STEM PROJECT REFLECTION

For STEM we had to recreate a world issue that is harming the environment and figure
out a resolution to the issue. Our project, which we just completed, was based on the
Great Garbage Patch, found off the coast of California and Hawaii. Our group was
interested in seeing how the plastic in the ocean affects the quality of water that living
organisms depend upon for survival. One of the words we focused on for this quarter in
STEM as a class was intellect. Our essential questions were: how do you think and how
do we choose? This relates to our project because our choices and actions effect the
environment around us. An example of this is the decision to throw your garbage on the
ground instead of placing it in a garbage bin. People do not consciously think about how
the environment is effected by what each person does on a daily basis. Littering
impacts habitats in both land and water. It results in a negative effect on the quality of
our natural environment.
Overall I think this project went really well. Everyone participated in class and worked
effectively in order to achieve a goal. Personally I think that I did a lot of work for this
project. My role in this group was in a sense, the mum. I kept everyone organized,
helped with time management, and a large amount of the writing. For example for
majority of the research methodology, I was out with a concussion. Although I was out of
school, I got my mum to read me the information on the computer screen and type while I
dictated what I wanted to say. When I came back, everyone was surprised with how much
work I got done and I was proud of this accomplishment. Another example was when we
got a piece of work, I assigned everyone a different part to complete the assignment.
Although our group worked well in the classroom, outside of the classroom was a
problem as only a few of us completed our tasks. This was a minor issue due to how
much work we got done in the classroom but this lead to a major issue. The major issue
we as a group were faced with was equal distribution or written work. We all equally
contributed with the hands on tasks however when it came to the written document this
didnt happen. From the very beginning of the project we could see this problem
developing and we should have attacked it head on. We should have sat down at the
beginning and end of every class to make everyone a list of what we needed to
accomplish by our next meeting. I think this would have helped and we also should have
been firm and required the member to do his work. In the end it didnt affect my grade
but it affect theirs. This is a group effort and I feel like we let one member slip through a
hole. This was an easy challenge to stop and I feel as if we had taken the we out of
team.
Moving forward I wish for someone to be able to use our findings and notes to be able to
come up with a conclusion for this major issue of litter in the water. I believe that simple
acts such as picking up a piece of garbage has a major effect on the world. According to
the Telegraph newspaper in the UK, the Great Garbage patch has increased by a 100 folds
since the 1970s. We have to stop the growth of this island!

"Inclusion is a process, not an event: successful problems and solutions evolve rather than
occur."
Tim Hobbs and David L. Westling ("Promoting Successful Inclusions" The Council for
Exceptional Children)
THREE POWERFUL REASONS FOR INCLUSION
1. Most students tend to learn better in inclusive settings. In the past, tracking, ability
grouping, and special education pull-out programs were thought to be the way to provide
for individual needs of most students. By contrast, in inclusive settings, which provide
appropriate instruction and support, students tend to learn more than they do in
segregated or tracked classes.
2. Inclusion promotes the growth of self-esteem. No student wants to be singled out or
identified as "different" or less worthy to be part of mainstream activities. By including
all students, the negative effects which tracking and pull-out programs create, are
eliminated.
3. It helps all students learn, first hand, the meaning of equal worth and equal rights. As
long as a single student, who has not broken any laws, is excluded from mainstream
school life and opportunities, all students become vulnerable to discriminatory treatment.
Inclusive schooling can help all students learn to be aware, sensitive, and tolerant of
differences. It helps them learn that all people have abilities and disabilities and that they
need to work together to survive and be happy.
Contributed by Pat Welter, Assistant Principal, and Gil McCabe, Special Education
Department Chair, in "News and Views," Winter, 1990.
PHILOSOPHY OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Inclusive - To take in or consider as part or member of; to embrace
What is the general philosophy of inclusive education?
Teachers who have taught or are teaching in an inclusive classroom say the philosophy of
inclusion hinges on helping students and teachers become better members of a
community by creating new visions for communities and for schools. Inclusion is about
membership and belonging to a community.
Dr. Chris Kliewer, assistant professor of special education, taught second grade in an
inclusive school in Syracuse, New York for four years. Based on this experience, he
explains:
"Inclusion involves all kinds of practices that are ultimately practices of good teaching.
What good teachers do is they think thoughtfully about children and develop ways to
reach all children.
"Ultimately good teaching is a relationship between two people; teachers get good results
because they enter into that relationship. Inclusion is providing more options for children
of ways to learn. It's structuring schools as communities where all children can learn. But
there's no recipe for becoming an inclusive teacher or an inclusive school. It's not a
mechanized format."
"Inclusion is based on the belief that people work in inclusive communities, work with
people of different races, religions, aspirations, disabilities," according to Dr. Susan
Etscheidt, professor of special education. "In the same vein, children of all ages should
learn and grow in environments that resemble the environments they will eventually work
in," she explains.
"Inclusive education is nothing more than good teaching practices. As we share the

