Standard 1.7

STEM educators collaborate as an interdisciplinary team to plan, implement, and improve integrated STEM learning experiences.

Just as collaboration is a key aspect for St. Louis students as they work and learn in a STEM environment, so too is collaboration a key for our SLS educators as they plan, implement, and improve integrated STEM experiences. At St. Louis School, teachers in grade levels have weekly common planning time built into their schedules which they can use to collaborate on STEM lesson planning. We have also scheduled Common Planning Times about once each month (typically on Thursdays, listed in our 2019-2020 calendar as 9/5, 11/21, 12/5, 1/30, and 3/12) to allow for inter grade-level STEM planning. Our STEM Coordinator also has scheduled time in which to meet with colleagues to innovate and execute STEM projects. Adding more frequent common planning time is one area in which we hope to continue to improve.

At SLS, several days each year are designated as school-wide STEM activity days, and teachers are encouraged to collaborate with colleagues in other grade levels to plan an inter-class activity. During our 2018-2019 school year, Valentine’s Day was designated as a fun STEM morning. A “Wonder Wall” was set up in our faculty room to give teachers a chance to ask and share STEM ideas prior to the 14th. Among the many activities that took place that day, 1st Graders worked with 7th Graders to fold and test the jumping abilities of origami frogs. They compared measurements and brainstormed ways to make the frog jump farther.

Later that month on February 28th, 2019, SLS celebrated Digital Learning Day! And May 28th, 2019 was designated as a school-wide “Creative Problem Solving and Innovation Day”. These designated days have quickly become yearly traditions which allow us to sustain our collaborative efforts toward STEM-based learning.

Interdisciplinary Units

Teachers at SLS collaborate to create and execute multi-day STEM units and review and assess student work together. This also represents one of our strengths. In the primary grades, 3rd Grade and Kindergarten collaborate on a hydroponics experiment. Classroom teachers, our Media Specialist and several teaching assistants are involved in implementing this project. As another example, our middle school Science and Art teachers collaborated on a STEM-based project, combining the design of a complex machine and the drawing of blueprints, inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Final assessments for each subject include rubrics that the two teachers review together to evaluate student work.

SLS has also established a Student Advocacy Team (SAT) which consists of teachers from all disciplines who meet weekly (rotating between Grades 5,6,7,8 and our Illuminations Program) to discuss student achievement and growth.