BEST PRACTICES & RESOURCES
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Best Practices in STEM Education for Teachers and Schools:
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Why doesn't every teacher and/or school teach STEM if it is such a vital piece of future success for our students? According to research, teacher confidence in subjects like math and science play a major role. In fact, according to Market Research Institute (2004) over one-third of elementary teachers surveyed lacked full confidence in their own qualifications to teach science. This can cause stress and anxiety in teachers when tasked with delivering lessons in these concepts, and that anxiety is transmitted directly to their students (especially same-sex students and at the elementary level this is mostly women to girl students, exasperating the already large gap in achievement between girls and boys in these disciplines). So what can we do? Ward Hoffer in Cultivating STEM Identities suggests that teachers can use this knowledge of the impact they have on their students attitudes in these subjects by altering their own STEM identity. She suggests that all teachers begin to model optimism, confidence and courage about STEM in our classes every day. This will require educators to reimagine their STEM identities, to abandon all fear, reluctance, stereotypes, bias, cultural expectations, and past experiences or lack of opportunities. In order to do this, educators need to realize that they do NOT need to be an expert in content, or STEM in general, in order to teach it. Just as we ask our students to learn and grow, teachers need to also be open and willing to themselves be learners of STEM, as well as model the value in making mistakes, asking questions, and finding solutions together- students AND teacher.
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Ward Hoffer (2016, p. 5) suggests the following to cultivate STEM identity in educators and students alike:
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STEM THINKERS:
-Are interested in lots of STEM Projects but DON'T feel obligated to know everything.
-Have persistence and work hard in order to understand and DON'T sacrifice sleep and family time to sharpen your STEM skills.
-Have flexibility and the ability to change your thinking as you learn and synthesize new ideas but DON'T beat yourself up about what you did not know in the past.
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STEM CONTENT and LEARNING:
-Be a STEM Learner- seek new learning opportunities and novel STEM experiences but DON'T get lost in the minutia of the learning (think BIG PICTURE).
-Be s STEM Teacher- show that you value STEM by devoting time and attention to STEM instruction, DON'T hold firm boundaries between STEM and Humanities; instead show their interconnectedness.
-Convey Optimism- discuss STEM discoveries and challenges, but DON'T suggest STEM is the only future for all learners.
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One of the most powerful ways a teacher can change their own STEM identity immediately, and in turn their students, is their language. A few minor shifts in thinking (growth mindset) and speaking make a huge difference.
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Instead of "I was wrong" think "I disagree with myself"
Instead of "I don't know" think "I don't know yet"
Instead of "This is hard" think "I need to persevere"
Instead of "I don't get it" think "What questions do I need to ask or answer in order to understand"
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Notice how applicable these are to both adult and student alike?
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Now that I have changed my STEM outlook or identity, how do I get my students/children to see themselves in STEM?
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Mindset is everything! Children need to be taught how to switch from a fixed mindset ("I'm not good at science or math" to that growth mindset ("With hard work I can grow and learn anything!). This can be hard for adults, let alone children. Once we learn how to have a growth mindset ourselves, it does become easier to teach it to our children/students.
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Ward Hoffer (2006, pp. 27-29) points out simple and effective ways to cultivate growth mindsets in our young STEMMERS.
1. Explain and Model
*Live the growth mindset, show it, and help students recognize moments for it.
2. Present Challenges
*Don't group by "ability" or allow any external bias or factors to limit any child.
3. Teach Strategies
*Don't tell them how to get "unstuck", rather teach them to ask the right questions to lead them to discovery and PERSEVERE!
4. Praise "carefully"
*Try not to use language such as "look how smart, quick, good you are at this", instead use meaningful praises that encourage
resilience and growth. The kinds of qualities that will create STEM leaders include:
DETERMINATION- "Starting over after your tower broke shows great determination!"
EFFORT- "I see that you erased your answer and started over to include more detail, nice effort!"
HARD WORK- "I know this was a challenging project, but this group stuck with and worked hard to find a solution."
PERESEVERANCE- "I saw that you almost gave up when you couldn't find the answer but then re-worked the problem and found
it, way to persevere!"
STAMINA- "you wrote your thoughts for fifteen minutes, and explained in detail with pictures- great stamina!"
STRATEGY- "Before you started you made sure to grab all the resources you needed to help you, great strategy!"
THOUGHT- "I noticed you took the time to go back and rethink your plan and corrected your design, you put a lot of wonderful
thought into your project."
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The way that we speak about ourselves in the fields of STEM will reflect on the young ones around us. Changing our outlook and being positive will help your students see themselves as capable and able. We know they can do it, we just have to give them the tools.
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How should I set up my STEM community?
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STEM is unlike other subjects since it requires a great deal of collaboration, all the time. Most STEM projects are done in small groups; therefore being able to work together, communicate effectively, and ensure equal participation is challenging if the STEM community is not set up to foster these qualities. Ward Hoffer in Cultivating STEM Identities suggests that some of the most effective STEM classrooms follow these simple, yet powerful methods:
1. Intentional environments- how does your room communicate your beliefs about STEM and what it means to be a STEM learner?
