Reflective Blog on STEM Education



If I was explaining STEM education to a friend or family member, I would just explain that it is a more modernized way of teaching that depends on integrating content from numerous disciplines. Within the acronym, there are the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Students whom are the participants of STEM education are being given a chance to connect the content they are learning to the real world. Generally, I view educators as being the one who prepares our students for the road ahead. Therefore, I view STEM educators as the individuals who will develop our youth into being critical thinkers that will be able to apply their habits of success to their aspiring career fields post-graduation.



Based on the criteria that I had mentioned previously, I do think that STEM education is extremely important for not only educating adolescents but also adults. As we all know the world is ever changing and is adapting to the wants and needs of citizens. In the past two years, the science curriculum has been modified to reflect the performance standards and expectations set by the Next Generations Science Standards (NGSS). This new curriculum is facilitated with cross cutting concepts in which students are able to take the skills that they have learned and apply those same skills to other classes they take while in the secondary education setting. In addition, students will be able to build habits of success that will make them more employable post-graduation. Careers have expanded its horizons to where there are more employment opportunities for individuals who have completed coursework in STEM. Ultimately, I am a high school Biology teacher and all that I want for my students is for them to graduate with as many opportunities as possible.



With this being my first year of teaching, I have had many opportunities to attend professional development days where I got to take a closer look at the curriculum and realize that there is an increased need of students to be able to work closely with the cross curricular concepts set by the new science standards. These include cause and effect, structure and function, systems and system models, scale, proportion, and quantity, stability and change, energy and matter, patterns. Within each of these concepts, I can see where students will be need to use skills that they learned in math in order to interpret graphs presented in science to determine what the overall trend is and how this will give rise to promoting stability in our changing world. In addition, state testing for high schoolers is changing where students will be taking the MISA exam as opposed to the HAS. Due to this coursework, students will take the MISA after successfully completing three science courses of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. With this change in testing, it further emphasizes the need for students to have more exposure to STEM education.  

I had looked through the live binder for resources that emphasizes the importance of STEM education. In the article "Why STEM?" it was mentioned that, "there a numerous examples of how teachers have involved students in problem-solving activities and, as a result, have excited them about education while teaching them how to better cope with the world around them." (Deangelis, n.d.). I find that this supports the ideal of STEM education being important to our students because of the critical thinking and problem solving skills that students obtain from this type of education. While we were at residency last weekend, we defined science as how the world works. When we teach STEM education to our students, they are being active learners where they tap into high order thinking to solve real world problems. In addition, I had come across this post on Facebook that had a picture of an apple being held in the hands of a teacher. The caption of this post was that teachers make all other professions possible. As a new teacher, I am always reminded to remember my why. My why for teaching and why I chose to become a part of this rewarding profession. For my students they are enrolled in a tech area that is reflective of the career path that they wish to embark on after graduation. Therefore, it is equally important that they remember their why. They will be able to use this motivation to have an open mind and an open heart in learning with the new changes to the curriculum.  

Reference:
Deangelis, S.F. (n.d.). Why STEM? Success starts with critical thinking, problem solving skills. 
        Wired. Retrieved from




 


Comments

  1. Earth, Space, Rock 'n' RollAugust 31, 2019 at 3:10 PM

    Hi Bre,
    I agree with you 1000% that I want all children to have as many opportunities as possible and STEM education can make that a reality. Five years ago, if I had been asked this question, I would probably have said that STEM education is good preparation for anyone wanting to pursue a STEM career. But now I believe that STEM education is good preparation for ALL students for life after school, no matter what career path they want to follow. That's what makes STEM so exciting for me-we have the chance to all students the skills they need to be successful on whatever journey they take. We get to open their eyes to what's possible!
    -Wenona

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