Nobel Laureate and physicist Carl Wieman will speak to a group of University of South Florida faculty members, higher education colleagues from across Florida, and Tampa Bay area high school teachers on Friday, Feb. 15 in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom on the USF campus in Tampa.
Wieman is the keynote speaker of a one-day, free workshop for Florida educators, designed to explore best practices to modernize science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms.Wieman will address the group at 9:30 a.m. and again at 3 p.m.
During the workshop, Wieman plans to share his ideas for
helping educators elevatetheir teaching methods in ways that can better prepare students
for success when entering STEM occupational fields. Wieman expects to cover topics
relating to learning outcomes, scientifically measuring what students learn, adapting
instructional methods and curriculum, and effectively incorporating the use of technology.
The workshop is part of the USF System STEM Collaborative, a strategic initiative launched in 2014 to enhance STEM-related programs across the institution and the region.
“USF believes that collectively STEM educators in the Tampa Bay area can work to nurture and develop the talent needed to build a highly-skilled and diverse workforce for a modern economy. We’re preparing students to develop new cures and treatments for illness and diseases, protect our environment, and improve the quality of life for residents in our region and beyond,” saidRalph Wilcox,USF provost and executive vice president.
Wiemanis a champion for revivingundergraduate STEM classrooms, noting that less than 40 percent of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field actually end up completing a degree in that subject. He says addressing the issue is crucial, considering STEM occupations grew by 10.5 percent from 2009-2015 —nearly double that of non-STEM occupations— and the national average wage for all STEM occupations is nearly double the average of non-STEM occupations.