Confession: I'm a bit of a professional development junkie. I love learning! I love finding new methods, trying new skills, and finding ways to more effectively engage my middle school students. In a perfect world I would create my own curriculum that incorporated English, reading, math, engineering, art and science so that students could "build" knowledge and see the "real world" application of what they are learning.
A few months ago I took a class that required incorporating common core standards from Science, Technology and Math. It required unwrapping all of the 7th grade standards for Science, Technology and Math and then finding areas where they can be combined. The culminating project was a unit of instruction, where all of the participants uploaded their units providing all of the participants with multiple STEMish units. I didn't love my unit, but it was a great opportunity to see how standards from multiple disciplines can be incorporated into lessons. I think that it would be much easier in elementary school where each teacher is responsible for teaching most subjects. It is tough when we are separated in middle school areas of curriculum with science teachers in another part of the building.
A few months ago I took a class that required incorporating common core standards from Science, Technology and Math. It required unwrapping all of the 7th grade standards for Science, Technology and Math and then finding areas where they can be combined. The culminating project was a unit of instruction, where all of the participants uploaded their units providing all of the participants with multiple STEMish units. I didn't love my unit, but it was a great opportunity to see how standards from multiple disciplines can be incorporated into lessons. I think that it would be much easier in elementary school where each teacher is responsible for teaching most subjects. It is tough when we are separated in middle school areas of curriculum with science teachers in another part of the building.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vince-bertram/stem-of-steam-were-missin_b_5031895.html
This is a great article from Huffington Post on how STEM & STEAM should be a part of all of our education vocabulary.
Below is a summary of a workshop on Successful STEM Education by the National Academies Press
This is a great article from Huffington Post on how STEM & STEAM should be a part of all of our education vocabulary.
Below is a summary of a workshop on Successful STEM Education by the National Academies Press
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