Resources from STEM Smart Workshops

Over a period of several years, Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) has successfully partnered with key leaders to establish the Arizona STEM Network to drive access to effective STEM education for all Arizona students by creating a culture of achievement. As part of this work, SFAz has led a number of projects focused on implementing and sustaining Engineering Pathways, a model that links student experiences across education sectors (K–12 through postsecondary) to engage and excite students about STEM career opportunities, prepare students for rigorous college coursework, and support acquisition of meaningful career knowledge and skills leading to program degrees and credentials, and completers performing in the workplace.

Science in the Learning Gardens (SciLG) brings together two recent education movements: adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and a surge of national interest in garden-based learning.

The engineering design approach for teaching science concepts has led to middle school student knowledge gains in core science concepts when compared with a scripted inquiry approach. By blending math and science disciplines, engineering design provides a strong mechanism to facilitate integrated instruction and connections among concepts and to the real world, building student understanding and appreciation for both content areas. While empirical research validates the use of engineering design at the secondary level, such efforts are almost nonexistent in the elementary classroom, particularly in rural schools that often lack any type of curriculum integration. The Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) vision is to increase grade 3–6 student learning of science by developing Indiana’s first integrated, engineering design-based approach to elementary/intermediate school science education. Engineering, science, technology, and education faculty for Purdue University work directly with 90 elementary/intermediate inservice teachers, 70 preservice elementary teachers, and 2,500 students in the four partnering Indiana school districts: Taylor Community School Corporation, Plymouth School Corporation, Lafayette School Corporation, and Tippecanoe School Corporation.

Closing the achievement gap in our nation between native English speakers and English language learners will require educators to address the needs of the English language learners. Along with being the fastest growing segment of the school population, English language learners are also among the most academically vulnerable students in schools today (Wong-Fillmore & Snow, 2000). In science achievement, in particular, English language learners score significantly below their native English-speaking peers. The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress data shows only 28% of fourth-grade English language learners scored at or above basic level for science compared with 71% of native English speakers (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005). Moreover, this achievement gap between native speakers of English and English language learners is persistent. The average science scores of eighth- and twelfth-graders identified as being English language learners did not change significantly between 1996, 2000, and 2004, remaining markedly below those of native English speakers (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005).

Pre-college teachers and administrators hold many theories about how best to interest and prepare students for success as STEM majors in college. Effective or not, based in fact or in faith, these beliefs play out in our nation’s classrooms. While many research studies have shown large and statistically significant effects of particular interventions or innovations, most often they examine small, homogeneous populations such as single schools or classrooms. Our research team has utilized epidemiological methods to mine the backgrounds of more than 20,000 college students taking introductory science and mathematics courses for predictors of performance and persistence while controlling for demographic differences.

A series of national reports urge science education to go beyond emphasis on basic science facts to support science learning that results in deep understanding of scientific ideas and an ability to engage meaningfully in the practices of science (Bransford et al., 2000; Duschl et al., 2007). Inquiry practices—asking questions, finding ways to explore them empirically, investigating and evaluating competing alternative models, arguing from evidence—are judged to be severely lacking in the enacted U.S. curriculum. The report, Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, emphasizes the need for instruction that is inquiry-based and problem-centered and that engages students in the practices of science. Strong instruction should be accompanied by a supportive system of assessment that links classroom, district, and state reports of science learning progress.

The inclusion of engineering into the Next Generation Science Standards leaves both science education and engineering educators with cause for both excitement and alarm. Science education watchers, for example, fear loss of science instruction time and obfuscation of the nature of science, while teachers may assume that “build a bridge Fridays” will provide sufficient science instruction for an entire week. Engineering counterparts fear that a focus on student competition to build structures will pass as engineering while presenting students with a narrow view of engineering careers and omitting key engineering principles. Alternatively, integration of engineering with math and science instruction may be viewed as an educational opportunity—a means to engage students through compelling real-world societal challenges, and to leverage the natural linkages between science and engineering to facilitate learning both subjects.

The National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education (MatEd) is funded by the National Science Foundation; an Advanced Technological Education (NSF ATE) initiative. MatEd is developing an online collection (www.materialseducation.org) of instructional materials that can easily be integrated into a variety of courses, classroom settings, and industry. The MatEd collection is expanding rapidly, providing material for science labs, hands-on demonstrations, modules, and papers. MatEd’s goals are to advance materials technology education nationally; disseminate industry-approved core competencies for technicians who handle materials; facilitate industry, education, and community collaborations to meet materials technology workforce needs; and provide easy and direct access to Web-based resources and professional development opportunities. MatEd is housed at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington, and is creating a national network by partnering with industry, high schools, and higher education institutions, including other NSF ATE-funded centers and projects.

In the context of a federally funded research and development project, the UW Institute for Science and Math Education is collaborating with Sammamish High School, a comprehensive high school serving a socially and economically diverse community in suburban Seattle, to transform that school’s curriculum into a problem-based, STEM-rich experience for all students. STEM opens up opportunities to explore the relevance of subject matter to students, contemporary disciplines, and the workplace. To privilege what is, in fact, relevant to students, we must first unveil it. In this session, we are sharing work related to our efforts to collaborate with teachers and students to elicit student voice to inform curriculum design.

Studio STEM is a three-year afterschool and summer program aimed at educational and workforce needs. The project uses a design-based science approach to scaffold youth to learn about energy conservation. An interdisciplinary curriculum is infused with digital tools and social media to enhance and extend the experience.