Teachers in elementary schools these days are starting to hear more and more about the need for early adoption of STEM education. For some elementary school classes, this has proven to be more of a problem than many anticipated. In some cases, teachers have experienced significant pressure to completely re-work their curriculum. As might be expected, some teachers have also struggled to adapt their teaching styles to meet STEM related goals, while also meeting unnecessary goals for standardized testing. This article will discuss some strategies and thoughts for encouraging STEM learning in the classroom while also meeting other learning goals.
The most fundamental aspect of reorienting classrooms activities and mindsets around STEM learning is to change the viewpoint. This may sound like an oversimplification, but really, many lessons can be reoriented towards fundamental STEM concepts. Students can learn to first hypothesize, followed by designing, modelling, experimenting, and repeating with modification in many contexts. Doing this also helps to encourage students to make connections between multiple disciplines. This fosters the ability to synthesize information to find creative solutions, which is one of the most important skills STEM education fosters.
Some institutions have tried to simply add technology to the classroom in an effort to increase STEM education. However, it should be noted that technology is only the ‘T’ in STEM, Adding tech isn’t the only thing, kids need to learn to use tech to make solving STEM problems easier, and they need guidance to do this.
CodeRev Kids is a Santa Monica, California organization which specializes in teaching children to love computers, science and programming through fun and interactive camps and afterschool programs. In addition to offering these programs at their location, CodeRev often coordinates with educators to help bring coding education to schools. If you wish to develop a program CodeRev is experienced and ready to help you create something new and innovative at your institution. They set themselves apart from other organizations with staff that is more knowledgeable and experienced than you find in other computer skills and programming courses for children, who are often also working tech professionals and veteran educators. Check them out today.