A Case for STEM Education. ScienceTechnologyEngineeringMath.

A Case for STEM Education

WHAT IS STEM?

Science Technology Engineering

Math

WHAT IS A STEM SCHOOL?Project based learning for all

students

Opportunities to increase STEM

literacy

A rigorous curriculum aligned to state and national standards

Full integration of technology in all

classes for all students

Ongoing involvement of business and industry with

mentors for each student

Ongoing professional

development for each teacher

Connection to students’

pathways to postsecondary

education

STEM IN ACTIONReal examples from North Carolina New Schools

A community college instructor who teaches in the one of the STEM Early College High Schools arranges for his class to tour a bio-manufacturing facility to see firsthand how science becomes medicine.

A business executive sits down with a STEM school's 10th grade math team to share the kinds of real-world problems involving math his employees encounter so that students as a way to help improve tomorrow's workforce.

A chemistry teacher at a rural STEM school is accepted for a summer externship at a prestigious biotech company in Research Triangle Park; she'll use the experience to help make her classes more relevant.

WHY STEM? “STEM job growth has been three times greater than that of non-STEM jobs over the last 10 years.”

Economy

- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that of the 2.6 million unfilled jobs in May 2010, many were STEM jobs.

- Eight million STEM job openings are expected by the year 2018. Yet currently, only 17 percent of high school students are graduating with the demonstrated interest and math skills to begin a STEM college major, and only half of them will actually complete a STEM degree. 

Equal Opportunity- Minority students and first-generation college-going students are

dramatically under-represented in STEM training and jobs.

WHY STEM?

CURRENT STATE OF STEM

NC STEM

NC STEM

STEM SUCCESS IN NC

STEM school student performance successes include the following:7 of 9 STEM high schools in 2011 had graduation rates exceeding 90 percent. 

The state's STEM schools had a dropout rate of 1.6 percent, less than half the 3.75 percent rate for all high schools in North Carolina. 

STEM-school students together achieved a gain of nearly 20 percentage points in

2010 on their passing rate for all state EOC exams. The state's overall gain was 8.8 points. 

Students in STEM schools are taking more rigorous math courses, as measured by the percentage of all students enrolled in Algebra II. In STEM schools, 31 percent took the math course in 2009-10 compared to 18 percent of all high school students statewide.

HOW THE SCHOOL BOARD CAN HELP

Partner with businessesProvide fundingCreate afterschool programsExpand STEM curriculum by offering new electives

Fund STEM workshops and conferences for teachers

IMPLEMENTATION

Establish professional

learning communities

Educate teachers in proper PBL

methods

Implement PBL in the classroom through group collaboration

Works Cited

Capraro, Robert Michael, Mary Margaret Capraro, and James R. Morgan. STEM Project-based Learning: An Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Approach. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense, 2013. Print.

"North Carolina New Schools: STEM Education | Overview." STEM Education. North Carolina New Schools. Web. 10 July 2014.

North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center. "Strategies That Engage Minds: Empowering North Carolina's Economic Future." 2013 NC STEM Report Card (2013). Print.

"STEM Education." Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 Digest. National Science Foundation, Jan. 2012. Web. 10 July 2014.