Open Education 2013

STEM Challenges is framework that can be used to describe, disseminate, and instantiate many existing engaging, effective learning activities. STEM Challenges include a (1) rich media description of a real-world discovery, event, or goal (e.g. colonizing mars), (2) a description of a smaller challenge that learners could actually work on, (3) interactive models and other resources for problem solving, (4) a mechanism for sharing and discussing solutions, and (5) extensions to more challenges. A STEM Challenge platform should support cataloging existing good challenges by reference and providing the ability for individuals and groups to "instantiate" the challenges for their contexts, adapt existing challenges, and creating new ones. This session will give examples of how open content and tools such as Open Tapestry can play a key role in enabling the implementation and dissemination of the STEM Challenges.