knowledge to meet needs of kids with challenges, we improve the quality of education for
all children in that classroom."
Dr. Sandra Alper, head of the UNI Department of Special Education, says you can't talk
about the philosophy of inclusion without talking about teaching functional skills or
collaborating as a team with regular education teachers, principals, parents, and special ed
teachers. On the other hand, she states, "I disagree with people who say full inclusion
means all children being in the regular classroom every day, all day. There are several
groups of students that this will not work for - students with aggressive behaviors, and
those secondary students who need to learn community and job skills. But I'm also not
sure if being in the same classroom every day all day is the best way to educate any
child."
"Inclusive education operates from the assumption that almost all students should start in
a regular classroom, and then, depending on individual needs, move into more restrictive
environments," states Melissa Heston, assistant professor of educational psychology,
specializing in early childhood development. "Research shows that inclusive education
helps the development of all children in different ways. Students with specific challenges
make gains in cognitive and social development and physical motor skills. They do well
when the regular environment is adjusted to meet their needs. Children with more typical
development gain higher levels of tolerance for people with differences. They learn to
make the most of whoever they're working with. When we exclude people, it ultimately
costs more than the original effort to include them."
Taken from: Inclusive Education Web Site, Renaissance
Group http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/index.html

Gaining positive perceptions of STEM among girls through hands-on STEM projects
By Ramona Stamatin
As I read Impact of environmental power monitoring activities on middle school
studentperceptions of STEM(Knezek, Christensen, Tyler-Wood, & Periathiruvadi,
2013), I noticed a few aspects of the project that were very similar to how the Wikid
GRRLs project is designed.
In Knezek et al., the purpose of the project, which is called Middle Schoolers Out to Save
the World, is to have middle school students become involved in a hands-on activity in
order to increase their interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)
fields as well as increase their content knowledge on STEM subjects.
Students in this study are trained by their teachers to use energy monitoring equipment
to monitor and audit power consumption by consumer electronic devices in their homes
and communities (p. 100). Specifically, they record data about energy consumption in
terms of standby power, which is the use of power by appliances that are plugged in,
but powered off.
This project overall yielded positive results in many facets. It yielded a more positive
perception of STEM careers, a positive gain in the students STEM content knowledge, a
small impact on creative tendencies, a difference of gains between students from low
socio-economic backgrounds and high socio-economic backgrounds, and a difference in
gains between genders.
The most notable results of this project to me were that the results of gender differences
in STEM perceptions of girls and boys. Girls exhibited a greater gain in positive
perception of Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology compared to boys. This
simply illustrates that compared to before the project start, girls made larger gains than
boys.
It is important to engage students in STEM education before high school because there is
high demand for careers in these fields. This is why this project aimed to instill STEM
knowledge and problem solving skills in middle-schoolers.
In the Wikid GRRLs program, we work with middle school girls in order to
achieve something similar. We want to encourage these girls to learn important computer
skills in order to help them write Wikipedia articles, but also to help them gain
knowledge that may help broaden their opportunities in their future. In fact, the skills we
are teaching might encourage them to pursue a STEM career path.
Although the main goal of Wikid GRRLs is to close the gender gap of Wikipedia
contributors, the program may also make the students gain interest in as well as develop a
passion for working with computer and internet technologies in order to make a
difference in their community.

