It’s been one full year since schools around the world pivoted to distance learning as a preventive measure against the coronavirus. In this podcast, Amanda Devercelli, the global lead for Early Childhood Development at the World Bank, and Rachel Christina, the director of International Basic Education at EDC, examine what teachers and education policymakers can learn from a year when learning via the Internet, television, and radio became the norm.

What Has the Pandemic Revealed about Distance Learning?

Women veterans of the U.S. military have all the skills needed for success in STEM fields, but they remain underrepresented in high-tech industries. In this podcast, we meet two women veterans who have made the jump from service to working in STEM industries: Angela Dickson and Stephanie Primeaux. EDC’s Rebecca Lewis also offers her perspective on what employers and policymakers can do to engage and retain more women veterans in the STEM workforce.

Building STEM Pathways for Women Veterans

Can rural communities be vibrant engines in the coming high-tech economy? EDC’s Pam Buffington believes it’s possible. For the past year, Buffington has been examining a new initiative that links schools and labor markets in rural east Texas. The work, which is funded by the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, is already changing lives and expectations about what is possible in rural economies. In this podcast, Buffington discusses what she is seeing.

Connecting School and Career in East Texas

A newly released report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that while overall life expectancy in the United States ticked up in 2018, the rate of suicide increased as well, continuing a 20-year trend. In this episode, EDC’s Jerry Reed and Kristen Quinlan break down the new data.

Breaking Down New CDC Data on Suicide

With COVID-19 temporarily closing school buildings around the world, many educators are now being asked to teach online. In this episode of Mosaic, EDC’s Kirsten Peterson and Zoe Baptista offer some tips for building community and promoting real learning in the online classroom.

Making the switch to online teaching

As any teacher can tell you, elementary school children often struggle to record their mathematical ideas on paper. So EDC’s Paul Goldenberg and Kristen Reed are giving children a different way to express their ideas: through computer programming. In this episode of Mosaic, Goldenberg and Reed discuss why they think programming is an effective tool for expressing mathematical ideas. They also share stories from the classroom.

Could Computer Programming Help Children Learn Math?

Tracking shadows, planting seeds, and exploring the natural world are all core to science learning in the elementary classroom. How have these activities changed now that all students are distance learning? In this episode, we hear from two science educators about the current state of elementary science education: Rebecca Katsh-Singer, the science curriculum coordinator for the Westborough Public Schools, and EDC’s Abigail Jurist Levy, who directs the Coalition for Elementary Science.

Teaching elementary science during the pandemic

For more than thirty years, interactive audio instruction (IAI) has been used to improve education in remote and impoverished communities around the world. In this episode, EDC’s Kit Yasin and Carrie Lewis discuss why IAI is so well suited to deliver education to millions during the pandemic, and how Ministries of Education can begin implementing these educational programs at scale.

How can interactive audio instruction support primary education during the pandemic?

Over the past 25 years, prison education programs that teach STEM skills have been cut, effectively preventing individuals who are incarcerated from entering the STEM workforce after they have served their sentences. In this episode, EDC’s Eden Badertscher and Stan Andrisse of the Prison to Professionals program discuss their efforts to improve STEM learning opportunities in prisons, and how this work is critical to making any meaningful progress toward racial equity and justice. To join the discussion on these topics, email STEM-OPS@edc.org.

Building a STEM Pathway Through Prison

2020 has been an exceptionally different—and difficult—school year for many of the 9 million students who attend rural schools in the United States. Not only has hybrid and remote learning has replaced face-to-face instruction, but the pandemic has drastically affected the economic stability and physical health of many families in rural communities. In this podcast, Pam Buffington, Director of Rural STEM Initiatives at EDC, and Mara Casey Tieken, an associate professor of education at Bates College, discuss how rural schools are adapting to new realities—while continuing to meet the needs of students and their families.

How Are Rural Schools Faring in the Pandemic?

Education Development Center (EDC) is a global nonprofit that advances lasting solutions to improve education, promote health, and expand economic opportunity. Since 1958, we have been a leader in designing, implementing, and evaluating powerful and innovative programs in more than 80 countries around the world.

Intro music is “Rain on Lake Erie”, from http://www.purple-planet.com

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