lifelong learning

Workforce Health Advanced by STEM Programming, Body and Mind Workout Challenges

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Technology is changing the American workforce and workplace. The workforce is becoming more diverse, demanding multidisciplinary job skills, necessitating continuous learning, higher levels of collaborative work, and greater reliance on technology. The organization of work is adapting and promoting towards a highly educated workforce whose work products are complex problem solving and solution driven rather than traditional service delivery or product manufacturing. With these changes, workers are experiencing greater psychological demands in addition to demands for higher levels of productivity.[i] To combat these dueling demands, Extension programming is focusing on a healthy body and mind working together; the two systems work and support each other’s success.

“To succeed in a work environment of rapid change requires workers to be mentally and physically prepared, adaptable, and resilient—in a word, healthy.”
– Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

My Extension programming in Pickaway County is STEM driven,[ii] and as an Extension educator, I experience first-hand the demands of continuous learning. In order to teach effectively, educators must continue to learn; the more educators can learn and adapt, the more they can teach and innovate their Extension programming. In addition, applying more technology is critical to the learning and teaching process. Continuous learning is foundational to developing robust STEM programming that requires working across program areas and disciplines to develop healthy minds in active problem-based learning. This type of programming also requires more connections to real-world problems, employers, authentic situations, and solution seeking designs. One example is “design thinking” processes, which are vital to the incoming workforce mode of operating.

WHY?

It takes more than one subject, field, or skill to solve real-world problems. Embracing a tech driven lifelong learning approach is becoming the new norm, but only while ensuring that the body and mind are working together. A healthy active mind requires a healthy active body to carry it; again, the two systems work and support each other.

 

Photographed by Meghan Thoreau. FCS Extension educators and SNAP-Ed program assistants experiencing the PhysBot Wearable Technology at the 2018 FCS Conference: Building Well Connected Communities.[iii]

BODY AND MIND TECH PROGRAMS

Educator Focused PhysBot Challenges. This fall at the 2018 Annual FCS Conference: Building Well Connected Communities, I led a hands-on health tech session with the support of Patty House, educator, Ohio 4-H youth development (4-H), and Bob Horton, STEM specialist, 4-H; (presentation link). We interpreted the conference theme with a STEM undercurrent, connecting communities through applied technology. We engaged both FCS Extension educators and SNAP-Ed program assistants from across the state in wearable technology and the importance of maintaining active lifestyles, by exploring the PhysBot Data Tracker, a wearable device that tracks your body movements and health data – inspiring healthy minds at work. The PhysBot technology was developed through an Ohio-based partnership between Ohio 4-H youth development, Big Kitty Labs, and Tiny Circuits. The PhysBot kits are accessible, affordable, and include the following components:

To learn more or to order a PhysBot Kit, visit: ohio4h.org/physbots.

Order your PhysBot Kit

Youth Focus PhysBot Challenges. This winter I also developed a Body and Mind STEM Program for Teays Valley School District’s afterschool STEM Club for elementary students. The body and brain need a mix of activity and mind challenges to stay fit and productive. Teens need at least 60-minutes of activity every day, where adults can get away with 150 minutes/week![iv] Wearable technology is growing and becoming a popularized accessory for all ages. It’s estimated that in 2019 almost 90-million people in the U.S. will be wearing some form of wearable technology.[v]

Body and Mind Challenges

Photographed by Meghan Thoreau. Elementary students participating in STEM Club’s Body and Mind Challenges.[vi]

The PhysBot breaks down wearable technology and allows youth to see and understand all the working components. The students learned how to calculate their resting heartbeats by hand. Then they put on their individual PhysBot to compare their heartbeats per minute (BPM) through an LED pulse sensor. Finally, the students were led to engage in different physical fitness challenges while monitoring their hearts’ BPMs. Participants could also download their data to a computer by downloading free PhysBot software to continue investigating their physical activity results. Below is a short video highlighting the youths’ PhysBot challenges:

Produced by Meghan Thoreau. Elementary students participating in
STEM Club’s PhysBot Wearable Tech and Fitness Challenges.

