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Lesson 2: Strengths-Based STEM Instructional Strategies

From KNILT

Putting it in Practice

From interviewing rural STEM teachers, my own educational experiences, and researching this topic, the following examples are specific instructional strategies used by rural STEM educators in order to boost student engagement, learning, and interest:

  1. By searching for and applying for grants for rural schools, rural western New York schools have been able to construct on-site STEM learning facilities such as a 20-acre white-tailed deer research facility, a working barn that features animals like ponies and chickens, an auto-body center, and welding rooms, a one-acre pond and fish hatchery where students raise and research paddle-fish and brook trout, and a turkey research facility. By advocating for their students' interests and need for hands-on STEM experiences, these teachers have been able to receive grants and build incredible learning sites on school grounds for students to conduct real research for years in a row.
  2. Taking advantage of community relationships and connections, teachers have created learning experiences that involve
    • "collaborating with local park rangers to design and build wombat-proof storage for campers across a series of full day workshops (Grade 9)
    • propagating native plants for sale through local nurseries as part of regular technologies classes (Grades 9 & 10)
    • raising chickens, monitoring food consumption and weight gain, for entry into a local show as part of regular mathematics classes (Grade 8)
    • keeping a variety of livestock and maintaining large vegetable gardens as part of regular science classes (Grades 5 to 10)
    • auditing local earthworm and dung beetle species as part of regular science classes (Grades 7 & 8);
    • monitoring and improving the health of local waterways as part of regular science classes (Grades 8 & 10)
    • establishing a mock body farm to study putrefaction as part of regular science classes (Grade 9); and training with the local country fire authority (Grade 10) and state emergency services (School wide) over a series of full day workshops to raise students’ awareness and preparedness for dealing with climatic catastrophes" (Murphy, 2020, p. 243).
  3. Because of the small class sizes and ability for teachers to cultivate meaningful relationships with students, most rural teachers have success with reaching out to alumni and having them come back to speak to current students. Whether this be an inspirational speech or simply discussing all of the amazing STEM careers out there, teachers have reported that students are always thrilled to listen to alumni and are interested in what they have to say. For example, one teacher brings in past students who now work for NASA as a head engineer, the MLB as statistical analysts, and at Microsoft as software developers in order to speak to students about all of the possibilities out there in STEM careers. These experiences really seem to give students a feeling of “I can do this.”

Thinking Across Disciplines

💭💭💭 Whether you are a rural STEM teacher or a social studies teacher in an urban district, how could you perhaps adapt one of these strategies in your classroom? Is there a strategy that stood out to you as maybe being engaging for your own students? 💭💭💭

Add these ideas to a shared Google Doc with our classmates here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iwo8_qx_z9uXsT0Nq-_egm7uMCplEwRofmRcfvJLGXE/edit?usp=sharing

Conclusion

Now that you've thought about how you could adapt these strategies to your own subject, let's move on to our last Unit 4: Moving Forward: The Application of this Work.

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