STEM Curriculum Model

Before we begin to discuss the STEM curriculum, it is first crucial to discuss the Sputnik era in American history. For without this era in history, the United States may have been drastically different than it is today. Under presidential leadership from Eisenhower and Kennedy, Americans were faced with a challenge to become dominant in science, technology, engineering, and math. The launch of a Russian satellite into space, Sputnik, created an even more competitive America than ever before and thus sparked a sudden interest in STEM, in 1957. 

Less than 50 years later, education councils such as the National Science Education Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, helped the teachers of America with equipping them and their classrooms with standards and guidelines that shaped their curriculum to better prepare K-12 students in STEM. 

The official term, STEM, was first introduced in 2001 by American biologist Judith Ramaley at the United States National Science Foundation (NSF). 

STEM is important because, whether you like it or not, it is incorporated into every part of our lives. By exposing students to STEM, especially at a young age, and giving them opportunities to explore STEM-related concepts in the curriculum, they will develop a passion for it and hopefully pursue a job in a STEM field. A curriculum that is STEM-based has real-life situations to help the student learn. STEM activities provide hands-on and minds-on lessons for the student. Making math and science both fun and interesting helps the student to do much more than just learn

This curriculum model can begin to be seen in schools as early as Pre-K and as late as 12th grade. Though there are no constraints to when a student can start learning basic concepts of STEM, the real, genuine learning of STEM comes when a student is directly involved in a school that is STEM-based. One such school that is STEM certified is Whitlow Elementary School, located in Forsyth County, GA. Each grade level, at Whitlow, studies different topics and/or concepts related to the STEM curriculum.  Students look to analyze real-world problems through community-based projects that are directly tied to their grade-level standards. Students engage in experiences to discover global issues and work on ways to make improvements in hands-on projects. Below is a screenshot of an example of what Whitlow Elementary school gives to their students in each grade level. Whitlow's slogan regarding their STEM approach is Challenge, Inspire, and Act! 

In my opinion, this curriculum model is geared more towards independent thinkers that like to perform tasks, find solutions, discover new realities on their own terms. Though this curriculum can be, at times, very collaborative, each student involved in the curriculum has to be able to perform as a sole unit. 

After further analysis of this model, the positive aspects of STEM schools are vast. Research has shown that people in the STEMfield earn more money than people without a STEM background. Projected job growth is significantly higher in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs. Educationally, students in this curriculum receive real hands-on learning through experiments, community projects, etc. that allow for tangible learning at their fingertips, something one cannot learn simply from a PowerPoint.

Though this model holds true to many students and has shown great success thus far, this model could be harmful to students that are not interested in subjects such as math and science. What about the students that find a love for language arts or social studies? Or what about students that want to pursue art, culinary, photography, etc.? Those students would never want to pursue the STEM curriculum because it does not spike their interest.

Final Synthesis Blog Post

Before this class began, it was very difficult for me to imagine how I would implement literacy instruction into my content areas; math and science. Previously, I solely viewed math as computing numbers to get an answer to the problem, and science as the study of the natural and physical world through observations and experiments. I never would have thought that I would need to teach literacy strategies in addition to my content areas for my students to be successful in my classroom; however, I will admit, I was wrong.
This semester, I first learned the importance of strategically picking textbooks that suit a teacher's teaching style and how important role textbooks really play for both the teacher and the student. Daniels and Zemelman relay "textbooks continue to be overused and should be supplemented generously or replaced with other reading materials where possible" and I think we can all agree on that(2004, p.52). Too often, in my experience, I practically relied on the textbook to give me all my answers to any question I had in that subject area because it was what the teacher relied on as well. This task becomes very tedious after a while because "textbooks are designed to inventory huge amounts of information..."(Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, p.54). Students quickly lose interest because reading these textbooks becomes very boring and hard to comprehend the information given. Now, this is not me saying that we should do away with all textbooks; however, I believe it is important that I keep this in mind when picking what reading materials I will use in my future classroom, as it plays a key role in my students' learning. I want to implement materials such as workbooks, podcasts, and videos that all relate to my content area and the topic we are discussing. The resource blogs we worked on all semester will definitely be something I resort back to when finding these materials. I believe this will really help keep my students engaged and perhaps even learn something in the process!


Another aspect to this semester that I will continue to use not only in my future classroom but life is the: Before, During, and After reading strategies. Ironically, I discovered that I actually utilized some of these strategies in my prior readings, I just never realized until this class. Strategies like "promote self-monitoring" that allow students to "clarify confusion only if they stop to notice when this happens.", which is essential during reading strategy (Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, p.281). I think it is important for students to become aware of this strategy as it will allow for less confusion and difficulty as they engage with a text. I've learned that teachers often rush a text, simply so they can get through the material. In turn, this forces students to rush and not fully grasp the content. If we, as teachers, really promote this self-monitoring strategy students will (hopefully) slow down and understand the text.

In addition to self-monitoring, I learned it is important to be able to retell what one just read. In my personal experience, I know I could read an entire chapter and not be able to tell you one thing I read. This lack of reading comprehension could very well be a reason why our students do not enjoy reading. However, if we promote self-monitoring and chose readings that engaged the students, a child's reading comprehension is a lot more likely to increase.

Unfortunately, there is this certain stigma around being a teacher and how "easy" it is to be one. If I've learned anything from this course, it is- teaching is anything but easy. We have to not only teach our content, but we have to incorporate/teach literacy strategies all while building a connection with each student. Though it might be a very tedious, time-consuming, and difficult position, it might also be the most rewarding job of them all (but I'm biased!).

While this course has considerably challenged me mentally, I really would not have changed a thing, as I believe I'm a better teacher for it. 

