The Primary STEM Ideas Book

Engaging Classroom Activities Combining Mathematics, Science and D&T

Elizabeth Flinn, Hannah Thompson, Anne Mulligan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429803543
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Primary STEM Ideas Book is designed to promote the integrated teaching of STEM in the primary classroom by providing teachers with lesson ideas for investigations and projects. The statutory requirements of the National Curriculum for science, mathematics and design and technology are comprehensively covered through a variety of practical, stimulating and engaging activities, which have all been tried and tested in the primary classroom. The interrelationship between the STEM subjects is strongly integrated throughout, allowing children's knowledge and skills to develop with confidence in these key subjects through activities which only require easily accessible resources generally found in the classroom.

Written by subject specialists with years of classroom experience teaching STEM, each chapter contains:

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• A rationale showing links to the National Curriculum

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• Key subject knowledge

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• Brief session plans

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• Ideas for supporting higher and lower attaining children

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• Follow up ideas to provide extra inspiration

Including 'how to' guides and other photocopiable resources, this book is perfect for creating integrated lessons, group work and discussions relating to STEM. The Primary STEM Ideas Book provides easy to follow instructions and helps spark fresh inspiration for both new and experienced teachers in primary STEM education.

Chapter 1

Introduction to STEM

STEM is widely recognised as the subjects science, technology, engineering and mathematics combined together and taught through an integrated approach. There is growing awareness globally of the importance of STEM education in developing learners as effective problem-solvers who can work constructively as part of a team. The ability to reason mathematically, think critically, solve problems and work collaboratively with others are important skills, sought after by employers today. These are considered by many, including Corlu, Capraro and Capraro (2014), Fitzallen (2015) and Meyrick (2011) to be the key skills of the 21st century.

According to Meyrick (2011), STEM education was first used in the United States as a means of further extending students who were highly talented or who were motivated to deepen their learning. The experience was similar in Australia where STEM opportunities were provided for students who were considered to be gifted in those particular subjects (Fitzallen 2015) and in Turkey where the selection process of schools determined the quality of the STEM education students received (Corlu et al. 2014). Many countries are beginning to see the value of STEM for economic development and are working to improve provision of STEM education in schools. West (2012) believes that countries need to keep up to date with innovation or risk being left behind. He states that ‘innovation, particularly through the application of science and technology, is central to maintaining productivity, economic growth, and our standard of living’ (West 2012, p. 4). He also makes the point that if a country’s capacity for innovation is to be maintained and improved it needs workers who are competent in STEM.

Much of the research on STEM comes from the US and Australia, countries that have carried out research on the benefits of an integrated approach to STEM education on students’ learning. Integrating STEM subjects does not mean that all subject disciplines have to be combined. Connections can be made across two or more subjects as long as they are linked ‘so that learning becomes connected, focused, meaningful, and relevant to learners’ (Smith and Karr-Kidwell 2000, p. 24). Therefore, STEM learning can be seen as interdisciplinary because it involves more than one discipline and the disciplines are interrelated. The curriculum in the primary classroom is particularly suited to this interdisciplinary approach as teachers are expected to teach all subjects and therefore to have good subject knowledge in these subjects. According to Treacy and O’Donoghue (2014), it is important that learners engage in plenty of hands-on group work and have opportunities for enquiry and for discussions throughout. It is also important to introduce STEM activities as early as possible so that learners can develop key skills of problem-solving, critical thinking and mathematical reasoning from an early age. Teaching in this way helps to develop learners’ deeper understanding as they experience topics that interest them in real-life contexts (Meyrick 2011). As a result, they are more engaged in their learning and, according to Meyrick (2011), developing these key skills through the teaching of STEM supports pupils from diverse backgrounds so that they have equal opportunities.

There are numerous implications for teachers to consider when teaching integrated STEM activities. The most important of these is their approaches to teaching. More traditional approaches are less effective when it comes to integrating STEM subjects. Teachers need to develop more empowering pedagogies that engage pupils and provide opportunities for enquiry-based learning, creativity and collaborative work (Fitzallen 2015; Meyrick 2011; Stohlmann, Moore and Roehrig 2012). Teachers also need to have a depth of subject knowledge that enables them to feel confident in teaching STEM through an integrated approach. Research by Stohlmann et al. (2012) found that if teachers lacked sufficient subject knowledge in a particular STEM subject then their teaching of STEM would be less effective. Gaps in teachers’ subject knowledge or inexperience of teaching a particular subject can lead to teachers doubting their own capabilities. According to Stohlmann et al. (2012, p. 32), ‘teachers’ content knowledge, experience and pedagogical content knowledge have a large impact on self-efficacy’. Hudson, English, Dawes, King and Baker (2015) noted from their research that ‘teaching strategies employed during the STEM lessons facilitated positive attitudes in students to engage with the concepts and the tasks’. The implication for schools that wish to adopt STEM education is that they will need to consider professional development opportunities for teachers so that they receive training in how to develop pedagogic approaches more appropriate for teaching integrated STEM.

