Trending In Ed with Mike Palmer

Dr. Mark Windschitl, Professor of Science Education at the University of Washington, joins host Mike Palmer to discuss his new book Teaching Climate Change: Fostering Understanding, Resilience, and a Commitment to Justice. Drawing from his experience as a teacher and researcher, Dr. Windschitl advocates for more support to equip K-12 teachers to teach this interdisciplinary topic. You can learn more at Mark's companion site The Climate Change Educator.We discuss the limited, disjointed climate change instruction happening currently in K12 schools. Mark promotes more coordinated, authentic projects that foster student agency and break down disciplinary silos. He shares an example modeling an urban heat islands unit integrating science, history, and justice. We also address engaging students to get their perspectives. Many students feel anxious about climate change, so he suggests focusing on solutions and productive coping rather than just activating the anxiety. He advocates intergenerational family learning providing space for conversations on this complex subject. Regarding technology's role, Dr. Windschitl says solutions will be more social than technological. He stresses everyday actions individuals and communities can take. Throughout, he shares inspiration from students engaged in climate change learning and problem-solving. Don't miss it!Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more.

Kareem Farah is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Modern Classrooms Project. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about innovative approaches to teaching and learning. You can learn more about their approach here.Kareem explains how he started out in finance but pivoted to become a math teacher. After teaching traditionally for several years, he realized it was not meeting his students' needs. This led him and a co-founder to design a new blended, mastery-based, and self-paced instructional model that became The Modern Classrooms Project. They started testing it in their own classrooms in Washington D.C. and founded a nonprofit in 2018 to spread the approach more widely. Farah shares how the model gives students more ownership over the learning process while freeing up teachers to focus on individual and small-group support. We discuss trends like tutoring, teacher burnout, and the role of AI. Farah offers advice on listening to users, focusing on discrete problems, and trying new solutions. He emphasizes creating conditions for teacher success through new methodologies. The conversation covers motivation, technology impacts, and the importance of being patient, curious, and innovative. Don't miss it!Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more.

Jane Oates is the President of WorkingNation, an organization that highlights career transitions and lifelong learning through media stories. She joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about motivating anxious workers and embracing AI.Oates predicts growth in healthcare, education, and green energy jobs. She advises acquiring human skills like creativity that AI can't replicate, and continuously re-skilling through online learning. Oates explores motivating sidelined workers to re-enter the workforce and contribute their talents. She expects a hybrid remote/in-office work mix, benefiting employees without remote options. Oates urges lifelong learning and pushing ourselves in new directions.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on learning, the future of work, and more.

Jim Hollis founded Calculus Roundtable to make higher-level math classes like calculus more accessible, especially for minority students who face barriers. His hands-on, experiential approach aims to change the perception that math is intimidating or only for some people.Instead of lectures and worksheets, students do creative, collaborative projects making rollercoasters and video games that relate math concepts to the real world. Peer mentors and role models from their own communities build confidence in themselves as "math people." Group work and embracing failure as part of the learning process make his classes engaging.Partnering with local STEM businesses for learning outside the classroom shows students how math applies in various careers. While some see AI as a threat, Jim believes the younger generation will find productive ways to use it we can’t yet imagine. His goal is to open students' eyes to the math all around them if they take the time to look.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of learning.

Michelle Cheang is the Program Director of the Catalyze Challenge. She joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the career-connected learning grants offered through Michelle's organization. Catalyze aims to fund innovation in career exposure and preparation for ages 11-22 through grants, shared learning, and storytelling.Michelle explains how Catalyze takes an equity lens, seeking to expand opportunities for historically excluded groups. The new Catalyze Challenge runs through September 22nd and will fund exploratory projects on two themes: career exploration for young teens and meaningful employer partnerships. So there's still time to submit. Michelle stresses the application process is simple, just clearly explain the problem and your proposed solution. She predicts education will need to coordinate more closely with employer needs, as skills gain importance over degrees. Her advice: always keep students at the center and consider their full context. Don't miss this informative look at Catalyze's efforts to spur promising new career-connected learning programs for youth.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of learning.

