Blog Post 5 - What Makes A Strong STEMS Unit?

What should a STEMS unit look like? I think a STEMS Unit should be one that is first and foremost engaging to our students, relevant to the standards and benchmarks, and of course has our STEMS perspective rolled into it. The unit should be more than just scratching the surface of their core subjects, but should enable the students to delve deeper and ask those higher level questions. It should have the students thinking beyond what we cover in class and having them thinking "what else"? With Mathematics I am constantly telling my students, you don't stop using the Math skills you learned in previous grades it is the foundation of where we will be going. We need to use those skiils as stepping stones to be able to push ourselves further so we get the deeper meaning and fuller understandings. To get the students engaged, we need to have those hands on experiences where they are able to see the real-life appication and so they don't have to ask the question...when in life am I going to use this? The students need to see the relevance to their own lives because it is that personal connection that helps them to buy into what we are teaching them.

What kinds of experiences are students and teachers engaged in? Students and teachers are focused and learning off of each other. It is a space of give and take. We are sharing our own experiences and are relating it to our students so that they are able to make their own personal connections. Once that happens, they are able to take ownership of their learning and they are able to put value in it. It is no longer just a field trip, but a learning journey that pulls everything that was taught together. It is not just a guest speaker, but a specialist within their field that is willing to share their expertise with our students. It no longer just getting up and being active, but having hands on activities where we are totally emersed in the activity and we're able to see things through a new learning lense.  Once we have these types of experiences, we are then able to have the conversations with our students and these discussions that are student driven versus teacher driven.

How long is a unit that allows space and time for such experiences? I think how long a unit is will vary from unit to unit and from subject to subject. Typically a unit will be dependent on whatever content I am trying to cover. This unit can then be broken down into smaller lessons. As for the amount of time it takes that is another variable in the equation. Each class period is normally one lesson within the unit as I have seventy-five minute periods. I believe there needs to be that flexibility to allow the time and space needed to have these experiences.

What qualities and/or characteristics should be present in all STEMS units? Of course with everything that has been said thusfar, there has to be the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics part of STEMS along with the Social Studies and Sense of Place. As teachers, we are no longer acting alone, but should be working hand in hand with our teammates and having these interdisciplinary units where the students see the relevance across every subject of their education. We need to have resources available for our students to get that deeper knowledge so we can stop just scratching the surface. Every class will be different in what they get out of the unit because of what their input into the unit. We are no longer able to teach the same thing year in and year out because education is constantly changing and reinventing itself and becoming more relevant to us as teacher and of course as learners.