“This summer STEAM work will be AMAZING for my student engagement and for creating depth of knowledge in so many areas! Thank you for your help!”
During summer 2020, 113 K-8 educators across eight school districts came together to deepen their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, arts/design, and mathematics or STE(A)M. The 30 hours of professional learning combined in-person (Zoom) events with an asynchronous online course that allowed participants to explore the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), understand ways to integrate engineering activities into learning, and the key strategies for using project-based learning. Participants were also guided in developing a STEAM unit that focused on integrating math, literacy, social studies, and technology, as well as arts if they desired. Approximately half of the course was focused on the development of the STEAM unit. While educators were encouraged to work in teams, and many did, the opportunity was also appropriate for individual educators working on their own.
The online course asked participants to reflect and share what they learned through interactive discussion boards. Here are some of their reflections:
What you've shared reminds me that so much of children's play (blocks, toys, etc.) is in fact engineering. The principles of engineers can be integrated and leveraged into every curriculum area. I think there's an instinctual drive in humans to make things, to be creative. Kids are often most content when they are engaged in these sorts of activities- making, designing, creating, etc.
I really try to model failing with grace. When I make mistakes in my classroom, I own up to them and model how I can learn from the experience. I sometimes even "program in" mistakes to see how students might correct me. I think that so often we fear being wrong or correcting others; it is important to demonstrate both giving and receiving criticism and correction in productive ways.
The online discussion boards encouraged sharing of difference experiences, perspectives, and approaches. The question “Which of the 4 C's (communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration) do you feel is easiest to teach and embed in your instruction?” resulted in responses that showed how any one of the 4 C’s were easy for some and hard for others.
For instance, one teacher noted:
I also think communication is the easiest! I love to use sentence frames and I always have sentence starters up on the wall for students to refer to when we start to share in partner talk, small group or whole group discussions.
Another teacher offered:
I think [what] is hard is communication. I am finding it hard to teach students to listen. They are very good at talking and sharing ideas, but I am not sure how to get them to listen to each other.
An another teacher offered these thoughts:
I agree with you regarding communication. My students react the same way. They are good at being the one's talking, but their listening skills are lacking. This makes it challenging to have good conversations where they start to build on each other's ideas and share their own. I have found that teaching them Talk Moves, and having that consistent language all day long, helps to build in better listening skills.
The discussion forums really allowed educators to share strategies with each other:
I feel collaboration is the easiest to embed [in my instruction] - I think the trick is to make sure that the collaboration is structured in a way that communication and critical thinking are occurring - it shifts the burden of instruction from being the person who is giving out information, to being the one who puts in place structures for students to really benefit from group work - the teaching of talk moves, providing scaffolding so that groups who need help are given tools to find the information instead of me swooping in to give direct input or "hints." I feel like when given the opportunity, student creativity pours out, but the critical thinking seems really difficult for students - they are used to being spoon-fed the answers (which is easy to do when they are stuck, so it becomes a cycle!)
Or this from an ESL educator:
As an ESL teacher, I work with students whose innate skills, knowledge, and capabilities are not always understood or met by standard schoolwork. It is my job to assist them in building bridges between their prior learning and new academic challenges. The NGSS framework aligns with my teaching practice because it is concerned with building upon prior experience and identity understanding that all children are capable of learning.
And in reply:
You hit the nail on the head with this (for me):
"To achieve the vision of the NGSS, my colleagues and I will need a lot of structured planning time to work together to not only develop materials but also to refine and extend them. We will need the comfort and confidence to invite each other into our teaching spaces for observation. We will also need regular support and understanding from our administrative staff and families as this is a large, novel undertaking for our fairly traditional school."
In this summer space I am so excited about STEAM, NGSS, SEL, new writing and math ideas, but as so many great educators are preparing for a strange year beginning soon, I hope this can stay on the forefront. We may have to take some baby steps this Fall, and intentionally catalog areas that we could target with structured planning and collaboration. 2021 is going to be UH-mazing!!
And finally this from an educator about the benefits of the Next Generation Science Standards:
My teaching practice is to make sure that all students are engaged in learning. This looks different from year to year and child to child. The vision is to bring Science/STEM into all areas of learning - not just for that one period of the day. The teaching that you are doing needs to lead to the students answering the questions and exploring the newly learned knowledge presented to them.
By having cross cutting concepts on a road map from K - 6 teachers in our building are able to build on the previous years learned experiences. Getting to know each student and their background will help me as a teacher to know or have an idea about their learned experiences or exposure to a particular area of learning. I can always do more - the world around us is consistently changing. Do I have students that are new to [the school]? What learning might they have missed the prior year? What new partnerships have developed in and around our community that I might be able to learn from or bring into the classroom.
We are so pleased that the STEAM Summer of Learning was so well received by the many participants. We look forward to providing this or a similar opportunity for summer 2021!
“Thank you so much, this has been quite a journey and whether or not this unit looks fantastic, I am becoming a MUCH BETTER SCIENCE/ENGINEERING teacher and facilitator of learning! I have learned a lot and it is exciting to know I absolutely have more to offer my students this year than last.”