Sarah Stolberg's Portfolio Page

Navigation links: ETAP 623 Spring 2023 (Zhang) | Taking a Strengths-Based Approach to Teaching STEM in Rural Schools

About Me

My name is Sarah Stolberg, and I am from Cuba, NY. Currently, I reside in Rochester, NY. I recently received my bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Inclusive Adolescent Education from Nazareth College, and I am now enrolled in the CDIT master's program at the University at Albany.

As a certified math teacher, it is my dream to teach middle school math this upcoming school year, as right now I am just focusing on completing my master's degree. I currently am a building substitute at a middle school in Rochester, and I run the Math Team for 6-8th graders at the school.

My Topic and Purpose

Growing up in a small rural town in Western New York, my public education included a variety of unique educational experiences. It was not until my undergraduate education, however, that I realized how special my public education had been. When talking about rural education, most conversations take a deficit approach, and this was the same mindset that I too had about my education. Upon learning about instructional strategies and best teaching practices, I was able to reflect upon some of my own experiences and learning opportunities that I had in high school. These unique experiences, I realized, were incredibly formative and meaningful learning opportunities that I would not have been able to have at any other suburban or urban school. Due to my teachers' immense dedication to their students' learning, they were able to create incredible learning experiences using the resources and connections available in my small, rural, and close-knit hometown.

Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content

For teachers in rural school districts, this course will provide them with ways to take a strengths-based approach to teaching in small rural schools. Particularly, this course is designed to assist STEM teachers in actualizing their potential to use resources, community connections, and innovative creativity in order to create unique and meaningful learning experiences for their students.

In this course, users will address the questions:

What is the difference between a deficit versus strengths-based approach to teaching?
Why is it necessary that rural STEM teachers alter their teaching to strengths-based instruction?
How can rural STEM teachers take advantage of their unique circumstances in order to create hands-on, inquiry-based, innovative lessons?
How will students benefit from these experiences, both short-term and long-term?

Needs Assessment

Instructional Problem: With the current and future job market constantly increasing its demand for qualified and passionate individuals to uphold careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-fields (STEM), it falls in the hands of educators and schools in society to prepare students for the STEM jobs that await them after graduation. More specifically, it is up to educators to ensure that all students in any demographic feel worthy and capable of entering jobs within STEM fields. Students need to both feel that they belong in a field by being given opportunities to picture themselves within the field, and they also need to have experiences which enhance their interest within that field. In rural schools particularly, students consistently show lower test scores and achievement in STEM fields and interest in STEM than in urban and suburban students. This is due to a variety of factors and barriers to rural students' STEM education. Teachers, however, can combat these barriers by utilizing a strengths-based approach to teaching STEM subjects, thus giving their students more experiences which expose them to the possible careers that await them after school.

The Nature of What is to be Learned: Educators taking this mini-course will learn how to overcome barriers associated with rural public schools in order to provide students with a comprehensive, unique, and meaningful STEM education. Through taking a strengths-based approach to teaching, participants will learn how to create hands-on and inquiry based lessons for their students that will stick with them for the rest of their lives.

About the Learners: The learners (educators) are any teachers of STEM subjects in rural-school districts. Whether they are new teachers or well into their career, the learners may be seeking new creative ways to give their students access to STEM skills and unique lessons. Due to the high turnover rate of teachers in rural school districts, learners may use this information to view teaching in a rural school in a new light.

Existing Efforts to Address this Gap: Little research has been done about how to help close the gap between rural students' achievement in STEM subjects, and even less has been done about how teachers can alter their pedagogical mindsets and strategies to help this issue. Rural schools are often given grants to aid with their resource acquisition, but this mini course focuses on resources which teachers most likely already have at their disposition.

Intent Statement: This mini course will help teachers provide their rural students with unique, one-of-a-kind, hands-on lessons in STEM areas. Doing so will increase the likelihood of students retaining information and becoming more successful in STEM subjects and developing interest in those fields.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

Learners: Participants of this mini course will be pre-service or full-time teachers. While anyone can take this course, it is designed for teachers of 7-12 STEM subjects in rural schools particularly. Learners' experience teaching in rural schools may vary, but they should have some experience teaching STEM subjects in rural schools with students in grades 7-12.

