STEM Skills Challenge- Save Fred

With employers valuing soft skills like the 4C's (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking), students need to develop these skills to be good competitors in the workplace.

This week's challenge stresses teamwork and collaboration as students work in teams to rescue a gummy worm named Fred and outfit him with a life preserver to keep him from falling into the water. 

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Save Fred

STEM Essentials- Developing Effective STEM Units

In this series we have learned how to plan and develop an effective STEM unit.  Planning a unit like this is very time-consuming if done right, but the outcomes and student progress will be well worth the effort!

Here are the basic steps in the process:

• Develop a Plan for your STEM unit
• Craft Different Types of Assessments for before, during and after your project
• Create a Rubric (at least one!) for assessing students throughout the project and at the conclusion of it
• Use the Engineering Design Process to plan the remaining lessons that fit with your curriculum objectives
• Communicate Results through written reports as well as oral presentations
• Redesign and Debrief to assess student understanding and any misconceptions

Each step contains a basic explanation...and a free handout to help you plan your own effective STEM unit!

STEM Essentials- Communicating Results

In working to create a comprehensive STEM unit plan, we've talked about how to develop a plan, craft different types of assessments, create a rubric, and use the Engineering Design Process to plan the remaining lessons. 

One of the last components to put in place is a mechanism for students to communicate their findings. It's important for students to investigate and record their daily notes and data as well as create formal reports of their discoveries.

For this component, there are very many options.  Teachers use a high-tech mechanism and set up a Moodle Site or a Wikispaces workspace for students that will allow them to develop and refine 21st century skills. Teachers can also use a low-tech mechanism and ask students to communicate their results through Science Notebooks (aka paper) that will allows students to focus more in effective communication. Because of the many options available, the teacher should choose the best method of delivery, factoring in the age-appropriate skill level of students and the curriculum/ skills that will be the main focus of the project.

In addition to written communication, it's a good idea to  have an oral component like a presentation, interview, or skit as well.  Combining written and oral reporting helps students to enhance their communication skills and make them more relevant as presenting and public speaking are important skills students need when preparing for the workforce.

STEM Essentials Handout: Science Notebook

STEM Essentials- Developing (Great) Ideas

So far, we developed a plan and thought about types of assessments.  We've also create a rubric and used the Engineering Design Process to plan the remainder of lessons. We've also looked at creating STEM Role Cards to help students to use their time wisely.

When we plan a STEM unit, there are a lot of steps that are part of a linear progression with each step building on the one before.  Then, there are other elements (like the Role Cards) that are related and necessary, but don't seem to fit into a linear progression.  This week, we'll talk about another non-linear component- how to facilitate students' development of ideas.

When students work together, they almost always have difficulty brainstorming.  It's not enough to tell students to "just go think up good ideas".  The younger the student, the more difficulty they have working in this "white space".  As such, it helps to share brainstorming strategies to help create a sort of process for them to follow.

Some group brainstorming strategies include:

Stepladder Approach- Students generate ideas individually, then partner up within their team to discuss and add more ideas.  Finally, all members of the group work together to share their ideas and generate more.

SCAMPER- Once students have come up with one idea (and might have gotten stuck), using the SCAMPER strategy will help generate others.  With each letter standing for a way to generate ideas, students can work to find other solutions. (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Rearrange)

Concept Map- Most students are familiar with concept maps and have used them before. They take many different forms and can be as simple as a blank piece of paper to something more elaborate printed on a worksheet.  In any case, it's important to allow students to each write their ideas onto the worksheet or chart paper and build on other ideas they are hearing.

There is no right way to brainstorm, but by providing some strategies and soliciting "Brainstorming Rules" from students to establish a sense of fairness and buy-in, the process will flow smoothly and encourage  ideas.

STEM Essentials Handout: STEM Brainstorming Worksheet

STEM Essentials- The Engineering Design Process

On the road to planning an effective STEM unit, we have:

• Sketched out a plan defining the topic, choosing the applicable standards, and forming the challenge
• Created assessments, both formative and summative
• Developed a rubric as an end-of-project assessment
• Provided STEM Role Cards to help students divide the work that will be done

 Now, it is time to plan the individual lessons that will make up our STEM unit.  In other words, we want to find a way for students to learn pieces of the selected curriculum standards that, when put together, will assist them in completing the challenge. 

A great way to do this is to use the Engineering Design Process as you plan:

1.  Identify the Problem- The problem should be clearly identified in your challenge statement when you began drafting your plan.

2.  Identify Criteria and Constraints- This can take place when introducing the STEM project or it can be presented through lessons that allows students to use trial and error.  After students have had a chance to explore, bring the class back together and determine, together, the criteria and constraints that should be used for the remainder of the project.

3.  Brainstorm Possible Solutions- As students brainstorm their ideas, present a lesson or two that will teach some basics of your curriculum and help students come up with different ideas for their brainstorming web.

4.  Select and Idea/Strategy- Once teams have selected their strategies, present a lesson or two that will teach more advanced concepts of your curriculum to help students further design and improve their solutions.

5.  Build a Model or Prototype- When it is time for students to begin building their products, lessons can be introduced to help students design a test for their prototype if applicable, focusing on key components of your curriculum.  

6.  Refine and Improve- After students have built their models, some additional lessons can be shared involving the more advanced elements.  Students can then decide to work them into their refined design if applicable.

