Our 3rd grade students took a trip to Fernbank to enhance their study of Fossils. Our students will also be provided with an opportunity to speak to an expert in South Dakota about Fossils. The meeting will take place via Skype and provide the students with a real world connection.
In Kindergarten, our students were presented with a problem based learning experience. They were learning about how engineers build bridges and ramps on our highways and interstates. They were challenged to build ramps and test the speed of cars going down the ramps based on the height that it was built at. The students had to test their ramp five different times by measuring the distance.
Response The goal for Ashford Park is to continually expose our students to a problem-based curriculum. We apply cross-curricular integration in our development of STEM unit plans and STEM bursts. Teachers plan collaboratively to address the alignment of STEM disciplines within the curriculum. The skills addressed in these STEM units and STEM bursts challenge students to use higher-order thinking skills and prepare them for real world problem solving.
Strengths Teachers at Ashford Park Elementary take part in collaborative planning within their grade levels in order to develop meaningful STEM units involving real world problems. These units are cross-curricular and present the students with the challenge of working collaboratively to solve problems that might be encountered in the real world. We adhere to the Georgia Performance Standards and align our STEM units along those lines. Although the Georgia Performance Standards do not have a STEM specific curriculum for elementary schools, our teachers work together to develop and write STEM units that cut across the curriculum.
Areas of Opportunity We are working on providing more exposure to STEM-based careers by partnering with community members. The Ashford Park Stem Steering Committee has developed a survey to reach out to our school community to seek out additional resources to help strengthen our STEM program.
Sustainability We will continue to provide our students with a project based curriculum that focuses on real world issues through the collaborative planning process. We are fortunate in the fact that grade level teachers have common planning. Teachers plan with their grade level on a weekly basis and they will continue to focus on ways to improve project based learning in every classroom. It is also important to note that our teachers participate in instructional planning meetings with the administrative team once a month. This till will also be used to discuss and plan for STEM projects that touch on real world issues. Finally, we will sustain our efforts through the continued participation in STEM professional learning courses.
Steps to Initiate Improvement We have taken the following step to initiate improvement:
1. We have created and disseminated a STEM parent survey. The purpose of the survey was to identify parents in our school that could serve as STEM experts. This will help us to expand the possibilities for real world connections among our students.
2. The Summer Retreat has been set for May 31, 2017. A portion of that day will dedicated to the creation of STEM unit plans. When developing those plans, the teachers will be deliberate in creating units that allow students to make real world connections. Further, the teachers will be intentional in their selection and inclusion of STEM experts that can share their knowledge with students.