Quality Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is vital for the future success of students. Integrated STEM education is one way to make learning more connected and relevant for students. There is a need for further research and discussion on the knowledge, experiences, and background that teachers need to effectively teach integrated STEM education. A support, teaching, efficacy, and materials (s.t.e.m.) model of considerations for teaching integrated STEM education was developed through a year-long partnership with a middle school. The middle school was implementing Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology curriculum. The s.t.e.m. model is a good starting point for teachers as they implement and improve integrated STEM education.

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Considerations for Teaching Integrated STEM Education

To gain a better understanding of teachers’ beliefs about, perceptions of, and classroom practices using STEM integration, a multi-case case study was conducted with three middle school teachers. These teachers were purposefully selected from a pool of teachers involved in a year-long professional development module on STEM integration to represent science, mathematics and engineering teachers. This study addresses the following research questions: (1) What are teachers’ beliefs about and perceptions of STEM integration after a yearlong teacher professional development training? and (2) What is the connection between beliefs about and perceptions of STEM integration and teachers’ classroom practices? Data collection consisted of document analysis, classroom observations, and interviews. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Findings from the case studies suggest that (1) the problem solving process is a key component to integrate STEM disciplines, (2) teachers in different STEM disciplines have different perceptions about STEM integration and that leads to different classroom practices, (3) technology is the hardest discipline to integrate in these cases, and (4) teachers are aware of the need to add more content knowledge in their STEM integration.

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STEM Integration: Teacher Perceptions and Practice.

Proposals for science, technology, engineering and mathematics to be presented in the secondary curriculum in an integrated way have been developed in some countries for at least three decades now, but are recently becoming more common and more significant. Some proposals are now being delivered with high level political clout, for example President Obama’s November 2009 announcement of a range of STEM initiatives, and the UK appointment of a National STEM Director followed by a range of similar initiatives to promote the STEM agenda. In other countries this grouping of subjects is promoted as a coalition but not necessarily as a school curriculum organiser, for example SET (Science, Engineering and Technology) in South Africa (National Science and Technology Forum).

The rationales for the agenda are various but limited, and related mainly to vocational and economic goals, rationales not uncommon in the justification of Technology Education, though more recently marginalised as Technology Education has established its place more securely as a component of general education. In many countries, traditional technology education had a strong vocational emphasis and consequently the link with workforce needs and the economy was quite explicit. Technology as a component of general education has a less direct link with economic development, but nevertheless it remains a
rationale which is often invoked.

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STEM Education: Proceed with Caution.

Background:The purpose of this study was to identify students’ changes of (i) interest toward STEM subjects and (ii) interest to pursuing STEM career after participating in non-formal integrated STEM education programme. The programme exposed students with integrated STEM education through project based learning involving the application of five phases engineering design process.Material and methods:Two cohorts of middle secondary students participated in 2014 (n=129) and 2015 (n=113) were involved in this study. The study utilized one group quasi-experimental design.Results:The analysis revealed that, overall there is a significant increase in mean scores for interest towards STEM subjects and career after participating in the programme. The findings also indicated that the program was effective at modifying students’ interest level as the result revealed positive changes (from moderate to high level) for both 2014 and 2015 groups for interest toward STEM career (42.6% and 69.9% respectively) and interest towards STEM subjects (45% and 82% respectively).Conclusions:The outcomes of this study provide evidence that exposing early secondary to engineering design process has positive impact on their level of interest towards those subjects and related careers.

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STEM Learning through Engineering Design: Impact on Middle Secondary Students’ Interest towards STEM

The ubiquitous and often pervasive expansion of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) agenda across global education systems has largely gone uncontested. Strategic efforts to build on perceived natural subject synergies across the separate STEM disciplines are promoted as central to supporting the growth of economies through the development of human capital and by ensuring the supply of suitably trained individuals for vocational roles in these areas. However, these efforts are predicated on the assumption that such perceived natural subject synergies can easily support pedagogical complimentary and in so doing, often fail to acknowledge the social histories of the subjects involved. In this paper the authors examine the divergence in treatment of STEM subjects within the Irish second-level context through the lenses of subject hierarchies and social class. The cultural capital associated with studying each of the respective STEM subjects in school is considered and the objectives of the STEM agenda are problematised.

Monopolising the STEM agenda in second-level schools: exploring power relations and subject subcultures

Introduction The topic of alternative energy is not only relevant to a multitude of issues today, it is also an effective vehicle for developing instruction that applies across a variety of content disciplines and academic standards. Since many of the issues associated with alternative energy are open-ended, alternative energy also lends itself to project-based and problem-based instruction. As part of the Mentoring Science Program (MSP), a federal Math Science Partnership grant program supported through the U.S. and Pennsylvania Departments of Education and offered by Saint Francis University in partnership with Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8 (IU8), we utilized alternative energy as the springboard to develop a curriculum for a two-week Summer Science Institute that incorporated content from each of the STEM disciplines into a project-based design challenge in which teachers constructed a model of a passive solar house. The project-based, integrated STEM team challenge proved to be a wonderful and fun learning experience for everyone involved and, from preliminary observations, greatly enhanced planned collaboration among teachers within the schools. The Mentoring Science Program (MSP), which involves the Science Outreach Center and eight Saint Francis University faculty members, currently serves fifteen high-poverty (defined as over 30% of student digibility for free and reduced lunches) school districts in a four-county region in southwestern Pennsylvania. Each school district selects a team of approximately five teachers to send to the institute. Although the project is designed primarily to improve science and math content knowledge of teachers in K-6, school districts often send teachers of Grades 7-12 in order to round out the team and cultivate connections between grade levels. Since some of the same teachers attend the Summer Science Institute multiple years, the theme is changed annually in order to provide a valuable learning experience for all participants. When considering the theme for the 2009 Summer Science Institute, our goals were to provide professional development on atopic that would be pertinent to the curriculum of the school district partners, easily implemented into the classroom, and motivating to the students who would be the recipients of the lessons that were developed by the teachers in attendance. In addition, based on recommendations from the external program evaluator, we wanted to encourage the development of lessons that provided the opportunity for as much student participation and interaction as possible in the classroom. As the overall objectives began to materialize, it became clear that we had the opportunity to meet these objectives by introducing an innovative instructional method, integrative STEM education. STEM Education: A National Need Calls for improving STEM education and the number of graduates in STEM fields are well known. Publications and reports such as Science for All Americans (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1990), Technically Speaking (National Academy of Engineering, 2002), The World is Flat (Friedman, 2005), Rising Above the Gathering Storm (Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century, 2007), National Action Plan for Addressing the Critical Needs of the U.S. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education System (National Science Board, 2007), and Engineering in K-12 Education (National Academy of Engineering, 2009) have focused national attention on the need for STEM education and its relevance to the nation's global competitiveness. Efforts to undertake STEM educational reform are also being implemented in many states. In Pennsylvania, a statewide STEM Initiative was launched in 2007 with the main focus on developing connections between stakeholders from industry, education, and workforce through regional networks (see www.pasteminitiative.org). Incorporating Design Into STEM Education The use of engineering and technological design principles has been suggested as a way to increase the active engagement of students and improve student learning and transfer in science and math. …

John Harris

Papers

A Project-Based, STEM-Integrated Alternative Energy Team Challenge for Teachers.

A Project-Based, STEM-Integrated Team Challenge for Elementary and Middle School Teachers in Alternative Energy