Becoming a STEM-Focused School District: Administrators’ Roles and Experiences

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools and districts continue to emerge, and while some research highlights critical components to be included in STEM schools, there is a need to learn more about the process of becoming a STEM school or district. In this study, we investigated a rural United States school district’s development and expansion of its STEM education focus, which started in the years leading up to the district’s first STEM school opening in 2012. We addressed the research question: How is a district-wide STEM education vision developed, enacted, and sustained by various administrative stakeholders? We interviewed 11 participants, all of whom had some level of administrative responsibility related to the district’s STEM mission, coded interviews based on the critical components of STEM schools, and used narrative inquiry methods to describe the district’s STEM transition from these administrators’ perspectives. Our analysis revealed that several key critical components were central to this district’s STEM mission. These components included elements related to leadership, reform-based instructional strategies, and teachers’ professional learning. By focusing on different elements at different times and prioritizing several key components throughout, this district was able to achieve its goal of providing STEM instruction to all of the elementary and middle school students.

VIRTUAL CAPSTONE WORKSPACE

- Virtual reality aims at immersing a user in a virtual environment. Dedicated virtual reality technologies of human–computer interaction enables linking the user and a virtual environment in capturing the user's motion. Our primary purpose is to improve communication between the students, especially the team members in STEM schools in Egypt. The application supports students in the capstone project for each grade. It is supported by tools to make a simulation for the project. Also, it is supported by a virtual reality headset. As we mentioned, VR is used in many fields, and it isolates the person from the surrounded environment altogether. VR is used instead of Anesthesia because of its effect in isolating humans from the surrounded environment. That will increase communication and concentration between the team members and make them feel that they are in an actual meeting. Every person will have an avatar in the application represent him. This avatar will translate every member's motion in the meeting by the sensor in the VR headset. A mic supports the VR headset. Every team will have a specific room, this room is where they can make all meetings, and all the work, achievements, and updates of the group will save in this room. Also, the application work as a director for the work

Developing student 21st Century skills in selected exemplary inclusive STEM high schools

Background There is a need to arm students with noncognitive, or 21st Century, skills to prepare them for a more STEM-based job market. As STEM schools are created in a response to this call to action, research is needed to better understand how exemplary STEM schools successfully accomplish this goal. This conversion mixed method study analyzed student work samples and teacher lesson plans from seven exemplary inclusive STEM high schools to better understand at what level teachers at these schools are engaging and developing student 21st Century skills. Results We found of the 67 lesson plans collected at the inclusive STEM high schools, 50 included instruction on 21st Century skills. Most of these lesson plans designed instruction for 21st Century skills at an introductory level. Few lesson plans encouraged multiple 21st Century skills and addressed higher levels of those skills. Although there was not a significant difference between levels of 21st Century skills by grade level, there was an overall trend of higher levels of 21st Century skills demonstrated in lesson plans designed for grades 11 and 12. We also found that lesson plans that lasted three or more days had higher levels of 21st Century skills. Conclusions These findings suggest that inclusive STEM high schools provide environments that support the development of 21st Century skills. Yet, more can be done in the area of teacher professional development to improve instruction of high levels of 21st Century skills.