The young STEMists[vii] learned that physical fitness matters, but they were also later challenged with strategic mind workouts to emphasize the importance of the body and mind working together!

 “When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right.”
-Fiona Apple

International Strategic Board Game Challenges. Coming up with strategies and tactics to solve challenges and problems requires the 21st Century Skillset. November’s STEM Club programming focused on discovering new ways to plot winning strategies. These strategy activities can foster more strategic thinking skills in general that can help with real-life scenarios. Practicing strategizing skills is important, and exposing youth to international strategic board games is a means to continue playing and learning. The more these types of games are played, the better students will be at coming up with winning strategies and making smart decisions for a lifetime. The games played came from around the world: Chess (India), Five Field Kono (Korea), Backgammon (the Middle East), Fox and Geese (Northern Europe), and Mū Tōrere (New Zealand).

Strategy Games

WHY ARE STRATEGY GAMES SO IMPORTANT?

Strategy games are great for learning life skills, such as patience, self-control, and thinking critically. These types of games teach emotional competence and help people learn to control their impulses; not to make a decision immediately, but rather wait for a better, more effective opportunity to present itself and act on. This mode of thinking can also help weigh through some of the psychological demands found in today’s workplace.

Strategic games help people learn to evaluate other factors at play. Players realizing that their next decision may actually cause more problems for them or may potentially lead to a strategic advantage for either them or their opponent. Strategy games also help set and maintain goals which then require many avenues of thought, and decisions have to be sorted through to remain on the goal centered path. People start thinking of the next move, but in reality, they are looking further ahead, thinking how their next move will lead to their next decision. It is that skill of anticipating the counter move that leads to making smart decisions in life. These games teach people, especially youth, to make decisions after identifying the alternatives available to them and anticipating the possible consequences. And that is the basis to critical thinking. Here is a short video highlighting the strategic game challenges:

Produced by Meghan Thoreau. Elementary students participating in
STEM International Strategic Board Game Challenges.

BONUS

The timing of the strategic game portion of the program could not have been more perfectly unplanned, because the 2018 World Chess Championship was going on simultaneously and making international headlines both in print and on the radio. Fabiano Caruana v. Magnus Carlsen – Carlsen became World Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand. In the following year, he retained his title against Anand, and won both the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, thus becoming the first player to simultaneously hold all three titles. He defended his main world title against Sergey Karjakin in 2016. Stories were being published like, The Magnus Effect: Norway Falls Hard for Chess, How Magnus Carlsen is Making Chess Cool and Wearing his Rivals Down, Chess on the Rise in Primary Schools, or Fabiano Caruana – the American Helping Make Chess Cool. It is important to note that Caruana is an American. The last time an American won the World Chess Championship was back in 1972 by Bobby Fischer! Ultimately, Carlsen retained his title and was victorious over Caruana, but the ripple effects of their chess matches excited the world into learning and playing more chess!

REMEMBER

A healthy worker is one who realizes that the body and mind are a working system that internally promotes a healthy worker and workforce, and advocates for a healthier community and world at large. Technology in the workplace does not lessen the need for maintaining a healthy body and mind. Healthy workers have greater stamina to live and work in America’s changing workforce.

Active Healthy Minds

Youth Sport Trust, Working. 2016. Active Healthy Minds. 2016 Youth Sport Trust Conference Presentation.[viii]

[i] Institute of Medicine. 2005. Integrating Employee Health: A Model Program for NASA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11290. https://www.nap.edu/read/11290/chapter/5.

[ii] STEM, an acronym of disciplines, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, but do not get caught up on representing the correct combination; e.g. F-STEM, STEAM, STREAM, STEA2M, that becomes distracting and irrelevant to what the meaning represents. Think of STEM has a verb, stem, stemming together a multitude of any applicable disciplines to collaborating and solving the problems at hand. Solutions are derived from a blend of subjects, such as, philosophy, politics, culture, science, language, emotions, biology, the environment, anthropology, geology, etc.

