It’s OK To Fail: How Indiana Teachers are Rethinking STEM

Giving Compass’ Take:

· In Kraig Kitts’ class, failing is part of the learning process. The Lilly Experience for Teachers in STEM, a project by Kitts, is a workshop for teachers for applying STEM curriculum to the real world. In a report by Chalkbeat, Kitts discusses the focus of the Lilly Experience and why it is important for students to apply their education to the real world and learn new skills.

· How does this approach get more students involved in STEM material? How is STEM education preparing students for their futures?

· Read about strategies to create a culture around STEM education. 

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In Kraig Kitts’ biology classes, it’s OK to fail.

“That’s science. That’s the nature of it,” said Kitts, a science teacher at Center Grove High School. “Sometimes we don’t know. As teachers, we have a lot of pressures that everything works, every time, 100 percent.”

This is the message Kitts wants to send to his students. It’s also the message he wants to relay to other Indiana teachers.

Kitts is the mastermind behind the Lilly Experience for Teachers in STEM, a two-day workshop for teachers of STEM — or science, technology, engineering, and math — designed to redefine the field by connecting math and science curriculum to real-world applications.

He interned in Eli Lilly and Company’s structural biology department last summer through a special program for science teachers. As an educator, Kitts was shocked to see how his own classroom lessons reflected in the daily jobs of Lilly’s scientists and engineers.

He immediately wanted to share the real-world applications of STEM with other educators — and his students, too

Read the full article about applying STEM to the real world by Shelby Mullis at Chalkbeat.