Self-Assessment: Model
Progress Rubric Look-Fors: At least 3-4 times per year, in the vast majority of STEM-related courses, students take the lead in solving a problem or answering a question. This can be done, for example, when students engage in: creating and executing an investigation or experiment; creating and completing a cycle of the engineering design process; or creating and completing a cycle of computational thinking.
School Narrative & Linked Evidence
Over the past three years, Wellcome Middle School has demonstrated consistent, Model-level implementation of student-led design and inquiry across science, math, STEM Encore, and related interdisciplinary courses. At least 3–4 times per year, in the vast majority of STEM-related classes, students now take the lead in solving authentic problems, designing investigations, completing engineering design cycles, and engaging in computational thinking. This represents significant growth from prior years, during which design experiences were less frequent, less interdisciplinary, and not yet schoolwide.
Growth Over Three Years
Year 1 (2022–2023): Wellcome Middle School consistently met the Model indicator for Students Designing by ensuring that, in the vast majority of STEM-related courses, students engaged in multiple design and inquiry cycles each year. Design-based learning was most visible in science and STEM Encore through structured mini-challenges, engineering design tasks, and quarterly STEM Fridays that emphasized problem identification, testing solutions, and iteration. While implementation varied by content area, students regularly took the lead in investigations and engineering challenges, establishing a strong foundation for a schoolwide culture of design.
Year 2 (2023–2024): Building on this Model-level foundation, WMS strengthened coherence and depth of student design experiences across disciplines. Cross-curricular design challenges expanded as the STEM/AVID team intentionally planned interdisciplinary mini-challenges that required students to apply the engineering design process, data analysis, and modeling across science, STEM, and mathematics. Science teachers implemented Center for Inquiry Based Learning (CIBL) kits to standardize inquiry expectations, while math teachers embedded authentic design-based problem solving connected to real data sets. Students increasingly demonstrated ownership of the design cycle, including reflection and revision.
Year 3 (2024–2025): WMS sustained Model-level performance while refining consistency, alignment, and student agency. Design cycles now occur multiple times per quarter across science, STEM, and math, with vertically aligned expectations that scaffold design thinking from sixth through eighth grade. Interdisciplinary challenges are intentionally sequenced, and student-led investigations are an explicit expectation across the STEM/AVID team. Evidence housed on the school’s Google Site documents a sustained, schoolwide culture in which inquiry, engineering design, and iterative problem solving are embedded as core instructional practices rather than isolated events.
Science & STEM Encore Examples
Students regularly lead investigations and engineering design cycles in all science courses:
6th Grade Science:
Space Exploration Mini-Challenge – Engineering blueprint design for a rover
Poster Pollution Challenge – Student-driven research and solution proposals
Paper Cup Tower Challenge – Full engineering design cycle
Chinese Papers (Science + Social Studies + Math data analysis)
Asian Pacific Music Challenge – Wave science + instrument engineering
CIBL Kits: Energy & Waves – Student-designed investigations
7th Grade Science:
Rube Goldberg Challenge – Integration of forces, motion, simple machines
Toy Car Lab – Students created and executed their own experimental designs
Index Card Tower Challenge
Trench Foot Investigation – Scientific + mathematical data collection
CIBL Kits: Genetics, Cells & Systems
8th Grade Science:
Spaghetti Tower Challenge
Gem & Mineral Inquiry Exploration
Balloon Tower Design Challenge
Science Expression Through the Arts – Student-selected mediums
Social Issues Research Script (Science + ELA + Math)
Microorganisms PSA Design Challenge (Science + Social Studies)
STEM Science & Careers in STEM (Expeditions)
Pitsco Expeditions add structured, student-led, design-focused modules, including:
Future Footprints
Engineering Rockets
Beyond Earth
Innovating Solutions
Electric Tech
Rolling Robots
Math Examples
Math teachers now embed student-led design cycles into:
Data collection investigations (speed labs, temperature models, proportional reasoning challenges)
Engineering tasks requiring calculations, measurement, graphing, and analysis
Cross-content projects where math students model real-world data from the mini-challenges (e.g., analyzing ramp height vs. speed from the Toy Car Lab, calculating apogee in Engineering Rockets, graphing population/microorganism data in the PSA challenge)
Math integration has grown substantially: from occasional enrichment tasks in Year 1 to regular, intentional integration supporting STEM investigations schoolwide by Year 3.
6th Grade Math
Chinese Paper Mini-Challenge:
Students measure mass, thickness, drying time, and durability of handmade paper samples; analyze variability; create graphs; and determine optimal material combinations based on data.
