ISTE Members Gain Access to Discovery Ed STEM Content

STEM Connect is a new Discovery Education product that provides STEM-oriented challenges for K-8 students to solve. Now, members of the International Society for Technology and Education (ISTE) will gain free access to the online service through July 31, 2019.

The challenges included in STEM Connect were inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges for Engineering. The idea is to encourage students to develop and apply solutions to real challenges facing the world. While elementary students take on personal, local problems in the curriculum, middle school students face more complex and global problems. For example, in one assignment students are asked to help somebody design a prosthetic for his sister, while in another they're asked to figure out how to build a well for a community in Kenya without easy access to water.

The program also includes "career connections," to teach learners about various STEM careers related to the activities they're working on. In some of the units, students connect with others around the world through "GlobalLab, an online laboratory, to share their data and work with others.

"Innovative services like Discovery Education's STEM Connect can play an important role in engaging students in teaching and learning, and we are proud to bring this robust digital resource to our members," said Richard Culatta, ISTE's CEO, in a statement.

ISTE members can learn more about their free access on this Discovery Education landing page. The two organizations said that Discovery will host a series of webinars to highlight the service's features and show how to integrate it into the classroom; the schedule will be posted on the landing page.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • SXSW EDU

    3 Opportunities to Get Hands-on with AI at SXSW EDU 2025

    This March 3-6 in Austin, TX, the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival celebrates its 15th year of exploring the most critical issues in education and providing a forum for creativity, innovation, and expression.

  • outline of a modern school building as glowing blue geometric shapes, surrounded by binary code streams, with golden orbs and lines representing funding, set against a dark gray gradient with faint grid patterns

    FCC Cybersecurity Pilot Participants Selected

    The Federal Communications Commission has officially selected the participants for its Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot, the three-year program exploring the use of Universal Service funds to improve school and library defenses against cyber attacks.

  • depiction of a K-12 classroom with geometric shapes forming students and a teacher, surrounded by multiple holographic learning tools in various subjects

    I've Been in K-12 for Over 15 Years. Here Are Three Things We Need to Do to Integrate AI Now.

    When AI is deployed responsibly and equitably, the potential advantages of empowering more personalized learning, optimizing student engagement, uncovering gaps in education, automating routine tasks, and freeing up more time for effective teacher-student interactions have the power to transform education.

  • file folders floating in the clouds, with glowing AI circuitry and data lines intertwined

    OneDrive Update Adds Copilot AI Tech

    Microsoft has announced new enterprise capabilities in its OneDrive cloud storage service, many of which leverage the company's Copilot AI capabilities.