Some suggestions include walls of student work, project displays, class pets or habitats, materials that are accessible and viewable, fitting it into our schedule appropriately and meaningfully and showcasing it.
2. Agreements- just like you discuss rules and procedures in a general classroom, setting up norms and expectations for collaborating with peers in STEM is vital. Some examples include "you are responsible for your own learning AND for supporting the learning of others", "share with humility", "listen with the intend to understand", and "no one is done until everyone is done, understands and can explain."
3. Flexible Grouing- hard for teachers, yes, but crucial for promoting the STEM identity for all. Many times students are grouped by ability and this may be necessary in some ways, but not in STEM. If students get an inkling that they are not "good" at STEM, or that their teacher does not see them as a star in STEM, neither will they. That undoes all of that bias we were looking to eliminate. If students are having a hard time, that is when agreements and logical consequences can be discussed, but don't use grouping as a means to control behavior issues.
4. Rituals and Routines- like every class, routines and structure are critical elements of a healthy and productive learning environment. How can you use your routines or rituals to incorporate STEM? Whether it be some short challenges in morning meeting, or a puzzle of the day/STEM demonstration of the week, find ways to integrate STEM thinking and knowledge into parts of every day, instead of treating it as a seprate entity once in a while.
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How Do I Ensure My Unit IS Best Practice?
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When thinking about the best practices in STEM, model the same engineering design cycle your students are challenged with. The 5E Inquiry-Based Instructional Model is based upon cognitive psychology, constructivist theory to learning, and best practices in STEM instruction (Bybee and Landes, 1990). When developing a STEM unit, design it with this model in mind and it will produce a STEM unit that is enriching for students, and aligned with best practices (BCSC Science Learning, 2019).
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As you design your unit, take into account the fundamental stages of learning displayed in the 5E model, but also ask yourself:
1) Is their hands-on learning taking place?
2) Is it relevant to everyday problems?
3) Does it integrate and apply content in math and science?
4) Does it use the Engineering Design Process for problem solving (see home page of this site)
5) Does it expect that students work productively and cooperatively within teams to solve the problem(s)?
(De Roche, 2021)
How will I know what content to teach?
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Not everything you do in STEM has to align perfectly with your particular lesson of the week in science or math. Remember that everything in the world is connected in some way, and thinking in BIG PICTURE mentality is all you need when creating a STEM project for your classroom.
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Look at your standards. If you are using Common Core, NGSS, or any others, you already know your "big picture". So how can you take a project- like studying a worm's body- and link it to your standards? The great thing about STEM is that you are in charge of deciding the connections to focus on, and help your students see them as they relate to the world around them. You may not be discussing worms specifically in science, but you could be studying aimal life cycles, or adaptations, and easily make connections to this project. Recently my students studied adaptations of animals, and for their STEM project they built a shelter for a bug they made with a pipe cleaner and UV beads. The project's intended goal was to build a shelter that the bug could enter and exit, but would not get any sunlight at all, because that would make it sick (aka change colors). With just that one project we talked about different problems animals face in their environments, how they adapt with shelter, and the engineering properties of buildng a shelter that would protect them. Was it a perfect match to animal adaptations? No, but by seeing the "big picture" they actually learned so much more.
Ward Hoffer (2016, p. 49)) offers this advice when planning STEM content:
"The crosscutting concepts are a buffet of options, not a fixed menu children need to be force fed. You get to selct which ones you want to delve into. Students will have many more years in school to explore the others.
Everything is connected to everything. There is no "wrong" crosscutting concept for any given unit of study. If it makes sense to you, you will do a wonderful job explaining the principle in general and the unit of study as an example of it to your students.
Make meaningful connections. If, during one semester, your class will be exploring endangered species as well as multiplication, why not capitalize on these two topics as examples of cause and effect to bring that big idea to life? But if the connections are forced or flimsy, better to let it go and choose something that truly works."
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STEM/Science (4th Grade Erosion) in Action!
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*Visit from Buncombe *Field Trip to Beaver Lake *Using the Engineering Design Process: plan, draft & test
County Erosion Officer to identify real erosion a solution for erosion that can be used at Beaver Lake
REMEMBER- STEM is a process, for both teacher and student. Dare to fail, and try again. That is when you will know you are
"doing it right".
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References
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BSCS Science Learning. 2019. “BSCS 5E Instructional Model.” Retrieved from https://bscs.org/bscs-5e-instructional-model/
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Bybee, R. W., and Landes, N. M. 1990. “Science for Life & Living: An Elementary School Science Program from Biological Sciences Curriculum Study.” The American Biology
Teacher 52(2): 92-98.
De Roche, Emily. 2021. "5 Things the Best STEM Lessons Have in Common". Retrieved from https://everfi.com/blog/k-12/five-things-the-best-stem-lesson-plans-have-in-
common/
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Market Reserach Institute. 2004. The Bayer Facts of Science Education X Survey: Are the Nation's Colleges and Universities Adequately Preparing Elementary Schoolteachers
of Tomorrow to Teach Science? Retrieved from http://hub.mspnet.org/index.cfm/9489
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Ward Hoffer, Wendy. 2016. Cultivating STEM Identities: Strengthening Student and Teacher Mindsets in Math and Science. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Heinemann. ​
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