The MIT has launched a new interesting initiative called BLOSSOMS which was first demoed at a workshop dedicated to STEM education.
BLOSSOMS stands for Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies and aims to create a courseware library of STEM focused videos that can be freely used in high schools.
The initiative currently has 50 lessons available, each of these is 50 minutes long. They are freely available to teachers and available in various formats such as streaming, download but also classic DVD and even videotapes which enables teachers to really use the materials in every scenario from tech equipped classrooms to also less technology enabled schools.
This MIT project also has international participation of educators, notably from Jordan and Pakistan who have helped design the lessons which illustrates the aim of Blossoms to familiarize students with cultural diversity besides fostering critical thinking and problem solving. The video lessons find their place in the classroom to support the classroom teacher by also having a virtual instructor but also providing students with additional materials for download such as handouts and a teacher handbook.
BLOSSOMS engages the class in a mix of watching short segments of the videos that usually end with a question asked or problem to solve and then their “real” teacher takes over and the class work on solving the problem. This alternate process goes on for the entire time of the class.
This way BLOSSOMS hopes to meet their goals of exciting students for STEM and showing the relevance to the real world, help develop critical thinking skills as well as develop awareness and understanding for different cultures. Last but not least, high school teachers are supported by and introduced to technology in the classroom to add value and support their own teaching.
Via: theJournal
