Without a doubt, STEM education is receiving a substantial amount of attention these days. Given this ubiquitous attention to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, one would think that school districts across the state and nation are giving more and more students opportunities to experience courses and extracurricular activities related to computing, a key component of the “T” in STEM. Unfortunately, that would be an...

  Despite the heat and humidity, 36 geometry and CTE teachers from across the state gathered in Pflugerville the week of August 3-7, 2015 to attend Geometry in Construction (GiC) training sponsored by the Texas Regional Collaboratives and Fluor.  Seventeen of these teachers were new to the GiC program and attended a four-day session that included an introduction to the GiC curriculum, team building activities, building stairs, utilizing...

  Three staff members from the TRC at the Center for STEM Education in UT Austin’s College of Education have been awarded a 100Kin10 Fellowship. The Fellowship award follows the TRC’s acceptance as a 100Kin10 partner in early 2015. As part of this new initiative, the TRC aims to help 100Kin10 address the critical need for K-12 engineering-related programs in the nation’s schools. The TRC – UT Austin team includes Carol...

A Texas State Aquarium Regional Science Collaborative Field Trip caught the attention of a local news crew. The story shown on KIII TV in Corpus Christi, highlighted the kind of hands on professional development offered by the TRC to STEM educators across Texas. Some attendees even took the opportunity to share how the experience benefits both teachers and their students.

Opportunities for both teachers and students related to computer science, coding and computational thinking are becoming more prevalent due to growing awareness of the the importance of these fields in the 21st Century innovation economy. Unfortunately, finding these opportunities can be a real challenge as there has been no central clearinghouse for these kinds of resources and events in Texas. To address this communications challenge, the TRC launched the TRC CS Network Blog in May 2015.

The Texas Alliance for Computer Science Education (TACSE) held its inaugural meeting on April 8, 2015, bringing together over 60 Computer Science and economic development professionals to share concerns and discuss strategies for improving Computer Science education in Texas. These discussions prompted TACSE to put out the press release, Tech and Business Leaders: Computer Science is Key to Prosperous Texas, to mark the occasion. The meeting...