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The write-up talks what to expect when schools start to implement STEM. It also highlights how to effectively communicate STEM to administrators, teachers, and parents.

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First things first: Prepare yourself for noisy, exuberant classrooms where multiple right answers abound and failure is regarded as a positive step toward discovery and a successful solution. Get ready for kids to work closely together, using hands-on methods to solve real-world problems. Be willing to step back and give students enough room to kick off their journey toward becoming creative, innovative, critical thinkers.

To prepare for the STEM adventure, you might begin by taking a look at this checklist of five questions your school needs to consider.

1. Does everyone know why the school is implementing STEM and what STEM is designed to accomplish? Some reasons often cited include these:

* We want to prepare our students for successful careers in a 21st century workforce.For kindergarteners this may seem a bit premature, but the kinds of thinking skills and problems solving required for success in the workplace start here.

* We want our students to be better prepared in math and science. And what about art, math, history, language arts, and other subjects? Is there a connection between STEM productivity and these subjects? You bet! Developing the STEM skills listed in the next bullet can happen in any subject. And the idea of building learning connections among subjects is a real eye-opener for many students.

* We want our students to be able to inquire, think, investigate, and innovate.STEM skills are in high demand in every field.Innovation is the key to developing new products and processes that sustain our economy. A common list of skills our workforce needs includes these:

- Problem-solving
- Innovative thinking
- Communications
- Productive teamwork
- Generating multiple ideas
- Decision-making

* We want our students to learn to work productively in teams. This is difficult in a culture designed for individual work and achievement and deserves plenty of attention.

2. What type of STEM program will your school implement initially and what do you want this program to become? In other words, what will it look like now and what do you want it to look like when it's all grown up? This post identifies the basic ingredients of a real STEM program. You also need to consider where your initial STEM program will fit within the school organization. (Remember that this can be the first step to a broader program.) Will it be . . .

* A STEM Program within the school.This might be:

- STEM taught in one classroom only
- STEM taught in one subject only, such as science or math
- STEM taught in both science and in math, but in isolation
- Science and math STEM lessons closely integrated and teachers planning together.
- Arts or another subject added to the STEM program
* A STEM specialty school
STEM integrated throughout school. The entire school's focus is on STEM and every student participates in a curriculum of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Other subjects correlate and teach basic STEM process skills.
* Electives
STEM will be taught as an elective during the school day
* After school programs
A number of afterschool STEM programs are in operation. These are often built around the belief that STEM learning during the school day is necessary but not sufficient for life-long STEM literacy. Afterschool programs make valuable contributions to the strength and diversity of STEM learning and should be a component of regular school STEM programs.

3. How will you prepare and support teachers? What do teachers know/need to know, and how will they learn it? So you have one dynamic, willing teacher who is willing to teach STEM. That's great - for the kids he/she teaches. What you really need is a school full of prepared and dynamic teachers to make a difference for all kids. So, where will you start, and what do you want this to look like when your teacher support is in place? The PBS Teachers STEM Education Resource offers opportunities for your school staff to explore new ideas related to STEM learning. This STEM Smart Brief offers recommendations for preparing and supporting your STEM educators. Here are some excerpts:

* Update teachers in subject-specific training. This should include content, current research on how students learn those subjects, and strategies for teaching them.

* Be sure the training is aligned with your district curricula. Teachers need to belearning what they actually will be teaching.

* Provide on-site professional support that allows for regular interaction and collaboration with colleagues, such as professional learning communities. Teachers need to work together to try out new strategies in their classrooms, report back on their experiences, discuss, reflect, and learn from them.

* Provide multiple and sustained opportunities for continued learning on an ongoing basis. This is critical for implementing a new initiative.

4. What will your school do about STEM curriculum? Be ready to kick-off the STEM program at the beginning of the school year, if possible. Remember - this is where you will start, and will help your STEM curriculum grow into what you want it to be.

* Have at least one STEM lesson developed and ready to go, with others in the planning stage. For tips on how to design STEM lessons, see this previous blog post: You can find good STEM lessons online, but be sure they follow the guidelines for real STEM in the next bullet. Check out the NEA 10 Best STEM Resources site for ideas.

* Examine the lesson and ask, "Is it STEM?" A lot of lessons are trying to fly under the name of STEM. Does the lesson you are using pass these tests:

- Does it engage students in the engineering design process?
- Do students address a real-world problem?
- Do they work in teams to solve this problem?
- Are there multiple possible solutions?
- Do students get to explore and come up with ideas on their own, without being spoon-fed?

