​Are You Approaching STEM Education All Wrong?

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Carl Sagan once said, “Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them.” It's true that conventional teaching methods do little to inspire a love of science and technology. A focus on rote learning not only limits students' understanding of science and math concepts, but it also contributes to waning STEM interest as children progress through school.
 
Getting students to stick with STEM requires a new approach. Here's what teachers can do to foster a love of science and technology in young learners.

Getting Comfortable with STEM 
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Before educators can instill STEM confidence in students, they need to get comfortable with STEM themselves. Elementary school teachers often feel apprehensive about teaching science and technology due to a lack of strong background in the subjects. A variety of STEM professional development courses cater to elementary teachers seeking to expand their STEM literacy. The most effective programs combine professional development with new curriculum materials.
 
Advanced teaching degrees also give teachers the opportunity to specialize with master's degree programs in science and mathematics education. With online degrees, current teachers can reap the benefits of an advanced degree without putting their careers on pause.

3 Rules for Effective STEM Education 

What makes STEM education stick? By following these simple rules, educators can design STEM lessons that emphasize creativity and critical thinking rather than content expertise.

1. Make it hands-on. Children learn better by doing. Make lessons project-based and have students explain their process in their own words.
2. Present tasks in context. Lessons are more meaningful when students can connect them to their world.
3. Focus on process over product. Encourage problem-solving and perseverance, and make sure students know it's okay to fail.

Tips to STEM-ify Your Curriculum 

How can teachers find time to foster creativity and experimentation when there are standards to meet? By building STEM education into everyday classroom materials.

• Design cross-curricular lessons that tie STEM to history, art, and other classroom topics.
• Build digital literacy by integrating technology into lesson plans.
• Opt for problems that require students to show their work over multiple choice.
• Encourage students to solve their own problems or collaborate with classmates before asking for help.
• Grade on process, not product, and celebrate mistakes.

STEM Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources
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Looking for fun ways to bring STEM into the classroom? These teacher-recommended resources are full of great ideas to enhance your STEM curriculum.

• BrainPOP is a fantastic teaching resource across the curriculum, but the real-world science and technology lessons especially shine.
• Education World is another website teachers can use for technology lesson planning.
• Don't forget to check out TeacherVision, with lesson plans and links to helpful resources like coding tools for early learners.
• Science Buddies offers free lesson plans for hands-on science instruction as well as classroom kits and science fair tools.
• TeachEngineering has a digital library of engineering lessons and activities for K-12, including activities that can be done at home for distance learning or homeschooling.
• Mashup Math aims to increase student engagement in math curriculum with fun (and free!) math videos, puzzles, and worksheets.

STEM Books for Students and Teachers 

Books are a great way to build the connections between science, math, engineering, and kids' everyday lives.

• Dream, Invent, Create is a popular book and teaching resource from Start Engineering. The 40-page publication is designed to introduce elementary and middle school students to the ways engineering shapes the world.
• Grow with STEM books by author LaTanya Brooks include Adam Baum: The Autistic Engineer and Marisol: A Little Girl with a Big Dream. These books are especially great for showing students underrepresented in STEM what's possible when they dream big. Included reading comprehension questions make the Grow with STEM series an excellent addition to the classroom library.
• Suzanne Slade's STEM books are another must-have for elementary teachers. With books about iconic STEM figures such as Katherine Johnson, Thomas Edison, and Anna Comstock, as well as a series on food chain reactions, Slade offers a wealth of kid-friendly STEM content.
• The National Science Teaching Association also releases an annual list of the best K-12 STEM books, so you'll never run out of great classroom content.

 
STEM careers are the future, but students won’t pursue STEM if it’s introduced in a way that’s difficult to engage with or understand. By rethinking your approach to STEM education, you can nurture a generation of students with the skills, passion, and confidence to succeed in STEM.

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