STEM Essentials Handout: The Engineering Design Process

STEM Essentials- Role Cards

 In designing a STEM unit, we have developed a plan complete with standards and a challenge.  Next, we have examined different types of assessments to incorporate into the unit and have explored how to create a rubric for the end-of-project summative assessment.

As we move through the process of designing and developing a STEM unit, we need to consider a framework that students will use to help keep some structure in the classroom, but also to give them the freedom to use their inquiry strategies.

One way to do that is to use Role Cards.  When teaching a STEM unit, students are generally placed in teams of 4 or 5.  Defining a role for each student within a team is key to making sure that each student knows his/her responsibilities.  These roles also help students work through their challenge and keep them progressing in a forward direction without arguing about who should be in charge of what.  (So that each student gets to experience each role and to keep things fair, I tend to have them rotate roles each week or couple of days depending on the length of the project.)

I designed two set of Role Cards that I use with students.  The first set can be used for just about any group work and contains roles that are pretty general and could cover a multitude of different disciplines and/or projects.  The roles I use for this are: Recorder, Supply Manager, Coach, Facilitator, and Data Manager.  Each card states the title, defines the role and provides questions that that student may consider about their roles within the group.

When conducting a STEM unit, I use a different set of cards that are better suited to inquiry-based strategies.  The roles I use for this are: Data Analyst, Project Manager, Investigator, Engineer, and Forecaster.  Again, each card states the title, defines the role and provides questions that that students should be asking the group (and themselves).

No matter which set of cards I choose for project, I photocopy them on cardstock and laminate them so that students can actively use them each day.

STEM Essentials Handout: STEM Role Cards

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- The Assessments

After you have thought about your STEM unit and have developed a plan that contains your idea, related curriculum standards, challenge, and end product, it's time to figure out how to assess successful completion of the challenge/project.

Although we haven't touched on "guts" of the project yet, it's important to know where you want to end up before you fill in the blanks.  This backward mapping will help to ensure that all of the pieces tie together cleanly at the end and remains focused and organized.  Enter: The Assessments.

 On a daily basis, you will want to use different types of formative assessments.  Formative Assessments are designed to give the teacher a qualitative (rather than quantitative) measure of student understanding. Using these strategies daily will give you a good read on student understanding and help you to plan upcoming lessons accordingly.  Most formative assessment strategies are no prep (Thumbs Up/Down) or low-prep (Exit Tickets) which makes them easy to gather useful data.

At the end of the project, you will want to conduct a Summative Assessment that shows what students have learned throughout the duration of the project.  This will most likely take the form of assessing the completion of student products through the use of a rubric.  Teachers can also add a more traditional test for the unit, but STEM units are generally use a rubric so that students may be assessed on a number of different elements.  As you develop this rubric, you will want to choose carefully what criteria to assess.  No matter what kind of summative assessment you choose to implement, students should be made aware of how they will be assessed at the beginning of the project.  When using a rubric, be sure to review the criteria and scale with students focusing on what students should be doing to be successful.

Aside from your daily informal formative assessments and your end-of-unit summative assessments, I also like to set up checkpoints at certain key places in the unit.  This may be as easy as the teacher reviewing the progress of the team and signing off on their progress or it might look as formal a quiz.  Choose the most appropriate method for your students that ensures forward progress.

Now that you have learned about the different types of assessments that take place throughout a typical STEM unit, you can begin to put these in place for your specific unit. Stay tuned for next week's post on creating rubrics.

STEM Essentials Handout: Formative Assessment Strategies , Summative Assessment Strategies

STEM Essentials- The Plan

So what is the first thing that you need to know to plan a STEM lesson or unit?  There are so many elements that will need to be incorporated, but where to start? The answer is not as clear cut as one might think because there are a couple of things that happen in tandem, so the first essential is: The Plan

STEM units are student-centered and teacher facilitated.  As a result,  they need to be meticulously planned.  The vast majority of planning for a STEM unit takes place prior to the unit even beginning.  So, all the pieces need to be in place so that students will have all of the tools and resources they need in order to be successful.

The Plan involves selecting a unit or group of curriculum strands that you already teach to use as a basis for your STEM unit.  You might select a core unit for your grade level, a group of standards that your students have difficulty with, or even a group of standards that you students find just dead boring.  However you decide, you'll want to make sure that you can make a connection from these standards to a real life issue or problem.

To  assist with this arduous task, ask yourself these key questions:

• What kind of end product would make students interested in these standards? 
• Will this product best exemplify the standards I am  trying to teach? (If not, what kind of end product WILL exemplify my standards?)
• How does this end product relate to the standards and deepen student understanding?

Keep in mind that the words "end product" are used as non-specifically as possible as it can take on any number of different mediums such as a presentation, a business plan, a video, a prototype, etc.

Once you have turned these ideas around in your head, it's time to think of what exactly the challenge will be.  The challenge is a one-sentence (usually) statement that defines the problem for students: 

Design, construct and test a laser tag game prototype system that uses a
system of mirrors and lenses to direct light through a simple maze to strike targets.

(example from Ohio Department of Education)

As you construct your Challenge Statement, you will want to take special care in crafting it to reflect:

• what your end product will be (a laser tag game)
• how students can begin to tackle this challenge (design, construct and test)
• the specific curriculum that you are addressing (...system of mirrors and  lenses to direct light...)

Now that you have laid the the basic Plan by  selecting your topic and curriculum,  you can continue to flesh out the standards you will use and work to specify your challenge statement so that it is clear for students.

STEM Essentials Handout: STEM Planning Outline

Next Step: STEM Essentials- The Assessments

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!