STEM CONTENT KNOWLEDGE: Students demonstrate STEM content knowledge representative of STEM literacy outcomes that prepare them for the next level of learning and work.
INITIATIVES/ACTIONS:
- Intentional planning for experiences that require students to think critically and problem solve
- Providing students with learning experiences dealing with global and local issues
- Providing resources for STEM learning
What Does It Look Like?
Over the last five years, we have been intentional with decisions to develop more inclusive STEM opportunities that benefit all students. As of the 2019-2020 school year, grades Kindergarten through five have one hundred and ten minutes of STEM in a six-day related arts rotation plus an additional seventy-five minutes a week in Engineering grades three through five. Additional time is available through the Makerspace Studio in Media Arts.
Through our STEM program, we endeavor to develop students who have a firm understanding of key concepts and knowledge of the STEM disciplines. The STEM lesson bank was developed by our teachers based on SC College and Career Readiness grade level standards. Additionally, Beaufort County School District has created curriculum guides using Rubicon Atlas that include common assessments which have been directly aligned to state standards.
In the building, we increased STEM content knowledge through the utilization of many programs designed to develop critical thinking. Science content knowledge is supported through Gizmos, Brainpop, Foss Kits, STC kits, Engineering is Elementary, and Delta Education Science kits along with Discovery Education Science Techbook. We have in-house PD days to develop teacher efficacy with the use of these materials. We are fortunate to have one-to-one devices for all students. Technology is utilized throughout the building for many purposes, such as Google, Pear Deck, Flocabulary, and Kami. Technology skills are taught within the classroom as well as through our computer science class. The engineering design process is used throughout the curriculum as teachers plan builds that apply to all content standards. Mathematical practices are developed through the use of several programs including Exemplars, Number Talks, IXL Math, DreamBox, and Exact Path in addition to the Ready Classroom Math curriculum.
Our program also strives to incorporate literacy to cultivate STEM knowledge with our students. Books were selected that matched each grade level’s science topics and placed in all the classrooms in order to support science instruction. Additionally, there are books that address real world problems. Teachers will use these books as springboards for learning. An example of this was a recent activity based on the book Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. After reading this book, several classes had their students design their own balloon floats. It is our goal that all students have meaningful opportunities to expand their communication skills both written and oral which will prove beneficial to students in their future educational experiences and life skills. We also strive to promote positive collaboration with peers in order to achieve goals, solve problems, and foster creativity.
Pictured: Students Write About STEM & Books that Support STEM Learning
All of these experiences, and the information gained, have helped our students to become STEM literate. This translates into our students having the ability to develop global awareness. Through our program, we have encouraged students to identify trends, anticipate possibilities, analyze data, construct explanations, and design solutions. One of the most important skills that we instill in our students is perseverance when solving problems. These skills will help them to be successful members of society.
Through STEM opportunities, we provide students with skills and knowledge that help prepare them for the next level of learning. One area in which we wish to improve is teaching our children to be global thinkers. Our goal is to increase the number of student experiences that focus on actual issues that people face. Through our STEM career fair, we introduce students to multiple career paths in the areas of STEM.
Strengths
The programs and initiatives that we have in place to support STEM literacy have an impact on student growth. Our staff has a voice in the decisions about what will be utilized to meet student needs.
Sustainability
We feel that all these practices have contributed to the school’s growth as shown on the South Carolina School Report Card. We are fortunate enough to have a wealth of materials for learning. We have access to many software programs that enhance learning through our one to one initiative. We also have many supplies for science materials. In addition, we designate a substantial portion of our Title 1 budget for STEM experiences. STEM will continue to be a priority. We believe that it is important to continued academic growth and development of World Class Skills identified in the Profile of the SC Graduate.
Challenges
Our challenge is to ensure that teachers have the training and expertise to help them utilize our abundant resources most effectively for student learning. Many of our students come to school lacking vocabulary and experiences resulting in a large learning gap.
Continuous Improvement
We strive to find ways to provide experiences to close the learning gap for our students. One example is that we try to prevent students, learning through a virtual setting, from missing out on these experiences. We have substituted our usual STEM field trips with virtual options that all students can attend. We also provide virtual students with supplies for several core courses.
STEM SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES: Students develop STEM skills and cross-cutting competencies that support workforce readiness.
INITIATIVES/ACTIONS:
- Planning and creating opportunities for students to interact with people working in various STEM careers
- Providing abundant opportunities for students to learn the skills necessary to be successful and productive members of society
What Does It Look Like?
In our school, students develop STEM skills and cross-cutting competencies that support workforce readiness. While engaging in our numerous STEM opportunities, teachers first reference the World Class Skills of creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and teamwork, communication, information, media, and technology, and knowing how to learn. Many of these skills are cultivated through the school-wide use of the engineering design process. We are developing workforce readiness through Career Characteristics (Integrity, Self-direction, Global Perspective, Perseverance, Work Ethic, Interpersonal Skills) as noted in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. It is a goal of our school to have students communicate appropriately, make eye contact, and demonstrate respect. Developing these skills allows the students to share their knowledge with confidence. They also provide the students with the necessary behaviors important not only for success in school, but also for success in the workforce.