If so, then you can feel pretty sure you're dealing with the real thing. These tips on how to plan STEM curriculum might be useful as well.

5. What resources are available? You will definitely want to grow your STEM resources as the year goes on.

* Evaluate your technology.Do you have any? Do students have access to a high-speed Internet connection? Does your firewall allow reasonable Internet access for students? Does your staff understand the STEM definition of technology? See this blog post for a quick explanation of the expanded view of technology.

* Line up human resources and support. Involve business leaders, parents, university educators, policy-makers, etc.

* Gather materials and supplies. You may need to start with inexpensive materials - paper and craft sticks. These will always be okay for some types of challenges. However, as funding permits, plan on getting "real" tools of the engineering trade for students to use, especially in the upper grades.

To sum it up, your school can be STEM-ready so long as you have a starting point and a long term goal. Just remember that this initiative will keep growing with some visionary leadership. A knowledgeable and supportive school principal is the most important driver behind a STEM initiative.

Oh, yes, and while you're at it, convince a group of gung-ho parents to form a STEM booster club. Build a group of school + community STEM advocates and innovators who are ready to go out and tell the powers-that-be that we want our kids ready for a STEM world!
Anne Jolly's practical how-to book Team to Teach is published by Learning Forward. A version of this post appeared on MiddleWeb.

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How to Get Your School Ready for STEM This Year

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First things first: Prepare yourself for noisy, exuberant classrooms where multiple right answers abound and failure is regarded as a positive step toward discovery and a successful solution. Get ready for kids to work closely together, using hands-on methods to solve real-world problems. Be willing to step back and give students enough room to kick off their journey toward becoming creative, innovative, critical thinkers.

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STEM in the Primary              Stages 

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STEM in the Primary              Stages 

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The article talks about ways parents can build a foundation for children in the early learning stage to promote curiosity about STEM.

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Joshua M. Sneideman

Experts in education, industry, and national security all agree that there is a national imperative to graduate students with a thorough understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM.) In 2007, a Carnegie Foundation commission of distinguished researchers and public and private leaders concluded that the nation's capacity to innovate and thrive in the modern workforce depends on a foundation of math and science learning. They conclude that a sustained, vibrant democracy is dependent upon this foundation in STEM.

But many parents and teachers wonder, at what age is it appropriate to start teaching STEM? And how can we implement these concepts into early childhood education? The answer is: It is never too early to start STEM education, and an ideal way to teach STEM is to go out into nature. Let me explain why.

What is STEM?
First a little background on STEM. I like to think of STEM as much more than an acronym. STEM really is a philosophy. STEM is a way of thinking about how educators at all levels-including parents-should be helping students integrate knowledge across disciplines, encouraging them to think in a more connected and holistic way.

Our knowledge of how people learn has grown substantially over the last few decades. We now understand that success in learning requires the learner to be at the center of the experience, making connections across disciplines and also across contextual settings. Children need to be presented opportunities to learn the same material in different settings and through different lenses. The traditional approach of teaching topics in isolation does not support the ways that children learn best.

STEM, on the other hand, calls on parents and educators to give children chances to investigate an idea in a variety of settings, for what educators call cross-contextual learning. For example, in addition to math worksheets to help practice counting, we can take students outside to practice counting real objects that they find, such as rocks, acorns, or leaves. Their learning is strengthened when they learn the same skills, ideas, and concepts in different contexts.

We can also blend math and science to make learning interdisciplinary using a STEM approach. And the learning becomes more relevant when students go outside to explore nature. By asking the right questions, we can help stimulate investigations where students are identifying objects, making comparisons, making predictions, testing ideas, and sharing discoveries, all while observing their natural environment. Students can also explore sizes, shapes, patterns, and quantities in the process. In this way, children can learn concepts from different disciplines in different contexts, all in ways that are naturally engaging to them.

Let's imagine that you're going to build a tall, strong building. You've selected the perfect site, prepared the ground, and it's time to start building. Where do you begin? You certainly don't put the foundation on the 5th floor. So why should we wait until students are 5 years old and entering kindergarten to begin engaging in STEM activities? Students are incredibly active learners at 1, 2 and 3 years old, and we can start building their foundation in STEM as soon as they enter this world.

When my daughter Mya was only 3 months old, I began allowing her to touch leaves, watch spiders, enjoy sunsets, hold sticks, listen to waterfalls and go on nature walks. Were we doing STEM at 3 months old? Yes, I truly believe so. She was investigating the natural world around her, beginning to learn about how it works by testing it with her tiny fingers, watching it change, listening to its sounds, and feeling its textures.

