PLTW Guest Hosts Twitter Chat 9/18/2013

STEM: It takes a village

Guest Post by Dorothy Powers, Vice President of Engagement, Project Lead The Way, Inc.

The old adage, “It takes a village,” still rings true in education today, especially STEM education. Bringing local industry and community organizations into the learning experience drives relevancy in the classroom and helps students see the real-world implications of what they learn.  But what works when it comes to industry involvement?  And how do communities help grow and support STEM programs in schools?

Project Lead The Way’s engaged network of partners connect education to the local economy, community, and industry needs and support sustainability of PLTW programs. We invited leaders from our partner companies and organizations to take part in a Twitter chat focused on how communities step up and work together to build STEM culture in their schools.

Our panelists include: Bob Abrams, Project Manager, STEM Education and Regional Manufacturing Network, EcO₁₅; Janet Auer, Specialist, Global Social Investment, Chevron; Pat Barnes, Program Director, John Deere Inspire; and Project Lead The Way Directors of School Engagement Terri Schulz and Kim Glenn and Vice Presidents of Development Sean Cosgrove and Thor Misko.

Join us at 8 pm ET on twitter (hashtag #BigBeacon) for a lively discussion about what works when it comes to industry and community involvement. 

About PLTW

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and the nation’s leading provider of in-school STEM curriculum. PLTW’s world-class, activity-, project-, and problem-based curriculum and high-quality teacher professional development model, combined with an engaged network of educators and corporate partners, helps students develop the skills needed to succeed in our global economy. For more information, visit www.pltw.org

About Big Beacon

The Big Beacon is a Movement to Transform Engineering Education. An Illinois not-for-profit corporation, Big Beacon was organized to catalyze a global social movement to transform engineering education. The Big Beacon connects dots among individuals and organizations to collaboratively disrupt the status quo, thereby bringing about change to align engineering education (and by association K-12 STEM education) with the creativity imperative of our times. Read the Big Beacon Manifesto at http://bigbeacon.org.

How to Twitter Chat

If you’ve never Twitter chatted before, don’t worry; it’s very easy.  First, get a Twitter account if you don’t already have one, and log in. At 8 PM ET on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, go to twitter.com and type #BigBeacon into the search box on Twitter. Thereafter all the tweets with the hashtag #BigBeacon will show up on your Twitter page. To participate, simply express your opinion by sending a tweet, and be sure to append the hashtag #BigBeacon so other members of the Twitter Chat see you are posting.