[iii] Thoreau, M. October 2018. PhysBot: Tech FCS Workout Challenges. 2018 FCS Conference: Building Well Connected Communities. Marriott Airport, Columbus, Ohio.

[iv] Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018. Youth Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition. CDC Healthy Schools, Physical Education and Physical Activity. Retrieved at: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/guidelines.htm.

[v] Statista. 2018. Number of wearable device users in the U.S. 2014-2019. Technology and Telecommunication, consumer electronics. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/543070/number-of-wearable-users-in-the-us/.

[vi] Thoreau, M. November 2018. PhysBot: STEM Club Body and Mind Challenges. Teays Valley School District STEM Club. Retrieved from: https://u.osu.edu/tvstemclub/2018/12/13/physbot-fitness-and-strategic-board-game-challenges/

[vii] Team Groovy created the definition of the word “STEMist” because children are natural engineers and had to have a title to support their multidisciplinary applied curiosity.

[viii] Youth Sport Trust, Working. 2016. Active Healthy Minds. 2016 Youth Sport Trust Conference Presentation. Ricoh Arena. Coventry, England. Retrieved from: https://www.slideshare.net/YouthSportTrust/2016-conference-active-healthy-minds.

Meghan ThoreauMeghan Thoreau, educator, community development (CD), Ohio State University Extension-Pickaway County.

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“Applied” Program Development: upgrading programs and outreach through more hands-on technology and 21st century skillsets

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Since the turn of the century there has been increasing attention on K-12 education systems and improving the quality of curricula and authentic learning experiences for students entering the 21st century workforce. There is greater emphasis on elevating fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in response to workforce demands that are requiring a more tech savvy multidisciplinary skillset.[i] For this reason, numerous new learning approaches, curricula, programs, community partnerships, and specialized schools are emerging.[ii] While most of these initiatives address one or more of the STEM subjects separately, there are increasing calls for emphasizing connections between and among the subjects, as well as bringing real world problems into the classroom through business and industry partnerships with educators. STEM is rapidly transcending into a verb, describing inclusionary critical thinking skills to solving everyday real world problems facing our communities and socioeconomics.

APPLIED SKILLSETS & LIFELONG LEARNING

Education advocates and academic researchers find that a more integrated, problem-based, hands-on learning approach is vital to the K-12 education.[iii] This is because it gives students applied skillsets that today’s workforce requires. These advocates find educational impacts increase when K-12 educators involve solving real world problems. The education impacts are furthering impacts when the educators include business and industry partnerships that support the problem-based learning approach. These authentic partnered learning approaches make STEM subjects more relevant to students, teachers, and program participates. [iv], [v] This in turn can boost motivation in the learning process and improve students’ interest, achievement, and persistence in schooling and become lifelong learners. Being and remaining a lifelong learner is critical for success in the 21st century. These outcomes, STEM advocates are asserting, will help address calls for greater workplace and college readiness as well as increasing the number of students considering STEM careers; where currently 40% of STEM jobs go unfilled due to applicants not having the required skillsets.[vi] Extension can be a solution to closing the 21st century skillset deficit and connecting our youth to STEM skillsets and career pathways.

“Lifelong learning is an essential challenge for inventing the future of our societies; it is a necessity rather than a luxury to be considered … It is a mindset and a habit for people (student, educator, or the worker) to acquire. It creates the challenge to understand, explore, and support new essential dimensions of learning such as: (1) self-directed learning, (2) learning on demand, (3) informal learning, and (4) collaborative and organizational learning. Lifelong learning requires progress and an integration of new theories, innovative systems, practices, and assessment.”

-Gerhard Fischer, Director of the Center for Lifelong Learning & Design of the University of Colorado

CAPACITY BUILDING, COLLABORATION, & TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES

For over a year and a half, my particular Extension programmatic focus has been on preparing Pickaway County youth for STEM education and the 21st century workforce. I work collaboratively with a team of Extension professionals, volunteers, campus collaborators, and community partners to provide leadership for the development, production, and evaluation of educational programs and applied research to foster STEM educational opportunities that increase career attainment in STEM fields. More specifically, I work to provide leadership and programming to meet current and future needs related to K-12 STEM education with Pickaway County schools. I work in conjunction with the Pickaway County Educational Service Center, Pickaway HELPS, Pickaway WORKS, school district curriculum directors, K-12 teachers, business leaders, economic development organizations, local business and industry, and the Ohio State University collaborators.

