STEM Essentials- Creating Rubrics

When developing a STEM unit, it's important to put a lot of time into the planning of the unit so that students will have the structure (although sometimes it is unseen) to be successful and so that you can spend your time working with students and facilitating student progress.

Now that you have a plan and have thought about the different kinds of assessments that will take place throughout the unit, it is time to consider how you will evaluate the product that students will produce (keeping in mind that your product could take the form of a presentation, portfolio, an actual product, etc.).  The rubric will help you, as the teacher, identify what skills, knowledge and outcome you are looking for and will also outline for students how to be successful.

There are many different ways to write a rubric.  The simplest is to establish a list of target statements that address key facets of the product and relevant curriculum standards.  This rubric can also include criteria like teamwork and performance (aka time on task). 

Next, determine your scale. For younger students, sometimes the scale is in words rather than numbers.  For example: Superior, Accomplished Capable, Developing.  For older students, a scale of 1-4 or 1-5 is generally used with the highest number representing the most accomplished. 

(If you would like your rubric to be more specific, select your criteria and write descriptors for each one. Descriptors should each be one "step" apart and should represent gradations of quality for each criteria.  Be thoughtful when writing your rubric to make sure that it represents a successful project and reflects your selected standards.)

Once you have created your rubric, you will want to present it to your students after you introduce the challenge.  If possible, show both good and bad examples to model for students how to assess these examples using the rubric.  This will teach students how to use a rubric and also how to self-assess their projects in different stages.

STEM Essentials Handout: STEM Project Rubric

STEM Essentials Series

When beginning to implement STEM projects in your classroom, it can be very overwhelming.  Where do I start?  What do I need?  What am I missing?

STEM projects generally take a good deal of planning on the teacher's part and are generally complex by nature.  There are many components that need to be developed and in place prior to students' starting their inquiry.

Whether you have found a great resource from a reputable organization or are creating the materials yourself from scratch, there are some STEM Essentials that you will need in order to plan, execute and assess an effective STEM project.   This series will focus on those STEM essentials that will help make your project organized, engaging and successful!

The Difference between "Doing Projects" and Project Based Learning

When I talk to teachers and staff about STEM and what it is or isn't, we often come around to how it is similar and different to Project-Based Learning.  STEM, at its very core, is Project-Based Learning (PBL) and connecting these dots helps to demystify what STEM education is and how to teach it. 

Last week, I ran across this very helpful chart from FriEd Technology that differentiates "doing projects" with students from PBL...and these points hold true for STEM education as well.   Although this is not the full picture of STEM education, it helps to quickly clarify and set expectations for both student and teacher expectations.

6 Ways to Strengthen Rigor in Your STEM Classroom

In recapping this series on Strengthening Rigor in STEM, we've talked about how to define rigor in the classroom.   We've discussed that rigor is not making the work harder or assigning more problems.

We've also outlined the basics on tools such as the Rigor/Relevance Framework that we can use to guide our planning and instruction to establish and maintain rigor in the classroom.

This list generated by this series is by no means exhaustive, but is a tangible list of strategies you can use to begin to building rigor into your classroom:

• Interactive Notebooks
• The Art of Questioning
• Student Portfolios
• Rubrics
• PBL Elements
• Student Menus

By using or reintroducing these strategies into your classroom,  students can begin to stretch their thinking and begin to perform in ways that will help them to grow them academically as well as help them achieve mastery and beyond.

Strengthening Rigor in STEM- PBL Elements

Another way to strengthen rigor in the classroom is through the use of PBL (Project Based Learning) elements.  PBL and STEM have a great deal in common and many believe that PBL is one of STEM's predecessors.

Although PBL lacks some elements of STEM, it has a similar goal- to teach the whole student and to focus on life skills like the 4C's (communication, collaboration, creativity, creative thinking).

Making sure that these PBL elements are included in your STEM lessons and units will help to maintain rigor and keep students performing on a higher level and applying their knowledge.

An Essential Question
In STEM units, our essential question is focused on a real life problem or issue that needs to be solved. Constructing this question carefully is paramount as it will guide the student's learning.  A well-defined question will be tight enough to identify a relevant problem to be solved but loose enough to allow students to explore and find their own solutions.

White Space
The essential questions in our STEM units usually provide some design requirements, but for the most part allow the students to use inquiry, innovation and the 4C's to research and construct a viable solution to the problem.  Enough guidance is provided to lightly steer students, but students are expected and encouraged to drive their own learning.

21st century skills
STEM units stress 21st century skills and aim to groom students to mastering the 4C's.  In addition to content mastery and knowledge application of science, technology, engineering, and math, students polish additional skills like team building and brainstorming.

Inquiry
Inquiry is probably the most difficult element to teach.  Too much guidance and all students are coming up with the same solution.  Too little guidance and students are lost.  When students conduct inquiry, they are, essentially, playing the part of the detective and following the trail of where their research leads them.  It is the part of the skilled teacher (facilitator) to help guide students in their problem solving so that they don't get too far off track.

By incorporating or ensuring that these components are present in your STEM units, both you and your students can work toward building and maintaining rigor in the classroom.