Improving Underperforming Schools

We close out Season 2 with another visit from Rachel, an educator with experience in school improvement strategies. First Pius and Rachel discuss future plans to present sessions at the upcoming South by Southwest EDU conference in 2018, followed by an homage to Austin, Texas. Then the main discussion starts, as Rachel defines what “underperforming” or “failing” schools are and how STEM and engineering programs sometimes could be used to try to turn them around. Mentioned in this episode: • South by Southwest EDU (SXSWedu): https://www.sxswedu.com/ • SXSW session “Podcasting for Education Meet Up” https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2018/events/PP71654 • SXSW session “Designing Lessons: Tips from Improv & Engineering” https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2018/events/PP74100 • Whole Foods bought by Amazon: https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-11-17/whole-foods-last-solo-numbers-quantify-amazon-effect • National Instruments, hardware/software company: http://www.ni.com/en-us.html • Home Away, tech/vacation company: https://www.homeaway.com/ • WeWork, coworking space: https://www.wework.com/ • The League, dating app: http://www.theleague.com/ • Atkins, global engineering consulting: http://www.atkinsglobal.com/en-gb • Hanger, prosthetic company: http://www.hanger.com/ • Spun, liquid nitrogen ice cream food truck/trailer: https://www.spunicecream.com/ • Past episode with Sadhan and Rachel: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep23.html • Engineering Word Of The Day, podcast: http://engineeringwordoftheday.com/ • Email list for the show: http://eepurl.com/cWSuiP • Twitter for the show: @K12Engineering, https://twitter.com/K12Engineering • Facebook for the show: @K12EngineeringEducation, https://www.facebook.com/K12EngineeringEducation/ • Rachel’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/rfahrig • Pius’s Twitter: @PiusWong, https://twitter.com/PiusWong • Donate to the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs • Guidebook “Engineer’s Guide to Improv and Art Games” by Pius Wong, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers: http://www.pioslabs.com/improv4design.html Our closing music is called “Wishing” by Soirée, used with permission, and you can find more tracks by Soirée on SoundCloud, user “soireebeats”: https://soundcloud.com/soireebeats Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com. Support Pios Labs at: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs The cover art for this episode is a photo of part of the view of Austin that Pius and Rachel talk about early in the episode. Pictured is the trailer for Spun, the shop that churns and freezes their ice cream with liquid nitrogen, below lights strung up around Whole Foods. Across the highway pictured is National Instruments.