In May, the EiE Research Team launched a comprehensive survey to over 9,000 parents and educators across the country. Our goal was to better understand how teaching and learning have been impacted so that we can respond with high quality STEM resources that meet the unique needs of this moment.
Our team was thrilled when over 700 educators and parents responded, many with stories and insights into the challenges they’re facing and the strategies they’re using to keep the learning going during COVID times.
Here’s what some of our respondents had to say in the survey:
What are the three most important things you need to support your students/children that you don’t currently have?
|
OST Educator Responses |
In-school Educator Responses |
Parent Responses |
|
Reliable internet |
Quality online learning Resources |
Access to materials |
|
Online activities that are interactive/hands-on |
Materials access at home |
Quality curricula |
|
Ready-made activities |
Better/equal access to technology for my students |
Activities that are manageable |
The survey also found:
- Lesson time for OST educators is more varied and tends to be longer than in-school lesson time. 69% of in-school educators deliver online lessons in the 0-30 minute range.
- In-school educators & admins expect many potential changes to the upcoming school year, including reduced class sizes and virtual lessons. Cancelling field trips and online instruction are the most common expectations.
- Nearly one-third of educators are not receiving professional development to support their delivery of online instruction.
- Nearly half of in-school educators, and 42% of parents disagree or strongly disagree that high quality affordable STEM activities are easy to find.
We know the transition to virtual STEM learning has been riddled with challenges. At EiE, we have been working hard to produce new solutions to make distance learning more accessible for families, educators, and students. On our blog, you can find our webinar Seven Key Considerations for Hands-on and Virtual STEM Learning, or follow our upcoming series of at-home STEM activities for learners. We’ve also developed new Hands-On Try It! Kits for students in grades K-8 who are learning STEM from a distance. We know there’s more to do and we’re listening to understand your needs as we approach more distance learning this fall. If there’s something you or other educators did that worked well for your students this spring as you navigated distance learning together, or any problems you’re still looking for solutions for, we’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
