Seattle school cuts bold STEM program, exposing the challenge of reimagining education

"We're building whole human beings. Not just test-takers." A Seattle middle school is ending its partnership with a STEM education nonprofit, Technology Access Foundation, due to budget cuts and conflicting priorities, raising questions about the future of innovative and equitable programs in public schools. 

• The Technology Access Foundation (TAF) offers an equity-driven STEM program focused on critical thinking and project-based learning, with an emphasis on fostering relationships between teachers and students.

• TAF partnered with Washington Middle School three years ago, but the district announced this spring that it can no longer afford the program, which cost the district nearly $3 million over that time.

• The nonprofit continues its efforts elsewhere in the region, but faces challenges such as tight budgets, standardized tests, and slow adoption of its model. TAF does not plan any future collaborations with Seattle Public Schools.

GeekWire reporter Lisa Stiffler talked with parents, educators, and other stakeholders to understand what happened and what it says about the educational system. Read more.

How big was that walkout? GeekWire reported from the Amazon employee protest Wednesday in Seattle, and based on our best estimate, there was somewhere in the range of 300 people gathered next to The Spheres for the noontime rally. 

• One Seattle Police officer said “probably 200.” 

• Organizers told us their expert counted more than 1,000. 

• Judge for yourself in this video and the photo above. Even with people behind the trees, on the far sidewalk, and behind our vantage point, we’re finding it tough to come up with more than 500, at best, and that includes the media and random passersby.

In terms of concrete numbers, organizers said they logged 998 walkout pledges in Seattle and 2143 worldwide. They also noted anecdotally that some people walked out without pledging. For the record, Amazon has more than 65,000 corporate and tech employees in the Seattle area, part of a workforce of 350,000 corporate and tech employees worldwide.

Regardless of the numbers, the walkout was a rare example of Amazon corporate and tech employees speaking out publicly against the company, in this case on issues of climate change and return-to-office mandates. “We are here because we want to build a better Amazon,” one speaker said. Read more.

Amazon will pay more than $30 million to settle two privacy complaints with the FTC involving its Ring cameras and Alexa voice assistant. Read more.

In its quest to remove every barrier to buying stuff online, Amazon is testing a new mobile app configuration that moves the search box to the bottom of the screen.

Seattle-area fusion company Zap Energy landed a $5 million federal grant in its pursuit of commercial development of the power source. Read more.

As part of GeekWire’s relaunched “Bot or Not” series, we surveyed readers about what they think of AI. And we asked ChatGPT to analyze the results.