Assessing the First-Year Pilot of STEM: Explore, Discover, Apply – STEM Curricula for Middle Schools (work in progress)

Improving the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs in K-12 schools is a nationwide initiative. School administrators and teachers are experimenting with innovative curricula that will engage students in STEM subjects. However, teachers and administrators are cautious about employing new techniques due to concerns like time limitations on lessons, the plethora of content required to be covered during the school year, and resource restraints. Therefore, it is critical that any new curricula be beneficial to all involved parties: school administration, teachers, and students. The new curricula must reach the goal of the aforementioned initiative – to improve the quality of STEM education. In order to answer the initiative, the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center (NICERC) curriculum development specialists created middle school elective curricula for grades 6 th , 7 th , and 8 th . The curricula use science and design projects framed by the engineering design process to engage students. The content is presented in a modularly, increasing in difficulty through the grade levels. Each module consists of a design project lasting approximately three weeks if presented in a singular class one hour in length. This work in progress assesses the first year implementation of NICERC’s STEM: Explore, Discover, Apply (STEM EDA) curricula at three diverse K-12 schools. Through the pilot schools, the versatility of the curricula is showcased. The curricula are being piloted by a public, charter, and private school, all of which are conducting the courses in different manners. The public school implements the curricula as a standalone elective course. The charter school presents each module over one-week periods, where a cohort of teachers integrates the content throughout multiple classes. The private school chooses specific modules that are applicable to lessons in its current science curricula and presents those lessons using STEM EDA modules. Teacher and student feedback provides the data that will be the basis of the assessment. By taking the feedback into consideration, the successes, failures, and future directions of the curricula are evaluated and presented in this work-in-progress paper.