Schools, policymakers, businesses are all taking STEM - what a 'buzz phrase'! Who has a clear definition? Do we all mean the same thing?
Some of the Maine Governor's Academy Fellows were recently meeting, and wanted to see if we could develop our own operational definition: What do we mean by STEM?
So, who wants to start the conversation? Please share your thoughts, definitions from some of your resources (eg. STEM Lesson Essentials, The Case for STEM Education) - and let's see what we come up with!
I mentioned that I would post the definition that Jo Anne Vasquez, Cary Sneider, and Michael Comer developed for their book Stem Lesson Essentials:
ReplyDelete"STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning which removes the traditional barriers separating the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and integrates them into real world, rigorous and relevant learning experiences for students."
I think for me the key words are integration and application of a combo of skills that have traditionally been separated by schools...isn't true learning the application and transfer of skills, and lots of practice, which includes lots of good old failure?
Henry,
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. Your last sentence summarizes my engineering class motto, "hurry up and fail" (so you can do it again, only better!).
I was told about the MIT motto on their seal "mens et manus" last night. It means Mind and Hand. So not surprising, this concept of combining the the two is far from new.
I'm not much of a 'definition' guy, in the sense that if it were on my wall it wouldn't change my way of teaching. Instead I internalize/personalize the concepts and hope that is what comes out when I'm in front of my students. So, Henry I like where you've started but am the wrong guy to add to it.
Henry makes a great point, and I see Steve is in agreement. The integration of what is thought of traditionally as content and application of skills are a critical component of the "new standards", whether we look at mathematics, science, engineering, and/or technology. The role of the teacher then becomes designing learning experiences that provide the time for practice/applying the content, 'failure' (hope we can call this something more positive), and reflecting, redesign, retesting, more reflecting. So, who wants to try to articulate this idea into our working definition of STEM? Any takers?
ReplyDeleteI like what Henry contributed from STEM Lesson Essentials. If I were a new teacher or an unsure teacher I would want parameters: Do all disciplines have to be incorporated for it to be considered a STEM lesson? Can integrate two, Science and Math? Do STEM lessons always have to be around Engineering?
ReplyDelete"STEM education can be an interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world problem-based and performance-based lessons. At this level, STEM education exemplifies the axiom "the whole is more than the sum of the parts."
This explanation came from a California STEM educator website.
Some commonalities and what I think should be in a STEM definition: real-world problem solving, transdisciplinary/interdisciplinary.
I would be happy if someone else wanted to begin a wordsmith process!
Me again; I LOVE this conversation so far - Diana, your two commonalties of real-world problem solving and trans- or inter-disciplinary are important to include. What I see with my young students is that they seem to have an innate understanding of how everything's connected- they have not yet divided up the disciplines like we do as adults, and separate everything. "The whole is more than the sum of the parts"
ReplyDeleteAs we converse together to come up with some kind of definition, I think we need to be careful at this point not to "brand" STEM. I see that STEM practitioners all around the are also defining STEM, coming at it from different stances- digital technology, engineering, science, etc - depending on their particular strength. I know that I approach STEM from a strong traditional science teaching background - that is my passion - but this year I have begun to incorporate the design/engineering piece through my introduction to EIE units - new territory for me, and it is enlightening. So I think we are all in this together, learning new things as we share ideas and struggle for a meaningful defintiion. It seems we are developing critieria, which I think is great.
I would LOVE, if I had the time, to get a shared site going where we could all show, through video/photos/writing, what STEM looks like in our separate classrooms/schools - another way to define it.
I can appreciate a concern with not wanting stifle with rigid definition and a need to have some sort of necessary guidance from having the definition. It is task that I feel we are capable of. I like your idea Henry - I think this is something that Dave Perloff is doing.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to gather video/images/writing of what STEM looks like in our classrooms/schools! Let's talk about this, either during the Apr 8th Skype session, or at our Apr 14th work session.
ReplyDeleteTo begin the semester I had my 8th graders work in small groups to define “design” and “engineering”. One of my favorite definitions was:
ReplyDelete“Our group decided that designs creating something or planning to create something using creativity. Engineering is to build something that has a purpose in the world.”
“STEM” to me is much more than simply the words science- technology -engineering -and math. STEM is not any one of the 4 disciplines taught in isolation, there needs to be all 4. The key part of defining STEM is the word “integrative”. Integrative STEM education clarifies it a little more for me. I think of “integrative STEM” as a verb or something you are doing while you are applying the 4 disciplines.
I think that Henry captured for me the essentials of what makes a STEM education "STEM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning which removes the traditional barriers separating the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and integrates them into real world, rigorous and relevant learning experiences for students."
Diana asked great questions: do STEM lessons always have to be about engineering? and can you combine 2 or do you always need all 4 to be a STEM lesson?
I do not think STEM has to be centered on engineering all of the time, but I do think design and engineering are some concrete ways to see integrative STEM take shape.
Just as important as defining STEM for me is defining a “STEM Lab”. I think that a STEM Lab needs to be integrative. An integrative STEM education should reach out and look at real world problems. When we solve problems in the real world we do not always have the time or convenience to break things down and say which part is math or which piece is scientific, we just look at what needs to be done and then get it done. I look at a STEM Lab or Integrative STEM kind of like this- where everything is intertwined and it is relevant and rigorous.
Back to the definitions that the kids wrote, I noticed that they were able to define “design & engineering” without mentioning STEM, but I like what they wrote, I think they understand and captured what they wanted to say.
If you would like to see some of the other definitions, feel free to check out my Tech Lab blog:
http://blogs.portlandschools.org/kmstechlab/2014/01/29/design-engineering-defined/#comments
-Gus