Would you like to help your students understand the connections between learning science in school and using it in their everyday lives? The STEM Road Map Curriculum Series from NSTA Press was developed to do just that. With the goal of infusing real-world learning contexts and authentic problem-solving pedagogy into the classroom, the series helps educators to create an integrated approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and math. Students will learn new concepts and work collaboratively to apply them during creative, hands-on activities. 

Developed by STEM educators Carla C. Johnson, Janet B. Walton, and Erin Peters-Burton, the series covers all the STEM concepts as students advance from kindergarten through grade 12.  The modules are designed to be both in-depth and flexible, giving teachers room to customize them to meet their needs. 

The STEM Road Map Curriculum provides the perfect set of tools for districts, schools, and teachers who are charting a course toward an integrated STEM approach. The series is anchored in the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core State Standards, and the Framework for 21st Century Learning, and the lessons are designed to be meaningful, motivational, and engaging. 

Students will have ample opportunities to design technologies and learn from their failures and efforts along the way. They will practice asking critical questions, analyzing data, thinking strategically, and working collaboratively. They will be encouraged to imagine and create. 

Three new elementary school-focused books from the series will be coming off press this fall. Natural Hazards, Grade 2: STEM Road Map for Elementary School presents students with the challenge of helping a community to prepare for natural hazards such as floods, wildfires, and earthquakes, using authentic problem-solving exercises. 

This interdisciplinary module allows students to explore cause and effect. Working collaboratively in teams, they will identify natural hazards and their basic causes, and think about how these disasters affect people, animals, and communities. They will model natural hazards, and create preparedness plans that could serve to mitigate their impact.

With Influence of Waves, Grade 1: STEM Road Map for Elementary School students will conduct investigations that combine science, English language arts, mathematics, and social studies as they explore how waves work. They will discover that waves in water and sound waves come from different sources and travel in different ways. Then, they will enjoy designing and building their own musical instruments and producing a musical showcase replete with a special light show. 

With Physics in Motion, Grade K: STEM Road Map for Elementary School students will investigate energy, gravity, friction, and speed and use the engineering design process to design, build, and test marble track roller coasters. They will further expand their projects by designing a fun-filled theme park. 

Through the module, the students will be learn to demonstrate their awareness of motion- and energy-related concepts through play; use technology to research and communicate information; and have a wonderful time learning challenging concepts in a fun-filled, collaborative environment. 

Ready to chart a new path? Learn more about the STEM Road Map series and find the right book for your class. 

Read a sample chapter from Natural Hazards, Grade 2: STEM Road Map for Elementary School.

Students in David Lockett’s STEM classes at Edward W. Bok Academy in Lake Wales, Florida, demonstrate to Duke Energy Business Energy Manager/Senior Energy Engineer Derick Farfan a display they created for the company that illustrates their knowledge of energy concepts. Photo courtesy of David Lockett

How can teachers help students explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career paths? One way is to have them do a project with a local business, according to David Lockett, STEM teacher at Edward W. Bok Academy in Lake Wales, Florida. With funding from the Polk Education Foundation of Bartow, Florida, and a Motorola Solutions Foundation Technology and Engineering Education Grant, Lockett’s Duke Energy Project was “a career workforce development” project “that was capped with a visit to” the Walt Disney World Solar Facility in Orlando, he explains. The five-megawatt solar farm is part of an agreement allowing Duke Energy to own and operate the farm on Disney World’s land. In return, the farm provides solar power to Disney World.

“The project focused on the different types of energy produced in Florida,” says Lockett. The Motorola grant guidelines required the inclusion of public safety elements, vocational skills, and engineering and/or information technology concepts. “I went for both,” he notes. “I wanted students to understand more about how electricity is provided and generated to the area, interact with diverse engineers in the field, and [hear from] scientists and other Duke Energy speakers”—including some of the students’ parents who work there—“about the range of energy careers.” he explains.

“No one had approached [Duke Energy] from the renewable energy aspect. I wanted to have students more deeply understand it than they could from just one class visit there,” says Lockett. His students spent about 20 hours either visiting Duke Energy or hearing from its employees when they visited Bok Academy.

Lockett created hands-on STEM learning activities to increase students’ awareness of energy-related STEM careers. For example, his students built solar cars and solar robots, designed and tested wind turbines, did coding projects, designed circuits, and built miniature houses to show how electricity travels. As a culminating project, his students created a display showing how electricity is supplied to a miniature house they built and demonstrating their knowledge of renewable versus nonrenewable resources, closed and open circuits, the importance of solar power, and “the benefits and challenges in technology that play a role in our energy system,” says Lockett. Duke Energy plans to show the display to other visiting schools, he adds.

“My students said, ‘Now we understand why you drive a hybrid car,’” Lockett relates. The project “increased their interest in different forms of energy and why technology has to be efficient.”

Lockett and his students then visited the Walt Disney World Solar Facility to discover “where Disney gets all the power for its operations,” he adds. “We were the first school group to visit there. It was not a glamorous trip, but it was very helpful” in increasing their understanding of how solar panels work. “After the trip, the students wanted to talk to their parents about getting solar panels on their homes,” he recalls.