The research is quite clear that the best practice in early childhood education is to break away from passive instruction and allow for more play and investigation, and this kind of learning early in life builds skills and interests that serve children throughout their school years, and later in life. Lilian G. Katz, in STEM in the Early Years, lays out a case that the best practice for early education is to allow students to be active, engaged, and take initiative in their own learning. Long-term research also indicates that being allowed opportunities to take initiative in your own learning is not only good for STEM learning, but for overall long-term academic success.

Unfortunately, in most academic instruction, children are in a passive or receptive mode instead of a more active, or even interactive, mode. Early childhood education should tap into children's natural curiosity and give them ample opportunities to be active participants in their own learning. Natural settings offer children almost unlimited opportunities to explore and investigate, helping them build STEM skills that create a solid foundation for future learning.

Teaching STEM to Early Learners
The most important thing to remember about teaching STEM to early learners is that they are perfectly adapted to learn STEM concepts, and it is not difficult to teach STEM to young children. The secret is to tap into their natural and innate curiosity about the living world. By simply allowing them to investigate, by encouraging them to ask questions about the real world, you are engaging children in STEM.

How do I recommend you do this? While there are hundreds, if not thousands, of recommendations, none is more simple and more powerful than this: take children outside into nature. It is, I believe, abundantly apparent to almost any adult that once you let a child walk down a dirt path in a forest they start to explore their surroundings immediately. It is that sense of explorer that we need to tap into. Ask questions of your little researcher, encourage more exploration, and provide more opportunities to return to these types of settings. If you don't have access to natural areas or even a more developed park, you can plant a small garden, make a terrarium, or simply make a start by growing seeds in cups.

The Boston Children's Museum's STEM Sprouts Teaching Guide recommends the simple strategy of building students' confidence and making them feel like experts by asking "what" questions rather than "why" questions. "Why" questions imply that there is a correct answer. "Why do birds have feathers?," or "Why does the rock sink in the water?" are questions that have answers that children may not know, and may find discouraging. "What" questions, on the other hand, focus on what they are noticing and doing, and can be springboards for teachers and students to investigate together. "What are those ants doing?" and "What shapes do you see in those rocks?" are questions that invite children to observe, communicate, and be the "experts."

Now that my daughter is 4, she and I often go on "nature walks" where I encourage her natural curiosity for exploration. She loves the opportunity to collect almost anything: rocks, fossils, seeds, leaves, sticks, bugs, or whatever seems to be peaking her interest that day. As we collect, we practice counting, we create hypotheses about the things we see, and look at the different designs and shapes that we find in nature, as an initial inquiry into engineering design. We bring along binoculars, magnifying glass, and children's field microscope to deepen our investigations.

To augment her curiosity even further, our home library is full of books about investigating nature, including her all-time favorite, Magic School Bus. We also watch documentaries on nature, and she can watch children's programming like Wild Kratts or SciGirls to reinforce her love of investigation with positive examples from media. In this way, we practice cross-contextual learning, where she is experiencing the ideas around STEM in different ways: She is getting hands-on investigatory experience and then also reading about others doing the same thing in her books or seeing ideas play out in TV programs.
Getting Outside from the Get-Go
A recent survey by Julia Torquati and colleagues found that early childhood educators are least confident about teaching nature/science. And a survey conducted by Julie Ernst found that 92% of Minnesota childcare teachers spend the majority of their outdoor playtime in maintained or developed play spaces, and no teachers reported using natural areas for the majority of their outdoor playtime. Early science teaching is not a priority in most preschool classrooms, and most teachers are not taking children out to play and explore in natural settings.

We need to work together to change the status quo for our nation's children. If the leading thinkers on education believe that our hopes for a vibrant democracy hinge upon a foundation of STEM education, then we need to be encouraging best practices in STEM from the get-go. One of the best practices in teaching and learning is to make learning relevant, and there is nothing more relevant than being outside and exploring the world we live in. Let's not wait another day to take young children outside to start engaging them in STEM education.

Additional resources:
SuccessfulSTEMeducation.org offers resources for people interested in learning more about STEM education.

NAAEE's Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence describe good early childhood environmental education, which is also good early STEM education.

Be sure to check out the Children and Nature Network. Their site has a wealth of information on the back-to-nature movement.

The Boston Children's Museum's excellent STEM Sprouts Teaching Guide assists preschool educators in focusing and refining the naturally inquisitive behaviors of three-to-five-year-olds in STEM.

