Integrating STEM in standards-based curricula

1. Integrating STEM in standards-based curricula Available for download at • www.deepwater.org/nia-stem

2. Overview • Starting Points • Our educational goals • What is Integrative STEM? • How integrating STEM helps reach our goals • Strategies for integrating STEM • How to learn more

3. Starting points for discussion • You’re already integrating STEM; • Integration provides synergies; • Integrated teaching is beneficial for everyone; • Innovation is at the intersections of disciplines; • Innovation is messy; and • There’s lots of help out there.

4. We’re teaching more than skills… • Realize aspirations • Live to learn • Live to contribute • Live for challenge • Live to gain wisdom • Live to make a difference • Live to touch lives • Live to have fun!

5. What is Science? • Science is a process by which we answer questions and solve problems, and the body of knowledge resulting from that process. • SCIENCE is the application of human intelligence to figuring out how the natural world around us works. Inquiry is the method used to establish scientific understanding.

6. What is Math? • MATHEMATICS is the science of patterns and relationships among real and non-real objects. It is key to understanding and communicating most of science and engineering. Logic is the method by which mathematical knowledge is created.

7. What is Technology? • TECHNOLOGY is the modification of the world to meet human needs and wants. Design is the method for developing new and useful products and processes.

8. What is Engineering? • ENGINEERING is also the modification of the natural world to meet human needs and wants, but it differs from technology in that it is more analytic and based strongly on scientific knowledge. Design and redesign are the modes of understanding and doing.

9. What is Integrative STEM? STEM education focuses on understanding broad concepts which, when integrated allows students to focus on problems and solutions without concerns about crossing over into separate subject areas. Indeed one can almost make the analogy that this is the way a classical liberal arts education is designed. STEM education means that students use the design process to understand concepts and then apply the concepts to the novel situation or problem that needs to be resolved.

10. Successful Integrationof STEM - objectives • Systematic • Rigorous • Relevant • Cultural

11. Successful Integrationof STEM - considerations • Part of unit planning • Constructivism and a continuum of learning • Collaboration with other teachers • Coordination with higher education

12. Visualizing the I-STEM model Sciences Math Technology Where does your course fit? Engineering

13. Interdisciplinary connections Consider your course connections to: • Biology • Chemistry • Physics • Earth and Space Science • Algebra • Geometry • Trigonometry • Statistics • Calculus • Multi-Variable Calculus • Technology / Engineering • CTE courses

14. Another E in STEM? • Entrepreneurship • Motivational for students • Business partnerships for schools, teachers and students

15. Model for engaging students • Invest in student-focused pedagogies • Gardner, Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget and Duckworth • Connect with students as individuals • Tap motivational and emotional curiosity • Consider Developmental Factors • Understand brain research • Learning environment • Recognize environmental and cultural preferences

16. Pedagogical Content Knowledge Pedagogical content knowledge is an understanding of how particular topics, problems or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction. Dewey Piaget

17. Successful Integration Zone of Proximal Development A difference exists between what a child can do on his/her own and what the child can do with help. Vygotskians call this difference the zone of proximal development.

18. Strategies • Backwards Planning • 5-E’s Inquiry • Project-Based Learning • Problem-Based Learning • Design Briefs

19. Backward Design Planning • Understanding by Design(Wiggins & McTyghe, 1998, 2005)is a form of Backwards Design • Consider an Agenda Builder • Resources online at www.hbwbiology.net/math-science/unit-plans • Backwards Design Template • NortelLearniT Agenda Builder

20. What is Inquiry? • Begins with students' questions and their prior knowledge and experience. • By seeking answers to their questions, students may discover new, related questions and a sense of wonderment to continue the process. • This usually involves experimentation or research; in either case, the student is responsible for designing the investigation.

21. How do teachers transform content knowledge into pedagogical knowledge? • Preparation of the provided textual materials • Representation of the ideas in the form of new analogies and metaphors  • Instructional selections  from among an array of teaching methods and models • Classroom environment includes layout, culture, etc.

