Massachusetts STEM Summit 2018

Project based learning (PBL) is a student-centered learning model that has a long history of implementation in schools, but is still considered to be an innovative teaching method to better prepare students for college, career and life. Research has shown that PBL can be particularly effective in helping students develop 21st century skills such as creativity, collaboration, communication and creativity, as well as improving retention of cognitive skills and knowledge.

In the 2017-18 school year, the Westford, MA public school system decided to launch a pilot 6th grade classroom that would offer a fully integrated (i.e., STEM and Humanities) PBL classroom as an alternative to traditional subject-specific classroom settings. Parents opted into the choice of this classroom for their children, and for some it was a way of trying to re-engage their sons and daughters who were losing interest in school. The session will summarize the results of the pilot in the words of the two teachers who led the class, two of their students from the pilot classroom, as well as an evaluator who conducted a mixed methods assessment during the school year. Topics covered in the session will include an explanation of how the integrated PBL model was implemented, what was needed to make the year a success, and what were the key learnings by looking at the outcomes from the year. Perspectives from students, parents, teachers and the administration will be included in the session.

Learn how accessible, on-line data on job trends in STEM industries can help guide curriculum, connect with industry and improve career awareness among students. As we work to build the STEM pipeline and create career pathways for students, educators need to have access to clear data and analysis that effectively conveys the skill needs of STEM industries. By examining an ongoing partnership between the biopharmaceutical industry and higher education, facilitated by the MassBioEd Foundation, attendees will learn how the daunting task of aligning education programs with the skill requirements of STEM employers can be greatly eased by the effective use of available data on hiring trends. This session includes panelists from higher education, industry and a data provider, who will share how access to such data and analysis has created a common ground for industry and higher education to come together to help direct alignment around skills development and provide new tools for educators at the secondary and post-secondary level to better create awareness among students about careers in the life sciences, for which 12,000 additional jobs will need to be filled by 2023.

In today’s diverse STEM economy, students pursue a wide variety of careers critical to the scientific enterprise. However, it can be challenging for students to learn about career options due to time, financial and logistical constraints. Here, we present an educational model for experiential learning developed as part of our National Institutes of Health BEST (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) grant:  #MicroSim job simulations.  #MicroSims connect students with employers in a meaningful interaction that takes just a few hours. Each simulation activity replicates a task common to the career role, giving the student an opportunity to consider their own career fit. The student shares their job simulation product with an employer in an informational interview or small group discussion setting, helping both student and professional deepen the conversation and build a more meaningful connection. We developed job simulations as a component of our Career Pathways Communities (CPC), which are career-themed learning communities connecting employers and Ph.D. students. We anticipate that the #MicroSims model could be applied to students across STEM disciplines and at various educational levels. In this session, we will share strategies for development and implementation of #MicroSim job simulations and facilitate an audience discussion of potential applications in other contexts. Joining us will be an employer who helped to develop and facilitate a job simulation, and a student who experienced the program, sharing their perspectives about the experience and the benefits for all parties.

The Readiness through Integrative Science and Engineering (RISE) project seeks to develop ecologically valid, culturally-relevant integrative science, technology and engineering (STE) preschool curriculum components and home-school connections, forged through exploration of family knowledge, activities, and routines related to STE, to support young dual language learning (DLL) children’s school success. A principal innovation of RISE is the process of co-construction, conceptualized as reciprocal and non-hierarchical engagement by researchers, parents and teachers. RISE was developed and initially implemented in seven Head Start classrooms in a large northeastern city, across two programs serving Latino and Chinese heritage families and their DLL children. We will present the RISE Model of Co-Construction, highlighting the Home-School Collaboration (HSC) component. The HSC component, guided primarily by the work of Joseph Tobin and Luis Moll, is built on the idea that schools can leverage families’ unique contributions to children's learning, rather than trying to overwrite these to get children "ready for school." Essential to our reconceptualization of family engagement is that the home-to-school flow of information is just as important as the school-to-home flow, with a particular focus in RISE on STE learning as the family-school bridge. By effectively connecting children’s familiar knowledge and classroom curriculum, teachers can facilitate powerful learning for children from non-dominant groups (Thompson, 2010). We will present our innovative approach, as well as preliminary evidence of its success, and discuss links to early childhood policy and practice.

Computer science (CS) has been a field dominated by White and Asian men, but the educational community is actively seeking to engage and support female, Black and Latino students in rigorous high school computer science and prepare them for CS in college and the workforce. Come see how the College Board-endorsed AP curriculum Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is teaching students how to program and how technology impacts society using cross-subject-area projects in a visual programming language and collaborative and student-led class discussions on current events. You will collaboratively explore a hands-on introduction to programming with the Snap! language and learn about the AP Computer Science Principles course, the BJC curriculum, and our ongoing research in urban schools. We’ll answer your questions about implementing this free course, the Snap! programming language, and the equity-focused research project, and leave you inspired to explore the Beauty and Joy of Computing with your students. Participants do not need any experience with programming but should bring an Internet-enabled device.

