STEM
PD
Feb. 2014

S
T
E
M

S cience T echnology E ngineering M ath
• Popular definition/simple definition
• This definition has gained traction with both liberal and conservative politicians.
• A person with knowledge and skills from these four areas is likely to be successful.
• A country with a sufficient number of such people will likely have a healthy economy.
• Leaves some things out—ELA, humanities, arts
(STEAM? STEEM? ELACSTHuTEPAM?)

A brief history lesson
Horrible Histories: Stone Age City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doQG-uAzun8

Specializing
• Allows for civilization to exist.
• Teachers have become more specialized.
• Creates efficiency

100 years of progress?

Some things have changed.

Research says:
• Many factors affect a student’s success in school.
• The quality of a student’s teacher is the single biggest influence.
• Despite our social status, teachers are powerful people!

Assembly line teaching:
• Sit in math class
• Sit in science class
• Sit in social studies class
• Sit in ELA class Subjects get put in silos
• PE (complain about not being able to sit down)
• Repeat

Result:

A better definition:
S T E M
Strategies That Engage Minds™

ST
E
M
• E is the most important letter
• No learning occurs without Engagement.

Expect some pushback.
• “I’m not an ‘edutainer’!”
• Reply: If the teacher is bored with what they’re doing, their students will be bored too.
• “I can’t do any more than I’m already doing.”
• Reply: If you can engage your students more, your life will get easier.
• “Students won’t be coddled like this in college.”
• Reply: Our main goal should be teaching how to learn—how to become independent.
“Students need to know what to do when they don’t know what to do.”
Sam Houston

Students aren’t always thinking about the things you’d like them to.
A person can:
• sit at a desk and not think.
• listen to a lecture and not think.
• read a text and not think.

A person must think to draw or write.
• Drawings and writing are evidence of what’s going on in a student’s head.
• Copying notes word-forword does not count.

Copying concept maps doesn’t help much.
Students must generate their own.

Shoot for teaching concepts, not facts.
Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University
• Concepts are what a person remembers, facts can be Googled

What is a concept?
• Timeless
• Universal
• Transferable
• Abstract and broad (to various degrees)
• Examples share common attributes
• Represented by 1-2 words

Concept vs. Topic?
Table Talk:
As a group, decide whether each term is a concept or a topic.
Community
Environment
Citizenship
North Carolina
Computer Age
Standardized Testing
Blackbeard
Supply and Demand
Weather
Migration
My Neighborhood
System
Fractions
Innovation

Structure of knowledge

Two or more concepts in a relationship are a Generalization ..
War
Resources e.g. War may decrease the availability of resources .

Rules
Generalization
Community
Order e.g. Rules allow a community to maintain order.

Concept 1 st
Vocabulary 2 nd
• A new word needs something to attach to.
• If at all possible, give students understanding of concept before using the vocabulary.

Frayer Model for vocab.

Whiteboarding
• Used in small groups to encourage students to pool their individual thinking in response to a prompt.

Cl-Ev-R and Formative probes
 Each school received a set of these seven
Page Keeley books last year.
 DPI has produced a document that links NC
Essential Standards to each probe within these books.
 That PDF can be downloaded from your teacher resources page on the WCPS Science site

Project Based Learning (PBL)

Project Based Learning (PBL)
• Is really worth the time?
• YES!
• Student must draw upon learning from other content areas…Math, Social Studies, ELA
• Gives the student a use for that hard earned knowledge

STEM=Subject Integration
• Become aware of what your students are doing in other classes.
• Become familiar with Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) even if you don’t teach Math or
ELA.

Put more pictures/fewer words in your
PowerPoints