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2 A Descriptive Framework for Integrated STEM Education
Pages 31-50

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From page 31...
... The experiences may occur in one or several class periods, or throughout a curriculum; they may be reflected in the organization of a single course or an entire school, or they may be presented in an after- or out-of-school activity. Each variant of integrated STEM education suggests different planning approaches, resource needs, implementation challenges, and outcomes.
From page 32...
... 48) illustrate the concepts shows use of the framework to characterize an integrated STEM education program.
From page 33...
... . Data gathered for the project revealed five major goals for students and two for educators: Goals for Students • STEM literacy • 21st century competencies • STEM workforce readiness • Interest and engagement • Ability to make connections among STEM disciplines Goals for Educators • Increased STEM content knowledge • Increased pedagogical content knowledge Some of these goals are quite high-level, such as encouraging more young people to enter STEM careers and increasing student interest in STEM subjects.
From page 34...
... Its goals include: • Empowering students to become innovators and technologically proficient problem solvers • Increasing students' 21st century skills and STEM literacy • Enriching community understanding of STEM education and its importance in building capacity to prepare students for work and life in the 21st century • Increasing teacher capacity to deliver STEM content in grades pre-K–12 • Serving as a channel for connecting classroom learning with the business sector to improve students' college and career readiness skills SOURCE: www.cstem.org. STEM Literacy and 21st Century Competencies Two high-level goals associated with integrated STEM education are STEM literacy and 21st century competencies.
From page 35...
... Such efforts may start at the high school level, as illustrated by the example in Box 2-2. Interest and Engagement Another frequently cited goal of integrated STEM education programs is to boost interest and engagement in the STEM subjects.
From page 36...
... . Ability to Make Connections among STEM Disciplines Integrated STEM education calls for making connections across disciplines, so it is important to develop student and educator awareness of these connections and to leverage the connections in ways that improve learning.
From page 37...
... Educator-Specific Goals Some integrated STEM education programs target in-service teachers rather than or in addition to students, often through professional development activities tied to a specific curriculum. Goals for these programs frequently aim to build teachers' knowledge of subject-matter and pedagogical content knowledge relevant both to individual STEM subjects and to making connections between and among them (Box 2-4)
From page 38...
... OUTCOMES OF INTEGRATED STEM EDUCATION Education goals are closely related to outcomes. That is, a successful intervention should be tied to outcomes (or evidence)
From page 39...
... However, individual aspects of STEM literacy -- for example, understanding of specific science or mathematics concepts (Box 2-5) or awareness of how the STEM disciplines help shape our world -- are measurable outcomes.
From page 40...
... . The discussion in Chapter 3 of research on integrated STEM learning and thinking makes clear that there are significant methodological and design weaknesses that limit the committee's ability to draw strong conclusions about outcomes of integrated STEM education.
From page 41...
... The framework accounts for the fact that many educators likely will be impacted by integrated STEM education, in both preservice and in-service settings. Outcomes for educators will be reflected in changes in practices (e.g., the adoption or increased use of teaching strategies that support student engagement with science inquiry or engineering design)
From page 42...
... In terms of scope, integrated STEM education initiatives exhibit a variety of relevant parameters, such as duration, setting, size, and complexity. Initiatives may occur as a single hour-long project or over one or several class periods, or they may be reflected in the organization of a single course, a multicourse curriculum, or an entire school.
From page 43...
... Science inquiry, engineering design, and PBL share features that can provide students with opportunities to apply STEM concepts and engage in STEM practices in interesting and relevant contexts. By educator supports, we mean the opportunities provided to STEM educators to improve STEM content knowledge and pedagogical practices 4  Additional factors related to implementing integrated STEM education are addressed in Chapter 5.
From page 44...
... Other instructional designs, particularly project-based learning, share many of these traits, thus the terms problem-based and ­project-based learning are often confused or used interchangeably. Other terms some times associated with PBL-type instruction are authentic, real-world, challenge-based, and concrete, and each appears in the literature de scribing integrated STEM education.
From page 45...
... . The words and phrases used by different integrated STEM education efforts to describe the process vary, but the basic approaches are analogous and generally include the following steps (although not necessarily in this order)
From page 46...
... . A large-scale study of educational change efforts in five school districts gave BOX 2-12 Example of Professional Learning Community: Manor New Tech High School Manor (Texas)
From page 47...
... For example, keeping other parameters constant, what might happen to student outcomes related to STEM identity when the nature of integration varies? As the framework is explored in this way and yields a better understanding of integrated STEM education, some underlying assumptions may prove not to be useful and the framework will need to be adjusted to account for new data.
From page 48...
... HIGH-LEVEL FEATURE SUBCOMPONENT RELEVANT DETAILS Goals STEM literacy Target specific STEM skills in students and teachers Nature of S, T, E, and M • Engages students in engineering design integration process as a way to study core content through a variety of challenges (e.g., studying simple machines to discover what makes an elevator work and the design of bird beaks for capturing different kinds of foods) • Addresses standards in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Implementation Educator supports • Uses STEM strategies developed at VA Tech; district STEM coordinator has modeled classroom activities in classes for teachers • Teachers provided with "proven units" during professional development sessions • Yearlong professional development provided for teachers • Teachers participate in developing research questions for design challenges Instructional Engineering design–based program brings approaches together elements from S, T, E, and M in a series of design challenges at each grade level in elementary grades Outcomes Cross-subject Based on anecdotal evidence only, students: competencies and • improved at integrative learning identity change in • felt success and saw friends succeed students STEM-related Continual improvement of STEM model and changes in teacher lessons practice
From page 49...
... 2010. Advancing STEM education: A 2020 vision.
From page 50...
... 2012b. Monitoring progress toward successful K–12 STEM education: A nation ad vancing?


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