Okay – there’s a list of a few ideas to start with. I imagine others out there have some other great thoughts on how to make STEM curriculum development exciting and productive. Keep us informed!

I am lucky enough to be at the forefront of the effort to design model curriculum for my state. I am in the process of recruiting wonderful teachers to embark on this journey together. As the person leading the way, what advice do you have for us as the STEM Team to be productive with our time. I anticipate 10 teachers representing primary grades an 10 representing secondary. Each group of teachers will convene on different dates. I will have one other facilitator in the room.

Where do I start?? It just seems like such a daunting task, but so necessary!

Thanks in advance for your insight!

Students can’t do the kind of engineering probem-solving that must be done without using math. Science teachers may or may not know how to teach the needed math to students, so it’s unfortuante that math teachers aren’t involved in this initiative. The folks making that decision may equate science experiments with engineering, but the difference between the two is significant. I touch on that a bit in my next blog, which should be up shortly.

I hope to hear from a lot of other folks as to what they think STEM is and how they think it can be effectively done. One thing I am wondering . . . are robotics a way of implementing STEM curricula?
Thanks for taking part in the conversation, Ernie – maybe we can figure something out!

Are we on the boundary of a new way of organizing our classrooms? Much like the term, “language arts” incorporates reading, English, and writing classes, could STEM represent a collection of science and math that utilize technology to teach engineering skills? At the middle school level, I’d like to see a STEM block in every student’s schedule: a 2 hour time slot where one teacher (or a team of teachers) use technology to introduce students to math and science problems designed to guide students toward thinking from an engineering point of view. Sigh….and I haven’t a clue if any teachers would want to take on that task. The math and science teachers who I work with are passionate about their specific subjects, but not very anxious to teach across the curriculum. It’s a huge leap to take for those who were taught to focus on just one subject.

If trying to implement our entire STEM curriculum through science classes doesn’t do me in this year, I hope to create a more concrete image of what my STEM block would be like in a school. I’m looking forward to the continuing conversation about STEM on your blog!

Aside here: In case you readers haven’t figured it out . . . Carolyn and I are both on a STEM writing team. We work with four or five other writers to blend science, math, and technology and create engineering modules for middle schoolers. In fact Carolyn and another writer from the Boston area are flying in next week to meet three Alabama writers and a Florida writer. We’ll go at it tooth and toenail for about four days. Then we’ll leave with a skeleton of what we propose doing and start doing feasibility studies to see if our ideas actually work.

One thing we actually have not talked about in our team is the need for STEM-literate citizens in all areas. Do you think we need to focus on that? You’ll be sure to hear from me on this issue next week! I think you are SO right, and language arts and social studies have some real contributions to make. Y’know – I think that making explicit connections to other subjects is important.

In the event that there are teachers in other subject areas reading this, do you want to chime in here? I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say about that issue.

Anne, you mention a very important issue – workforce development. Let’s add to that: We also need STEM-literate citizens, even if their work is in the arts or humanities or other non STEM-fields. STEM-competent people are empowered to make personal and community decisions. We all need to be adept at problem-solving, trouble-shooting, and adding to our technical knowledge and bringing it to bear on our personal and community activities and decisions.

Many of our personal, social and political decisions have a “STEM” dimension now; we need to be able to interface with these fields with flexibility and intelligence. This may not be a ground-breaking thought, but I think we need to remember how critical it is to find the time to “do” education right, and that includes doing STEM with enough time to let students grow.