ST1.3

Students are empowered to personalize and self-direct their STEM learning experiences supported by STEM educators who facilitate their learning.

Empowering students to become life-long learners is a primary focus for the faculty at University Place Elementary School. We believe that it is imperative for students to learn how to track and question their own learning and progress. Our students are encouraged to focus on their personal interests, to research topics that inspire them, to take chances in their learning, and to fail on the first attempt. The teachers at UPES create a classroom and school culture that is joyous, safe, and respectful to all learners. We create an environment where students feel safe to make mistakes. We believe that failure is paramount to developing critical thinking and problem solving skills and all students are part of a safe learning community that promotes risk taking. The teachers at UPES view failure as an opportunity for students to guide their own learning. Having to solve the same problem multiple times provides students with opportunities to redesign, re-imagine, collaborate with peers, and to further master the content being learned.

It's Your Choice

While some disciplines are not traditionally included under the STEM umbrella, they still offer opportunities to utilize STEM specific skills. Being able to effectively communicate, present, and share ideas through technology is paramount to attaining success at all academic levels. Technology is a major component of our Social Studies curriculum. For example, 5^th grade students have completed several projects that have utilized technology in order to provide them with a sense of agency on how they demonstrate their understanding of a concept. As we know, students tend to learn more when the content is presented in various ways and their learning is assessed through several different methods. The students are given choice boards as means of promoting academic autonomy. For the latest project, the students chose one of the thirteen colonies and researched information about the colony. A kid-friendly rubric outlined project expectations and allowed the students to self-evaluate their own performance. Along with the rubric, a choice board was provided to each student. It included the following options: Advertisement Poster, Newspaper Article, Powtoon or Powerpoint, Comic Strip, Script, Letter, Rap, and a Free space (student choice). By integrating technology choices for their delivery method the students not only enjoyed creating their projects but also felt as if they had control over their learning.

Club Day

To foster a love of learning and grow life-long learning habits it is imperative to promote a learning environment that is founded in creating intrinsic motivation and a sense of responsibility and pride in all learners. One way that we create a learning environment that is personalized and empowers students to grow their STEM learning skills is through our monthly Club Day. Students are provided with a list of available clubs and allowed to choose their club based on their interests and strengths as learners. This is a time where students in multiple grade levels, who share a common interest are provided a designated time to share learning and experiences. A few of our most popular STEM clubs for our students are coding, science, young engineers, Lego, hotwheels track designing, 3-D printing, computer gaming, model building, kitchen chemistry, and robotics. Each of these clubs allows our learners the opportunity to grow in STEM foundational skills. It is a time and place for them to practice crucial STEM literacy skills like collaboration, reasoning, problem solving, designing, building, perseverance, and critical thinking.

STEM Leadership Jobs

As part of teaching the students at University Place Elementary to be leaders of their own learning, the faculty at UPES has created both classroom and school-wide leadership jobs for students. One way that teachers encourage students to pursue STEM learning interests is via these leadership jobs. Many of these positions directly utilize STEM specific skills. We have Computer Leaders, Lego Leaders, Robotics Leaders, Garden Leaders, Sound System Leaders, and STEAM Team Leaders. For example, a student that has been awarded the position of Sound System Leader is responsible for setting up the speakers, mics, and PA system for all school assemblies and events. The Computer Leader helps out younger students in the computer lab by assisting and troubleshooting with coding, research projects, and other classroom assignments. Every student has strengths and it is the job of the teacher to promote student growth and learning by focusing on each student's interest and abilities. With school-wide leadership jobs the students at UPES are able to simultaneously grow leadership and STEM skills in a way that is interesting to them.

Report abuse