Joshua Sneideman is an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

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Joshua M. Sneideman Experts in education, industry, and national security all agree that there is a national imperative to graduate students with a thorough understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM.) In 2007, a Carnegie Foundation commission of distinguished researchers and public and private leaders concluded that the nation's capacity to innovate and thrive in the modern workforce depends on a foundation of math and science learning.

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This quick-write features tips for parents on how to conduct STEM learning at home with their children.

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How to Impart STEM Education to Your Children

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How to Impart STEM Education to Your Children. When it comes to technological innovation, the United States remains number one. Yet, among 15-year-olds worldwide, the US ranks 29th in math literacy, falling behind Finland, Croatia, the...

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Books to get students thinking about STEM. The book list could be a great tool for teachers to use and incorporate into lesson plans.

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The write-up features the benefits and struggles teachers see with incorporating STEM into educational curriculums.

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STEM is a current hot topic in education. Lots of energy is going into developing programs that attempt to integrate the individual content areas-science, technology, engineering and math-into a unified curriculum that offers greater connection to the real world and provides authentic purposes for learning and solving problems. But STEM currently means many things to many people and educators are still finding their way, as these two perspectives illustrate:

On the one hand...yes, we should support the push for STEM in our school s

On the other hand...as the latest educational trend, STEM isn't always well-conceived

"The growing emphasis on STEM supports my efforts to encourage my middle school students to focus on these important areas of instruction that will help them not just academically, but in preparing for the world of work. It's not just me telling them math and science are important, it's employers and colleges as well."

"We start too late to emphasize STEM and real-world connections. My middle school students have such limited horizons and don't see STEM-related jobs as realistic options because they lack even basic math and science skills. Students need to begin learning about STEM-related jobs and their required skill sets early enough to be motivated to really focus on learning the baseline skills that they will need to be successful in pursuing STEM-related careers."

"My district has developed some wonderful relationships with local businesses in the STEM arena. Students shadow engineers, work in the lab at the local hospital, and participate in internship and co-op work programs. Working scientists visit classrooms on a regular basis, helping students design experiments and develop projects and activities for a variety of national STEM competitions as well as helping us run local competitions where students present and defend their work."

"I can't help but think that some of these special programs are somewhat elitist. It's great that motivated, well-prepared students get these opportunities, but I'd be more enthusiastic about STEM if there was more focus on helping all students develop the mathematical, scientific and technological literacy they will need to function as effective and informed citizens."

"What I love about STEM is that the concepts and approaches at the heart of the STEM disciplines-curiosity, inquiry, creativity, exploration, collaboration, and critical thinking-are the skills that will be most likely to help students be successful in higher education, in the workplace and as citizens of the world. People who can explore options, work as part of creative teams and solve entirely new problems will always be in demand."

"STEM, STEAM, it's all just window dressing. While I agree that creativity and critical thinking are core skills, they can be developed in a myriad of ways. Meanwhile too many students are not receiving solid instruction in math and the sciences while we chase yet another fad. Teach to the standards using proven instructional practices and students will be prepared for whatever the future brings."

We'd love to know-what's your take on STEM? Is it window dressing or even elitist? Or have we finally found the right way to get kids interested in math and science?

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The Teacher Report: What Are the Pros and Cons of STEM Education? - WeAreTeachers

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A guest post written by EdNet Insight editor Anne Wujick STEM is a current hot topic in education. Lots of energy is going into developing programs that attempt to integrate the individual content areas-science, technology, engineering and math-into a unified ...

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STEM in Elementary               Education 

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STEM in Elementary               Education 

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This quick-write features how to incorporate STEM in elementary grade levels while following state standards.

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In order to meet the increasingly rigorous and technically focused demands of 21 st century living, we have seen quite a push in American society to engage our youth in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

This comes on the heels of the alarmingly overall low performance of American high school students' test scores in math and science compared to other industrialized countries. President Obama has stated many times that we as a nation must remain leaders in science and technology, as our national economic prosperity depends on it.

When we think of STEM education, we think high school students taking chemistry and algebra courses, not third graders and multiplication. But with a little forethought and a bit of tweaking to your lessons, a STEM-based curriculum can be suitable for elementary students.

Study after study has shown that children who experience STEM education early on will be best equipped in understanding STEM concepts later in their academic career. Simply put, the earlier educators integrate STEM lessons into their daily curriculum, the better chance children will develop a stronger understanding of these skills, as well as cultivate a future interest.

