Kids, Education and Engineering

While plenty of STEM lessons cover science, math and even technology, engineering is often left out. This dedicated educator has figured out numerous ways to bring the "E" into the classroom to help those other topics become more real for the youngest students.

Grant Spotlight: $20 Million for PK-12 STEM Education

The National Science Foundation is awarding up to 18 multi-year grants for efforts that promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in PK–12 schools. The awards this year are expected to total $10 million to $20 million, with individual awards ranging from $400,000 to $2 million apiece.

Raspberry Pi Foundation and CoderDojo Merge

Two nonprofits in the education business have joined forces. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has merged with CoderDojo.

P-TECH 9-14 Schools to Blossom to 80 by Fall

Six years after the launch of the first Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) school in Brooklyn, yet another cohort of students is graduating — each walking away with a high school diploma, an associate's degree in a STEM field and related work experience. Graduates have already joined IBM, working as front-end web developers, organizational developers, coders and analysts. Many are also continuing college in pursuit of bachelor's degrees.

Apple Swift Draws Support from Robotics, Drone Makers

Lego Education said it would be pairing Mindstorms Education EV3 with the Swift Playgrounds learning platform to allow students to program their Lego Mindstorms robots and other creations with motors and sensors.

Microsoft Project Develops Physical Programming Language for Blind Students

A Microsoft project called "Project Torino" will teach blind students from seven to 11 years-old how to program and apply design thinking to projects.

Texas Middle School to Re-Open as STEM Certified Campus

North Richland Middle School is the first school in Birdville ISD to earn the National Certificate for STEM Excellence from the National Institute for STEM Education.

New Tool from Carnegie Mellon Simplifies Design of Robots

A small team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have come up with a tool that allows newbies and experts to design customized robots that can use 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf actuators.

Wonder Workshop's Dash Robot Integrates with Apple's Swift Playgrounds

Wonder Workshop's Dash robot is now programmable with Apple's Swift coding language thanks to new lessons available in the latest version of the Swift Playgrounds app for iPad.

Facebook's Developer Circles Draws Social and Online Learning Community Worldwide

Facebook last week at its F8 developer conference unveiled a program that aims to connect developers around the world and foster collaboration in computer science.

Iowa to Issue $25K Awards for STEM Proposals that Join School and Career

The state of Iowa is seeking proposals for programs that bring education and employers together to create a stream of continuity between school and career in STEM topics. Each "model" chosen will receive $25,000.

NGSS to Issue Digital Badges for Great Science Content

The organization behind the Next Generation Science Standards wants to pick up the pace of submissions of lessons and units by offering a new digital badge for those who participate successfully.

States Add More STEM Learning Ecosystems

Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Ohio are among the states that have added more "STEM learning ecosystems," or regions that provide pre-K–16 students with science, technology, engineering and math resources and tools as part of the national STEM Learning Ecosystems initiative. Each ecosystem is led by the STEM Funders Network.

Detroit Makerspace Grows After School STEM Program with $250,000 Google Grant

More students in Detroit Public Schools will be participating in after-school programs in science and engineering, thanks to a $250,000 grant from Google to the Michigan Engineering Zone, a makerspace project of the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

Vernier Brings Back 13 Summer Institutes for STEM Educators

Education technology company Vernier Software & Technology will once again offer its Summer Institute workshops, with 13 full-day training workshops scheduled for this summer.

Minecraft: Education Edition 1.0.1 Released with Code Builder Support

Microsoft has released a new version of Minecraft: Education Edition that adds support for Code Builder, along with a number of other new features and improvements.

GE Donates 3D Printers to Hundreds of Schools, Colleges

More than 400 schools and eight higher education institutions across the United States will receive free 3D printers, metal printing machines and other supplies retailed at hundreds of thousands of dollars. GE is donating the supplies to help students build skills in computer-aided design and additive manufacturing.

Coding, Cybersecurity, Game Development Bootcamps Come to Miami Students

Miami-Dade County Public Schools, CareerSource South Florida and TechLaunch @FVI teamed up to bring coding bootcamps to the next-generation workforce in Miami this summer.

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