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1. Towards the STEM DBER Alliance: Why We Need a Discipline-Based STEM Education Research Community: Towards the STEM DBER Alliance

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20168  

   Henderson, Charles ; Connolly, Mark ; Dolan, Erin L. ; Finkelstein, Noah ; Franklin, Scott ; Malcom, Shirley ; Rasmussen, Chris ; Redd, Kacy ; John, Kristen St. ( July 2017 , Journal of Engineering Education)
2. Improving STEM education: The design and development of a K-12 STEM observation protocol (STEM-OP).

   Dare, E.A. ; Hiwatig, B. ; Karatithamkul, K. ; Ellis, J.A. ; Roehrig, G.H. ; Ring-Whalen, E.A. ; Rouleau, M.D. ; Faruqi, F. ; Rice, C. ; Titu, P. ; et al ( January 2021 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Integrated approaches to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (commonly referred to as STEM education) in K-12 classrooms have resulted in a growing number of teachers incorporating engineering in their science classrooms. Such changes are a result of shifts in science standards to include engineering as evidenced by the Next Generation Science Standards. To date, 20 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the NGSS and another 24 have adopted standards based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education. Despite the increased presence of engineering and integrated STEM education in K-12 education, there are several concerns to consider. One concern is the limited availability of observation instruments appropriate for instruction where multiple STEM disciplines are present and integrated with one another. Addressing this concern requires the development of a new observation instrument, designed with integrated STEM instruction in mind. An instrument such as this has implications for both research and practice. For example, research using this instrument could help educators compare integrated STEM instruction across grade bands. Additionally, this tool could be useful in the preparation of pre-service teachers and professional development of in-service teachers new to integrated STEM education and formative learning through professional learning communities or classroommore »coaching. The work presented here describes in detail the development of an integrated STEM observation instrument that can be used for both research and practice. Over a period of approximately 18-months, a team of STEM educators and educational researchers developed a 10-item integrated STEM observation instrument for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. The process of developing the instrument began with establishing a conceptual framework, drawing on the integrated STEM research literature, national standards documents, and frameworks for both K-12 engineering education and integrated STEM education. As part of the instrument development process, the project team had access to over 2000 classroom videos where integrated STEM education took place. Initial analysis of a selection of these videos helped the project team write a preliminary draft instrument consisting of 52 items. Through several rounds of revisions, including the construction of detailed scoring levels of the items and collapsing of items that significantly overlapped, and piloting of the instrument for usability, items were added, edited, and/or removed for various reasons. These reasons included issues concerning the intricacy of the observed phenomenon or the item not being specific to integrated STEM education (e.g., questioning). In its final form, the instrument consists of 10 items, each comprising four descriptive levels. Each item is also accompanied by a set of user guidelines, which have been refined by the project team as a result of piloting the instrument and reviewed by external experts in the field. The instrument has shown to be reliable with the project team and further validation is underway. This instrument will be of use to a wide variety of educators and educational researchers looking to understand the implementation of integrated STEM education in K-12 science and engineering classrooms.« less
3. Webster Educating STEM Teachers Bound for Success (WESTbound Success) Project: Curriculum Revision and Student Success on Missouri STEM Certification Exam Using Expert STEM Faculty as Evaluators

   Wallner, Anton ; Kaiser, DJ ; Alvarez, Teresa ; Bond, Jennifer ; Cope, Marissa ; Kodikara, Ravin ( November 2019 , NSF Noyce Midwest Conference)