You may be thinking, "I already have so much on my plate, now I have to implement STEM education into the mix?" Well, before you stress out, you must know that you already have access to solid research-based guidelines, right there in the Common Core State Standards. What may seem as a daunting task at the elementary level can easily be integrated into your subject material.

Policymakers and administrators have learned that by giving our youth the tools to succeed in STEM, we are giving them a huge advantage in their future and the future of this country. Research has shown that individuals who work in a STEM-related field earn as much as 26 percent more than their counterparts.

In addition, the job growth rate for STEM-related jobs is about 38 percent, not to mention that STEM jobs are among the highest paid. With statistics like these, it's easy to see why STEM education is so important for our students' success.

How to Integrate STEM into Your Curriculum

STEM-proficient students are logical thinkers and are able to answer complex questions and develop solutions for problems.

So where do you begin? You don't have to change the way you teach in order to be strong in STEM education. You can start by simply tweaking the way you ask students questions. You can add words such as experiment and model to create an environment where students will be used to hearing these important STEM vocabulary words. Expose students to educational technology like iPads, computers and even cell phones. Technology is a huge component in STEM education, and giving students more access to technology will only better prepare them for the future.

An easy way to integrate STEM into any subject matter is to have students read a storybook and design a solution to a problem one of the characters in the story has faced. Students can read books that utilize the engineering component in STEM. A fictional storyline about airplanes or robots can intrigue young learners while they learn how engineers work. Students can take what they read and create models to help solve problems.

Legos are likewise fun and an age-appropriate way to introduce STEM education because they allow students to build and explore while learning important concepts.

How to Begin a STEM Lesson

One way to provide students with the opportunity to explore a real-world scientific problem is to give them a hands-on experience. First you must:

Identify a real-world problem.

Ask questions to explore the problem (and potentially solve the problem).

Develop solutions.

Explore a hands-on activity.

An appropriate elementary education example would be pollution (science). Ask students what they think they can do as an elementary student to reduce the amount of pollution in their environment. Have them use technology as part of their research or for a resource. Ask complex questions and have students engage in logical reasoning to develop solutions for the real-world problem.

Next, for engineering, have students design or construct a solution to the problem.

Finally, for mathematics, have students interpret their data. Make sure you connect a STEM career to whatever real-world problem you ask students to solve. When discussing pollution be sure to add that individuals who try and solve this issue are environmental impact specialists, civil engineers, chemical engineers, chemists, environmental scientists, and so on.

Effective STEM instruction starts with you, the teacher. The way you plan your activities and the questions you ask students can turn an ordinary classroom into a productive STEM learning environment. In order for our youth to have the skills that are necessary for living in the 21 st century, it is essential that we as teachers plant the seeds today that will make them successful for tomorrow.
How do you implement STEM education into your classroom? Do you have any strategies that you use? Please share with us in the comment section below, we would love to hear your thoughts. Janelle Cox is an education writer who uses her experience and knowledge to provide creative and original writing in the field of education. Janelle holds a Master's of Science in Education from the State University of New York College at Buffalo. She is also the Elementary Education Expert for About.com, as well as a contributing writer to TeachHUB.com and TeachHUB Magazine. You can follow her at Twitter @Empoweringk6ed, or on Facebook at Empowering K6 Educators.

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STEM Education in the Elementary Classroom

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In order to meet the increasingly rigorous and technically focused demands of 21 st century living, we have seen quite a push in American society to engage our youth in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

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STEM Lesson Plans             For Teachers

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STEM Lesson Plans             For Teachers

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The review states how to apply STEM to lesson plans. It embraces the characteristics related to creating a great lesson plan evolved around STEM.

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STEM is more than just a grouping of subject areas. It is a movement to develop the deep mathematical and scientific underpinnings students need to be competitive in the 21st-century workforce.

But this movement goes far beyond preparing students for specific jobs. STEM develops a set of thinking, reasoning, teamwork, investigative, and creative skills that students can use in all areas of their lives. STEM isn't a standalone class-it's a way to intentionally incorporate different subjects across an existing curriculum.

Here's a quick rundown of the STEM acronym:

S cience: The study of the natural world.

T echnology: One surprise-the STEM definition for technology includes any product made by humans to meet a want or need. (So much for all technology being digital.) A chair is technology; so is a pencil. Any product kids create to solve a problem can be regarded as technology.

E ngineering: The design process kids use to solve problems.

M ath: The language of numbers, shapes, and quantities that seems so irrelevant to many students.

STEM lessons often seem similar to science lessons and experiments, and in some ways, they are. After all, genuine science experiences are hands-on and inquiry-based. But if you look at the basics of an "ideal" STEM lesson, you'll see some substantial differences.

