Integrated STEM Practices: Exploring Overlap in K–12 STEM Education

• In Event: Unpacking and Enacting the Next Generation Science Standards

Abstract

Teaching integrated STEM (iSTEM) can make learning more relevant to students, enhance motivation, and increase conceptual understanding. The need for a common language in iSTis driven by a lack of clarity about effective implementation in the classroom. We conducted a content analysis of disciplinary practice standards to create a set of eight iSTEM practices. These practices are: communicating, investigating, modeling, using tools, working with data, making sense of problems or phenomena, solving problems, and evaluating ideas or solutions. Potential challenges were also revealed, such as disciplinary practices that may be misconstrued or conflated during integration. These findings have the potential to establish a common language for teaching and learning in an iSTEM context.

Authors

• Daniel Pimentel, Stanford University

• Megan Selbach-Allen, Stanford University

• Brandon Reynante, Stanford University