PBL Incorporates STEM Best Practices

Introduction

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math are integrated in many professions; engineers, designers, and creators use the engineering cycle to guide their use of scientific observation and calculations. The best engineering and problem-solving projects depend on collaboration in teams, using technology to facilitate communication, measurement, and replication as the teams develop solutions. I have been considering the involvement, buy-in, and social and emotional learning of my students in a small middle school, and I believe offering students the chance to integrate STEM in school brings them a preparation for adulthood they may otherwise not experience. The students have an opportunity to solve relevant problems and engage with their learning community. They make predictions, they develop solutions, and they become experts in their field. Over the course of this integration, the students can be engaged, they can learn the skills important in adulthood, and they can even enjoy parts of their learning. A model that incorporates this level of STEM pedagogy is Project-Based Learning, PBL. In the following pages, I have developed an assertion that successful STEM teaching can be framed around four best practices, and that Project-Based Learning as a teaching approach encompasses all four. It has been documented that the STEM higher education pipeline in the United States is limited, and that American students are not prepared for higher level STEM in high school and college (Newman, Dantzler, & Coleman 2015). Quality STEM teaching allows students to develop higher level thinking skills and enter higher education and industry with better preparation. STEM Best Practices, for the sake of this discussion, are educational philosophies around which teaching and learning practices can be centered. In each section, I describe the best practice citing various sources, then use a PBL model to give examples of the teaching and learning actions that are embedded in that best practice.

STEM is Authentic

STEM is Learner-Centered

STEM is Interdisciplinary

STEM is Collaborative

References

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