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A simple line reframed our whole approach to teaching: prepare students for their future, not our past. Sitting down with Jeff Remington from Penn State’s CSATS, we dig into what that looks like when classrooms connect directly to research, industry, and the realities of Pennsylvania’s evolving economy. Instead of one‑off PDs and “random acts of STEM‑ness,” we talk about sustained, transdisciplinary learning built on real local phenomena—data centers, smart manufacturing, clean energy, life sciences—and the skills students actually use on the job.
Jeff breaks down the new NSF‑supported STEM Teacher Corps, a multi‑year experience that pays and empowers elementary teachers to embed with researchers, return as regional leaders, and scale authentic project‑based learning. We explore convergence education—where science, math, engineering, tech, and even policy and communication blend into problems students can’t solve with a single subject. That mindset aligns cleanly with the STEELS standards’ performance expectations and higher Depth of Knowledge, shifting classrooms toward application, reasoning, and transfer.
We also get practical with AI. Rather than banning or siloing it, we position AI as the fourth teammate in student groups: a guided thought partner that raises rigor and mirrors how modern teams work. With clear guardrails, students learn to prompt, verify, and reason—while teachers model ethical use and bridge a growing skills gap. Layer in Pennsylvania’s five economic pillars—agriculture, energy, manufacturing, robotics/AI/tech, and life sciences—plus environmental sustainability, and you have a roadmap for making learning local, meaningful, and career‑ready.
If you’re ready to move from theory to practice, this conversation will give you concrete starts: choose a local phenomenon, map it to STEELS and the pillars, use AI to deepen inquiry, and build from there. Join us, share this with a colleague who’s hungry for real change, and subscribe so you never miss new ideas that help every student step into the future with confidence.
To learn more information about CSATS or to stay up on their latest information, visit: CSTATS or find them on social media (Linked In, FaceBook, & Twitter)

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