integrating stem in standards-based curricula

Available for download at • www.deepwater.org/nia-stem

• Starting Points• Our educational goals• What is Integrative

STEM?• How integrating

STEM helps reach our goals

• Strategies for integrating STEM

• How to learn more

•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.

• 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!

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• Systematic• Rigorous• Relevant• Cultural

• Part of unit planning• Constructivism and a continuum of

learning• Collaboration with other teachers• Coordination with higher education

Where does your course fit?

Sciences Math

Technology

Engineering

Consider your course connections to:

• Biology• Chemistry• Physics• Earth and Space Science• Algebra• Geometry• Trigonometry• Statistics• Calculus• Multi-Variable Calculus• Technology / Engineering• CTE courses

• Entrepreneurship Motivational for

students Business

partnerships for schools, teachers and 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

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

Zone of Zone of Proximal Proximal DevelopmentDevelopmentA 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.

Backwards Planning5-E’s InquiryProject-Based LearningProblem-Based LearningDesign Briefs

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

• Adaptation of student materials and activities to reflect the characteristics of student learning style

• Tailoring the adaptations to the specific students in the classrooms

• Engage• Explore

(Experiment)• Explain• Elaborate• Evaluate• Extend

• Initiate the task• Connect past and present learning• Stimulate interest and curiosity• Uncover current knowledge (pre-

assessment)

• Your own stories• Demos – free cameras!

• Videos Google and YouTube –

www.zamzar.com Firefox VideoDownloader Add-on TeacherTube - http://teachertube.com/

• Opportunities for creative thinking and skills development

• Test predictions and form new predictions and hypotheses

• Record observations and ideas

• 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

• 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

• Students demonstrate understanding of a concept or skill

• Implications for further exploration and new understandings.

• Student design• Problem-solving• Experiences• Autonomy• Teamwork• Cooperative

learning• Authentic content• Authentic

assessment

Reduced teacher role

Experiential learning

Self-assessment

ConstructivistAdult skillsCommunity

involvementCognitive use

of technologyRelevance

Develop hands-on STEM projects that teach life skills and have utility beyond the student’s or class needs.

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

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

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

Coordinate STEM projects that monitor a community’s resources.

Identify STEM extensions to social studies.

Exploring STEM extensions in Fine Arts.

1. Project-based learning projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum.

2. 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.

3. Projects involve students in a constructivist investigation.

4. Projects are student-driven to some significant degree.

5. Projects are realistic, not school-like.

• Projects are student-driven to some significant degree.

• Varies with grade level• Safety concerns• Ethical concerns

Comparison to Project-Based Learning1. Project-based learning projects are central,

not peripheral to the curriculum.2. 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.

3. Projects involve students in a constructivist investigation.

4. Projects are student-driven to some significant degree.

5. Projects are realistic, not school-like.

TutorialsKnown / Unknown solutionsPreferred methodsParametersCompetition

• Projects are realistic, not school-like.

• Real problems!• Community partners?

• For every winner, multiple losers• Reflective strategies

“Good ideas” Second attempts Design, build, test, re-design, rebuild

• Teachers’ limited understandings of inquiry

• Teachers’ lack of experience with research

• Teachers’ misperceptions of rigor • Lack of a “community of practice” to

engaged in.

• 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.

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!

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

• Presentation• Demonstration• Tutorial• Discovery

• 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

• No one expects any teacher to make these transformations on their own.

• More and more resources are on the way

• Filters and portals too!

Virginia Tech’s Integrative STEM courses are no available online. STEM Education Pedagogy STEM Education Foundations STEM Education Research STEM Education Trends & Issues STEM Education Field Study

• Discounted tuition for teachers.

Degree Programs• Certificate in Integrative STEM Ed. – 12

hours• Master’s in Integrative STEM Ed. – 30

hours• Ed.S. in Integrative STEM Ed. – 30 hours• Ed.D / Ph.D Integrative STEM Ed.

60 hours of coursework (including Masters); plus

30 hours (Ed.D) or 36 hours (Ph.D) dissertation.

Discounted tuition for teachers!

• Action Research• Descriptive Research• Case studies• Auto-ethnography

Jim Egenrieder – JimE@vt.eduCathy Scott – CScott07@vt.edu

• Pam Brott, Career Counseling, pbrott@vt.edu; 703-538-8347• John Burton, Research and Outreach, jburton@vt.edu; 540-231-5587• Norma Day-Vines, Multicultural Counseling, ndayvine@vt.edu; 703-538-8479• Jim Egenrieder, Science Education, JimE@vt.edu; 703-538-8492• John Eller, Education Leadership, jeller@vt.edu; 703-538-8496• Bill Glenn, Data Resources and Decisions, wglenn@vt.edu; 703-538-8493• Rosary Lalik, Content Area Literacies, rlalik@vt.edu; 703-538-8482• Simone Lambert, Community Counseling, slambert@vt.edu; 703-538-8483• Sue Magliaro, Director, School of Education, sumags@vt.edu; 540-231-1802• Mark Sanders, Technology Ed/STEM Ed, msanders@vt.edu; 540-231-8173• Cathy Scott, Math Education, cscott07@vt.edu; 703-538-3752• John Wells, Technology Ed/STEM Ed, jgwells@vt.edu; 540-231-8471

• Jim Egenrieder• 7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church

• JimE@vt.edu or jim@deepwater.org 703-599-3643 (cell or text)304-492-4292http://www.nvc.vt.edu/education/mathscience/