The project informed his students about a myriad of careers: line workers, coding technicians, engineers, engineering technologists, cybersecurity engineers, information technology software analysts, and data science consultants. Lockett told students, “Every worker has a skill set or interest to lead them into a career path…Try it all, and see what you like best.”

Real-World Exposure

“I help students find their passion by exposing them to as many opportunities as possible” to connect with local businesses, says Peter Suchmann, coordinator of the Science Research Program for Grades 9 and 10 at North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck, New York. “There’s a lot of industry on Long Island.”

For example, Suchmann chooses a group of students to attend an open house at Lifetime Brands, a kitchen product company headquartered in Garden City, New York, to learn about the company’s marketing, manufacturing, and packaging operations. Before the visit, Suchmann says he and his students “discuss the invention process for new and exciting kitchen gadgets. I hold a contest for students to come up with new kitchen gadgets, and the most developed ideas get pitched to [Lifetime Brands] executives.” He notes that “preparing a 30-second elevator pitch is tough and a good skill for ninth graders,” and he works with them on “body language, eye contact, and bubbling enthusiasm.”

At company headquarters, “we meet with their [executives] and actually discuss ideas the kids come up with for new products, and then we visit the showcase floor and study new products that have been successful. It is a great opportunity to see the 3-D printers used to make new prototypes and some of the new products that might actually make it to the market,” he relates.

Some of Suchmann’s students are working with the Great Neck Breast Cancer Coalition as part of a student science fellowship. “Two of my students took over [the coalition’s] newsletter…and updated it, and made it much better,” using their writing and computer science skills, he reports. “They talk to their teachers about topics to be able to explain them, and help summarize [cancer] research for a general audience…In this world of fake science news, science communication is very important.”
He points out that students chosen for this fellowship have presented their work at science competitions and have gone on “to top labs in the Northeast to work on cancer prevention.”

Suchmann’s students have also participated in focus groups for Brainly, an international social learning and tutoring network for high school students. “I answered their call for teachers [to have students provide input on the website]. On Brainly, people are ranked by how many questions they answer [accurately],” he explains. “They want students to have their questions answered by teachers and students who know the material.”

His students “gave feedback on the platform and its potential use by American students. My students each earned $20 for their focus group experience,” Suchmann reports.

He says the focus for his school and his class is “internships lead to career tracks.” By connecting his students with businesses, some have landed internships with those companies that ultimately can lead to employment.

This article originally appeared in the October 2018 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Follow NSTA

Late last month the House Education and Labor Committee passed H.R. 4674, the Democratic bill to revise the Higher Education Act (HEA). The bill, titled the College Affordability Act, passed on a party-line vote of 28 ­to 22, with all Democrats voting for the bill and all Republicans voting against it, criticizing the overall increase in federal spending on higher education contained in the bill.

The legislation calls for implementing tuition-free community college, increasing Pell Grants and other forms of student aid, expanding public service loan forgiveness and allowing existing federal student borrowers to lower their interest rate. More here.

The 1,212-page bill will go on to the full House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass sometime later this Fall.

Congress Kicks the Appropriations Can Down the Road to Dec. 20

Congressional leaders have pegged December 20 as the next deadline for government funding after the current stopgap expires on November 21. The House of Representatives plans to pass a new continuing resolution before funding runs out at midnight on Nov. 21 to avert a government shutdown. Funding for key issues, including the President’s border wall, remain to be resolved. Read more here.

House Science Committee Passes Rural STEM Education Bill

Last week the House Science Committee marked up and passed H.R. 4979, the Rural STEM Education Act.  The bi-partisan bill, which NSTA supports, authorizes NSF grants for R&D for rural students in STEM; authorizes NSF grants on evaluating the use of online courses for STEM in rural communities; directs a National Academies study on rural STEM education and workforce development, including the impact of the scarcity of broadband connectivity, and more.

More on the markup and the bill here.

President Trump Reestablishes President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)

On Oct. 22, President Trump issued an executive order reconstituting the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and appointed seven of its members. A White House press release noted PCAST will ultimately have 16 members in total and that more members will be announced in the future.

The role of the council is to advise the White House and conduct studies on its behalf. Its members are comprised of volunteer experts from outside the federal government.  Kelvin Droegemeier,  director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will serve ex officio as the chair and 17th member of PCAST.

OSTP Releases STEM Ed Progress Report

As you recall last year the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), through the Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM), developed a five-year “North Star” plan, which was released in December 2018. Subsequently, CoSTEM has been coordinating with Federal agencies to implement this plan and last month OSTP released a progress report that provides an update on those activities. Read the report here.

Stay tuned, and watch for more updates in future issues of NSTA Express.

Jodi Peterson is the Assistant Executive Director of Communication, Legislative & Public Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. Reach her via e-mail at jpeterson@nsta.org or via Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

If a student receives a bad test score, how do you interpret it? Would you allow the student to retake a modified version of the test?
— B. , Ohio

There are many possible interpretations of a poor score on a test.

