The Computer History Museum (CHM), the world’s leading institution exploring the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society, today announced it has been awarded a grant to participate in the HP Catalyst Initiative, a global social innovation program designed to develop more effective approaches to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The network of educational institutions belonging to the program will use an interdisciplinary approach and emphasize creativity, collaboration and cross-cultural expertise to transform STEM teaching and learning, and to inspire students to use their technical and creative ingenuity to help address immediate social challenges. Through the HP Catalyst Initiative, HP has invested more than US$10 million since 2010 and engaged with more than 55 educational institutions in 15 countries to further innovation in STEM education. As a new member of this distinguished international network, Computer History Museum will join the HP Catalyst New Learner Consortium and receive a grant of HP technology, financial contributions and professional support valued at more than $150,000.
The HP Catalyst Initiative created five global consortia in 2010, each focusing on a specific theme focused on transforming STEM education. These “sandboxes” of innovation are developing new approaches to teacher preparation, online education, technology to measure learning outcomes, and engagement with students in global, collaborative learning experiences. In 2011, an additional 14 organizations have been funded as members in one of the five existing HP Catalyst consortia. The program also is adding a sixth theme, “STEM-preneur,” to focus specifically on novel ways to combine STEM education with the skills and passion of entrepreneurship. In total, 21 organizations from 12 countries join the network of leading institutions that are transforming STEM+ teaching and learning.
The Computer History Museum will use this grant to support Get Invested: Case Studies in Innovation, its innovative, STEM+ infused project for high school students. Through Get Invested in collaboration with The New Learner consortium, the Computer History Museum will explore methods and means to integrate informal learning into traditional classroom instruction to inform and enhance STEM+ education. With extensive experience in delivering high-quality K-12 educational programs supporting STEM learning. the Computer History Museum will contribute to the New Learner consortium valuable STEM+ education outcomes concerning knowledge, skills, and attitudes transmitted outside of school, with potentially long-lasting rewards.
Get Invested is an international collaboration between educational institutions, and instructional collaboration between formal school and the technology-driven, object-based informal learning environment of the Computer History Museum. Focusing on global challenges to inspire marginalized high school students’ interest and achievement in engineering, math, and science, Get Invested, brings together at-risk high school students, and job corps students from the Central County Occupational Center in San Jose and high school students from the Academia de Informatica of the Universidad de Monterrey.
Get Invested exposes students from diverse cultures to creative STEM+ problem solving with multi-media applications and multi-modality learning approaches. Working in parallel, students in San Jose and Monterrey collaborate in teams to identify a global problem or need, and envision a technology-based creative solution or product through research from the Computer History Museum’s vast resources.
The technology afforded by the HP Catalyst grant will allow students to use technology as a means of examining technology. Students in Get Invested will make sense of computing artifacts and exhibits in a new way to examine how problems were historically identified and solutions were developed and understood. Building 21st century learning skills, students collaborate to craft written proposals and oral presentations about their solution or product to compete for funding from teachers and Computer History Museum educators who role-play venture capitalists.
Get Invested will examine how setting, activity and goal, mediators and participation structures affect learning outcomes; how teachers can incorporate non-school learning elements into the classroom, as well as how teachers with different degrees of knowledge can understand the benefit of museums as educational resources. Through Get Invested, the Computer History Museum will provide The New Learner Consortium with concrete examples of how a technology-saturated informal learning environment will impact students’ STEM+ learning.
"The HP Catalyst Initiative provides the Computer History Museum with a unique opportunity to engage students and teachers in an innovative educational experience through international collaboration within and beyond school walls. The New Learner Consortium and HP are fostering empowering learning experiences for under-served students that can transform their self-perceptions about their opportunities in the world."
Dr. Lauren Silver, Vice President of Education, Computer History Museum
"Education has the power to transform the lives of individuals and communities. By bringing together leading education organizations to work in collaboration, HP is creating an international network of innovative educators who are showcasing new and powerful student-centered approaches to STEM education."
Gabi Zedlmayer, Vice President, Office of Global Social Innovation, HP
The Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, Ca. is a nonprofit organization with a four-decade history as the world’s leading institution exploring the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society. The Museum is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of computer history, and is home to the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, encompassing computer hardware, software, documentation, ephemera, photographs and moving images. CHM brings computer history to life through an acclaimed speaker series, dynamic website, onsite tours, as well as physical and online exhibits.
Current exhibits include “Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2,” and “Mastering the Game: A History of Computer Chess.”. The online exhibit, featuring the Timeline of Computer History and over 600 key objects from Visible Storage, is found at: www.computerhistory.org. “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing” opened physically and online in January 2011.
For more information and updates, call (650) 810-1059, visit www.computerhistory.org, check us out on Facebook, and follow @computerhistory on Twitter.
PR Team
pr@computerhistory.org
(650) 810-1059