Mike Palmer and Robin Naughton explore coding and robotics for kids with Michelle Acaley, Senior Director of Product at Sphero. They discuss how Sphero's coding toys teach critical thinking, collaboration, and grit through play. Michelle shares how products like Sphero's Indi allow kids 4-8 years old to learn coding concepts by directing a robot car activated by colored tiles. She explains how Sphero's modular robotics kit for high schoolers aims to make engineering feel approachable and easy to use.As Mike and Robin share their experiences with their 4-year-old playing with Indi, the hosts talk about modeling failure and perseverance as parents and educators. Michelle offers advice for bringing more technology into the classroom through hands-on learning. She discusses the importance of ingraining confidence in young girls pursuing STEM. Overall the episode looks at how coding robots can boost kids' creative problem-solving skills.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of education.

Inspired by architect Buckminster Fuller and the Kindergarten movement, Mike Acerra designed Lux Blox to reimagine the building blocks of learning. Co-founder and President of Lux Blox, Acerra brings an interdisciplinary background spanning art, architecture, physics, and education. His unique system aims to develop children's spatial skills, creativity, and confidence through intuitive play with forms based on nature.Lux Blox provides an open-ended platform for educators and parents to engage students kinesthetically. The blocks encourage insight and exploration using complex geometric shapes not found in typical toys. Acerra designed Lux Blox to align with principles from science and art to help strengthen spatial thinking. As host Mike Palmer discusses with Acerra, hands-on learning tools like Lux Blox develop the flexible mindset needed for the future of education and work.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of education.

Reuben Ogbonna is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Marcy Lab School. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about why he founded the school and how they are reimagining post-secondary education to design pathways for students traditional higher education has left out.We begin by hearing how Reuben's upbringing in Shreveport, Louisiana, and his experience with Teach for America inspired him to create an alternative career-focused postsecondary option. Reuben explains how Marcy Lab School operates as a one-year program for underserved young adults interested in tech careers like software engineering. The curriculum balances technical skills with liberal arts and civic engagement recognizing the challenges of the current system. Outcomes focus on job placement, with average starting salaries in the low six figures. Then Reuben discusses how they have navigated challenges like the pandemic and hiring climate shifts in the tech industry in recent years. Looking ahead, we hear his vision for adapting their program to leverage AI and emphasize real-world problem-solving. He shares how access to more equitable postsecondary pathways centered on skills, not just typical college routes, can change the lives of students and their communities. Don't miss this chance to learn how all students can have diverse, high-quality options to find the right fit to land that great first job.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of education.

Note: the following show notes were created using Anthropic's Claude.ai - It seemed a propos after all:How should we prepare students for a rapidly automating world? On this episode, host Mike Palmer explores that question with Dr. Tim Dasey, author of Wisdom Factories: AI, Games, and the Education of the Modern Worker.Dasey explains why traditional educational models focused on expertise are becoming less relevant. As AI handles more routine analytical tasks, humans will need to excel at higher-order skills like critical thinking, creativity, and managing complexity.Dasey advocates revamping curricula to teach these “wisdom” capacities. He sees great potential for problem-based and collaborative learning approaches, as well as leveraging gaming to provide meaningful experiences with complex systems.However, Dasey notes most education debates focus narrowly on how AI will impact current roles, rather than reevaluating foundational priorities. He argues we need broad input from business and technology leaders to reorient systems toward the abilities humans uniquely bring.Tune in to hear Dasey’s compelling case for education reform in the AI age. Gain insights from his decades developing AI, then pivoting to human-centered design. Discover why developing wisdom, not just expertise, is key to long-term success.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcast. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more.

Mike shares his thoughts coming out of the Smithsonian Institution's National Education Summit that was recently held in Washington, DC. We hear what it's like to bring a 4-year-old to an education conference and learn more about the Palm Court Podcast whose launch is coinciding with the release of this episode!We reflect back on Dr. Monique Chism's previous appearance on Trending in Ed before diving into three key sessions from this year's summit. Mike talks about the tradeoffs of blending a family getaway with an education summit built around the theme of Together We Thrive: Fostering A Sense of Belonging. We hear what Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch had to say on his panel and learn of Mike's family's experience at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which Secretary Bunch played a key role in establishing. Then we reflect on the work of National Teacher of the Year Rebeckah Peterson and how her concept of "one good thing" contains lessons both for educators and for the rest of us. We conclude with thoughts on Dr. Pamela Cantor's keynote on the neurochemistry of belonging as we process lessons learned from the conference and from family travel in the summer.Mike concludes with some thoughts on the launch of the Palm Court Podcast which is a new dedicated feed focused on New College of Florida, his alma mater, that has been thrust into the national spotlight as our culture wars are now on campus.Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more and be sure to visit PalmCourtPod.com for deeper perspectives on New College's role in our cultural reckoning around academic freedom and the role of public education.