22. Transforming (continued) • Adaptation of student materials and activities to reflect the characteristics of student learning style • Tailoringthe adaptations to the specific students in the classrooms

23. Five E’s / Six E’s • Engage • Explore (Experiment) • Explain • Elaborate • Evaluate • Extend

24. 1. Engage • Initiate the task • Connect past and present learning • Stimulate interest and curiosity • Uncover current knowledge (pre-assessment)

25. Engaging students • Your own stories • Demos – free cameras! • Videos • Google and YouTube – www.zamzar.com • Firefox VideoDownloader Add-on • TeacherTube - http://teachertube.com/

26. 2. Explore (Experiment) • Opportunities for creative thinking and skills development • Test predictions and form new predictions and hypotheses • Record observations and ideas

27. 3. Explain • Students demonstrate conceptual understanding, skills, and behaviors • Students list critically to others’ explanations • Students develop vocabulary through application of concepts • Students learn to apply evidence

28. 4. Elaborate • Challenge and extend students’ conceptual understanding and skills • Students use previous information to ask questions, propose solutions or make decisions • Students apply concepts and skills to new situations

29. 5. Evaluate • Students demonstrate understanding of a concept or skill

30. 6. Extend • Implications for further exploration and new understandings.

31. Characteristics of Project-based Learning • Student design • Problem-solving • Experiences • Autonomy • Teamwork • Cooperative learning • Authentic content • Authentic assessment • Reduced teacher role • Experiential learning • Self-assessment • Constructivist • Adult skills • Community involvement • Cognitive use of technology • Relevance

32. STEM Inquiry through project-based learning • Develop hands-on STEM projects that teach life skills and have utility beyond the student’s or class needs.

33. Involve students in STEM projects that improve an existing solution to a problem.

34. Promote STEM projects that solve community problems or promote new ideas.

35. Facilitate STEM projects that model community-based decision-making.

36. Coordinate STEM projects that monitor a community’s resources.

37. Identify STEM extensions to social studies.

38. Exploring STEM extensions in Fine Arts.

39. Criteria of Project-Based Learning • Project-based learning projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum. • Project-based learning projects are focused on questions or problems that drive students to encounter and struggle with the central concepts and principles of a discipline. • Projects involve students in a constructivist investigation. • Projects are student-driven to some significant degree. • Projects are realistic, not school-like.

40. Student-Driven • Projects are student-driven to some significant degree. • Varies with grade level • Safety concerns • Ethical concerns

41. Problem-Based Learning Comparison to Project-Based Learning • Project-based learning projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum. • Project-based learning projects are focused on questions or problems that drive students to encounter and struggle with the central concepts and principles of a discipline. • Projects involve students in a constructivist investigation. • Projects are student-driven to some significant degree. • Projects are realistic, not school-like.

42. Problem-Based Learning Tutorials Known / Unknown solutions Preferred methods Parameters Competition

43. Realistic • Projects are realistic, not school-like. • Real problems! • Community partners?

44. Addressing competition • For every winner, multiple losers • Reflective strategies • “Good ideas” • Second attempts • Design, build, test, re-design, rebuild

45. Obstacles to implementation of integrated instruction • Teachers’ limited understandings of inquiry • Teachers’ lack of experience with research • Teachers’ misperceptions of rigor • Lack of a “community of practice” to engaged in.

46. Trying New Things • Doors begin opening when we reflect on ourselves, and then become willing to explore the darkness. Try new things! • Many are more comfortable with the certainty of misery than the misery of uncertainty.

47. From Dr. Seuss You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted but mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare stay out? Do you dare go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win? Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

48. Student Motivation Motivation affects: • The time students will spend learning content • Probability that assignments will be completed • Attendance rates • Students’ attention while in class • Amount students’ learn • Course Grades • Satisfaction with the course

49. How is technology Used in the classroom? • Presentation • Demonstration • Tutorial • Discovery

50. Examples of Technology Integration • Use of an integrated learning system in a subject • Encouraging students to use word processing and presentation software in reports and displays. • Using presentation software and projection technology for teacher presentations • Using computer for on-line testing and research • Use of digital data collection devices • Handheld devices, cameras