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Simplifying STEM [6-12]
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Simplifying STEM [6-12]
Four Equitable Practices to Inspire Meaningful Learning

with Katelyn M. LeRoy and Christine A. Pickett



January 2024 | 192 pages | Corwin

Start, focus, or extend your integrated STEM education journey with an authentic interdisciplinary perspective!

In response to calls for active STEM learning that builds students’ agency and sense of belonging, teachers and leaders are being encouraged more and more to equitably implement integrated STEM instruction. This practical guidebook is designed to help educators create integrated STEM learning experiences that are inclusive for all students and allows them to experience STEM as scientists, innovators, mathematicians, creators, engineers, and technology experts!

Addressing the STEM status quo and promoting inclusiveness in STEM fields, the authors center their work around the Equity-Oriented Conceptual Framework for STEM Literacy, which provides high-quality integrated strategies to connect students' lived experiences to STEM learning. Simplifying STEM provides a ground-breaking model of the four Integrated STEM Practices (ISPs) to ensure coherent and aligned teaching across disciplines through authentic opportunities to meaningfully engage students.

Learn how to simplify STEM with these four equitable practices to inspire deep learning

  • Use critical and creative thinking to seek solutions
  • Collaborate and use appropriate tools to engage in iterative design
  • Communicate solutions based on evidence and data
  • Recognize and use structures in real-world systems

Including a STEM planning guide as well as instructional strategies and assessments for standard alignment, this is an essential resource for any educator seeking to empower their students with meaningful STEM learning experiences. The book includes an online implementation toolkit to give educators opportunities for powerful professional development built on collaboration and connection.


 
Chapter 1: STEM Disciplines as Mutually Supportive
 
Chapter 2: ISP 1: Use Critical and Creative thinking to Seek Solutions
 
Chapter 3: ISP 2: Collaborate and use Appropriate Tools to Engage in Iterative Design
 
Chapter 4: ISP 3 Communicate Solutions Based on Evidence and Data
 
Chapter 5: ISP 4: Recognize and Use Structures in Real-world Systems
 
Chapter 6: Reimagining Existing STEM Tasks
 
Chapter 7: The Heart and the Spirit

Simplifying STEM, Grades 6–12: Four Equitable Practices to Inspire Meaningful Learning offers a practical understanding of four Integrated STEM Practices and provides educators with a framework for instruction. The inclusion of vignettes throughout the book makes it accessible for teachers to see the possibility of integration in their teaching. I appreciate the book’s grade-level-appropriate connections.

Robert Q. Berry III
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

The authors provide practical ways of integrating science, math, and engineering processes in ways that not only engage all students, but also
make the content accessible and engaging. If you want to know what you can do to uncover the brilliance of all your students while implementing equitable STEM instructional practices, this book is for you.

Pamela Seda
Seda Education Consulting
Ellenwood, GA

Simplifying STEM seeks to decenter whiteness and disrupt the STEM status quo. Readers are provided practical examples and essential strategies that
can be used in their respective environments to create inclusive STEM environments that give all scholars opportunities to be successful.

Kristopher J. Childs
K Childs Solutions
Winter Garden, FL

If you’ve been told that there either aren’t enough or too many integrated STEM resources for practitioners, Simplifying STEM, Grades 6–12 offers real-world examples that are complex yet accessible to all audiences. With “try this” teacher and scholar actions, the authors take novices to experts on an intellectual journey in STEM spaces. They weave information that further explains STEM in today’s context that makes the reader excited to imagine as well as try something creative.

Andrea Borowczak
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL

Simplifying STEM provides a practical, applicable roadmap for implementing integrated STEM practices in secondary classrooms and allows us to take meaningful steps toward disrupting the status quo. In our dynamic, diverse world, this book provides STEM teachers with tools and resources to engage ALL students in meaningful, high-quality STEM learning experiences.

David Dai
Barton Academy World Studies
Mobile, AL

Secondary STEM educators can lead the charge as we break down siloed education practices and better prepare students to thrive in an increasingly technological world. Highlighting the need for and value of equity in education, intentional collaboration across disciplines, and student agency, this publication outlines a promising path forward. My favorite features are the “reality checks,” which challenge both the status quo and our own internal beliefs, and the actionable question prompts!

Kelly Dooley
International Technology and Engineering Educators Association
Reston, VA

This is a fresh approach to integrating STEM concepts into your classroom and for integrating various parts of STEM with each other, all with an eye toward social justice, critical thinking, and modern classrooms.

Joseph Staub
Downtown Magnets High
Los Angeles, CA

With a solution-focused mindset, this book will help you implement STEM in a natural way to lead students in a learning model that they can carry forward in their education.

Cindy Corlett
Metro State University
Granby, CO

This book is an amazing and accessible tool every secondary teacher needs! Task exemplars and the alignment between scholar and teacher practices are invaluable!

Jessica Ivy
Purdue University Northwest
Munster, IN

This book scaffolds strategies that empower learning for all students through community-based problem solving through integrated STEM processes.

Debra K. Las
Rochester Public School
Rochester, MN

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