Education on STS involves, first of all, consideration of the various interactions of

science and technology in a social context. Science and technology affect and are affected
by the institutions and values of a society. The following examples of major STS themes
suggest the compatibility of teaching and learning about science/technology/society with
education in the social studies.
1. Critical Public Issues that Affect the Well-Being of Individuals and Societies
Throughout the World. Societies of our modern world are increasingly propelled and
changed by advances in science and technology, which generate critical public issues.
These issues pertain to such matters as the technical efficiency and public safety of
nuclear power plants, the hazards of recombinant DNA research and genetic
engineering, and the perils posed by modern weapons. A study by Bybee and Mau (1986)
indicates that science educators perceive the most important STS problem in our world to
be world-wide hunger, unchecked population growth, declining air quality, depletion of
water resources, and the destructive capacity of modern weapons systems.
2. Processes and Skills in Thinking about Critical Public Issues Associated with Science
and Technology. Education about STS issues involves development of higherorder cognitive abilities associated with processes of decision making, problem solving,
and critical thinking. Students who confront science- and technology-related social issues
have opportunities to inquire about alternatives and their consequences in the process of
making rational and defensiblechoices.
3. The Utility of Trade-offs in Decision Making on STS Issues. Public issues anchored in
scientific and technological applications to society often involve trade-offs between
conflicting values in which there is no clear view of right or wrong. Many environmental
issues, for example, may involve a compromise or trade-off among conflicting value
positions (e.g., limiting pollution sufficiently to protect health and environment while still
maintaining a satisfactory level of production and employment). Students are required to
think in terms of "more" or "less" of one thing or another instead of making an
uncompromising choice of "either" one thing "or" another.
4. Knowledge and Skills in Civic Action. The emphasis here is on an individual's
capability and willingness to participate in civic decision making about STS issues and to
act upon these decisions. Opportunities are provided for testing proposed actions through
civic participation. While simulations and role-play activities are included in most STS

units of instruction, there is also need for civic action projects that are consistent with
school-district rules and regulations.
5. Interrelationship and Integration of Knowledge and Cognitive Process Skills from
Several Academic Disciplines. STS issues cut across disciplinary boundaries, such as
biology, geology, geography, history, and political science. Students and teachers are
required to flexibly apply content from various subjects to inquire about issues and make
warranted choices in responses to them.

WHAT IS THE RATIONALE FOR INCLUDING CONTENT ON STS IN THE

SOCIAL
STUDIES CURRICULUM?
The argument for emphasizing STS in the social studies curriculum is based on a
primary goal of American elementary and secondary schools--education for
responsible citizenship in a constitutional democracy. In order to properly address this
goal in today's world, educators must emphasize the pervasive, powerful effects of
science and technology in society. Citizens of a modern constitutional democracy can
neither perceive current events and issues accurately, nor think clearly about them, nor act
responsibly and effectively on them unless they know about science and technology as
powerful cultural forces that have shaped these critical events and issues. This kind of
general education for citizenship is likely to help students from all social groups
understand more fully their own civilization and its connections to the world and to
participate more responsibly in the democratic process.
Common memory--widespread knowledge of the heritage of a society--is an important
aspect of citizenship, to whicheducation on STS makes a solid contribution. Scientific
and technological advances are an integral part of the heritage of citizens of the United
States, and they will continue to shape the development of our world. Considering
that an understanding of this heritage is a critical component of citizenship education,
the social studies curriculum of elementary and secondary school should
include a historical to present-day perspective on relationships of scientific and
technological effects to the development of society.
The ability of citizens to make informed, rational decisions is a fundamental goal of
American education, which is directly linked to understanding of public issue related
to societal applications of science and technology. If the social studiescurriculum
includes an emphasis on the interactions of science, technology, and society, and the
decisions that citizens make in their social and personal lives in terms of these
interactions, then students are likely to develop capabilities that enable them to act
responsibly and effectively as members of local, national, and global communities.
Ability to connect information and ideas within and between academic disciplines and to
link different fields of knowledge is a key to high-level understanding of social reality.
Education for responsible and competent citizenship in a increasingly complex
technological society requires that students be able to synthesize and apply knowledge

