saying. That's what they want. That's where we have to go. Again, getting kids ready for their future, not our past. And I will say we're also super infrastructure poised for this because we've got a couple of things going on since the pandemic that's really bolstered us for this. We currently, right now, have the Pennsylvania statewide STEM ecosystem, which is a statewide ecosystem that really is the convener of the 14 other regional STEM ecosystems. If you're not familiar with the STEM ecosystem, you can Google it. But a STEM ecosystem is collective impact in this whole realm of curiosity through career workforce development at the local level, at the local control level. So we've got that in place. We have, if you're unfamiliar with it, we have the Pennsylvania Statewide After School Youth Development Network, SATAN. They are involved in OST, which is called out of school time. That organization just they train STEM ambassadors every year. This year, we train the STEM ambassador cohorts for the SEAL standards. So when in the informal space, think of libraries, think of boys and girls clubs, they are all going to have in the eight regions of OST around Pennsylvania with Poseidon, they all now have resources and training to supplement what's happening in K-12 with SEALs. We have good work going on in PA Career Ready. We've got remake learning days. And we have so many amazing K-12 nonprofits. First robotics, consortium for public education. Like I can go on and on and on. I feel very optimistic and hopeful. We just need to make sure that we're all coordinated and communicating together. And we need to realize there are five economic pillars that are part of bigger pillars nationally, geopolitically. And we're in good shape to head this way. Sometimes we don't see the vision. We see the trees, we don't see the forest. This is the forest, and the puck is heading that way in a very fast way.
SPEAKER_02:I think this is what teachers need to hear too, because we get so siloed with our subject. We have to teach the content because we have to do well in the PSSA. Yes. It's not, it's going to be the newspaper and payments are going to be upset. So the fact that we have this big picture now that you just laid out very well, really well. I think that's gives us a completely different thing.
SPEAKER_00:I think our next our next focus needs to be, and I don't know how we, I'm sure you probably already have ideas, Jeff, but how do we even get the five pillars out? No one's talking about them at the levels that we're at. And we're at like a relatively high-ish level in terms of disseminating information. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Right. Well, see, I always think for the most part, there's disconnects between business and industry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And without a doubt, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Always. And that's part of it. So let's let's start with the pillars. Let's start right here. Today, let's start trading now. And start breaking down this. And again, you look at the steel standards. The steel standards can be a blank canvas that why not, since they say local context, why not think about phenomena of like it aligns perfectly? Like an AI data center. Yep. That could be your phenomena. Yeah. Holy cow. There's so many elements you could go run with with an AI data data center.
SPEAKER_00:And then talking about jobs that they've never, like it's just such a perfect parallel. It meshes so so well.
SPEAKER_01:When you were talking about those five economic pillars, the one thing that I felt was tremendous Pennsylvanian pride. Yes. It also made me think that one piece that it's to me seems like we miss in Pennsylvania is communicating collectively, like getting on the same page and working together. Going off of the thought process we've been using that we've been going more or less fine-load, like, well, this region does this, or this region does this. Well, you're taking this more global approach and look at it and say, like, there's this powerful things that we do. Yeah, we don't all do it across the state, but all these amazing things are happening. When you were talking about the energy production, yes, you know how we how we use it. I was like, Well, that's that's amazing. So we fascinate.