Instructional Context: Participants will engage in learning by means of accessing and taking the mini course through the KNILT platform. Participants will be able to go through the mini course at any time they wish, and they will be able to access whichever modules they wish to again after the course is completed. Ideally, the learners should be able to use the lessons from the mini course with students in a classroom setting. For pre-service teachers, the ideas in the mini-course will serve as inspiration for instructional strategies for future use.

Goals: After the completion of this course, it is the goal of the creator that participants will have a better understanding of how to implement strengths-based practices into their teaching of STEM subjects at rural schools. This course has the goal of instilling in teachers a new sense of purpose, creativity, and determination to create unique learning experiences for their students.

Performance-Based Objectives

By the end of this course learners will be able to:

Clearly and articulately state the differences between strengths-based and deficit-based approaches to teaching in a rural school
Apply their understandings of a strengths-based approach to teaching to their own pedological practices
Identify ways they can utilize resources in their rural community and school in order to create meaningful and unique STEM lessons for their students
Design hands-on inquiry-based lessons as to engage students in the construction of knowledge and application of STEM topics

Task and Content Analysis

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills

Before taking this course, the participant should:

Be able to use computer skills to navigate online directions

Understand and create lesson plans to meet the standards set forth by their school district and/or state

Unit 1: Introduction to Teaching STEM in Rural Public Schools

After this unit the participants will be able to:

Identify common barriers to STEM education in rural schools
Explain why teaching STEM in rural schools is often discussed in a negative way

Participants will take a self-assessment quiz based on their perceptions of teaching STEM in a rural public school.

Unit 2: Deficit versus Strengths-Based Approaches to Teaching

After this unit the participants will be able to:

Compare and contrast characteristics of deficit vs. strengths-based approaches to teaching
Evaluate their own current instructional practices with regard to deficit vs. strengths-based teaching
Describe the importance of using a strengths-based approach to teaching STEM in rural public schools

Participants will use a journal prompt to elaborate on their own current instructional practices and identify if they believe they use more of a deficit vs. strengths-based approach to teaching.

Unit 3: Implementing Strengths-Based Teaching

After this unit the participants will be able to:

List unique resources common to most rural public schools
Identify ways in which rural STEM teachers can utilize these resources to create hands-on inquiry-based lessons

Participants will select one instructional strategy that stands out to them and annotate why they like this teaching strategy for STEM students in rural schools.

Unit 4: Moving Forward: The Application of this Work

After this unit the participants will be able to:

Design their own strengths-based plan for teaching STEM in rural schools
Apply components from each unit to synthesize an understanding of the content

Participants will design an informal lesson related to a topic of their choosing which incorporates a strengths-based instructional strategy from the mini-course.

Curriculum Map

References and Resources

Adedokun, O.A., Goodpaster, K.P.S., & Weaver, G.C. (2012). Teachers’ perceptions of rural STEM teaching: Implications for rural teacher retention. The Rural Educator, 33(3). https://doi.org/10.35608/ruraled.v33i3.408

Avery, L.M. (2013). Rural science education: Valuing local knowledge. Theory Into Practice, 52(1), 28-35. DOI: 10.1080/07351690.2013.743769

Hamilton, J. (2019, April 19). Making STEM classes accessible to students in rural America. TechTalks. https://bdtechtalks.com/2019/04/19/stem-education-rural-america/

Harris, R. S., & Hodges, C.B. (2018). STEM education in rural schools: Implications of untapped potential. National Youth-At-Risk Journal, 3(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.20429/nyarj.2018.030102

Hinchey, P. H. (1998). Finding freedom in the classroom: A practical introduction to critical theory (pp. 17-32). New York: P. Lang.

Murphy, S. (2020). Achieving STEM education success against the odds. Curriculum Perspectives, 40, 241-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-020-00110-8

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Employment in STEM occupations. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/stem-employment.htm