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Instructional Videos
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Standards-Based
A viable STEM curriculum is based on state-adopted content standards. It is guided by research on how students learn, and what they are able to learn at different levels of their cognitive development. Currently in the US, 45 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for math and ELA. According to the CCSS developers, the standards "are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to go to college or enter the workforce and that parents, teachers and students have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. The standards are benchmarked to international standards to guarantee that our students are competitive in the emerging global marketplace." A viable STEM curriculum reflects the goals of the CCSS and is based on these and other rigorous, state-adopted content standards.
Aligns K-12 Standards-based STEM curriculum is comprehensive, cohesive and connected across and within subjects and grade levels. Instruction and assessment practices support the content standards. Vertical alignment across grade levels identifies and eliminates gaps and overlaps in the curriculum. For example, within a district, all teachers of science K-12 may collaborate to see that all standards and concepts are taught and assessed at the appropriate level of rigor, ensuring prerequisite skills are addressed. This vertical process encourages learning that builds from grade to grade. On the other hand, horizontal alignment occurs when teachers within the same subject have a clear understanding of what they must teach at their grade level and what students need to know and be able to do for that subject. Horizontal alignment ensures consistency of the knowledge and skills students possess as they move from one grade to the next. The implementation of a viable, aligned curriculum is essential to acquiring the knowledge and skills students need to experience success in STEM at each subsequent grade level.
Integrated, Real World Teaching and learning with an integrated perspective mirrors the world of work where solutions require skills and knowledge from multiple disciplines. In their book, Meeting Standards through Integrated Curriculum, Susan Drake and Rebecca C. Burns have defined three categories of curriculum integration: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary. While there are multiple approaches within these categories, curriculum integration in a STEM school moves beyond integration of subjects in thematic units. It is the artful interweaving of rigorous academic standards to create meaningful learning experiences focused on innovation and solutions to current, real-world problems. Categories of Curriculum Integration Multidisciplinary
21st Century Skills and Technology In STEM schools, 21st century practices are embedded in the curriculum to promote content mastery and facilitate real world investigations, applications and innovations. These practices include 21st Century skills and technology proficiencies that enable students to:
Promotes Civic Responsibility STEM-minded schools equip learners with skills and confidence to think and act in STEM-relevant aspects of civic life. Students learn the value of being informed, financially literate and productive citizens of their communities, state, nation and globe. A learning opportunity in a STEM classroom might require students to construct evidence-based arguments for or against a given candidate, based on the candidate's tax policy proposals for small businesses or farmers in their state. Another assignment might have students use data to analyze the impact of a proposed business on the local natural habitat vs. its effect on the local economy in their town, or in a village in a foreign land. A viable STEM curriculum provides students with experiences that focus on their civic rights and responsibilities as well as how their actions affect the rights of others.
A viable STEM curriculum is the result of a rigorous developmental
cycle including expert review, field-testing and revision based on data
about student learning. STEM schools systematically review their
curriculum for effectiveness. All stakeholders have input into this
process to ensure the curriculum remains challenging and current in its
application, preparing students to flourish in an ever-evolving and
demanding world.
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S²TEM Centers SC is an innovation partnership managed by South Carolina’s Coalition for Mathematics & Science at Clemson University. Its purpose is to serve South Carolina by growing the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) possibilities and capabilities of learners and leaders.
Copyright © S²TEM Centers SC 2018
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