Whole(y) Cow!

After years of divide and fail, can we reunite learning with STEM and project based learning?

Study a package of hamburger as long as you like, you will never understand a cow.

So why do we keep dividing learning into bite sized bits, cut out of context, meaning and purpose?
Can memorizing artificial labels on a lifeless, two dimensional chart help us understand or improve the cow?
Or does this simply enable us to divide and label our students in the same way we divided and labeled the cow?

Imagine instead that we challenged students to create a better cow. This forces them to understand “cow” and “better” in all dimensions.
What environments and foods strengthen cows? How do we balance our needs and responsibilities to cows? What diets and choices can keep us healthy?

STEM and project based learning reconstitutes learning, naturally combining and testing our understanding of all subjects.
This learning is rich and alive. It challenges students to understand interacting systems as they search for solutions.
This is how we have always produced stronger cows and more milk.
It can also produce innovative students ready to solve problems in their world.

If you are brave enough to admit that you don’t have every answer; that there can be more than one solution, embark at once upon this learning adventure with your students.
You will be amazed at how some of them will spark alive when they are offered a chance to touch and transform their world.

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