Here are six characteristics of a great STEM lesson. I hope you'll use these guidelines to collaborate with other teachers and create lessons that apply technology to what students are learning in science and math (and other subjects as well).

1. STEM lessons focus on real-world issues and problems. In STEM lessons, students address real social, economic, and environmental problems and seek solutions. My biggest "aha" STEM moment came when I moved to a new position and faced a class of science students who had given up on school. I had the class identify a real-world problem right there on campus, and suddenly we found ourselves head over heels in a STEM project-before the familiar acronym had even burst onto the scene. See Real World STEM Problems for some suggestions for projects students might focus on.

2. STEM lessons are guided by the engineering design process. The EDP provides a flexible process that takes students from identifying a problem-or a design challenge-to creating and developing a solution. If you search for "engineering design process images" online, you'll find many charts to guide you, but most have the same basic steps. In this process, students define problems, conduct background research, develop multiple ideas for solutions, develop and create a prototype, and then test, evaluate, and redesign them. This sounds a little like the scientific method-but during the EDP, teams of students try their own research-based ideas, take different approaches, make mistakes, accept and learn from them, and try again. Their focus is on developing solutions.

3. STEM lessons immerse students in hands-on inquiry and open-ended exploration. In STEM lessons, the path to learning is open ended, within constraints. (Constraints generally involve things like available materials.) The students' work is hands-on and collaborative, and decisions about solutions are student-generated. Students communicate to share ideas and redesign their prototypes as needed. They control their own ideas and design their own investigations.

4. STEM lessons involve students in productive teamwork. Helping students work together as a productive team is never an easy job. It becomes exponentially easier if all STEM teachers at a school work together to implement teamwork, using the same language, procedures, and expectations for students. If you want a jumpstart on building specific student-teamwork skills, contact me and I'll send you a draft of a student teamwork document.

5. STEM lessons apply rigorous math and science content your students are learning. In your STEM lessons, you should purposely connect and integrate content from math and science courses. Plan to collaborate with other math and/or science teachers to gain insight into how course objectives can be interwoven in a given lesson. Students can then begin to see that science and math are not isolated subjects, but work together to solve problems. This adds relevance to their math and science learning. In STEM, students also use technology in appropriate ways and design their own products (also technologies).

Best case scenario: Involve an art teacher as well. Art plays a critical role in product design. Teams will want their products to be attractive, appealing, and marketable. When the arts are added, the STEM acronym becomes STEAM.

6. STEM lessons allow for multiple right answers and reframe failure as a necessary part of learning. Sometimes I designed my science labs so that all teams would replicate the same results or verify or refute a hypothesis. Students were studying specific science content and the whole idea was to provide insight into cause and effect by manipulating variables.

STEM classes, by contrast, always provide opportunity for multiple right answers and approaches. The STEM environment offers rich possibilities for creative solutions. When designing and testing prototypes, teams may flounder and fail to solve the problem. That's okay. They are expected to learn from what went wrong, and try again. Failure is considered a positive step on the way to discovering and designing solutions.

Creating STEM lessons

So where can you find quality STEM lessons? An online search of "STEM lessons" will yield plenty of results. A word of caution, however: Not everything that claims to be STEM is actually STEM. If it doesn't meet the criteria described above, you may want to move on.

I generally start with the following sites to jumpstart my thinking when I plan a STEM lesson: Design Squad Nation, NASA STEM lesson, National Geographic Education, STEMWorks, TeachEngineering, and The Air Force Collaboratory. (Please add your own favorite sites in the comments section.)

Can't find any lessons you like? Look at your course objectives, come up with a real world challenge, and write your own lesson. Check out my blog posts Perfect Stem Lessons and 12 Steps to Great STEM Lessons for some "how to" ideas. You can also get a free "starter lesson" to introduce your students to the engineering design process by contacting Melissa Dean. (Put "Free Launcher Request" in the subject line.)

For the ultimate resource, I invite all of you-whether or not you are STEM teachers-to join the Center for Teaching Quality's Collaboratory, a professional and safe virtual network to post your ideas and questions about STEM (and other topics of interest). We'd love to share our knowledge and experiences with you.

For those of you in the trenches, have fun creating your lessons-and thank you for being STEM teachers.

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Six Characteristics of a Great STEM Lesson (Opinion)

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STEM is more than just a grouping of subject areas. It is a movement to develop the deep mathematical and scientific underpinnings students need to be competitive in the 21st-century workforce. But this movement goes far beyond preparing students for specific jobs.

