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Using Twitter to Teach a STEAM Lesson with Elementary Pre-Service
Teachers
Edward Shaw and Kelly Byrd
University of South Alabama
United States
eshaw@southalabama.edu
kbyrd@southalabama.edu
Abstract: This study involved undergraduate, elementary, pre-service teachers (PSTs) at a
university located in Southwest Alabama. The research questions were: how does participating in
a STEAM activity enhance your understanding of and the teaching of a STEM lesson; how does
STEAM reflect a constructivist’s view of teaching lessons; and how does the integration of social
media impact the flow of a STEAM lesson? PSTs’ pre and posttests, final projects, tweets, and
individual reflections were analyzed. The reflections were read and analyzed for completing a
constructivist lesson as a group, using Twitter as part of the communication of their project,
incorporating different disciplines into their lesson, and contribution of the STEAM lesson into
their teaching repertoire.
Introduction
The personal use of social networking, or social media, has escalated over that past few years. And,
although online social networking has increased by college students and instructors, the uses for educational
purposes are far outweighed by personal uses. Bryer and Zavatarro (2011), define social media as, “technologies
that facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration, and enable deliberation across stakeholders. These
technologies include blogs, wikis, media (audio, photo, video, text) sharing tools, networking platforms (including
Facebook), and virtual worlds.” Twitter, in particular, provides a means of communicating through quick, frequent,
and short messages. Rheingold (2010) noted that Twitter can be a powerful communication tool as it engages the
learner in the five social media literacies: attention, participation, collaboration, network awareness, and critical
consumption. As educators, it is our challenge and responsibility to engage the millennium learners and adopt the
technologies for active teaching and learning.
STEM Education has been at the forefront of educational planning in the US for several years. As the
emphasis on national Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Education rises, it is imperative that
teacher educators prepare, support, and provide opportunities for PSTs to engage in STEM learning. STEM
initiatives provide authentic cross-curriculum learning experiences where the method of scientific inquiry is at the
forefront of learning. Before the STEM initiative, many secondary classroom teachers taught their content in silos.
The content was delivered and tested within each silo, making no connections to other subjects or even real-life.
College courses tend to be taught in silos as well, with little relevance. This, coupled with the minimum 12 credit
hour requirement in both science and mathematics for elementary education programs, contributes to the deficiency
of preservice teachers’ knowledge of the STEM disciplines’ subject matter and the confidence needed to be effective
STEM educators. As science and mathematics teacher educators, it is our responsibility to engage and build
confidence for PSTs to design and implement authentic standards-based STEM lessons, while ensuring ageappropriate technologies are used. With the addition of Art, STEM activities are transformed into STEAM activities,
integrating the arts across the curriculum.
According to Project Tomorrow, the millennium learners want relevant learning experiences that utilize the
technologies inside and outside of the classroom. They also want socially- and digitally- learning experiences. The
PSTs want to and are more likely to utilize emerging technologies in their classrooms than veteran teachers. They
encounter a disconnect, however, between what they are learning in their college methods courses and the
technology the classroom teachers are currently using. And, although the in-service teachers see the value of
integrating technology in the classroom, the majority does not have the experience or skill to effectively do so.
Thus, within the methods courses, it is vital that the PSTs have the opportunity to explore and engage with the
curriculum using 21st century skills, which will ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of the content knowledge.
Engaging PSTs in STEM lessons incorporating online social media provides them this opportunity.
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Research Questions
The research questions were: how does participating in a STEAM activity enhance your understanding of
and the teaching of a STEM lesson; how does STEAM reflect a constructivist’s view of teaching lessons; and how
does the integration of social media impact the flow of a STEAM lesson?
Methods
Procedure
A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest group design was employed. The study was conducted over a two
week period in spring semester 2014.
All Science and Mathematics activities taught by the researchers are based on a constructivists’ model of
teaching: social, active, and the researchers added ownership of the content taught (Vygotsky, 1978). The goal of
this lesson was to design a roller coaster made of flexible insulation tubes that had a minimum of two loops, one
spiral, and that the run last five seconds.
As a motivation for this lesson, the PSTs first participated in a Daily Data collection activity involving a
single Venn diagram. The Venn was labeled “I like to ride roller coasters.” The participants recorded their data by
writing their name on small Post-it® notes and placing their note on the Venn to indicate their response: yes by
placing the Post-it® inside the circle and no outside the circle. The PSTs then were engaged in one of two preselected Talents Unlimited@ activities. Both activities used the Productive Thinking talent. One activity asked the
PSTs to think of Many, Varied, Unusual uses for a toilet paper tube. They shared their ideas with the class and were
recorded on large chart paper. The other Talents Unlimited@ activity asked the PSTs to transform their “loops” into
a real-life object. They were able to incorporate the visual arts to make this transformation, as well as incorporating
Language Arts by completing the statement, “My loops became….”
