Critical Components of STEM-Focused Elementary Schools

• In Event: Science Teaching and Learning: Elementary Science Education

Abstract

Expanding quality STEM-related learning opportunities is a challenge that many schools and districts have addressed by creating schools with STEM education integral to their mission and design. With the success of STEM high school initiatives and the emphasis on of STEM education generally (NRC, 2013; PCAST, 2010), STEM-focused elementary schools have begun to emerge across the country. This paper reports on a study that identified and described the components key to the designs of five exemplar STEM-focused elementary schools, and How these critical components combine to provide a design framework of STEM-focused Elementary schools.

Authors

• Ann House, Independent Consultant

• Erin E. Peters Burton, George Mason University

• Julie Remold, Stanford University

• Vanessa Peters Hinton, Digital Promise