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The exert gives details about how to start integrating STEM into every day life and specific subjects in the classroom.

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by Kimberly Kulp

We often ask children what they "want to be" when they grow up. Astronaut, chef, teacher, or, for 8-year-old me, President. Encouraging dreams are healthy and important regardless of how those dreams change over time. As parents we often worry about our children's future, what they will become, how they will interact with and impact the world around them. And these questions are more important now than ever as the world becomes smaller and prosperous; well-paying jobs are harder and harder to find and keep.
What is STEM?
One answer to this question is clear: if we want our children and our nation to continue to be successful and competitive on a world stage, then STEM should be an integral part of their future. STEM is the future of the economy, the key to solving real world problems like hunger and resource depletion, and the arena with the most promising occupations for our children's future. How do we, as parents who grew up in a less technological world, balance instilling a curiosity and ingenuity for STEM topics with the many other demands that homeschooling, parenting, and life bring?
The Impact of STEM
STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM goes beyond just studying topics within those 4 areas and is concerned with how they integrate with one another, critical thinking, discovery, and project-based learning. STEM workers and curriculum seek to use their understanding of science, technology, engineering, and math to better understand the world around them, create new technologies, and solve critical problems. STEM goes beyond experiments and cause-and-effect thinking, and dives deeply into first hand discovery, real-world application, and innovation.

Our kids have grown up in a fast-paced, ever-changing digital age. And, as technology gets more and more important to everyday life, understanding those technologies and using them to our advantage becomes even more critical. For our students this goes beyond using computers to gain a real-world understanding of how technology can help enrich and change lives.
STEM Learning Every Day
We have big problems in our world today and STEM workers are the key to solving them. Critical thinking, something that is often lacking in formal education, is the key to helping our students succeed and enjoy STEM topics at a young age. And it's practical too, because STEM workers are more in demand and are paid higher wages. From analyzing climate change, to solving world hunger, to helping save endangered species, STEM jobs are not only critical they're really cool!

When we learn with all of our senses we are more engaged and able to remember and enjoy what we're learning. The good news is that STEM learning is often all hands, eyes, and minds on deck! The key to encouraging discovery and passion for STEM is to make it real, engaging, and flex your STEM thinking muscles daily.
Start with STEM
What's great about homeschooling is that you don't need formal "science class" to encourage STEM exploration. In fact, most excitement about learning occurs when we make connections across subject matter. That's what "aha" moments are made of, when a student can connect one idea to something they already know or to a different subject and the light bulb goes on brighter than usual.

Integrating STEM topics into other content areas isn't as difficult as you may think. It's all about your approach. The key is to start the lesson with STEM in mind. Let's say you're learning about the Civil War. Most lessons would start with the causes and then move on to the events and battles. But, imagine if you started a unit on the Civil War by researching the invention of the printing press in the 1830's and how the invention allowed for the quick sharing of communication and information throughout the states. Imagine if instead of reading about the injuries of soldiers, students researched why the Patent Office granted 133 patents for artificial limbs and prosthetic between 1861 and 1873. Lessons that begin with STEM topics, and allow students to make connections and think critically are more engaging and beneficial.

Who said language arts can't involve chemistry and mathematics? How fun would it be to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after experimenting with making different kinds of candies using different materials? Students can make rock candy using sugar and water, measure, examine and classify the crystals under a microscope, and then enjoy their chemical creations while reading the book. Hands on, scientific learning brings literature to life!

Integrating STEM topics and exploration naturally into our homeschooling and classroom lessons is essential if we want our children to have a bright future. But, it doesn't have to be a chore! Understanding the impact and importance of STEM, integrating it into every subject, and allowing students to dive deeply into the topics that interest them are the keys to helping the future generation take hold and appreciate the value of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

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Integrating STEM Across Content Areas: The Key to a Brighter Future for Us and Them

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by Kimberly Kulp We often ask children what they "want to be" when they grow up. Astronaut, chef, teacher, or, for 8-year-old me, President. Encouraging dreams are healthy and important regardless of how those dreams change over time. As parents we often worry about our children's future, what they will become, how they will interact with and impact the world around them.

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The Importance Of                     STEM

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The Importance Of                     STEM

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The commentary displays the importance of STEM in the world along with the many careers that are associated with STEM.

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This article focuses on defining STEM education and a curriculum centered around it. The article highlights the importance of STEM in elementary, middle, and high school subjects.

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Credit: alphaspirit | Shutterstock

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications.

