Motivating tomorrow’s scienTIsts

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Teaching and learning tools for middle grades through high school science

Supported by Texas Instruments

What is this?

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global technology company. It designs, manufactures, tests and sells Analog and Embedded Processing products, in particular semiconductor chips. TI products are used to power electronics by hundreds of thousands innovative companies around the globe. TI's motto is "help to make the world smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun".

But through TI Education Technology, TI has also been an active member of classrooms around the world for more than 30 years and fosters a culture of innovation aiming to actively contribute in getting more students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. By investing in the development of education technology products and resources, and establishing international professional development initiatives like T³ Europe ("T cubed" Europe), TI provides high quality learning and teaching material to help inspire future innovators, problem-solvers and critical thinkers starting from an early age. Last June 2017, TI-Innovator Hub with TI LaunchPadTM Board was recognized with the Comenius Seal awarded by European Jury of GPI e.V..

At University level and since 1982, TI has been working on bridging the gap between academia and industry with more than 8,000 teaching labs in engineering departments at 2,600 universities worldwide, 450 TI-based textbooks in 10 languages, reaching tens of thousands of students annually.

TI's main educational portal https://education.ti.com/ contains classroom material for both primary and secondary education and  TI University Program for post-secondary education.

Who is it for? 

It only takes one spark to change the world.

TI's Education Technology and support resources enable parents, teachers, mentors to help students build a strong foundation in math and science. By equipping children with the tools and supporting teachers, TI aims at raising innovators and critical thinkers who will become a next generation of scientists working for industry and TI company, in particular.

According to TI's vision, it is up to the next generation of thinkers to look at existing scientific problems from different perspective and solve them in future. That's why TI support Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education programs in the communities where they operate empowering young innovators and encourage all students, including girls and minorities who are underrepresented in STEM fields today, to be problem-solvers.

Learn more about how to:

TI organises numerous activities for students and encourages them to try resources and learn about STEM careers on the TI's website. Check out some of the students' activities here:

What are the strengths and opportunities?

TI's education technology products connect the classroom experience with real-world applications, helping students and educators explore math and science with handhelds, software and accompanying educational curriculum content. The TI's hardware like new generation of calculators or sensor data collectors available for purchase, however the educational resources TI offers are free of charge and can be adapted to science classrooms.

On one hand, TI provides free teaching materials and resources, many of which can be adapted and integrated into coursework in a way that activities will not be linked to specific hardware. At the same time, it supports teachers' professional development, for instance, through the T³ initiative that helps to develop effective practices through pedagogy and technical confidence.

Moreover, TI University Program supports high education, working with professors, researchers and students in facilitating the inclusion of TI technology in Engineering schools, teaching and research labs, textbooks, design projects and course curricula. With this program TI aims to feed the STEM-related jobs potential pipeline with STEM-skilled engineers.    

On the TI website, a number of STEM-related careers are showcased to introduce students to real-life role models, motivate them and make them aware of future perspectives in industry and science.

Tips and tricks

If you have never used TI educational tools and resources, it is highly recommended to start by reading the book "Inspiring Math in the Classroom". A collection of case studies is designed to help educators develop their use of TI-Nspire through the professional journeys taken by Annie, Mike and Cathy, each of whom began the pilot project with different levels of confidence and experience with respect to using ICT with their learners.

It is not necessary to use a device or a software described in the resources documentation. The educational resources and activities can be adapted and further developed with the use of free of charge software available for teachers in the Internet or at school. Additionally, videos, tests from the students' worksheets and teacher notes documents enable teachers to produce learning material by themselves and make science classes interesting and engaging.

Ready to get started?

Browse the STEM Alliance repository to have more information and to access the resources.

The following "STEM behind…" series are a fully sculpted lessons for math and science classes. Each resource contains activities supported with documentation that is available for download. This documentation provides a teacher with notes, worksheets and questions to lead classroom discussion and gauge students' understanding of the topic. Unusual approach of these resources provides teachers with ideas on what can be a topic of the possible lesson activities and how a lesson can be structured. Provided resources are easily adaptable and do not necessarily require to use purchasable tools.

With the following interactive resources, ready-to-use activities, templates and lesson ideas teachers and students will be guided through practical exercises in order to use TI tools:

Do you want to know more?

In addition to educational resources, you can learn about T3 Europe initiative of Texas Instruments. T³ stands for Teacher Teaching with Technology™ which represents the international network of educators around Europe that shares ideas and visions on the implementation of TI technology in Math, Science and STEM education. It aims at training and providing contents for teachers and has been doing so for more than 20 years. T3 initiative has also a portal of resources containing videos, activities, useful links and webinars. For more information see: www.t3europe.eu