11/17/2023
Last Thursday, our Programming Director and Disability Resource Coordinator, Jordon LeBlanc, was invited to join the Universität Siegen in a conversation with US Consul General to North Rhine-Westphalia, Pauline Kao, to discuss our Authentic STEM program. The linked article is in German, but below is a rough translation.
https://www.uni-siegen.de/start/news/oeffentlichkeit/1024968.html
In this photo is Prof. Dr. Ingo Witzke (Left, Authentic STEM Director and Director of the Mathematics Institute of the University of Siegen, and Consul General Pauline Kao (right).
Pauline Kao was particularly interested in practical and innovative projects in mathematics education, where the University of Siegen collaborates with universities, companies, and schools in the USA.
The mathematics education department at the University of Siegen has maintained special contacts with the USA for years. In the two model projects "Authentic-STEM" and "Learning to teach," educators and students from both countries work on innovative concepts to convey mathematics and scientific questions in a practical manner and to include prospective teachers in this process from the start.
For the U.S. Consul General in Düsseldorf, Pauline Kao, this was the reason to visit the mathematics education department at the University of Siegen and learn more about the transatlantic cooperation in an exchange. She was welcomed by Chancellor Ulf Richter, Prof. Dr. Holger Schönherr, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and Prof. Dr. Ingo Witzke, the head of the Mathematics Education department.
At an exhibition, students and academic staff presented various approaches and STEM projects implemented at the University of Siegen to the Consul General. Experimentation, finding a different perspective, and becoming curious about mathematics are always at the forefront. "We need to bring the world into the school," Witzke emphasized in the subsequent discussion round, which included teachers, students, business partners, Dr. Stefan Werth (Arnsberg District Government), Guido Opheys (Head of the STEM Department in the NRW Ministry of Education), Timm Helten-Hildwein (unternehmer nrw, Political Department, Head of Education and Labor Market Policy), Simone Stuhrmann (Managing Director Operations, Employment Agency Siegen), Jan Schultze-Berndt (Regional Manager, Alsco GmbH), and Viktoria Harbecke, Director of AmerikaHaus NRW e.V.
The U.S. project partners joined remotely. Jordon LeBlanc from the North Country Workforce Partnership (Plattsburgh/New York) discussed the experiences with "Authentic-STEM," where students from the Olpe district and the USA work together to find solutions for real problems of international companies.
Despite the distance and language challenges, this works very well. "The students are highly motivated because it's about concrete problems, and a solution is being found together," Witzke said. He emphasized the need to move away from constructed textbook problems and the repetitive question formats like "Assume that..." or "Calculate how much..." and find new approaches, like the authentic themes from everyday corporate life attempted in "Authentic-STEM." The project was recently awarded by the Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger as an excellent digital career orientation offer in the category Working World 4.0. Alongside Prof. Witzke, Dr. Gero Stoffels (now at the University of Cologne) is in the project leadership.
Scientific assistant Jenny Köppel then introduced the "Learning to teach" project, where students find themselves in a kind of international seminar room. Joint digital seminars with mathematics students from Adams State University (Alamosa/Colorado) offer insights into other education systems and provide inspiration for their own teaching approaches, according to Jenny Köppel. Curtis Garcia, head of the School of Teacher Education at Adams State University, confirmed this via live link from Alamosa. The focus is also on digitalization and diversity in schools. "What is the approach to this in Germany? What is it like with us? What can we learn from each other?" The student groups not only work together virtually but also visit the respective partner universities. Next year, for the first time, a student from the University of Siegen will undertake an extended school-based course in Alamosa. In the spirit of cooperation, the Memorandum of Understanding with Adams State University was extended for another five years.
Pauline Kao was impressed by the collaborations. "These are attractive models that the University of Siegen has pioneered and are worth being continued and then adopted more broadly."
