Objectives:

• To illustrate to Teacher-Candidates how English Language Arts(both reading and writing) and Mathematics are integral to STEM Education

• To give experience in creating interdisciplinary lesson plans

• To learn to guide students in managing project work

• To integrate reading and writing through research and journaling

• To integrate mathematics via data recording, display, and computer programming

DESE: Integrating ELA and Math with Science and Engineering

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education(DESE) recommends that K-5 classrooms spend at least 2-3 hours per week on science and technology/engineering. Often teachers, even in well-funded districts, find it a struggle- given the emphasis on English Language Arts(ELA) and mathematics- not to mention social studies and art- to consistently devote this time. But it should not be an either-or proposition. By integrating reading, writing, and math skills with science and engineering- as recommended by DESE- teachers can integrate the teaching of both skill areas.

Literacy in the Context of a Well-Rounded Curriculum

The standards in this Framework are focused on English language arts and literacy. But to be truly literate, students need to acquire wide-ranging knowledge of the world learned through a well-balanced curriculum. Content knowledge is the indispensable companion to improved reading comprehension, since a child needs background knowledge about a topic in order to identify the main ideas and details of an informational text, or to understand how and why events unfold in a historical novel.1 All through the elementary grades, students need to be immersed in classrooms, schools, and libraries that provide a wide variety of books and media at different levels of complexity in a variety of genres—both literature and nonfiction. They need daily activities in which they develop language skills, mathematical understanding and fluency, understanding of experimentation and observation in science, creative experience in visual and performing arts, and the ability to interact with the community in a variety of ways.

The pre-K–5 standards include expectations for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language applicable to a range of subjects, including ELA, social studies, science, mathematics, the arts, and comprehensive health.

The standards insist that instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language be a shared responsibility within the school. This is particularly important in middle and high schools, where students encounter a number of teachers from different academic departments daily. The grades 6–12 standards are divided into two sections: one for ELA; and the other for history/social studies, science, mathematics, and career and technical subjects. This division reflects the unique, time-honored place of ELA teachers in developing students’ literacy skills and literary understandings while at the same time recognizing that teachers in other disciplines have a particular role in developing students’ capacity for reading and writing informational text.

It should be noted that recent revisions of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Science and Technology/Engineering (2016) and Mathematics (2017) also highlight literacy in their Guiding Principles and Practice Standards. The reason for placing literacy standards and guiding principles in each discipline’s framework is twofold: first, this approach allows each discipline to articulate the literacy skills that are most appropriate to college and career readiness in that field; second, educators in each subject area will be able to easily locate standards and guiding principles for incorporating literacy within the frameworks they consider their own. As the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks in other areas are revised in the future, educators from each subject area will likely be asked to address disciplinary literacy in their fields of study.

Reflective journaling in stem projects:

A daily log of notes and reflections is an important part of any engineering project. A weblog(blog) is one convenient way of making and sharing these notes. Reflecting on failures and struggles is as valuable and often more valuable than reflecting on successes!

Typical content for a blog entry might include (1) what work was done today, using text and one or two photos;(2) Successes, challenges, and questions; (3) plans for the next work day ; (4) Computer code listings, either shared directly in the blog or via a link to Google Drive- all too often, work comes to a halt because the 'code kid' is absent. Hand drawings in the engineering notebook can be captured using a pdf app such as Turboscan.

By journaling online, via Blogger ( https://www.blogger.com/) , SeeSaw( https://web.seesaw.me/), you can invite comments and suggestions from others to improve and expedite project development.

If you think your project is worth sharing to a wider audience, consider writing an Instructable ( https://www.instructables.com/create/ ).

See High Tech High's Project Design Guide for more on capturing intermediate products.

Blogging platforms:

• Blogger https://www.blogger.com/ Tutorial: https://youtu.be/wqYBa-zGsNQ

• SeeSaw https://web.seesaw.me/ Tutorials: https://web.seesaw.me/training

• Wordpress https://wordpress.com/create-blog/

Examples( MIT Engineering Design Workshop):

• Jonathan Dietz's Blog: https://dietzedw2019.blogspot.com/

• ​Tur6o6ix Blog: https://tur6o6ix.home.blog/

• The Auspicious Black Bears' Blog: https://theauspiciousblackbears.blogspot.com/

• BurtsBots https://burtsbotsedw.blogspot.com

In-class Activity: Setting up a Blog

Novel Engineering

https://www.novelengineering.org/

Inspired by kids and grounded in research, Novel Engineering is an innovative approach to integrate engineering and literacy in elementary and middle school.

Students use existing classroom literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.

Edutopia: Using Science to Bring Literature to Life

https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-science-bring-literature-life

Science Note-taking
https://www.calacademy.org/educators/science-notebooks-for-notetaking