Unit 1: Introduction to STEM
Reflection Questions
- Read one of the examples of a Unit Plan to teach integrated STEM from our website (or another example as assigned). With a peer or in a small group, discuss what surprises you the most about the integrated learning experienced described. Also, discuss what levels of integration you notice in the activities described.
- The Worms are Dancing! focuses on a preschool classroom’s experiences over time, integrated across domains, with life science at the center. An undergraduate early childhood teacher candidate and a practicing teacher were co-authors.
- More examples of articles and projects can be found at the EC STEM Lab website. The articles noted above have been posted at EC STEM Lab with permission from the publishers.
- Interactive notebooks. Read more about interactive notebooks below, which are an example of another way of encouraging integrated STEM learning. Then, follow the instructions that follow.
- Interactive notebooks are an elementary student’s ongoing record of their learning. Each individual student creates their own notebook and uses it to answer teacher questions, record data, draw graphs and sketches, analyze results, and more depending how the notebook is used in the classroom. Teachers have a lot of freedom with the content of the notebooks as well as how they are utilized in the classroom. More than Data: Using Interactive Science Notebooks to Engage Students in Science and Engineering is a great resource to learn more about how to use interactive notebooks and how to include them in your classroom.
- Choose one example interactive notebook, like the project in 2nd grade called Sailing into Integration. This project is also described in Unit 8. An undergraduate elementary education pre-service teacher and a practicing teacher were co-authors. Discuss with peers the strengths and challenges of such an approach.