from many disciplines. Every discipline in the social studies can be basically
connected to content on science and technology in society. To ignore this reality will limit
students' abilities to comprehend their world and to act effectively within it. Thus, content
on STS must be connected to the study of geography, economics, political science,
history, and other subjects in the social studies curriculum to help students make
connections among facts and ideas needed for responsible citizenship in today's
world. Furthermore, content on STS in the social studies curriculum can and should
be connected to education on science/technology/society in the science curriculum.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO INFUSE STS INTO THE SOCIAL STUDIES

CURRICULUM?
Attempts to "place" or infuse STS into the curriculum can be considered in terms of three
categories:
-- Infusion into existing courses of study.
-- Extension of an existing unit of study.
-- Creation of a separate course of study.
1. Infusion into Existing Courses of Study. Using this approach, teachers systematically
and pervasively add content on STS to a course on history, geography, or civics, for
example. One advantage of this approach is that STS content, and materials and teaching
methods associated with it, become part of the standard curriculum; therefore they are
more likely to be accepted as an ongoing part of the school's mission. The disadvantage,
and difficulty, is deciding what to omit from standard courses to make room for addition
of STS content.
2. Extension of an Existing Unit of Study. This approach calls for adding STS content and
activities to the end of a lesson or set of lessons on traditional content in the social
studies. For example, a civics unit on interest groups might include a case study of
interest group activity about an environmental issue that involves STS content. Students
might be required to make and defend civic decisions in response to this STS issue that is
appended to standard course content. The main advantage of this approach is maximum
flexibility in deciding how much and when to variously treat STS content. A main
disadvantage is the likelihood of superficial and unsystematic treatment of STS content.
3. Creation of a Separate Course of Study. A few schools have developed and
implemented separate courses on STS. These courses, which are in most cases electives
for high school students, tend to be interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary in content,
drawing upon subject matter from history and the various social and natural sciences.
Course content usually is organized around current social problems and issues. One
advantage of separate STS courses is to give high visibility and legitimacy to this
emerging field of study. Another advantage is to provide ample opportunity for
systematic and sustained study of the various interrelationships of

science/technology/society. A disadvantage is the great complexity of the challenge of

organizing course content that is drawn from various academic disciplines.
Proposals for infusion of instruction dealing with science- and technology-related social
issues have been met with predictable concerns about an overcrowded curriculum, the
shortage of materials, and the need for teacher education to overcome presumed
deficiencies in knowledge and skills of classroom instructions. However, over and above
these concerns is a general consensus among national leaders in education about the
importance of science/technology/society in the general education of citizens for a
democratic society.
A new curriculum framework report has been published by the Social Science Education
Consortium for educators in the social studies and sciences who are willing to act on their
assumptions about the importance of STS in citizenship education. Authored by Faith
Hichman, John Patrick, and Rodger Bybee (1987), this publication provides guidelines
for development and implementation of education on STS in secondary schools. The
recommendations in this report (developed as part of an STS project funded by the
National Science Foundation) provide a foundation for future work by science and social
studies educators.