Our Change Maker program brings together youth from Springfield, Waltham and Boston and uses a cross-age, near peer, tiered mentoring model, positive-youth development STEM focus where high school youth will support middle school youth in learning the interdisciplinary science of hydroponics while they grow crops in their urban hydroponic farms. We have established Food Justice Ambassador teams across our three cities consisting of high school youth who will mentor and teach middle school youth in after-school settings with youth alumni (college-students) serving as Food Justice Leaders. Attendees will learn how we have combined three synergistic components into a STEM pathway model: (1) a near-peer mentoring approach, (2) STEM learning, and (3) youth purpose and career development. Unlike other out-of-school STEM programs, our proposed work will not only support the learning of STEM concepts, but it will do so by taking them on a personal journey designed to help them discover the relevance of STEM skills for fulfilling future career aspirations, as well as for contributing to the lives of others. Our approach is different from the many programs that focus on teaching STEM to close the opportunity gap. Rather, our program recognizes the potential for urban youth to become deeply knowledgeable citizens who understand the localization of food injustice within their communities and as such, can mobilize their enhanced STEM knowledge and skills to illuminate/resolve social injustices.

To realize the significant change we seek in student success trajectories, solutions have to be implemented across a system at scale. However, scale can be difficult to achieve and maintain. Designing, launching, and supporting an initiative at scale brings its own unique challenges and benefits. Can an initiative launched at scale support a system-level model for promoting student engagement and success across an entire Commonwealth? This session highlights the efforts of the STEM Starter Academy Initiative, administrated through the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, to support the STEM pipeline at all 15 of the public community colleges in Massachusetts. Through this work the campuses have built upon existing STEM programming to provide a cohesive set of student supports through the coordination of different offices on campuses and by learning from each other on what is working to impact student retention rates and program completion. This work has spawned several vibrant partnerships, and connected an active and diverse learning community that is deeply committed to inter- and intra-campus collaboration.

During this session we will review key steps in designing for scale, highlighting specific instances of success, challenge, and emergent best practice. Audience members will learn about implementing an initiative at the system level (at scale) through the lens of STEM Starter Academy programming. Key steps in the process of implementing and supporting work at scale will be highlighted during this session, as well as the practices and lessons learned that have helped shape this initiative into a true learning community that can be applied to other regional and state-wide partnerships.

In recent years, the field of education has challenged researchers and practitioners to incorporate computing as an essential focus of K12 STEM education. Widely recognized as a “basic skill” necessary for economic opportunity and social mobility, integrating computing within K12 STEM supports learners in applying computational thinking while co-developing practices essential to mathematical and scientific expertise. The EcoMOD research project is an example of such an integration. EcoMOD is a 3rd grade science curriculum that blends scientific modeling tasks and computer programming within an immersive virtual ecosystem.

The EcoMOD curriculum interweaves a 3D virtual ecosystem and a visual block-based programming and modeling environment such that the epistemic goals of science are visible to learners. In EcoMOD, students explore an immersive virtual forest ecosystem from multiple perspectives; collecting data, embodying behaviors of focal animals using an immersive point-of-view tool, documenting change caused by the arrival of two keystone species (beavers and woodpeckers), and, finally, developing theories to explain those observed changes. Students test their theories by constructing and refining computational models of the ecosystem. Model outcomes help students link individual organism behaviors to indirect and emergent system level impacts, in turn scaffolding the development of more sophisticated theories regarding the complex causal relationships within the ecosystem.

The Readiness through Integrative Science and Engineering (RISE) project focuses on the purposeful engagement of preschool teachers and children in both the explanation-seeking behavior of science and the problem-solving behavior of engineering and technological endeavors. Specifically, RISE seeks to develop ecologically valid, culturally relevant integrative science, technology and engineering (STE) preschool curriculum components and home-school connections (HSC), forged through exploration of family knowledge, activities, and routines related to STE, to support young dual language learning (DLL) children’s school success. Three Head Start teachers will provide brief presentations about how their curriculum concerning the concept of Living vs. Non-living Things unfolded. These presentations will provide the audience with clear examples of how curriculum implementation can align with, yet vary within, larger national and state frameworks, how a co-construction approach to PD can empower teachers and families, and how evaluation of curriculum and PD programs can measure fidelity to an approach rather than fidelity to a specific curricular script. Implications for application in other settings will be discussed, especially as relevant for informing culturally inclusive curriculum.

Evidence is growing that “nudges” grounded in behavioral science can help students persist through college. This session will discuss lessons and early outcomes from a national initiative using behavioral nudging and intelligent software to increase STEM success and completion. Early experimental results show that the nudging support resulted in a 10 percentage-point increase in spring-to-fall persistence.

Beginning in summer 2017, Persistence Plus and Jobs for the Future launched an initiative to support students at four community colleges with text message nudges for college completion. Serving more than 10,000 students, the Nudging to STEM Success project aims to increase persistence rates for entering students, with an emphasis on success in introductory STEM courses. Nudges are grounded in behavioral science and engage students via text message. These interventions are designed to help students develop a strong college-completion and STEM identity by connecting their STEM studies to their personal values and goals. Nudges also encourage students to set and follow through on academic goals and utilize campus supports like tutoring and advising, while revealing hidden barriers and misconceptions that hinder student success. Attendees will learn how schools in this initiative are leveraging behavioral science and mobile technology to help students navigate through college, and see examples of what interactive nudging via text message looks like from the student perspective.