The need for rigorous and engaging STEM education in middle school classrooms has never been more apparent than today. This session will introduce participants to a collaboration between i2 Learning, Citizen Schools, and the Boston Public Schools. They engaged 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in week-long, immersive STEM courses focused on themes not traditionally found in schools, such as Building an Interactive Friendly Monster, Kinetic Sculptures, and Surgical Techniques. In addition to the scaffolded hands-on activities that students engaged in throughout the course week, important connections were made to STEM career paths through thoughtful use of classroom volunteers. Session participants will have the chance to engage in a hands-on activity from the i2 Learning Surgical Techniques course. Additionally, participants will hear from a variety of stakeholders about the experience of putting together this multifaceted partnership, including: a Boston Public School teacher on the classroom and curriculum experience, a STEM professional on the volunteer experience, an i2 Learning team member on partnering with the district, and a Citizen Schools team member on partnering with the private sector. This session will be informative for individuals from school, nonprofit, and private sector organizations who are interested in building a collaborative partnership to bring hands-on STEM learning into the classroom.
This panel session describes the innovative UTeach mathematics and science undergraduate teacher preparation program at UMass Lowell (UML). To enhance UML’s contribution to the community by producing effective mathematics and science teachers who not only are highly knowledgeable in their disciplines, but also can engage students through scientific inquiry instruction, UTeach employs a series of unique courses and a model of instruction based on the 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate). Our panel presentation will describe the conceptualization of two of the UTeach courses, while showcasing student work to answer the question of whether the program achieves the goal of enhancing course enrollees’ development of pedagogical skills in delivering inquiry-based instruction.
We all make the assumption that technology is an electronic device with a screen. Our fear of screen time and its effects on our children is a supported concern by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This hands-on workshop will help early childhood educators, directors, providers, and coaches experience different types of technology and use these tools to promote children’s exploration of their learning environments.
Our goal for this workshop is to help educators at the early childhood level recognize that technology is so much more than screens for our students. Participants will have the opportunity to brainstorm technology they already have in their classrooms, what technology is in early childhood, generate vocabulary, concepts and questions related to technology, experience some demonstration areas using technology, and discuss how they can use technology to support student learning. We will explore the Massachusetts Infant/Toddler and Preschool STEM standards and identify the concepts related to technology and encourage attendees to share their experiences and how they would be able to incorporate these concepts into their classroom or learning environment.
A Framework for K-12 Science Education makes clear that in order to enact reform in science and technology/engineering teaching and learning there must be concurrent attention to how teachers are prepared and encouraged to develop. The Framework acknowledges that the current system is a complex one. Realizing the Framework’s vision at the elementary level will be a challenge as several constituencies, including school administrators, classroom teachers, and college education and sciences faculty must work together toward a unified vision. We are college/university elementary science and technology/engineering education faculty who are involved in various aspects of this work and who have begun to discuss issues pertaining to elementary teacher preparation. In this session we will engage other stakeholders including college/university level faculty both in education and the sciences, classroom teachers, and school administrators, in a discussion about elementary teacher preparation. We will briefly describe what we see as some of the opportunities and challenges. We will then engage participants in discussion of the following questions:
1. What do new teachers need to know and be able to do as a result of their pre-service development?
2. What basic science and/or technology/engineering courses are needed and what is the role of these courses?
3. What are some important considerations for designing elementary science and technology/engineering preservice courses?
4. What are some promising practices for working with practicum sites to support and model effective pedagogical practices?
5. What supports do new teachers need in their induction year(s)?
This presentation will be helpful for universities wanting to develop or improve their service learning-based community partnerships while developing STEM awareness and knowledge in their elementary and middle school students (3rd-8th graders) as part of an interactive afterschool program. We will share experiences, lessons learned, challenges in building these relationships, highlights of the curriculum and resources used, and the impact this work has on the middle school students. We will also discuss the training and development of Merrimack student volunteers who work with the 3rd through 8th grade students in an urban setting for 10 weeks each semester. Lastly, we will examine the impact of curriculum enhancements on our middle school students’ attitudes, motivation and interest in Science and STEM related careers and the impact of curriculum enhancements on our middle school students’ attitudes, motivation and interest in Science and STEM related careers through our PEAR Common Instrument results.
The Cape Cod Regional STEM Network Teacher-in-Residence program paired 10 teachers from across six different school districts will five different museum/non-profit sites: Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, JFK Hyannis Museum, Cape Cod Media, and Cape Cod Maritime Museum. The selected teachers received a stipend and spent two full weeks at one (or two) program partner sites. During that time, teachers gained new insights on STEM in the contexts of their residencies and in projects relating to the Cape’s amazing resources: our ocean, our historic places, or our emerging tech fields. They also collaborated with experts and museum staff on approaches to better engaging young people in STEM beyond the classroom. During this session, we will overview the program and share evaluations and what we learned about building community and collaborating in STEM. We will also have a panel discussion where participants can hear from a participating teacher and the education director at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History who served as a site leader to learn about what different individuals and organizations gained from this experience.
The human-animal bond is a unique and powerfully motivating force. Empirical evidence is mounting for the effectiveness of animal-based pedagogy in many different topic areas. In this session faculty from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University will demonstrate the use of an animal-based curricular unit as a tool for integrating science and engineering education within an active learning, problem-based model. The unit will be a hands-on interactive project to design a solution for a failure in a major body system in an animal. In this case the development of a prosthesis for a dog whose leg had to be amputated due to a malignant bone cancer (osteosarcoma). We will explore the idea that animal-based education approaches can be used within a school setting to both achieve science benchmarks and to foster long term interest in STEM careers in middle school children.