REFERENCES AND ERIC RESOURCES

Following is a list of resources including references used to prepare this Digest. Those
items followed by an ED number are in the ERIC system and are available in microfiche
and/or paper copies from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). For
information about prices, write EDRS, 3900 Wheeler Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22304
or call 1-800-227-3742. Entries followed by an EJ number are annotated monthly in CIJE
(CURRENT INDEX TO JOURNALS IN EDUCATION) which is available in most
libraries. EJ documents are not available through EDRS; however, they can be located in
the journal section of most libraries by using the bibliographic information provided
below.
Bybee, Rodger W. and Teri Mau, "Science and Technology Related Global Problems: An
International Survey of Science Educators." JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE
TEACHING 23 (July 1986): 599-618. EJ 346 083.
Hamlett, Patrick W. "Science, Technology, and Politics: The Literature." TEACHING
POLITICAL SCIENCE 14 (Summer 1982): 158-162. EJ 364 204.
Hickman, Faith, John J. Patrick and Rodger W. Bybee.
SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/SOCIETY: A FRAMEWORK FOR CURRICULUM
REFORM IN SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES. Boulder,
CO: Social Science Education Consortium, 1987. ED 288 783.

Patrick, John J. and Richard C. Remy. "Crossing Two Cultures in the Education of
Citizens." AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER 44 (September 1982): 346-350. EJ 267
503.
Patrick, John J. and Richard C. Remy. CONNECTING, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
AND SOCIETY IN THE EDUCATION OF CITIZENS. Boulder, CO: Social Science
Education Consortium, 1985. ED 251 389.
Patrick, John J. CONNECTING SCIENCE AND FREE GOVERNMENT IN
CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION: TEACHING ABOUT OUR LEGACY FROM THE AGE
OF ENLIGHTENMENT. Paper presented at the conference on
Science/Technology/Society in the Secondary School Curriculum at St. Michael's
College, Winooski, VT, November 6, 1987. ED 287 794.
Science and Society Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies.
"Guidelines for Teaching Science-Related Social Issues." SOCIAL EDUCATION 47
(April 1983): 258-261. EJ 280 085.
Solomon, Joan. "Science and Society Studies in the School Curriculum." SOCIAL
SCIENCE REVIEW 62 (December 1980): 213-219. EJ 242 877.
White, Charles S. THE ROLE OF THE SECONDARY SOCIAL STUDIES
CURRICULUM IN DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY. Paper presented
at the Second National Science, Technology, Society Conference, Washington, DC,
February 6, 1987. ED 278 610.
White, Charles S. DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP AND INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY: PROMISES, CHALLENGES, AND REMEDIES. Paper presented at
the 50th Anniversary Conference of the American Society for Information Science,
Boston, MA, October 5, 1987. ED 288 791.

Assessing Student Project Work

Techniques to evaluate progress and ensure success
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Project work challenges students to think beyond the boundaries of the classroom,
helping them develop the skills, behaviors, and confidence necessary for success in the
21st-century. Designing learning environments that help students question, analyze,
evaluate, and extrapolate their plans, conclusions, and ideas, leading them to higherorder
thinking, requires feedback and evaluation that goes beyond a letter or number grade. The
term authentic assessment is used to describe assessment that evaluates content
knowledge as well as additional skills like creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and
innovation.
Authentic assessment documents the learning that occurs during the project-building
process and considers the real-world skills of collaboration, problem solving, decision
making, and communication. Since project work requires students to apply knowledge
and skills throughout the project-building process, you will have many opportunities to
assess work quality, understanding, and participation from the moment students begin
working.
For example, your evaluation can include tangible documents like the project vision,
storyboard, and rough draft, verbal behaviors such as participation in group discussions