Integrated STEM education has implications for curriculum planning as the school curriculum structure may not have the flexibility to allow for this approach to teaching. Teachers may also need support with planning in a more interdisciplinary way, which will differ to discrete subject planning. More time will be needed initially for teachers to plan in this way until they become more familiar and confident with this approach. Resourcing is a further consideration when teaching STEM due to the increase in hands-on practical activities. This may impact on the space available for storage as well as available funding as more resources are needed.

The benefits of STEM education are evident from research by Fitzallen (2015), Meyrick (2011) and Stohlmann et al. (2012), who agree on the positive impact it has on pupils’ learning. Meyrick (2011) explains how problem-solving approaches can improve learners’ critical thinking skills as well as their understanding of process and their ability to communicate effectively. Stohlmann et al. (2012) discuss how learners can become better problem-solvers who are self-reliant and have a more positive attitude to school. Corlu et al. (2014, p. 75) believe that the ‘overarching goal of STEM education is to raise the current generation with innovative mindsets’.

Research carried out in the US by Xie, Fang and Shauman (2015) indicates that although test scores are on a par for boys and girls when comparing mathematics and science, there is a gender gap when it comes to girls continuing STEM to third-level education and beyond. Sax, Kanny, Riggers-Piehl, Whang and Paulson (2015) attribute the lack of engagement of older girls in STEM subjects to their lack of confidence in mathematics rather than their mathematical ability. However, they believe that this may change in the future with more women being attracted into all STEM fields.

This book is designed to promote the teaching of STEM in the primary classroom. The activities are suitable for learners from Year 1 to Year 6 and can be adapted and simplified as necessary for a specific year group. The activities within the chapters can be taught as part of a half-term topic, a STEM week or as individual lessons. The interrelationship and connection between the subjects come across strongly in the activities and in the skills needed to complete them. The activities are all hands-on, as recommended by Treacy and O’Donoghue (2014) and there are obvious opportunities for children to engage in group work and discussion. The chapters contain a number of enquiry questions that children have to investigate through trial and improvement or by adopting a systematic approach. As discussed earlier, it is not necessary to have all the STEM subjects combined for every activity and there are some examples within the chapters where the focus is on two subjects rather than all four. The resources used for each activity are easily accessible and many are everyday objects found in the home. This should make it easier for teachers in terms of cost and storage. The layout of each activity should make planning less time consuming as it contains many pieces of key information that can be copied and pasted onto a lesson plan.

References

Corlu, M. S., Capraro, R. M. & Capraro, M. M. (2014) Introducing STEM education: implications for educating our teachers for the age of innovation, in Education and Science, 39 (171), pp. 74–85.

Fitzallen, N. (2015) STEM education: what does mathematics have to offer?, in M. Marshman, V. Geiger & A. Bennison (eds). Mathematics Education in the Margins (Proceedings of the 38th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia), pp. 237–244. Sunshine Coast: MERGA.

Hudson, P., English, L., Dawes, L., King, K. & Baker, S. (2015) Exploring links between pedagogical knowledge practices and student outcomes in STEM education in primary schools, in Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40 (6), pp. 134–151.

Meyrick, K. M. (2011) How STEM education improves student learning, in Meridian K-12 School Computer Technologies Journal, 14 (1) https://meridian.ced.ncsu.edu/archive/summer2011/index.html (accessed 28/11/2018).

Sax, L. J., Kanny, M. A., Riggers-Piehl, T. A., Whang, H. & Paulson, L. N. (2015) ‘But I’m not good at math’: the changing salience of mathematical self-concept in shaping women’s and men’s STEM aspirations, in Research in Higher Education: Journal of the Association for Institutional Research, 56 (4), Springer.

Smith, J. & Karr-Kidwell, P. J. (2000) The Interdisciplinary Curriculum: A Literary Review and a Manual for Administrators and Teachers https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED443172.pdf (accessed on 1/3/2019).

Stohlmann, M., Moore, T. J. & Roehrig, G. H. (2012) Considerations for teaching integrated STEM education, in Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER), 2 (1), Article 4, pp. 28–34.

Treacy, P. & O’Donoghue, J. (2014) Authentic integration: a model for integrating mathematics and science in the classroom, in International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 45 (5), pp. 703–718.

West, M. (2012) STEM education and the workplace, in Occasional Paper Series Issue 4 www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/OPS4-STEMEducationAndTheWorkplace-web.pdf (accessed on 30/11/2018).

Xie, Y., Fang, M. & Shauman, K. (2015) STEM education, in Annual Review of Sociology, 41, pp. 331–357 http://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145659 (accessed on 30/11/2018).

Chapter 2

How to use this book

All the activities in this book have been tested by children aged 6 to 11. The authors, illustrator and children have had a great deal of fun designing and testing everything and it is our hope that w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction to STEM
• Chapter 2 How to use this book
• Chapter 3 It’s about time!
• Chapter 4 Pattern
• Chapter 5 A to B
• Chapter 6 Plant magic
• Chapter 7 Help!
• Chapter 8 Chocolate
• Chapter 9 Up, up and away
• Chapter 10 STEM beyond the curriculum