Innovating approaches to STEM education
Education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is key to social innovation and economic opportunity. This is true for students who become STEM professionals, and for all students who graduate in the 21st century. But literacy in STEM subjects is lagging, and skilled STEM students are in short supply. HP launched the Catalyst Initiative to get to the root causes of the challenge, and to explore the future of STEM education.With the HP Catalyst Initiative, we're establishing a network of leading educators, education institutions, and key stakeholders in selected countries to explore innovative approaches to STEM education. By combining technology with expertise, we can empower great teaching and create transformational learning experiences for students.
Our approach is multidisciplinary, collaborative, and global. Each international HP Catalyst consortium brings together experts from various types of educational institutions. These experts focus on specific opportunities to use technology to enhance STEM teaching and learning. We want to foster dialogue and debate, challenging assumptions about what's needed and what's possible, to better prepare students to compete in the information economy.
The HP Catalyst Initiative consortia are focused on a range of issues, from teacher preparation and student-driven learning models to student assessment. Each is charged with investigating how emerging technologies can lead to learning experiences that promote creative thinking, open-ended problem-solving, and cross-cultural collaboration.
The consortia share their real-time insights through blogs and Twitter that are consolidated via the Catalyst Hub.
Each consortium has been assigned an area of investigation, which are described below. close
Innovating approaches to STEM education
Education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is key to social innovation and economic opportunity. This is true for students who become STEM professionals, and for all students who graduate in the 21st century. But literacy in STEM subjects is lagging, and skilled STEM students are in short supply. HP launched the Catalyst Initiative to get to the root causes of the challenge, and to explore the future of STEM education. read moreEducation
HP Catalyst InitiativeEntrepreneurship
Related links
2011 HP Catalyst Initiative EligibilityHP Catalyst Recipients (2011 and 2010)
Blog: Teaching, Learning and Technology in Higher Education HP Catalyst Hub – Real-time News and Events 2009 HP Innovations in Education Grantees 2004-2008 HP Technology for Teaching Higher Education Grantees (Worldwide) 2004-2008 HP Technology for Teaching K-12 Grantees (US) 2010 HP EdTech Innovators Awards
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Multi-Versity
The Multi-Versity consortium explores new ways to provide online STEM education to post-secondary, secondary, and adult students. - The group also investigates models of online professional development for teachers and faculty. The long-term goal is to broaden learning opportunities for students and ensure that coursework—no matter the institution—can be applied toward certification and degrees. This consortium is led by the Sloan Consortium (USA).
- Pedagogy 3.0
The Pedagogy 3.0 consortium examines the future of STEM teacher training, including how to prepare teachers to facilitate 21st-century learning experiences for students. - It's not enough for a teacher to be an expert in math or science. Instructors need to offer project-based experiences that help students understand how technical disciplines can be applied in creative ways to solve real social challenges. The long-term goals of this group are to prepare and retain more STEM teachers, enhance the STEM expertise of teachers and faculty, and improve student success in pursuing STEM degrees. This consortium is be led by Futurelab (UK).
- Global Collaboratory
The Global Collaboratory consortium enables students to address urgent social challenges through group problem-solving, using the power of collaborative grid computing. - It builds on the HP and UNESCO Brain Gain Initiative, created to slow the exodus of scientists and academics from Africa and the Middle East. The HP and UNESCO partnership launched a powerful grid computing network across 20 universities, providing researchers with shared computing power that supports their research. This consortium is led by the CSIR Meraka Institute (South Africa).
- The New Learner
The New Learner consortium engages formal and informal education organizations to explore how to build a network of learning opportunities for students. - The goal is to create new models of student-driven STEM learning that are engaging, lead to higher school completion rates, and promote "learning how to learn." This consortium is led by the Agastya International Foundation (India).
- Measuring Learning
The Measuring Learning consortium is developing ways to assess STEM competencies that are often not evaluated in school. - These skills include innovation, higher-order thinking, global collaboration, and the ability to tackle big, open-ended challenges. Despite the universally acknowledged importance of these 21st-century abilities, education systems rarely measure student performance in these areas. Technology can change that. This consortium is led by Carnegie Mellon University (USA).
- STEM-preneur
New for 2011 is a consortium that will address novel ways to combine STEM education with the skills and passion of entrepreneurship. -
By giving technical students the skills of an entrepreneur, and giving entrepreneurial students more technical understanding, the STEM disciplines become more relevant, appealing, and more students are prepared to tackle the big challenges in society.
This consortium is led by Tsinghua University, School of Economics & Management, (China).