National Science Education Standards

The global urgency to improve STEM education may be driven by environmental and social impacts of the twenty-first century which in turn jeopardizes global security and economic stability. The complexity of these global factors reach beyond just helping students achieve high scores in math and science assessments. Friedman (The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century, 2005) helped illustrate the complexity of a global society, and educators must help students prepare for this global shift. In response to these challenges, the USA experienced massive STEM educational reforms in the last two decades. In practice, STEM educators lack cohesive understanding of STEM education. Therefore, they could benefit from a STEM education conceptual framework. The process of integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in authentic contexts can be as complex as the global challenges that demand a new generation of STEM experts. Educational researchers indicate that teachers struggle to make connections across the STEM disciplines. Consequently, students are often disinterested in science and math when they learn in an isolated and disjoined manner missing connections to crosscutting concepts and real-world applications. The following paper will operationalize STEM education key concepts and blend learning theories to build an integrated STEM education framework to assist in further researching integrated STEM education.

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A conceptual framework for integrated STEM education

Science and Engineering Practices that connect to garden-based education (all 8): • Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering) • Developing and using models • Planning and carrying out investigations • Analyzing and interpreting data • Using mathematics and computational thinking • Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering) • Engaging in argument from evidence • Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

Next Generation Science Standards

∗The book reviewed is Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Project 2061, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford (1993), pp. 448, $21‐95 (pbk), ISBN 0‐19‐508986‐3.

Benchmarks for Science Literacy: a review symposium∗

This chapter focuses on design and development research, a type of inquiry unique to the instructional design and technology field dedicated to the creation of new knowledge and the validation of existing practice. We first define this kind of research and provide an overview of its two main categories—research on products and tools and research on design and development models. Then, we concentrate on recent design and development research (DDR) by describing 11 studies published in the literature. The five product and tool studies reviewed include research on comprehensive development projects, studies of particular design and development phases, and research on tool development and use. The six model studies reviewed include research leading to new or enhanced ID models, model validation and model use research. Finally, we summarize this new work in terms of the problems it addresses, the settings and participants examined, the research methodologies employed used, and the role evaluation plays in these studies.

Design and Development Research

Educational reformation has proceeded slowly despite the many calls to improve science and mathematics for our students. The acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) has been adopted by numerous programs as an important focus for renewed global competitiveness for the United States, but conceptions of what STEM entails often vary among stakeholders. This paper examines the conceptions of STEM held by faculty members from a public Research I institution in the middle of a regional “STEM movement.” Faculty members responded to two open-ended questions: (1) What is STEM? and (2) How does STEM influence and/or impact your life? Although 72% of these faculty members possessed a relevant conception of STEM, the results suggest that they do not share a common conceptualization of STEM. Their conception is most likely based on their academic discipline or how STEM impacts their daily lives. STEM faculty members were likely to have a neutral or positive conception where non-STEM faculty members often had negative feelings about STEM.

What Is STEM? A Discussion About Conceptions of STEM in Education and Partnerships

Chapter 2 details the historical evolution of STEM education from the beginning. The various conceptualizations of STEM are presented, along with an overview of the past decade(s) of federal funding and policies for STEM education. Connections of STEM to the Next Generation Science Standards are discussed as well as a snapshot into the next steps for STEM education in the near future.

The Emergence of STEM

This study explores the development of a methodology to analyze how nature of science (NOS), scientific inquiry (SI), and the characteristics of scientists (COS) are portrayed in mainstream films. We demonstrate this methodology using the films, Contact and Twister , as they are commonly used in earth/space science classrooms. We investigate the following research question: how do mainstream films present NOS, SI, and COS? Using a qualitative approach to examine the number of times in which NOS, SI, and COS were observed in the film, we developed a tool that assists the viewers in depicting these incidences visually. Not only can this instrument be used to determine when NOS, SI, and COS are portrayed in popular films, it can also be used to create a visual “fingerprint” depicting the number of incidents in which each construct is displayed. We suggest that these fingerprints can be used to help teachers understand how NOS, SI, and COS are addressed in selected mainstream films normally used in secondary science classrooms.

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Lights, Camera, Action! Developing a Methodology to Document Mainstream Films’ Portrayal of Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry

ion, each participant received a NOS checklist and instructed to fill in examples of the seven tenets while they watched the film. This was followed by a class discussion. T, E, S, C, S&C,

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Multifaceted NOS Instruction: Contextualizing Nature of Science with Documentary Films

In the fall of 2007, a growing number of groups throughout Ohio began to congregate around the idea of building a network of demonstration schools and projects that could influence college and career readiness for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). This push was the result of both state and national initiatives in STEM education and school reform. At the national level was a growing concern over the diminished capacity of the United States to compete in the STEM global marketplace for educated citizenry and people choosing STEM careers (Business Roundtable, 2005; Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy [CSEPP], 2005; Dede et al., 2005). Within the state, there were multiple reports (e.g., CSEPP, 2005; Deloitte Consulting, 2005; SRI International, 2009) that indicated that the increased need for a STEM workforce was associated with the future well-being of the state.

Catherine M. Koehler

Papers

What Is STEM? A Discussion About Conceptions of STEM in Education and Partnerships

The Emergence of STEM

Lights, Camera, Action! Developing a Methodology to Document Mainstream Films’ Portrayal of Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry

Multifaceted NOS Instruction: Contextualizing Nature of Science with Documentary Films

Creating a “STEM for All” Environment