It's been real Nick, thanks for everything.

One last time- good night!
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Podcast- I am Malala!!! Good night!!!

Our first and last (sad) episode!!

Featuring: Alena Locurcio, Carter Gibbons, Callie-Ann Cardin, Heather Perry, and Katie Story.

Enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eCkM4GiDdbwxUC_XnX0muRP6Dlk_zebT/view?usp=sharing

Strategy Lesson: Reflection Post

My group which included Sarah Ellen, Brittany, and Shelby focused our lesson plan on a key math concept that is taught to students in middle school. Our lesson plan focused on inequalities but more specifically how to solve and graph an inequality problem.

After presenting our lesson to the class, we found some areas in which we can improve for the future. One of the improvisions we would like to implement is the idea of simply slowing down when we are explaining what an inequality is and the steps it takes to solve an inequality. We would also like to pause and ask the class if they have any questions regarding the material. Though we did not have an entire class period to present our lesson plan, I believe the point of being patient with both the lesson we are instructing and the students who are learning this for the first time is a crucial part of being a teacher in middle grades. 

On the flip side of this, I really thought, and so did our fellow classmates, we did well on making it a point to annotate each piece of the word problem given. Not only is this a crucial math tool when solving word problems but is also a great literacy tool that can carry over to other subject areas as well. Everyone seemed to be really engaged when we let them annotate a problem on their own and was eager to tell us what he or she annotated in the problem. Engagement in the classroom and an eagerness to do a certain activity I have learned is an extremely important asset to have when dealing with middle school students.

Overall, I think my group did very well for this assignment and was a great learning experience. I know we will all take the grows and glows into our future teachings.

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Synthesis Blog #5- What should differentiation look like in my classroom?

This week's synthesis blog proposes the idea of a differentiated classroom. The term "differentiated" is a term we are seeing a lot in today's educational system. Students are getting bored and disinterested in the basic teacher instruction. So, how do we allow our kids to be more involved and have a willingness to learn?

I found an article, related to the math classroom, that discusses some "tips" to help us as future teachers to create a differentiated classroom.

Tips for a differentiated math class!

From this article, there was one tip that stood out to me- "Offer choice (as often as possible)". This idea can be hard for us, or maybe it's just me, because I know I like to be in control; however, studies show that giving students a choice "a minimum of 35% of the time in class will increase their intrinsic motivation to learn." (Smith, 2016). Now, by choice I do not mean a students has the choice to do an assignment or not, but rather giving the students a choice to work on the assignment individually or collectively as a group. There are many students that feel pressured completing a task on their own. Allowing the students to have a choice will help those students that do not perform well on their own and can help increase their social skills.

A differentiated classroom does not have to be a hard task for teachers to implement, rather something that we have to be subconsciously aware about when making our lesson plans.

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Resource Blog #4- Recycle City

CROSS CONTENT!!!!

This week's resource blog is probably my favorite I've done so far because not only is it interactive, but it is so informative not only for the classroom setting but for real world problems as well. The website I found is called Recycle City (link down below!) and is meant for users to see how the people of the city: reduce waste, use less energy, and save money by doing simple things at home, at work, and in their neighborhoods.

A huge part of the middle school science curriculum I have found is discussing topics such as energy and how we can save that energy for later dates. This website gives a plethora of examples showing that "how". I believe students will find this website very easy and fun to use because of the vibrant colors and facts that it provides about what is going on in today's world. Many students, as we all know, become very disconnected when they do not see the point in learning certain material when they will never use it to their advantage in the real world, so it is our job as teachers to always provide them with that "real world" piece even though it may be tricky sometimes. This website does a terrific job providing those students with that piece of reality. 

The website gives a map of the city and goes through each part of the neighborhood and different ways one can recycle, save energy, save resources, etc.. Perhaps one day everyone will be familiar with these ideas and create a better, safer, healthier world to live in!

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Link: Recycle City

Synthesis Blog #4- Tearing Down the Wall: Literature and Science

***OUT OF CONTENT!***

Summarize: 

In this science article, published in an english journal, I first discovered how to incorporate english literacy in the science classrooms and science in the english classrooms. Moreover, I found that there is a relationship between these two subjects, we as teachers, just need to show that relationship, which may be easier said than done. At the end of the day, it is essential to find a healthy balance of both science and english literacy. 

It is important for us, as teachers, to have solid background knowledge in all subject areas so we can incorporate little bits and pieces of these subjects to create a very diverse but intellectual classroom. 

Connections:

As I read this article, I came across the discussion of the movie, Back to the Future, and how this movie can incorporate both science and literature elements. This is a great connection as I have seen this movie and helped me bridge the gap between science and literacy.

The article also provided examples of what kind of experiments modern day scientists, such as Verne, conducted to illustrate electricity in the classroom. I loved this because it allowed me to think of what type of experiments I would use in the classroom if I were one day to teach science.

Critique:

I believe it makes sense and is also important that the author incorporated specific examples of science in literary contexts. This allows the teacher to use these resources for his or her classroom. 

The first sentence of this article, "Something there is that really does love a wall, especially in the land of academics" does not make sense to me and kind of threw me off for the rest of the reading (Westcott & Spell, 1999, p. 70). 

Why is this important?

This science article allows for teachers, of any subject area, to incorporate english literacy in everyday instruction. One may be blind to how the english subject can be incorporated at first, but it is honestly very apparent once you dive deeper and read articles such as this one. 

Many students do not perform well in Language Arts because they only associate English learning in one classroom. If we as teachers make it a point to incorporate some of the skills and techniques into other subject area classrooms, students will not only be better off in the english classroom but in life as well. 
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