With our purposeful implementation of the Engineering Design Process and our Essential 5 schoolwide behavior initiative, students are able to showcase their proficiency in South Carolina’s World Class Skills. By consistently solving problems like building knee braces for injured knees, making shoes for children in Africa to wear as they collect water, and constructing Tar-pul bridges to make it safely across dangerous ravines, the students have had the engineering process ingrained in them. It is evident that students are utilizing their creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem-solving when engaged in these activities. In addition, when these projects are team-based, students are collaborating, recording, and presenting outcomes, which provides an opportunity to communicate information. Various forms of technology are woven through the STEM process such as computer assisted research, ways of recording data, and 3-D printing. Students have used the 3-D printers for various projects such as adding something to the birdhouses they designed and a piece to make their westward expansion vehicle more successful. This year we purchased a class set of 3-D pens that the teachers are beginning to incorporate into their lessons. Our first experience with the pens was creating ornaments that showed a significant event in history to hang on a Historical Tree. Now that the faculty has been trained in the use of the 3-D pens, there is already talk of using them to create artifacts from certain periods in history. We continue to build upon these world class skills through computer science class, Lego Lab, Makerspace and classrooms where we continue with the same common language and processes to make STEM education more cohesive.
Students also participate in our yearly STEM Career Fair, where members of the community in STEM related fields provide invaluable insight into their chosen career path and how it relates to various STEM concepts. Students can engage in a multitude of career choices, ranging from welding to aviation to conservation. We look to build upon the aforementioned careers by weaving them into our school-wide STEM curriculum.
Strengths
A strength is that we know our students and know what they need to prepare them for a successful future. We incorporate academic skills along with soft skills that students need to be productive members of society. We are aware of the diversity of our learners and we incorporate experiences that provide students with schema which allow them to solve real world -problems. Another area of strength is that we try to develop empathy for others when we have students design solutions for problems that children in other countries face.
Sustainability
We had professional development geared toward reaching students of poverty and how to engage them in learning. Some of these include multiple book studies, visits to the Ron Clark Academy, and Responsive Classroom training. We seek out training on how to meet the specific needs of our students.
Challenges
Many of our students lack skills and experiences that allow them to collaborate, effectively communicate, and apply critical thinking skills in an academic setting. The students also lack perseverance in problem solving. Some students have experienced being “unsuccessful”, so if something doesn’t work the first time, they typically quit trying. Sometimes students fear having different ideas, so it impedes their creativity.
Continuous Improvement
We must purposefully create an environment where students feel safe. We need to continuously encourage students to think differently. We need to constantly stress “improvement” so that students internalize the belief that one failure is not the end of the process. Another area that we need to enhance is having more discussions about careers in the STEM field and guests that describe their job as it relates to the curriculum being taught.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: School/program engages in a continuous improvement process for STEM.
INITIATIVES/ACTIONS:
- Providing training, support, and supplies to help teachers to implement STEM
- Purposeful planning for growth in the areas of STEM
What Does It Look Like?
Since the inception of our school wide STEM initiative, staff members have been engaged in a continuous improvement process. The STEM leadership team has observed a marked increase over time of STEM implementation. We have altered our schedule to include engineering for all students in grades three through five. Computer science has been added for all students which teaches them coding in addition to the computer science and digital learning standards. In order to have a consistent language, we have adjusted our Lego Lab curriculum to reflect the school wide use of the engineering design process. A Makerspace studio has been incorporated into the learning commons (media center) where students have free choice opportunities to develop reasoning skills and creativity. Each year we have seen an increase in the STEM processes being incorporated by teachers in all content areas. In fact, there has been a huge commitment from social studies teachers who were once reluctant to include STEM integration into their content instruction. Now, they rave about how much more the students learn through doing STEM activities correlated to what they are teaching. Projects such as Trench Warfare, The Hooverville Shanty, Assembly Lines, and the Oxidation of the Statue of Liberty are making history come to life for these students.
After our initial certification, the STEM leadership team discussed how we wanted to proceed with growing STEM in our school. One of the specific initiatives that has been put in place is multiple in-house professional development sessions that provide teachers the knowledge to gain confidence in including STEM in their curriculum. One area that we have noticed progress is within the Montessori classrooms. They used to rely solely on their established Montessori curriculum, but now that they had more training in STEM, they are incorporating STEM lessons regularly. Some examples include "Shoes Across Africa '' and "Camel Racing" challenges. For several years now, we have STEM challenge days for all students in our building. Each year we add additional opportunities for school wide STEM challenges. The challenges were judged by local community members and educators. For example, through our One School, One Book initiative, teachers implement STEM challenges based on the contents of the book and grade level standards. The whole school celebrated the completion of the book by coming to the engineering lab to test the various ship designs they had created. What type of boat can hold the most weight, and who can get to safety the fastest as they raced down the inflatable waterway were questions on everyone’s mind. The discussions on how to make improvements to their ships were rich and insightful. Many teachers added additional STEM projects based on the novel such as constructing clock towers and creating the setting for the story out of Lego® bricks.
