How can we promote STEM education during project-based learning?
Improving PBL Series
EP1: What are the steps to becoming an impactful PBL educator?
EP2: How can we use portfolios to enhance our teaching practice?
EP3: How can we elevate our PBL unit with community partners?
EP4: How can we create a memorable experience via project-based learning?
EP5: How can we teach standards and implement project-based learning?
EP6: What role does reflection play in the PBL process?
EP7: How can we create a dynamic group culture during project-based learning?
EP8: How can students support a cause via project-based learning?
EP9: How can we promote STEM education via project-based learning?
EP10: How can we get students excited about the project-based learning topic?
EP11: What type of creative artifacts/public products can students create via project-based learning?
EP12: How can we write a project-based learning unit?
EP13: How can we write a compelling scenario for a PBL unit?
When I first became a teacher in 2007, middle school teachers were traditionally hired as subject area teachers. If I integrated other subject areas into my lessons as a math teacher, it was considered going above and beyond and was certainly not mandatory.
In traditional learning experiences, subject areas are taught in silos, and teaching often focuses on the "what" of a subject area. Students do not synthesize the material when they memorize parts of a cell in isolation or memorize the steps to solve a math problem without understanding why the process works. Educators know that knowledge should not be measured by simple content regurgitation.
Fast forward to now, it is often encouraged to connect multiple content areas within lessons. When considering this interdisciplinary teaching, you may think of STEM education, commonly known as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Every school teaches science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, so what sets apart STEM education from traditional math or science classes taught in isolation?
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What is STEM education?
STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning; rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons and the "how" of many subject areas. Students are provided experiences that use schemata to build new knowledge and skills, representing a more comprehensive understanding than strict memorization.
Students apply science, technology, engineering, and math with context and make connections between school, community, work, and the global enterprise, enabling the development of STEM literacy and the ability to compete in the new economy (Reeve, 2015). It is an applied integrated approach for four subjects versus a subject area taught in isolation.
What are the benefits of STEM education?
STEM education nurtures students' curiosity and helps them develop creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. This method of education emphasizes the way students are learning and what they are learning. This project-based way of teaching and learning allows students to understand and appreciate the relevance of their work and the world around them.
STEM education exposes students to project-based learning, varied inquiry-driven learning spaces, developing and using models and technology tools, analyzing and interpreting data, designing solutions, planning and implementing investigations, integrated curriculum, authentic assessments, collaborative learning, a culture of academic risk-taking, and access to diverse STEM professionals.
Effective STEM education immerses students in student-driven hands-on inquiry and experiential learning, collaboration, building confidence, overcoming challenges, modeling opportunities for them to connect new understandings to previous learning, and providing multiple ways for students to learn.
Ideally, students' learning goals are addressed by multiple teachers in different classes allowing them to engage in interdisciplinary and active learning. We are no longer solely math teachers, science teachers, technology teachers; instead, we are multidisciplinary learning teachers.
What is active learning?
An excellent STEM education typically involves interdisciplinary and active learning instructional strategies. Active learning is a learner-centered approach that engages students in the instructional process through problem-solving, discussions, case studies, reflections, role plays, project-based tasks, etc.
While passive learning is a teacher-centered approach, active learning methods enhance students' critical thinking skills, increase attention span, and stimulate divergent thinking. Furthermore, active learning methods give students a role in their learning, promoting voice and choice.
While active learning is a best practice, many teacher-centered classrooms currently exist. Some teachers experience challenges implementing active learning strategies because it requires them to be more flexible and spontaneous with their lessons which makes some educators uncomfortable.
Also, some teachers feel inquiry-based active learning activities are more time-consuming to create, and the uncertainty of the lessons can contribute to classroom management issues. However, to prepare students for the future, we must ensure that they have the opportunity to be actively involved in the learning process.
What skills are useful in the real world?
The National Association of College and Employers Job Outlook 2020 survey results share key attributes employers look for on a candidate's resume. The most recent survey results showed the top 10 characteristics are:
● problem-solving skills
● ability to work in teams
● strong work ethic
● analytical skills
● quantitative skills
● communication skills
● demonstrating initiative
● detailed-oriented
● technical skills
● demonstrating adaptability
Altogether, the survey revealed 20 skills that can be taught inside and outside of school. These skills are not related to a particular career or field of study. The attributes mentioned earlier are easily interwoven with STEM education's characteristics.
How do we prepare students for jobs that have yet to be envisioned? We can address this challenge by fostering the skills we mentioned earlier from the survey through active learning strategies such as project-based learning. Project-based learning is an instructional approach that allows students to gain knowledge and skills by investigating and responding to a challenge, problem, or complex question that they may face in the real world.
Earlier, we determined that STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons. Students can apply and connect science, technology, engineering, and math academics to school, community, and work. It is feasible to promote STEM education through project-based learning.
How can students apply STEM concepts to project-based learning?
Let’s explore the following scenario or prompt and driving question for a project-based learning unit.
North Carolina has one of the fastest-growing populations due to migration. The state has three main geographic regions: the Atlantic coastal plain, the central Piedmont region, and the Mountain region. The weather varies based on the area, and each region has a distinct weather pattern. The Raleigh office of the National Weather Service wants every child moving to North Carolina to be prepared to dress appropriately for the weather, so they issued a challenge. They are asking second-grade students living in North Carolina to provide a resource for a welcome kit to children based on where they move within the state.
How can we create a resource to prepare students for North Carolina’s weather?
By reading the project scenario and driving question, we can see the interdisciplinary connections between other subject areas.
Science
The NGSS standards addressed by this PBL unit plan are:
● Understand patterns of weather and factors that affect weather.
● Summarize weather conditions using qualitative and quantitative measures to describe: temperature, wind direction, wind speed, and precipitation.
● Compare weather patterns that occur over time and relate observable patterns to time of day and year.
● Recognize the tools that scientists use for observing, recording, and predicting weather changes from day to day and during the seasons.
Technology & Engineering
As students create their public product, possible technology objectives addressed in this PBL unit are:
● Students critically curate various resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
● Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, helpful, or imaginative solutions.
● Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
Students could choose to demonstrate their learning by creating a video, physical kit, or box with resources, digital or print guide, a website, etc.
Math
Possible math objectives students could explore during this PBL unit as they analyze learning materials include:
● Draw a picture graph and a bar graph with a single-unit scale to represent a data set.
● Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information presented in a picture and a bar graph.
Students could analyze or compare and contrast weather patterns in each region. They could also create graphs based on data collected from observing and recording weather changes.
Using the previous scenario and driving question, it is possible to incorporate learning activities related to other subject areas such as social studies and English language arts using the scenario above and the driving question. STEM education seamlessly integrates with project-based learning.
Take action:
Review an upcoming project-based learning unit and plan how to authentically integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.