   As part of our Noyce Capacity Building grant, we examined how existing STEM course content is preparing students for the Missouri Content Assessment (MoCA) exam that is required for state certification. We also examined this through the lens of the recent curriculum designed on the state of Missouri model, which is Unified Science: Biology. Our most recent graduates in STEM Education exhibited difficulty in passing the MoCA exam in their specific STEM area of interest. Data from 2014-2018 showed that only half of our teacher candidates passed their STEM field MoCA exam on the first attempt. Some candidates took as many as four attempts to pass their exams while others were unable to achieve a passing score. In order to increase the number of teacher candidates as well as their success rates on the MoCA exam, we planned targeted revisions to our curriculum and coursework at Webster. One approach we used was to have content experts (faculty from Webster and our partner institution, St. Louis Community College) take the MoCA exams in their respective STEM disciplines. The qualitative survey results, coded using NVivo, and feedback from these experts allowed us to map learning outcomes and knowledge areas found on themore »exam to information on the MoCA website as well as our existing curriculum and course content. In this presentation, we will report the results of our survey, the impact this had on our curriculum redesign and articulation agreements, and our future strategies for our Track 1 application that were informed by the results of our capacity building activity. We also include use of study guides, practice tests and review sessions for MoCA exams to impact/improve pass rates of STEM Education majors on the content exam.« less
4. Improving Integrated STEM Education: The Design and Development of a K-12 STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP) (RTP)

   Dare, E. A. ; Hiwatig, B. ; Keratithamkul, K. ; Ellis, J. A. ; Roehrig, G. H. ; Ring-Whalen, E. A. ; Rouleau, M. D. ; Faruqi, F. ; Rice, C. ; Titu, P. ; et al ( January 2021 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Integrated approaches to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (commonly referred to as STEM education) in K-12 classrooms have resulted in a growing number of teachers incorporating engineering in their science classrooms. Such changes are a result of shifts in science standards to include engineering as evidenced by the Next Generation Science Standards. To date, 20 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the NGSS and another 24 have adopted standards based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education. Despite the increased presence of engineering and integrated STEM education in K-12 education, there are several concerns to consider. One concern is the limited availability of observation instruments appropriate for instruction where multiple STEM disciplines are present and integrated with one another. Addressing this concern requires the development of a new observation instrument, designed with integrated STEM instruction in mind. An instrument such as this has implications for both research and practice. For example, research using this instrument could help educators compare integrated STEM instruction across grade bands. Additionally, this tool could be useful in the preparation of pre-service teachers and professional development of in-service teachers new to integrated STEM education and formative learning through professional learning communities or classroommore »coaching. The work presented here describes in detail the development of an integrated STEM observation instrument - the STEM Observation Protocol (STEM-OP) - that can be used for both research and practice. Over a period of approximately 18-months, a team of STEM educators and educational researchers developed a 10-item integrated STEM observation instrument for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. The process of developing the STEM-OP began with establishing a conceptual framework, drawing on the integrated STEM research literature, national standards documents, and frameworks for both K-12 engineering education and integrated STEM education. As part of the instrument development process, the project team had access to over 2000 classroom videos where integrated STEM education took place. Initial analysis of a selection of these videos helped the project team write a preliminary draft instrument consisting of 79 items. Through several rounds of revisions, including the construction of detailed scoring levels of the items and collapsing of items that significantly overlapped, and piloting of the instrument for usability, items were added, edited, and/or removed for various reasons. These reasons included issues concerning the intricacy of the observed phenomenon or the item not being specific to integrated STEM education (e.g., questioning). In its final form, the STEM-OP consists of 10 items, each comprising four descriptive levels. Each item is also accompanied by a set of user guidelines, which have been refined by the project team as a result of piloting the instrument and reviewed by external experts in the field. The instrument has shown to be reliable with the project team and further validation is underway. The STEM-OP will be of use to a wide variety of educators and educational researchers looking to understand the implementation of integrated STEM education in K-12 science and engineering classrooms.« less
5. Expanding STEM opportunities through inclusive STEM-focused high schools: EXPANDING STEM OPPORTUNITIES

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21281  

   Means, Barbara ; Wang, Haiwen ; Wei, Xin ; Lynch, Sharon ; Peters, Vanessa ; Young, Viki ; Allen, Carrie ( September 2017 , Science Education)