We realized that we needed to place more emphasis on including our families in our STEM journey. We began by having a STEM night where families came to learn about STEM practices and participate in a STEM challenge. We have expanded this night to provide parents with suggestions as to how they can use everyday items to provide these types of learning experiences at home. Families who win the challenge get a prize and all children receive a small take home item to help them be creative out of school! Thefamily night is always a great deal of fun as parents work with their children to create their solutions to the instant challenges.
The School Improvement Council also worked to increase STEM experiences at Beaufort Elementary. One of their first initiatives was to plan STEM related field trips throughout the state of South Carolina. If you were in attendance from Pre-K to 5th grade, you would have experienced seven different STEM field trips as related to grade level standards. Many of these students would never have the benefit of going to the South Carolina Aquarium, the Riverbanks Zoo, riding a boat at the Maritime Center, visiting a planetarium, or going to Edventure if not through school. The exposure to vocabulary and creation of background knowledge these experiences provide will help prepare these students for future learning.
Strengths
Our strength is the intentionality with which we plan and carry out the STEM initiatives to provide a multitude of experiences for students in our building. The dedication of core team members to ensure that STEM is implemented with fidelity across our curriculum.
Sustainability
Leadership decisions allocate funds for the field trips and supplies to support STEM through the use of Title I money. The SIC provides input on the decisions about how federal money will be spent so that it is most beneficial to student achievement.
Challenges
An area we would like to improve upon is the level of parent and community involvement.
Continuous Improvement
We strive to include more involvement in the planning and implementation of STEM activities and challenges. A goal of our SIC is to find STEM based community partners to interact with the students.
PROGRAM EVALUATION: School/program conducts evaluative activities to ensure the effectiveness of STEM implementation.
INITIATIVES/ACTIONS:
- Collecting and analyzing data gathered through surveys
- Encouraging the use of rubrics to help students set goals
What Does It Look Like?
One form of evaluation we include is this specific question on our yearly Title I survey: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning opportunities are evident in my child's classroom. Parents may add comments for improvements and successes they see in order to guide the school's continued STEM improvement. As we were reflecting upon our STEM curriculum and instructional methods, we wanted to determine growth of STEM implementation over the last five years. Therefore, a survey was created to gauge the faculty’s overall mindset in regard to STEM initiatives. The survey of the teachers included the number of STEM experiences teachers provide their students. The results showed that 33% of the faculty provided more experiences currently than in recent years.
As we increased STEM opportunities school wide, we witnessed growth as shown on the SC School Report Card. In our most recent SC Report Card, earned an Overall Rating of “Good” with a score of 59 when our previous rating was “Average”. A rating of “Good” means that school performance exceeds the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the SC Graduate. We would like to note that our Overall score was just three points shy of an “Excellent” rating. Our most recent report card also showed growth in the areas of Engagement and Student Progress. Our Engagement was previously “Average”, and we increased our rating to “Good”. Our Student Progress score moved from “Below Average” to “Excellent”.
In our effort to be more inclusive of all students we pay close attention to the Overall Percentage of Progress Points Earned by Subgroup. Our school’s total percentage of progress points was 75.5% for all students. Each subgroup, regardless of ethnicity and socio- economic status, exceeded the total percentage except for the disabled population. That subgroup had a rate of progress points earned of 69%.
For the past few years, we have been offering Afterschool Math Camp to students who fall between the 15th and 49th percentile. This year with the students being virtual we offered a Virtual Zoom Math Camp afterschool from 3:30-4:30. The following students participated. We looked at both last year’s Winter MAP data (the last testing before COVID) and their Fall MAP data to measure growth. We saw a lot of slide in the fall due to missing school. We also saw a few high false fall scores because students might have taken the test virtually and had assistance. Therefore, we needed to look at varying points for accuracy. Out of the 24 students who had winter to winter data, 18 of them increased their percentile rank from last winter-putting them back to preCOVID learning. Out of the 25 students who tested this fall, 21 of them increased from their fall percentile rank. Considering all that has happened we were pleased with these results because a year’s growth keeps you at the same percentile rank.
Strengths
A strength of our program is that we extended it to become school wide. All students, regardless of abilities, have opportunities within our STEM program. Our increase in participation has grown and this is evidenced by growth across almost every subgroup. The decisions we make regarding STEM practices are data driven.
Sustainability
We have seen the evidence of positive effects of STEM on student achievement. We will continue to design opportunities for all students to continue to increase student achievement. We will continue to focus on data in order to make decisions with funding for field trip experiences, continued support through afterschool activities like Math Camp, and providing supplies and assistance for classroom implementation of STEM.
Challenges
A challenge is that we have a widely diverse population with choice programs and the housing some of the district’s severely disabled. Our students come from very diverse backgrounds. It is challenging to engage all students and meet their needs. We also have teachers in our building with various experiences with STEM learning.
Continuous Improvement
The STEM leadership team is currently planning on providing a more comprehensive survey and the need for additional professional development in STEM instructional practices based on the needs of individual teachers. We are also planning on conducting a survey of students to target their interests and understandings about STEM.