Knowing your students and developing an assessment practice in your classroom that gives you and your students constant feedback on performance is essential to successful teaching. A quick look at your gradebook should easily identify a poor test score as an anomaly or a fair assessment.

If it is an anomaly, you should consider if the student was ill or missed some work. Do you know if events outside school could be a factor? Are things like test anxiety and organizational difficulties possible concerns? Did the student simply need more time?

Reflect on your role: Were the questions unexpected or confusing? Was the test poorly scheduled? Was there ample time to prepare? Did you give adequate feedback on returned work?

Students need to learn how to prepare for and take a test. Give them simple tips like bypassing difficult questions until later, pacing themselves, and that erasing is a waste of time—they should simply strike through passages they changed (you may want to have extra copies of the test or blank paper available). Suggest how to organize themselves and plan their study time. Encourage re-writing notes, and anticipating questions.

I would certainly allow the student a second attempt. Don’t just give another date and general encouragement to study more. Arrange for some remedial work or one-on-one time. Informing the parents can shed light on the issue and will allow them to support their child’s preparation. Consider having the student only retake missed questions or modifying the format.

Hope this helps!

Image by Claire Dela Cruz from Pixabay

On December 7, NSTA is offering a virtual conference designed to bring together some of the best thinkers in the field focused on learning and teaching by connecting in-school and out-of-school STEM experiences.

Why create collaborative STEM experiences? Because no one school, museum, organization, camp, or after-school program can give students and teachers the space, resources, and experiences that will motivate and challenge participants the way you can when school and outside groups work together. That’s why blended STEM learning experiences that connect in-school and out-of-school learning are a key recommendation in the recently released America’s Strategy for STEM Education.*

How Do You Start a Connected STEM Program?

Join NSTA for a virtual conference (Connecting In-school and Out-of-school STEM Learning and Teaching) to meet fellow teachers, STEM program managers, NSTA’s President, NSTA’s Executive Director, authors, and other experts in the field. Learn how they have created programs, what they recommend for those just getting started, where to find collaborators and funding, and ways to gain support for your ideas. Best of all, as you interact with presenters and fellow attendees during this conference, you’ll be expanding your network and meet people who you can count on for help along the way!

Why Learning and Teaching?

Teaching and learning are closely correlated, so good teachers generally make good learners, and vice versa. Throughout this virtual conference, participants will get a chance to see models of both roles, and learn to engage students with diverse learning styles. This matters because understanding how to involve all stakeholders, gain their attention, and keep them invested is critical for connecting in-school and out-of-school learning. And this type of collaboration will be of long-term importance to students (and to society in general), because it models and teaches the skills and working styles that will be needed for jobs of the future (the very near future).

And just as there are diverse learning styles, educators have diverse needs. Here are just a few of the reasons people tell us they sign up for virtual conferences:

• “I am a neophyte to STEM, but hope to implement a STEM club after school.”—Laura B.
• “[I want to] improve STEM and engage more students in STEM. “—Donald B.
• “NSTA Virtual Conferences are a wonderful way to do amazing Professional Development from the comfort of home.”—Dorothy G.
• “My biggest challenges have been projects that students are engaged in and ideas for k-2 students.”—Jeremy M.
•  “We are doing quite a bit of STEM work in our region and part of my job is working with administrators and teachers, district and community to help them get STEM education implementation going in our region.”—Georgia B.

Dorothy G. mentioned one of her favorite things about NSTA virtual conferences (comfort), so it’s worth noting that participants can log on from anywhere with an internet connection and interact with presenters and educators from across the country.

Ready to sign up for a day of impactful learning that will improve your teaching for a lifetime? Learn more about Connecting In-School and Out-of-School STEM Learning and Teaching; view the agenda; and discover who’s presenting.

Hubble Deep Field Image

How do you explain to your students that what you’re teaching is important even if there is no obvious real-world application?
— B., Ohio

I’m sure every teacher has heard this refrain!

I found that students question what we teach when it is dull and repetitive. So, trying different strategies may work.

You can appeal to them on a philosophical level: explain to them that most of us don’t know what may be personally useful n the future.

The history of science is full of discoveries that were ahead of their time. It took time and the right people to reveal the importance or usefulness of that knowledge. Classic stories you can relate to your students: Michael Faraday and electromagnetism; Wilhelm Roentgen and X-rays; Alexander Flemming and penicillin; and many more.

My favorite is Christian Doppler who, in 1847, studied and determined why sound coming towards you is higher pitched than when it moves away from you (think race cars). Twenty years later astronomers discovered that the light followed the “Doppler Effect” and they could identify stars moving away or toward our solar system. In 1929, Edwin Hubble’s observations of galaxies indicated that they were all moving away from each other at ever-increasing velocity. This is the basis for the “Big Bang” theory, part of our current model of the universe. From Doppler’s curiosity about how train whistles change pitch we now have the current theory of the cosmos!

As a last resort, you can always just say the people who write curriculum felt it was important to understand. They can always complain to the government.

Hope this helps!

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/STScI Hubble Deep Field Team