After discussing the Daily Data activity and the Talents Unlimited@ activity, the PSTs were allowed to get
into groups of four where each member selected one of the following roles: principal investigator, materials
manager, technology expert, and data collector. The lesson further incorporated art by their use of their artistic
abilities to design and name their roller coaster, creating a sketch of their roller coaster before the actual construction
and a final sketch of the roller coaster after construction and testing. During the construction phase, the PSTs
tweeted their progress including pictures and videos. The data recorder in each group kept track of the number of
attempts, or tests, and the number of times the marble was successful by using a tally chart. They used the fraction
of successes to calculate the overall success rate of their coaster. The class data was collected, and a line plot was
used to represent the data. As a class, at the conclusion of the lesson, the PSTs discussed their trials, failures,
challenges, and successes. They were required to individually reflect what science, technology, engineering, art, and
mathematics concepts were used in the construction of the roller coaster. Additionally, they had to write a reflection
how this lesson incorporated a constructivist view of teaching.
Participants
This study involved 38 undergraduate, elementary, pre-service teachers at a public university located in
Southwest Alabama. Participants were first semester senior, pre-service elementary/special education students. They
were enrolled in both the Science and Mathematics method classes, three Special Education courses, and a three day
per week field experience. All participants were female in three different classes. All subjects were Caucasian with
the exception of two African American students.
Test Data
Data were collected using an 8-item content quiz designed by the researchers. The quiz, based on the
content standards from the Alabama Courses of Study – Science, Mathematics, Art, and Technology, used 8 short
answer items to measure students’ knowledge gain and retention of concepts related to science and mathematics.
Participants were awarded 1 point for each correct response, with a score range between 0-8 points. This quiz served
as the pre- and posttest. The pretest was administered to the students on the first day of class and the posttest was
administered at the conclusion of the roller coaster activity. (See Appendix)
Results
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The pre-service teachers’ pretests and posttests were scored, entered into a data base, and a dependent t-test
was run using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The mean for the pretest was 1.05 while the mean
for the posttest was 5.24. The dependent t-test, t (1, 37) = 13.468, p = .000, demonstrated statistically significant
differences between the scores on the pretest and the posttest.
After the coasters were built, demonstrated, and analyzed by the researchers and fellow PSTs, the PSTs
wrote reflections about their experiences with all the activities as they related to the concept of constructivism.
These were submitted electronically to an assignment folder and were graded by the researchers. Each individual
reflection was read and graded.
Results indicated that the PSTs’ knowledge of STEAM lessons increased from the active participation in
the activities. They felt it was one thing to read about a STEM or STEAM lesson but better to participate in one.
They said they felt comfortable in designing a lesson appropriate for their grade level field placement. By being
involved in the lesson from the design to the completion, the PSTs felt that the lesson reflected a constructivist’s
view of hands-on approach to teaching and taking ownership of the concepts presented. The PSTs said they loved
the twitter part as it kept them informed of other group’s progress and demonstrated an educational way to use social
media.
Conclusions
The conclusions from this study indicated that the PSTs’ knowledge about STEM increased from the pre to
post survey. It would be rational to think that any instruction should yield positive or statistically significant
differences but the magnitude of the significance was surprising. The science and mathematics concepts were typical
for fifth grade but it was surprising the lack of familiarity the PSTs had of these concepts.
Many did not know what the T and E stood for in STEAM even in the posttest. This was disconcerting to
the researchers as this was emphasized form the very beginning of the Talents Unlimited activity and before the
roller coaster portion of the activity began.
From their reflections, they enjoyed being engaged in a STEAM activity and offered additional activities
or extensions to the lesson. The PSTs indicated they felt confident in designing and teaching STEAM lessons in the
future. They saw how one form of social media could be incorporated into an educational setting but were concerned
about the use of twitter with elementary students. In a class discussion held after the conclusion of the activity and
through their reflections they suggested alternatives to using twitter in the elementary classroom, such as Google
docs and Instagram.
Overall, the researchers were pleased with the results of the pre/posttests, reflections, and active
participation in the various activities. This is an on-going process by the researchers to find the best fit to
demonstrate best practices using a basic STEM activity and revise/change it to meet the standards advocated by the
Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards.
References
Bryer, T. A., & Zavattaro, S. (2011). Social media and public administration: Theoretical
dimensions and introduction to symposium. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 33(3).
Rheingold, H. (2010). Attention, and other 21 st-century social media literacies. EDUCAUSE
Review 45,(5), 14-24.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.