The Family Edu-Vacation

Hey – my family is covered in the National Society of Professional Engineers' July issue "A Family Edu-vacation" #STEM http://t.co/yl6Fi4kd — JJ Rohrer (@ascendlyJJ) July 2, 2012 Here are the short highlights: “His third-grader son wanted to go to Dubai to see Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. ” & “Rohrer would love …

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The Largely Hidden Demand for Science and Engineering Activities

Today our family visited the truly awesome USA Science and Engineering Festival at the Mt. Vernon Convention Center in Washington. There were overwhelming amounts of exhibitors and shows and the place was absolutely packed. The exhibitors included everyone from companies like Lockheed Martin to elementary schools to college-level engineering and science departments. It was terrific to see …

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LEGO® Naming

I wanted to make an overview of how to name LEGO® parts.  This is a little rough, but a good start. You can also see this on the ShowMe.com website or in your ShowMe app for the iPad.

LEGO® T-Shirt Ideas

I’ve been working on some T-Shirt ideas.  Right now, I’m thinking that I might be able to sell the shirts as a way to raise money for The Ascendly Institute.  If the volume is high enough then I can get the shirts for about $10 bucks each, so if I sell a few shirts at …

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The Atlantic Monthly Article about Finland Mainly Leaves Me with More Questions

So, in case you didn’t hear, Finland keeps scoring at the top of PISA tests for education. It’s a big deal. Their kids don’t study like crazy. They don’t test like crazy. Their teachers are highly unionized. They are experiencing an expanding, yet equally well educated, immigrant community. They also have teachers that, on average, …

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Yeah, but are the kids learning? – Thoughts on improving the Ascendly assessment system.

Yeah, but are the kids learning? – Thoughts on improving the Ascendly assessment system. Ascendly’s after-school engineering classes are popular, but are they good? In other words, “Are the kids actually learning?” Every organization needs to know if its latest changes, both purposeful and accidental, are affecting improvements, or are they just making things worse. …

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Think!

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ascendlyJJ/status/128455791727480832″]   mansionwb /Foter