MIND is a neuroscience and education social benefit organization, dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems. Founder Matthew Peterson, motivated in part by the challenges he faced in school due to dyslexia, created ST Math, a non-language-based, conceptually driven PreK-8 instructional program that guides every student through a unique path of rigorous learning and problem solving that deeply engages, motivates and challenges students toward higher achievement. ST Math serves more than 1.2 million students in 45 states, creating learning environments that can yield the next generation of STEM leaders. Dr. Peterson provides a tour of the underlying four neural subsystems theory that forms the basis of MIND pedagogy.
The CTE sponsored a visit by Nobel Laureate and distinguished educational researcher Carl Wieman, who gave a talk to the LMU faculty, in which he described pedagogical methods based on cognitive psychology and learning sciences, and proposed a new way to evaluate teaching effectiveness. Professor Wieman received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for creating an incredible new state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate, predicted long ago by Albert Einstein. He was named US Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation in 2004. Carl used his Nobel Prize money to create the PHET website, which provides simulations in physics and other fields, and has 100 million views annually.
In 2007 the U. of British Columbia provided him with ten million dollars to transform the teaching practices in their STEM departments. In 2010 he served as Assistant Secretary of Education in the Obama administration. Since 2013 Carl has been at Stanford, where he is a Professor in the Physics Dept. and in the Graduate School of Education. His book Improving How Universities Teach Science was published in May by Harvard Press. Copies are available to borrow from the CTE. To do so, contact the CTE at teachers@lmu.edu.