and sharing of resources and ideas, and non-verbal cognitive tasks such as risk taking and
evaluation of information. You can also capture snapshots of learning throughout the
process by having students complete a project journal, a self-assessment, or by making a
discussion of the process one component of the final presentation.
Developing Assessment
As you design the project, it is helpful to begin with the end in mind. What performances
do you want to see? Then, determine exactly how students will demonstrate each
performance as they build a product or solve a problem to complete the task.
Most of our assessment focuses on content mastery. Techniques we are all familiar with
include the evaluation of the final product and having students complete quizzes or tests.
Other benchmarks for content mastery you can use include the number of citations a
student references, amount and quality of research, use of experts, validity and
effectiveness of arguments, meeting the topic, and answering the essential question.
Completing complex authentic projects that require collaboration, creativity, problemsolving, and innovation helps prepare students for increasingly complex life and work
environments. Effective communication in the 21st-century requires that students can
effectively express themselves in writing, verbally, and visually. Be sure to assess the
quality of writing, including ideas, vocabulary, fluency, organization, and conventions, as
well as the use of media and overall design. Since a project is a collaborative effort that
occurs over time, include evaluation components that consider teamwork, organization,
planning, and behavior.
Questions for Students
Content Knowledge
What new content did you learn while working on this project?
Did you know more or less than you expected?
What surprised you?
What else would you like to know about the topic?
Collaboration & Teamwork
How did your work and actions contribute to your teams success?
What was the hardest part of about working in a team?
What was the best part?

Technology & Communication

What new skills did you learn?
What else do you want to learn how to do?
Creating Rubrics
Because many performances cannot easily be quantified, you want to be as specific about
your expectations as possible. Creating a rubric for the final product and various
components of project work can ensure a more accurate, specific, and useful assessment.
A rubric is an authentic assessment tool that:
Provides clear expectations for a project.
Examines the product as well as the entire project-building process.
Enumerates the performances on which students will be evaluated.
Explains what constitutes excellence during the project process.
Helps students understand what they need to do to excel.
Helps remove subjectivity and bias from the evaluation process.
Sharing and clarifying the performances that will be assessed during a project removes
mystery from the evaluation process, helping students focus on specific actions they can
take to improve their performance.

Involving Students in
Assessment
Involving students in project
assessment boosts motivation,
improves meta-cognition, and
promotes self-directed learning. Students who are asked to reflect on their own
performance learn to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and are able to pinpoint
where to focus their efforts to see the greatest results.
You might have students provide feedback and critiques by asking them to keep a project
journal or work log, evaluate themselves using the project rubric, and answer additional
self-assessment questions. An open-ended self-assessment allows students to share
learning that occurred during the process that was not included in the rubric. As they

reflect and evaluate, students should describe their learning and contemplate decisions
they have made individually and as a team.
Read how one teacher found a better unit assessment.
You may also want to have students complete a peer evaluation for components of the
project, such as the project presentation. Students can also evaluate the writing, design,
and effective communication during the creation and presentation of the final product.
Combining your assessment of the process and the end product with student reflections
and evaluations will help you create a more accurate assessment of student performance.
Audience Assessment
Authentic project work should reflect the questions, problems, and needs of the world
beyond the classroom. If the work is something that has real value, make sure there is a
wider audience for the final product presentation. Having students create web pages to
display their ideas and findings enables their products to easily reach a wider audience. If
the project deliverable involves an oral presentation, invite peers, family, or community
members to attend.
You may also want to invite subject matter experts in the area of project work to
participate in the final products assessment. Developing public-service announcements?
Invite employees from a local advertising agency. Designing a new school? One of your
classroom parents may just be an architect.
Creative Educator can help bring PBL to your school or district. Find out more
If students know that other people will be relying on and judging the information and
ideas they propose, their motivation to work hard and take risks increases. If you involve
the audience in the assessment process, be sure to provide a rubric or other guide to
ensure the feedback they provide is pertinent to project goals.
Conclusion
The complexity of student projects makes assessment that captures both the final product
and the learning that occurs along the way an intricate and sometimes difficult task.
Summative assessment can be an effective component of an overall assessment strategy.
Authentic assessment can be used during the project-building process. Rubrics, ideally
developed with the help of the students, can help to evaluate how successfully students
address specific goals and performances. Self-reflection gives students a means to
determine what they think they have learned and how well they have learned it. Crafting
assessment strategies that combine all of these methods helps us gain a much better
understanding of the learning that takes place during the entire process.