How can teachers harness the power of STEM education and learning in the primary curriculum? This book gives practical STEM ideas for the classroom and supports teachers to make the most of opportunities for rich STEM experiences across the primary curriculum. This book: Explores the nature of STEM education and why it matters Highlights the opportunities for STEM learning across the curriculum Supports teachers to design and innovate engaging STEM learning experiences Includes a chapter on STEM in the early years.
STEM Education in the Primary School introduces pre-service teachers to the theory, skills and practice of teaching STEM through a project-based learning approach. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are presented as professions, mindsets and practices, and each element of STEM is integrated with the Australian Curriculum through a school garden project case study. Popular STEM topic areas, such as health, shelter and space, are explored using tested and age-appropriate project examples that illustrate the translation of STEM ideas to classroom practice. This textbook connects current research in STEM education to teaching practice through detailed discussion of topics including assessment, learning spaces, community and STEM futures. Encouraging readers to consolidate their knowledge, the text is supported by short-answer and reflection questions, information boxes and real-world scenarios. Suggested activities and downloadable templates in the VitalSource enhanced eBook provide guidance for readers when implementing projects and practices in their classroom.
Want to know how to implement authentic STEM teaching and learning into your classroom? STEM Lesson Essentials provides all the tools and strategies you'll need to design integrated, interdisciplinary STEM lessons and units that are relevant and exciting to your students. With clear definitions of both STEM and STEM literacy, the authors argue that STEM in itself is not a curriculum, but rather a way of organizing and delivering instruction by weaving the four disciplines together in intentional ways. Rather than adding two new subjects to the curriculum, the engineering and technology practices can instead be blended into existing math and science lessons in ways that engage students and help them master 21st century skills.
STEM Integration in K-12 Education examines current efforts to connect the STEM disciplines in K-12 education. This report identifies and characterizes existing approaches to integrated STEM education, both in formal and after- and out-of-school settings. The report reviews the evidence for the impact of integrated approaches on various student outcomes, and it proposes a set of priority research questions to advance the understanding of integrated STEM education. STEM Integration in K-12 Education proposes a framework to provide a common perspective and vocabulary for researchers, practitioners, and others to identify, discuss, and investigate specific integrated STEM initiatives within the K-12 education system of the United States. STEM Integration in K-12 Education makes recommendations for designers of integrated STEM experiences, assessment developers, and researchers to design and document effective integrated STEM education. This report will help to further their work and improve the chances that some forms of integrated STEM education will make a positive difference in student learning and interest and other valued outcomes.
If you were to peer into a primary school classroom somewhere across Australia and New Zealand, you would be forgiven for thinking that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is synonymous with coding and digital technologies. However, while these aspects are important, technology alone does not reflect the broad learning opportunities afforded by STEM. In countering this narrow approach, STEM Education in Primary Classrooms offers a platform for research that innovates, excites and challenges the status quo. It provides educators with innovative and up-to-date research into how to meaningfully and authentically embed STEM into existing classroom practices. It incorporates accurate explanations of STEM as an integrated approach to solving real-world problems, including social issues, along with case studies and stories to bring practice to life in evidence-informed ways. This book showcases the impact of a broader approach to STEM in the primary classroom through Australian-based and New Zealand-based research that will challenge current teaching practices. Thus, this book will be of interest to pre- and in-service primary school teachers, along with researchers and postgraduate students in the STEM education field.