Though the United States has historically been a leader in these fields, fewer students have been focusing on these topics recently. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 16 percent of high school students are interested in a STEM career and have proven a proficiency in mathematics. Currently, nearly 28 percent of high school freshmen declare an interest in a STEM-related field, a department website says, but 57 percent of these students will lose interest by the time they graduate from high school.

As a result, the Obama administration announced the 2009 "Educate to Innovate" campaign to motivate and inspire students to excel in STEM subjects. This campaign also addresses the inadequate number of teachers skilled to educate in these subjects. The goal is to get American students from the middle of the pack in science and math to the top of the pack in the international arena.

Thirteen agencies are partners in the Committee on Stem Education (CoSTEM), including mission science agencies and the U.S. Department of Education. CoSTEM is working to create a joint national strategy to invest federal funds in K-12 STEM education, increasing public and youth STEM engagement, improving the STEM experience for undergraduates, reaching demographics underrepresented in STEM fields, and designing better graduate education for the STEM workforce. The Department of Education now offers a number of STEM-based programs, including research programs with a STEM emphasis, STEM grant selection programs and general programs that support STEM education.

The Obama administration's 2014 budget invests $3.1 billion in federal programs on STEM education, with an increase of 6.7 percent over 2012. The investments will be made to recruit and support STEM teachers, as well as support STEM-focused high schools with STEM Innovation Networks. The budget also invests into advanced research projects for education, to better understand next-generation learning technologies.

All of this effort is to meet a need. According to a report by the website STEMconnector.org, by 2018, projections estimate the need for 8.65 million workers in STEM-related jobs. The manufacturing sector faces an alarmingly large shortage of employees with the necessary skills - nearly 600,000. The field of cloud computing alone will have created 1.7 million jobs between 2011 and 2015, according to the report. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2018, the bulk of STEM careers will be:

Computing - 71 percent

Traditional Engineering - 16 percent

Physical sciences - 7 percent

Life sciences - 4 percent

Mathematics - 2 percent

STEM jobs do not all require higher education or even a college degree. Less than half of entry-level STEM jobs require a bachelor's degree or higher. However, a four-year degree is incredibly helpful with salary - the average advertised starting salary for entry-level STEM jobs with a bachelor's requirement was 26 percent higher than jobs in the non-STEM fields, according to the STEMconnect report. For every job posting for a bachelor's degree recipient in a non-STEM field, there were 2.5 entry-level job postings for a bachelor's degree recipient in a STEM field.

This is not a problem unique to the United States. In the United Kingdom, the Royal Academy of Engineering reports that the Brits will have to graduate 100,000 STEM majors every year until 2020 just to meet demand. According to the report, Germany has a shortage of 210,000 workers in the mathematics, computer science, natural science and technology disciplines.

What separates STEM from the traditional science and math education is the blended learning environment and showing students how the scientific method can be applied to everyday life. It teaches students computational thinking and focuses on the real world applications of problem solving. As mentioned before, STEM education begins while students are very young:

Elementary school - STEM education focuses on the introductory level STEM courses, as well as awareness of the STEM fields and occupations. This initial step provides standards-based structured inquiry-based and real world problem-based learning, connecting all four of the STEM subjects. The goal is to pique students' interest into them wanting to pursue the courses, not because they have to. There is also an emphasis placed on bridging in-school and out-of-school STEM learning opportunities.

Middle school - At this stage, the courses become more rigorous and challenging. Student awareness of STEM fields and occupations is still pursued, as well as the academic requirements of such fields. Student exploration of STEM related careers begins at this level, particularly for underrepresented populations.

High school - The program of study focuses on the application of the subjects in a challenging and rigorous manner. Courses and pathways are now available in STEM fields and occupations, as well as preparation for post-secondary education and employment. More emphasis is placed on bridging in-school and out-of-school STEM opportunities.

Much of the STEM curriculum is aimed toward attracting underrepresented populations. Female students, for example, are significantly less likely to pursue a college major or career. Though this is nothing new, the gap is increasing at a significant rate. Male students are also more likely to pursue engineering and technology fields, while female students prefer science fields, like biology, chemistry, and marine biology. Overall, male students are three times more likely to be interested in pursuing a STEM career, the STEMconnect report said.

Ethnically, Asian students have historically displayed the highest level of interest in the STEM fields. Prior to 2001, students of an African-American background also showed high levels of interest in STEM fields, second only to the Asian demographic. However, since then, African-American interest in STEM has dropped dramatically to lower than any other ethnicity. Other ethnicities with high STEM interest include American Indian students.

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STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications.