Wendy discussed how science is becoming a way of knowing. The author felt this resonated with their beliefs about a gap between current STEM education and future needs. STEM fields currently involve specialists who work independently rather than collaboratively. The author argues STEM education needs to cultivate innovative, collaborative thinkers through workshop models focusing on the process, not just outcomes. By implementing techniques like the Engineering Design Room Process, students can work independently and collaboratively on problem-solving. Next Generation Science Standards provide process-oriented standards that can involve hands-on experiments, problem-solving, and student presentations. The author wants to model the scientific research process for students so they understand what it means to be a scientist.
Wendy discussed how science is becoming a way of knowing. The author felt this resonated with their beliefs about a gap between current STEM education and future needs. STEM fields currently involve specialists who work independently rather than collaboratively. The author argues STEM education needs to cultivate innovative, collaborative thinkers through workshop models focusing on the process, not just outcomes. By implementing techniques like the Engineering Design Room Process, students can work independently and collaboratively on problem-solving. Next Generation Science Standards provide process-oriented standards that can involve hands-on experiments, problem-solving, and student presentations. The author wants to model the scientific research process for students so they understand what it means to be a scientist.
Wendy discussed how science is becoming a way of knowing. The author felt this resonated with their beliefs about a gap between current STEM education and future needs. STEM fields currently involve specialists who work independently rather than collaboratively. The author argues STEM education needs to cultivate innovative, collaborative thinkers through workshop models focusing on the process, not just outcomes. By implementing techniques like the Engineering Design Room Process, students can work independently and collaboratively on problem-solving. Next Generation Science Standards provide process-oriented standards that can involve hands-on experiments, problem-solving, and student presentations. The author wants to model the scientific research process for students so they understand what it means to be a scientist.
Wendy stood up a told us with confidence, “science is becoming a way of knowing”. I
immediately knew it would be a great seminar based on how much my teacher beliefs resonated with Wendy’s statement. Our opening conversation began with the topic of the gap between the people of the future and the people we prepare right now. I’ve felt this way from the first time I had the desire as a researcher to become a teacher. It always felt as if there was a gap between the mindset and culture around science and the way ideas were communicated. I knew there had to be a better way than keeping a fixed mindset about following the same protocol that every prestigious scientist before your time practised because ‘they did it best’ and that was just the way you were supposed to do it. There has been no wiggle room in the science research community that allows for change because that is how things have been done, done well, and will continue to be. In the Marine Science field, there has always been an a specialist for each part of the problem you are trying to solve. There’s a geologist who knows how to answer one part, an inorganic chemist who can solve another piece, and the biologist who answer another part. Rarely will you ever find a collaborative environment where there’s a scientist who does specialize in multiple aspects, and collaborates with others to solve problems. Research is a very ‘stick to your own lab’ environment. Well, if every scientist knows that change is constant (and inevitable), why haven’t we taken this into account when dealing with STEM education? Science needs innovative, collaborative, and creative thinkers. I think scientists know that we need a change in the way we think, but defining and actually applying that change will be the only true way that we can change the way we work together. Designing classroom environments where the product of the workshop model is not just about the outcome, but about the process that students learn is what will develop our next best scientists and help bridge the gap between the people of our future and the people that we prepare. By implementing the techniques from the Engineering Design Room Process (EDRP), opportunities for creative problem solving will arise and students will be able to work more independently and collaboratively. The ERDP includes iteration, communication, defining, identifying, brainstorming, selection, prototyping, and testing. By setting myself as a model for my students I will show in my classroom that students will be able to say “I disagree with myself” with the understanding that it is okay to make mistakes. Students will be given a problem question with ‘think time’ before collaboratively working in groups to solve a problem. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is an excellent resource to use as a reference for science and engineering practices in the classroom. In contrast to the common core standards as a goal-oriented and slightly commanding verbiage, NGSS is more process- oriented standards. The Implications of the Vision of the Framework is a great exemplar of what the NGSS’s purposes are within the future of STEM education. By using NGSS, science education will involve more hands-on conducting of investigations, problem solving, lab journaling, more direct literacy comprehension with primary sources (science journals, articles, etc.), and students producing their own presentations/final products of experimentation with posters. There are more practices that can be viewed in the resource mentioned in the references section of this reflection. Most importantly, I want to model the way I am a researcher for the students so that they have a real time understanding of the professional process behind what it means to be a scientist. It’s important to ask yourself the question “What kind of example am I today?” before teaching in the STEM environment. What are my beliefs as an educator and how do I cultivate these in my students? By understanding your teacher belief, you reflect that belief in your behavior, which gives a learner experience, and leads to the learners identity. An idea as far as starting to understand your students and developing a STEM classroom culture: inverting the teacher/learner process By observing your students during work time you can see what their own student beliefs are. Mending these previous notions of old beliefs is a great start to a STEM culture.
Works Cited: https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/NewVision.pdf
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