Week 12: STEM and NAEP

Two out of three fourth graders cannot read proficiently and seven out of ten inner-city and rural fourth graders cannot read at the most basic level (Paige, 2002). Data such as these create considerable pressure on K-8 teachers to elevate reading proficiency. As well, one of the further challenges of tests such as the MontCas (Science and Math) and NAEP (Science and Math) is that the assessment questions often require strong reading comprehension skill levels as well as sufficient science and math conceptual understanding.

Added to this now is the growing pressure to incorporate STEM into the K-12 classroom. How do you envision a math/science education curriculum that aligns with the expectations of NCLB while still providing a STEM-rich environment for science inquiry and problem-based math learning?

To explore this question, it will be helpful to examine some of the government policies behind these education agendas. Education Week just published an excellent summary of current STEM policy that integrates our discussion of NAEP and STEM. Check out the main article and click on the online reports of each state to see how Montana is doing.

1.Education Week: The push to improve STEM education.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/03/27/30intro.h27.html

After reading the article, let's start with the basics. What exactly is STEM? What does NAEP have to do with STEM? What do NAEP and STEM have to do with K-8 elementary teachers? How is Montana doing in STEM? How does Montana compare to other states. How do you put all this together for your science and math curriculum program? Finally, where do you stand in all of this? Do you agree with the policies being put forth by the federal government regarding work force development? Does it fit with your personal understanding of the purpose of schooling? Can you see benefits? What parts of this discussion worry you most?

Week 9 Math, Technology and Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Technology is becoming more of an everyday phenomenon. As teachers we need to incorporate it appropriately within our classroom. You will need to find 2 activities using technology in your classroom.

First, find one activity within your grade band that would be useful to help parents understand how the calculator can be used to develop mathematical concepts.

Second, find an activity that incorporates mathematics in a culturally relevant manner using mathematics appropriate for your grade band. In both descriptions, include the specific mathematical concept being covered.

Why did you select these 2 activities? What myths and fears do they address?

Week Eight: Culturally Responsive Curriculum

Thanks for sharing the results of your first inquiry science lesson and posting a question that you still have about how to "inquirize" your teaching. For this week's blog, we'll begin by considering these questions. Choose one of your classmates questions and offer them a suggestion. Be sure to refer to the reading on "inquirizing" your teaching as you answer the question.

Next, think about our exploration of culturally responsive science curriculum last week. Take a moment to explore the curriculum resources for implementing Indian Education for All (IEFA) on the class wiki, then consider your current field experience placement. Which IEFA curriculum could you use in your current field placement? Why? How would you use it? What would you want students to learn? (Don't forget that this includes an exploration of the OPI Indian Education website as well.)

Week Seven: Science Lesson Concept Analysis

Now that you have taught your first inquiry science lesson, take a moment to reflect on the experience.

What were your lesson goals, both in terms of content and process skills? What strategy did you use to help students reveal and reflect on their own science ideas? What patterns did you observe in students' science ideas, writings, or drawings? Were any ideas particularly difficult or easy for students? Why was this? In what areas did students' science understandings grow? If you were going to teach a follow-up lesson to this one, what would it be and why? What question do you still have about teaching science?

Math Field Placement Description (AMaTE II)

1. Describe how your teacher teaches a mathematics lesson. Is there teaching involved or review? Or telling a procedure? Is it a problem-based lesson? Are students learning conceptual knowledge or procedural knowledge. Are any manipulatives used? If so, describe how.
2. Did most of the students grasp the concept? What helped the students learn?

Grade Level 3-4

You have seen how integrated math and science are with the SAE curriculum (Jet Toy). Now compare with AIMS or GEMS. Please make sure you find mathematics integrated more than just graphing data. That is a fault of some programs "integrating" mathematics. There is so much more than just creating a graph. Please research a different way or ways to use math.

When looking in the TRC, please find a different AIMS or GEMS topic than already posted! There are numerous titles from which to choose!