Figure 1: NACDEP 2018 presentation clip highlighting the workshop agenda, “21st Century Workforce: skillsets & Growth Mindset for Educators to Target.” Retrieved from: go.osu.edu/NACDEPcodeworkshop.

This spring I took my STEM programming on the road to the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals in Cleveland, OH to present on the 21st century workforce, the applied skillsets required, and a hands-on coding challenge to educators across the country. Coding literacy is a 21st century requirement, which gives us a skillset to participate in the digital world. We should not just learn how to use computers and technology, we should develop applied programming that inspires and builds confidence for our communities and youth participates to learn to program computers – to be drivers in the digital world, not passengers. If this is something that interests you, visit the resource links below and start learning.

CONNECTED TOYS

Video: video highlights OSU Extension Sphero Coding Programs. The first clip, was filmed by Brooke Beam, OSU Extension Educator. Brooke recorded Extension Educators from across the country engaging in Sphero coding challenges at the 2018 NACDEP Conference in Cleveland, OH. The following videos and photos were recorded or taken by Meghan Thoreau. All iPads and Spheros came from Apple Education. The music is by Stromae, Tous les Mêmes.

The video highlights Sphero (one connected education toy I include in my coding programs), but there are dozens of connected toys for educators to choose from. For example, the educational Parrot Drones can be programmed through code and is a great tool for educators looking to innovative their youth and adult Extension programs. Knowledge in drone technology is an example of how technology impacts the future of work. UPS is actively testing residential drone delivery, where a traditional delivery driver will soon have to add programming a drone to their daily tasks. Electric vehicle maker Workhorse Group (based in Columbus, OH) is working with delivery companies in actual use. Domino’s is currently delivering pizza via ground drones in Europe and New Zealand with more cities scheduled to go online in the very near future. Amazon, the e-commerce giant, tested its first drone deliveries in the U.K. in 2016.

Infographic retrieved from: Shop online and get your items delivery by a drone delivery service: The future Amazon and Domino’s have envisioned for us, businessinsider.com/delivery-drones-market-service-2017-7.

But back to basic entry level coding. Connected toys, robotics, gaming, all make code interactive and fun learning, but it is also a critical skillset to today’s workforce. Instilling the importance of lifelong learning extends from the educators to their students, but it must also be from the employers to their workforce so that we may all support and incorporate more technology into curriculum, programming, outreach, and work itself. The shift to applied programming is central for Extension being a solution to closing the skillset deficit and connecting our youth to STEM career pathways through hands-on connected learning that is developed around real-world problem solving.

TECHNOLOGY IMPACTS

I have personally watched and listened to my youth participants, and they have become more curious, focused, and engaged in a STEM education and problem solving. The hands-on programming excites them beyond the program itself or their classroom. For example, after teaching a two-day computer science program with four elementary school buildings I returned the following month to be bombarded by students who wanted to share all the coding challenges they tried at home with me. The students engaged in self-directed learning. Extension provided the students and parents with a coding factsheet that highlighted several online sites that offer self-directed code challenges to get kids coding. Several even returned after winter break with their own Spheros. I witnessed a switch – the students did not just want to get a new game to play, they wanted a connected toy to code and write programs for themselves.