Technology is transforming our world and every career field. Most parents recognize the need for students to move beyond using technology, to understanding how it is made and how computing intersects with our daily lives. Teachers increasingly want to bring basic knowledge of computer science (CS) to their students. Yet more than three-quarters of U.S. schools do not offer CS.
The Massachusetts Exploring Computer Science Partnership (MECSP), with the support of the National Science Foundation, is preparing teachers to engage diverse Massachusetts 9th graders in a yearlong Exploring Computer Science (ECS) course. A teacher-leader, evaluator, and partnership member from MECSP will (1) discuss program impacts on teachers, students, and administrators; (2) present the standards-aligned ECS curriculum and rigorous professional development (PD) model; and (3) explain the research behind ECS; the social, economic, and educational challenges ECS is designed to address; and the successful multi-sector partnership structure of MECSP.
Session participants will leave with an understanding of access and equity issues in CS education, ECS’s design as a course to engage diverse students, how ECS fills a gap between K-8 engagement experiences and typical high school CS courses, ECS’s impact on student attitudes and self-rated skills in CS, the impact of the PD program and teaching experience on teachers, the impact of the course on schools, opportunities to bring ECS to MA high schools, teachers, and students.
Children are never too young to have meaningful mathematical experiences. Yet in many preschool settings, expectations for mathematics learning and teaching are not set high enough—especially given the importance of preparing all students for kindergarten. In this early education session, we present the work from the Games for Young Mathematicians project, a National Science Foundation funded research study. This study explores whether a preschool teacher professional development (PD) intervention has an effect upon low-income children’s mathematics outcomes and persistence at challenging tasks. The PD intervention (1) trains teachers to use a set of challenging mathematics games; (2) supports teachers in scaffolding persistence; and (3) supports teachers in incorporating ideas from growth mindset research. The games support the development of mathematical perseverance and skills included in the preschool content standards: counting and cardinality; operations and algebraic thinking; and geometry. Learning how preschool children develop mathematical thinking and perseverance skills through the use of fun, developmentally-appropriate games is at the core of this project.
During the session, we will discuss the importance of early mathematics, persistence, and growth mindset in preschool classrooms. Participants will play the mathematics games and watch video of children in Head Start preschool classrooms playing the games. We will present research findings showing the relation between the PD intervention and child outcomes in mathematics and persistence at challenging tasks. Participants will leave with new ideas and resources about how to incorporate this work into their settings to promote children’s lifelong interest in mathematics.
The vision of the Massachusetts STE standards is to engage students in the core ideas through the integration of science and engineering practices, while making connections to what they know and the world they live in. Engage with other participants to learn where districts are in the process of transitioning to the 2016 MA Science Technology & Engineering (STE) Framework. Participants will gain an understanding of the STE Framework and learn about partnerships and collaborations throughout the state. To support districts during the transition to 2016 STE standards, DESE has trained a cadre of Science Ambassadors who are available to assist educators across the state to become familiar with the 2016 STE standards and the implications of those for curriculum and instruction. During the session, we will highlight the work of the Science Ambassadors and districts will present how they are working collaboratively to align curriculum and resources. We will discuss interactive strategies to use with your school/district as you begin to implement the 2016 STE standards. We will also share resources that educators and administrators can utilize in their districts.
Middle School Pathways in Computer Science (cspathways.org) is an NSF-supported ITEST Strategies project that launched in Fall 2014. It created a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), the Tri-City Technology Education Collaborative Inc. (TRITEC), and the urban school districts of Medford and Everett, MA. With activities in-school and during the summer, CS Pathways is bringing project-based, socially-relevant computing experiences to district middle school students.
Project teachers have developed a 15 to 20-hour computing curriculum that is integrated with existing district technology and engineering courses. During the first and second years of the project (2014/2015 and 2015/2016) the curriculum was implemented in middle schools and was delivered to approximately 450 students per year. The project is now being implemented in each of the districts’ seven middle schools. During the project’s first year the project team conducted intensive 30-hour summer camps attended by 72 students and the project is recruiting students to participate in similar activities in the summers of 2016 and 2017.
Using MIT App Inventor, a blocks-based design environment for building mobile apps, students are developing their own apps that support socially relevant activities in their communities. University computer science students and industry professionals are visiting project classrooms and to discuss career pathways with project students.
The research and evaluation team is studying student learning outcomes in computer science (both attitudes and computational thinking competencies); teacher learning outcomes and curriculum products, and broadening participation outcomes.
The project’s goal is to create an institutionalized computer science curriculum in the two districts that is accessible and appealing to all students.
How can we re-imagine STEM teacher education? We invite STEM educators to participate in a design-based workshop focused on the Woodrow Wilson Academy (the WW Academy). The WW Academy is a competency-based teacher education program with an innovative curriculum that provides real world contexts for learning for teacher candidates. A small pilot class of teacher candidates will start the program in the summer of 2017. Come engage in design thinking to help WW Academy and MIT staff puzzle through exciting design challenges they are facing in developing the teacher education program. During the workshop you will: (a) learn more about the WW Academy and our design process and (b) test and provide insightful and invaluable feedback about components of our program that are grounded in your own experience of teaching and learning.