Return to Summer

Amazing STEM

amazingSTEMDue Date: July 25th, 2016

What goes into creating an amazing STEM related teaching/learning experience?

As educators we have all had these moments where everything comes together, the stars align and magic happens. It is harder in hindsight to capture what exactly happened—and to figure out how to make it happen again.

In this project we will work individually and in small groups to try and answer this question. Of course we understand that there is no single correct answer. But maybe collectively we can figure out the broad contours of designing such powerful learning experiences.

We know that each one of us brings to this beautiful profession a unique blend of experience, knowledge and passion: for teaching, for the STEM disciplines, for the learners in your care. So as a first step we will ask you to describe your most amazing teaching moment to your small group. This is meant to engage your group in a snippet of your lesson, through hands-on experience with your content. Once every group member has shared their moment we will work together to identify 5 key (big) ideas or themes that connect across these stories of teaching.

All of these will then be put into a book that we will print and share with you and with others. Yes, by the end of this, you will have had a part in authoring your very own book!  Together, we will be capturing what any lesson should include if it is to create the Amazing STEM experience for students.

Now for the details:

This project will be completed in 3 parts.

Part I: Teaching Demo

For purposes of efficiency you will need to assign some roles.

  • Note Taker – This person (or people) will be responsible for taking notes during the debriefing sessions. The note taker should use this template for the notes.
  • Photographer – This person will capture photos as each fellow is recreating their lesson experience. Try to capture pictures that are active and engaging (of the presenter and the “students”). Also capture pictures of artifacts that were shared or any other interesting visual tidbit.
  • Timekeeper – This person will make sure that the allotted time is not exceeded.

Tasks

  1. Amazing Teaching Moments:  Each group member will have 10 minutes to recreate a snippet of one of their most powerful teaching experiences from their classroom. This should be a learning experience steeped in STEM content (for example: ratios and proportions, ecological succession, scale, programming).  Start by providing your group with some context.  What grade level were you teaching?  Did the lesson take place with the whole group or a small group?  What was the purpose of your lesson; what concept were you trying to teach?  Make sure to be prepared with any materials and resources you will need for your demo.  Remember it is better to show than tell – so can you give your team members a glimpse of what it was like being in your class that day? Do you need props? Artifacts? to make that moment real… then bring them with you. If this is indeed your best work – it demands that you put your best foot forward, that you take a moment to bring that moment to life.
  2. Debrief:  Following each 10 minute teaching experience, the group will debrief for an additional 10 minutes using the following prompts.
  • Captivating Moments: What moments captivated you? Why?
  • Sparks of Curiosity: What were you curious about? What would you like to learn more about?
  • Application to other contexts: Could some elements of this activity be used in another context for some other content? Could YOU see yourself adapting it in some way?
  • Expanding and transforming: How could it be extended/made more powerful? What could be changed?
  • Hashtags:  What keywords would you use to describe this lesson? (ex: #Biology, #urbangardening, #studentchoice). Broad categories to consider are: Subject matter, key conceptual ideas, grade level, pedagogical approaches; students artifacts generated; modes of assessment; use of technology and so on.

The Note taker will record the group’s thoughts using this template.  The photographer will collate the photographs and email them to msurbanstem@gmail.com.

 

Part II: Identifying Common Themes and Threads

Now that each of you has seen each other’s amazing teaching moments and debriefed along the lines described above, it is time for Part II. You will start to identify commonalities, themes, and ideas that cut across these different examples.

  1. In this part, you will work as a group to identify commonalities, themes, and ideas that cut across these different examples. At this point, don’t be judgmental – just brainstorm a list of words, phrases, and ideas, that are common to the 5 stories you just heard.
  2. Through group discussion, filter your key component list down to the big 5 themes of an amazing STEM lesson. This may mean collapsing some of the ideas that emerged earlier, deleting others and so on. By the end of the day, you should have your BIG 5 ideas that are common to all the stories of amazing teaching that were shared.

Finally, you will write down your big 5 themes of an amazing STEM lesson and a brief explanation of (25 words max) for each of these 5 components in your notetaker’s debriefing document.

Group Hashtags:This is an opportunity to look back at the Hashtags you and generated for each of your amazing teaching moments. Do we have any new categories or tags that emerged? If so add it to your list. Note, broad categories to consider are: Subject matter, key conceptual ideas, grade level, pedagogical approaches; students artifacts generated; modes of assessment; use of technology and so on.

 

Part III: Final Submission (to be done individually, Due July 25th)

An important part of the activity is writing down your most amazing plan and submitting to us – to become a part of the book. (Please note, you can modify your plan based on the discussion with your group).

Now, you’ll make one copy of this document for your small group. In this document, each one of you will need to provide the following prose inside of the document:

  • Picture
  • Bio in third person (Maximum 50 words)
  • Narrative of your Amazing Teaching Moment, including necessary context for reader. This section should explain your powerful teaching moment and be written assuming the reader does not know the context in which it is delivered. Again attempt to capture the moment in words to share with others. You can edit your plan based on the feedback from the other members of your group (250 – 300 words)
  • A refined list of your hashtags (at least 7 hashtags) for indexing your lesson. Broad categories to consider are: Subject matter, key conceptual ideas, grade level, pedagogical approaches; students artifacts generated; modes of assessment; use of technology and so on.

And from the group as a whole, we will need the big 5 themes of an amazing STEM lesson, with explanations, on the last page of the small group document. ONE person from your group should share the document with msurbanstem@gmail.com and then place the link to the document in the ShareTracker.

End note: Preparing a book requires a significant level of effort and care. There will be multiple rounds of feedback and rewriting even after these three stages. If this is to be a quality production each of us needs to put in extra effort to make sure every detail is right, every i has been crossed and every t has been dotted (or is it the other way around?).