Asian Pacific Music Challenge:
Students calculate wave frequencies, compare pitch changes based on instrument length, and graph sound wave patterns generated by their engineered instruments.
Pollution & Conservation Posters:
Students collect simple numerical data (water usage, energy consumption, recycling rates) and create charts or proportional models to support conservation solution proposals.
Space Rover Design:
Students calculate dimensions, scale, and weight distribution while designing rover blueprints; use ratio reasoning for proportional scaling.
Paper Cup Tower Challenge:
Students measure tower height, calculate stability ratios (height-to-base-width), and model how design changes affect structure strength.
7th Grade Math
Toy Car Lab:
Students calculate speed using distance/time, compare average speeds at different ramp heights, graph relationships, and design a new investigation using a different variable (mass, surface type, friction).
Rube Goldberg Challenge:
Students apply proportional reasoning to determine the spacing, height, and timing of machine components; calculate distances and rate changes between steps.
Index Card Tower Challenge:
Students calculate structural efficiency (height per card), graph results across teams, and revise design plans based on mathematical patterns.
Trench Foot Investigation:
Students measure temperature change in water, calculate rates of heat loss, and analyze time-series data; connect proportional change to osmosis effects in the science portion.
CIBL Genetics & Cells Kits:
Students calculate probabilities in Punnett squares, analyze trait distribution, and create data charts to support conclusions.
8th Grade Math
Balloon Tower Challenge:
Students calculate surface area, volume, and tension ratios; evaluate design stability using geometric reasoning; and graph height vs. structural base width.
Spaghetti Towers:
Students test structural load-bearing capacity, calculate force distribution, and compare class datasets to determine engineering best practices.
Gem & Minerals Inquiry:
Students classify mineral samples using numerical properties (hardness scale, density), measure volume/mass, and calculate density to justify identifications.
Science Expression Through the Arts Project:
Students model pandemic data (infection curves, rates of change), analyze trends, and use graphs as part of their expressive presentation.
Microorganisms PSA (8th Science + Math):
Students model exponential growth, graph infection rates, compare replication cycles, and evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies using math-based evidence.
Social Issues Research Script:
Students analyze climate data trends (temperature, CO₂ levels, sea level rise) and integrate mathematical models into cross-curricular research.
CIBL Kits:
Students model wave frequency, analyze energy transfer, and calculate changes in system variables throughout investigations.
The table shows the different STEM experiences that our students participated in based on the classes that they were in. Science and Social Studies did many cross-curricular activities. The math Strategies That Engage Minds activities dealt with designing and having to perform calculations.
While completing the STEM activities, students are to use the STEM Challenge Blueprint. The blueprint allows students to work in groups, assign roles, sketch out their designs, and reflect at the end. Students are to follow the Engineering Design Process as well.
6th Grade Science and Social Studies collaborated every 9 weeks to complete mini-challenges. Below are the slide decks.
The Rovers mini challenge was complete during the 1st 9 weeks. With this challenge, students were tasked to build a rover using Vex Robots.
6th grade students put their Anciet Egypt knowledge to the test in a pyramid building challenge. Students designed adn built freestanding pyramids. The winner of the challenge built the tallest pyramid in the shortest amount of time!
The ancient history mini-challenge took different materials and the students had to create the tallest pyramid
With this mini-challenge, students were tasked with taking the information they learned about volcanoes in science class and the history behind the volcano eruption in Pompeii to design their own volcano.
The sound waves mini challenge integrated science, social studies, and music standards. Students were learning about longitudinal waves (sound waves) and were tasked with designing an instrument based on the cultures they were discussing in social studies. They then had to record themselves playing a song with their instruments using flip.
Gingerbread House
Seventh-grade Social Studies students were studying the Scientific Revolution. During class, they learned about the Scientific Method and completed a lab activity on Elephant Toothpaste
Mr. Gamble's 7th grade Social Studies Classes wored in small groups to conduct inquiry on key figures and their contributions during the Scientific Revolution and the impact they had on the Science Community.
Eighth-grade math students learned about functions (input and output) and got to design a roller coaster as part of their lesson.
Math 1 students started an experiment to observe growth of their plants over several days. Students will collect data to create a scatterplot and derive a linear regression line to predict how tall and how many leaves it will have after three weeks.
The slide decks below represent the school-wide STEM activities in which students had an opportunity to design. Students were tasked with a problem that they needed to solve using the Engineering Design Process or the cycle of Computational Thinking.