STEM or STEAM....What are the pros and cons?

By -
STEM/STEAM is the new buzz word everyone is using these days.  While I feel we have been doing this for quite some time, we just happen to have called it something else in years past.  Currently, in my county there are three middle schools.  Of the the three, two are doing STEM/STEAM exclusive teams.  My school is in the creating stage of STEM. Our administrators felt we should not rush into something without researching it and everyone is well versed in it ( Happy to be around people who are thinking rationally about this.)

Our STEM committee meets to brainstorm what needs to be asked of staff and the committee serves as a spokesperson within their department.  In these meetings there are quite a few concerns and many questions.  My questions to you are the following providing you are a STEM/STEAM school?

  1. What steps did you use to start your STEM program?
  2. How did you incorporate buy-in from staff, students, parents, and community?
  3. What committees were set up to bring your STEM plan to fruition?
  4. Did you all start STEM with one grade level or school-wide?
  5. What type of training was provided for staff?
I know the questions can go on forever.  Please share any pros and cons you have witnessed with your STEM school.  

If your school is thinking about STEM or if you are a STEM school here are a few examples of STEM lessons.


Here are some tips to applying STEM to your middle school lessons. We use a brain safety challenge as a lesson example, but the tips and strategies can apply to any STEM lesson.

Scroll down on this page and there are many sample STEM lessons for middle school:
http://www.stemcollaborative.org/additionalResources.html

Examples of STEM Projects for Math:



Also here is an article I read concerning colleges thinking about only providing funding to STEM majors versus other majors.  

The title is A Rising Call to Promote STEM Education and Cut Liberal Arts Funding in the New York Times.  Very interesting!


Comments

  1. HollyEliseFebruary 23, 2016 at 4:12 AM

    We are a STEAM focused charter school. Last year, teachers held two 50 minute STEAM classes a day. This had a major (negative) impact on assessment scores. The new administrator made the decision to take STEAM to one 50 minute class a day in August. He also ensures that the classes had educational backing and taught standards. In January, this changed to once a week with STEAM integration in the classroom through PBL. Our principal sent all certified staff members through a 3 - day PBL training through the Buck Institute. While there are some staff members that are not on board with this new approach, many are excited to gain classroom instruction time back with the integration of STEAM in their classroom through PBL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 25, 2016 at 5:49 AM

      Holly when you mentioned negative impact on assessment score was this due to teachers focusing energy on STEAM assignments versus required academic assignments?

      Delete
  2. TraciFebruary 23, 2016 at 6:27 AM

    My school started with a small group of teachers piloting STEM 2 years ago. Last year, half our school went to STEAM and the other half was still traditional. This year we took the arts out and moved it to the traditional side, so now we have 1/2 our school Humanities and 1/2 STEM. We started the process slow , so our teachers, parents and students would not be inundated with so much change. Committee wise, we had STEAM/STEM focus groups and a redesign committee that headed this change. We did PD for PL and the different type of online programs we were going to use throughout this process.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 25, 2016 at 5:48 AM

      Thanks Traci for sharing.

      Delete
    2. UnknownFebruary 27, 2016 at 10:51 AM

      I've learned through my project (STEM Initiative) that PL/PD has to be part of the transition towards embracing STEM/STEAM.

      Delete
  3. UnknownFebruary 27, 2016 at 10:49 AM

    Thanks so much for sharing these resources! I'm pretty sure we've chatted about this before, but my school is currently in the process of seeking Georgia STEM Certification, and my major project is focused and centered around that. We've made great strides and accomplished some really cool things in this second (implementation) year, but it is so much work! I think the hardest part is gaining a keeping teacher buy-in, and it feels like we're battling against the Milestones (state test) for merit, time, and priority. Gen-Ed teachers have a hard time grasping the concept that they're not giving up instructional time to "do STEM." It should be integrated learning, so the students are learning the standards through STEM. Tradition and fixed mindsets are very difficult to change though. How awesome would it be if we could have "High-Stakes STEM" instead of high stakes testing?

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownFebruary 29, 2016 at 6:34 PM

    Great points Charlie. I will bring your point to the committee that its going to be important to keep teacher buy in and integrated learning not extra learning.

    And YES it would be FANTABULOUS if we had "High-Stakes Stem" versus high stakes testing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Graduation/Promotion Task Force at Hampton High School

By -
Hampton High School being in it's second year of existence added a senior class this year and it has been found that many students eligible to graduate this year are in need of more than 8 credits which could be earned in the fall and spring semesters.  I have been tasked by my principal to lead a task force that will identify these eligible students and put into place strategies that will allow them to earn the additional credits and graduate this year.  Working with our lead counselor, graduation coach, department chairs, and other members of the administrative team students have been identified.  At our second meeting the task force used a variety of data to identify factors that have led to students falling behind credit wise on their path to graduation.  These factors could be; academic, behavioral, attendance, or a variety of all three. As the year progresses the graduation/promotion task force will be identifying underclassmen that are in danger of not being ...
Read more

Specific Role(s) of an AP

By -
In  my school, we have a total of three Assistant Principals. One does curriculum and testing while the other two handle discipline. Is this normal for a high school of approximately 1600 students? I am concerned about the role (pigeon hole) of our Assistant Principals. I would love to learn all of the roles of our APs but I feel like if I became an AP in this setting I would never do anything more than discipline or curriculum. I would love some feedback on the various roles some of you APs play in your schools.  
Read more

Disproportionate Impact of K-12 School Suspension

By -
Do you agree with the statement that dismissing a student for bad behavior in school often simply pushes that behavior out into the world? Majority of students in the Southern States that are suspended from public schools are black. Some people have referred to some schools that have a high suspension rate as "Prison Pipelines". Many districts are incorporating Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) to decrease the behavior students are typically written up for. PBIS schools have shown a decrease in the amount of students being suspended.  So what are school's role in addressing the diverse needs of our students and families that they serve. We cannot simply tolerate bad behavior in our schools to prevent suspension, but how do we put in supports that allow us to remediate behavior and provide students with a better opportunity?
Read more