SPEAKER_03:I know that. I want to throw one more thing in there while I'm thinking of it. So there's a new phenomenon right now called small modular reactors.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. And a small modular reactor are pretty much cooled by molten sodium, and they can produce 300 megawatts of energy, which you have one or two of those, you could have a data center. And the cool thing about that is Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, both in Aetna and in Cranberry, if you're familiar with those parts of Western PA, they are building these small modular reactors, UV-inchies. So the concept could be they could put a data center in rural depressed areas where they need employment because it doesn't need the requirements of a regular nuclear reactor. It is incredibly safe because it uses this molten sodium. It cannot melt down like you know, people had feared with other ones. What we missed from the Three Mile Island incident, that was 30 years ago, 40 years ago. It's in the teens. In the TS in the 1990s. Yes, in the teens. The technology has improved dramatically. We see it right here at Penn State with our Brizell reactor. Like it is really evolved. This is the second coming of what I would think is clean energy, you know, carbon-free energy. And again, Pennsylvania's leading in this.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's crazy. We could talk about that for hours.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right. We could have multiple, multiple podcasts. Jeff, here's here's here's what I'm hearing. I'm gonna try and do this not at all possible job of summarizing all these things that are right. Yeah, first, I heard Jeff say that he found a way to stop setting himself on fire by inviting AI into the classroom.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like yes, definitely. I see how you got there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I guess, yeah. Yeah, okay. This is good for us that our New Jersey and West Virginia listeners are gonna at least quadruple because now we're now we'll have four people. Yeah. So that's improvement for us. We'll have four. Yeah. One would be great from either one of those things. But more seriously, I think you really summarized it so well with the quote by Jeff Romington, which was getting our kids ready for their future, not our past.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like that is definitely all that's the title. Because that meetings so hard. Yeah. And I know it's something that we're all actually working towards, but to hear someone articulate it is like, yes, that's the difference.
SPEAKER_00:What I think you're trying to say is he's definitely got a finger on the pulse of what's happening and what's coming. And it's interesting, you're kind of living in like a utopia right now because you've got all of these worlds converging, and you're able to be in a place where you can take that and translate it so that teachers can understand it. And we as educators don't have the time to do all of this translating and figuring out who's here and who's there and how to make all these connections. And so you're kind of in this amazing situation where you're able to take what's happening and translate it in a way that allows educators to implement it tomorrow. Small things like just talking to the kids about those pillars. Yeah. Small things like we're just gonna do one little project and we're gonna try this one. Yeah. And it's it and that's really all it takes to become a snowball. And I think what we're trying to say is that you're in living the dream and are creating all these opportunities for teachers through CSATs to be a part of that dream.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think that sums it up very well.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. I should be the host.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um I'll keep the argument in. I mean, I think that you're advocating. Oh, there's more.
SPEAKER_00:We just said it. Thumbs it up. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. But then Jeff will look at me like, please fix it.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think so. And and I think it's not just educating the kids, it's educating the parents. Yeah. Because a lot of the parents could have the thought that, well, if the education I did was good enough for me, it's good enough for my kids. I've heard that so many times. I've heard that over and over and over again. Rinse and repeat. Yeah. It is the world has changed. And I think everyone realizes that. The world is changing rapidly. Yeah. And old thinking is not going to cut it in this rapidly changing.
SPEAKER_02:I wish we could stop giving A, B,'s and C's for math and then give grades on critical thinking. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:A, B, and C are not going to cut it in the new world. That's not really where those answers remain.
SPEAKER_00:But you can earn a C and still be one of the best critical thinkers on Facebook. So you still get to like that's the thing. Like, you could get it an F. I don't care. You're a really great critical thinker. Maybe you're just not translating it right there into that current content.
SPEAKER_01:Honestly, usually we have one big idea that we're sharing in a podcast. And I mean 95. And all the new terms, like the transdisciplinary, learning.
SPEAKER_00:That's not new. Def and I have been talking about that for that.
SPEAKER_01:Your brain grew back.
SPEAKER_00:No, I'm just kidding, because I did that Steph Ambassadors thing, and Jeff was there, and that's where I learned about it.
SPEAKER_01:I like the convergence idea. Convergent research, industrial convergence, right? Like all these things and even the five pillars. There's so much here. And to your point, we need to be ambassadors and sharing this out and hoping others fill it. We don't know what we don't know. Yeah. Or we do know what we know. So that's what kind of what we're saying. We get stuck in that spot.
SPEAKER_03:And I feel like we also have to say, business and industry, get us at the table. We are ready to help, but we've got to be part of the conversation.
SPEAKER_00:And what I'm finding too with business and industry, especially through the ecosystem, is they're super eager to come in and have these conversations because they want our kids to come out ready to work.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And stay in Pennsylvania. So making those connections and love and policymakers want that.
SPEAKER_03:It's gonna bolster the tech space.
SPEAKER_00:And it's a win-win for everybody.
SPEAKER_01:Just gotta talk to people. Be sure to like and subscribe and for more Jeff Remington.