DRIVE YOUR PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Educators: how many times have you altered or borrowed a lesson plan for your Extension programming? You understood the language and changed what was necessary to make the lesson applicable to your program’s objective. Code has languages too, and in order to remain relevant and impactful to your communities, you may have to gain some basic coding skills to alter or borrow technology to implement it into your Extension programming, not to mention instill a very important 21st century skillset into your participates’ mindsets – the ability to code, to create, and to problem solve.[vii]

You do not have to be a computer science expert. Your goal can be to just teach enough of the basics to inspire our youth and program participates to explore the multitude of self-directed learning platforms that teach code and connect them to career opportunities that computer science underlays. Code is everywhere: agriculture, sports, education, art/design, pharmaceutics, robotics, health, entertainment, travel, law, politics, engineering, transportation, meteorology, tourism – you get the point. No youth or 21st Century Workforce Development Program should be absent of code or technology.[viii]

OSU DIGITAL FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE

There are exciting advances happening at The Ohio State University campuses, but by far I’m most interested in the OSU Digital Flagship Initiative taking off this fall. To learn more details about this initiative visit, digitalflagship.osu.edu/, but the highlights are as follows:

Figure 2: presentation slide that highlights the new OSU Digital Flagship Initiative.

I’m actively working with a team of Ohio State professionals to support Extension’s consideration in this exciting initiative and hopefully rally interest in organizing an Extension Digital Flagship Educators Cohort to bring the digital impacts of this initiative statewide through employing innovative technology, curriculum, and coding resources more comprehensively within our OSU Extension programs and outreach.

TAKE-AWAY

Adopt a growth mindset. This approach helps educators continue learning and problem solving through challenges. It is important for educators to fight through lifelong learning and remain a driver in the digital age, not a user. Be creative, curious, and adaptive.

A person learns best on the job. Therefore, bring real world problems and technology to your programs. Educators embrace technology and lifelong learning, look to community partners, and business and industry leaders to engage in the K-12 learning experience.

STEM matters. Technology matters. Both are essential to the 21st century teaching and learning programs. K-12 Education requires over-lapping STEM technology with real world problems and partnering with educators, business, and industry to close the 21st century skillset deficit. Educators must be knowledgeable about technology, be critical thinkers, and problem-solvers to prepare our youth for the real and ever-evolving workforce.

EDUCATOR RESOURCES:

Code Literacy: Increasing K-12 Coding Education in Ohio

21st Century Workforce: Skillsets & Growth Mindset for Educators to Target

WEBSITES YOU MUST VISIT:

www.apple.com/education

digitalflagship.osu.edu/

u.osu.edu/mindstretched

https://extension.osu.edu/home

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[i] Fayer, Stella, Lacey, A., Watson, A. (2017, January). STEM occupations: past, present, and future. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-past-present-and-future/home.htm.

[ii] Business Roundtable. (2017, June). Work in Progress: How CEOs are Helping Close America’s Skills Gap. Retrieved from:
http://businessroundtable.org/sites/default/files/immigration_reports/BRT%20Work%20in%20Progress_0.pdf.

[iii] Nathan, Mitchell, Pearson, G. (2014, June) Integration in K–12 STEM Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved from:
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18612/stem-integration-in-k-12-education-status-prospects-and-an

[iv] Honey, Margaret, Pearson, G. Schweingruber, H. (2014). STEM Integration in K-12 Education: status, prospects, and an agenda for research. Committee on Integrated STEM Education of the National Acaemy of Engineering and National Research Council of the National Academies. Retrieved from: http://stemoregon.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/STEM-Integration-in-K12-Education-Book-Ginger-recommendation-from-OACTE.pdf.

[v] Fayer, Stella, Lacey, A., Watson, A. (2017, January). STEM occupations: past, present, and future. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-past-present-and-future/home.htm.

[vi] Fayer, Stella, Lacey, A., Watson, A. (2017, January). STEM occupations: past, present, and future. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2017/science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-occupations-past-present-and-future/home.htm.

[vii] Rushkoff, Douglas. (2012, November). Code Literacy: A 21st-Century Requirement. Edutopia: Coding in the Classroom. Retrieve from:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/code-literacy-21st-century-requirement-douglas-rushkoff

[viii] Engler, John. (2012, June). STEM Education Is the Key to the U.S.’s Economic Future: we need to encourage more students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math. Retrieved from: https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/06/15/stem-education-is-the-key-to-the-uss-economic-future.

Meghan ThoreauMeghan Thoreau is a County Extension Educator for Pickaway County.