The Primary STEM Ideas Book is designed to promote the integrated teaching of STEM in the primary classroom by providing teachers with lesson ideas for investigations and projects. The statutory requirements of the National Curriculum for science, mathematics and design and technology are comprehensively covered through a variety of practical, stimulating and engaging activities, which have all been tried and tested in the primary classroom. The interrelationship between the STEM subjects is strongly integrated throughout, allowing children’s knowledge and skills to develop with confidence in these key subjects through activities which only require easily accessible resources generally found in the classroom. Written by subject specialists with years of classroom experience teaching STEM, each chapter contains: A rationale showing links to the National Curriculum Key subject knowledge Brief session plans Ideas for supporting higher and lower attaining children Follow up ideas to provide extra inspiration Including ‘how to’ guides and other photocopiable resources, this book is perfect for creating integrated lessons, group work and discussions relating to STEM. The Primary STEM Ideas Book provides easy to follow instructions and helps spark fresh inspiration for both new and experienced teachers in primary STEM education.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are cultural achievements that reflect our humanity, power our economy, and constitute fundamental aspects of our lives as citizens, consumers, parents, and members of the workforce. Providing all students with access to quality education in the STEM disciplines is important to our nation's competitiveness. However, it is challenging to identify the most successful schools and approaches in the STEM disciplines because success is defined in many ways and can occur in many different types of schools and settings. In addition, it is difficult to determine whether the success of a school's students is caused by actions the school takes or simply related to the population of students in the school. Successful K-12 STEM Education defines a framework for understanding "success" in K-12 STEM education. The book focuses its analysis on the science and mathematics parts of STEM and outlines criteria for identifying effective STEM schools and programs. Because a school's success should be defined by and measured relative to its goals, the book identifies three important goals that share certain elements, including learning STEM content and practices, developing positive dispositions toward STEM, and preparing students to be lifelong learners. A successful STEM program would increase the number of students who ultimately pursue advanced degrees and careers in STEM fields, enhance the STEM-capable workforce, and boost STEM literacy for all students. It is also critical to broaden the participation of women and minorities in STEM fields. Successful K-12 STEM Education examines the vast landscape of K-12 STEM education by considering different school models, highlighting research on effective STEM education practices, and identifying some conditions that promote and limit school- and student-level success in STEM. The book also looks at where further work is needed to develop appropriate data sources. The book will serve as a guide to policy makers; decision makers at the school and district levels; local, state, and federal government agencies; curriculum developers; educators; and parent and education advocacy groups.
This textbook offers practical guidelines for integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into the elementary classroom in the context of addressing real-world problems, and cultivating in students high-level thinking and problem-solving skills. Designed to equip teachers and future teachers with tools to create and implement standards-based STEM curriculum and cognitively demanding tasks, author Sherri Cianca offers hands-on, easily implemented strategies that foster student reasoning, autonomy, and humanity. This fresh approach to STEM teaching empowers teachers (preservice and inservice) and other leaders to better understand the standards and better design effective instructional practices. The chapters work together to advance teachers’ abilities to achieve mastery-level understanding of content, translate standards into student-friendly curriculum, and create a robust learning environment. Each chapter contains "probes" to uncover incomplete and inaccurate conceptions and to focus attention on key learning elements. Chapter summaries and "Reflect and Apply" sections reinforce professional development, and appendices expand on chapter content and provide rich examples of STEM units, curriculum, and assessment criteria. Dr. Cianca's vision is that teachers serve as well-equipped change agents that will empower their students to transfer STEM learning into applications that will impart a positive impact on our future world.
Bolstered by new standards and new initiatives to promote STEM education, engineering is making its way into the school curriculum. This comprehensive introduction will help elementary educators integrate engineering into their classroom, school, or district in age-appropriate, inclusive, and engaging ways. Building on the work of a Museum of Science team that has spent 15 years developing elementary engineering curricula, this book outlines how engineering can be integrated into a broader STEM curriculum, details its pedagogical benefits to students, and includes classroom examples to help educators tailor instruction to engage diverse students. Featuring vignettes, case studies, videos, research results, and assessments, this resource will help readers visualize high-quality elementary engineering and understand the theoretical principles in context. Book Features: Frameworks to help teachers create curricula and structure activities. A focus on engaging the diversity of learners in today’s classrooms. Experiences from the nation’s leading elementary education curriculum that has reached 13.3 million children and 165,000 educators. Go to eie.org/book for videos, assessment tools, reproducibles, and other instructional supports that enliven the text.
STEM Road Map: A Framework for Integrated STEM Education is the first resource to offer an integrated STEM curricula encompassing the entire K-12 spectrum, with complete grade-level learning based on a spiraled approach to building conceptual understanding. A team of over thirty STEM education professionals from across the U.S. collaborated on the important work of mapping out the Common Core standards in mathematics and English/language arts, the Next Generation Science Standards performance expectations, and the Framework for 21st Century Learning into a coordinated, integrated, STEM education curriculum map. The book is structured in three main parts—Conceptualizing STEM, STEM Curriculum Maps, and Building Capacity for STEM—designed to build common understandings of integrated STEM, provide rich curriculum maps for implementing integrated STEM at the classroom level, and supports to enable systemic transformation to an integrated STEM approach. The STEM Road Map places the power into educators’ hands to implement integrated STEM learning within their classrooms without the need for extensive resources, making it a reality for all students.
