STEM Learning Studios

Overview

Are your students struggling with understanding plate tectonics? Have you thought about bringing in the local scientist to collaborate with the classroom teacher? How about having students design bridges to connect lunar modules while on the moon? Imagine a classroom where creative partnerships between classroom teachers and local STEM professionals foster deep science and math learning for struggling students and engage teachers in rich professional communities. In 2009, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) introduced STEM Learning Studios as a way to do both.

STEM Learning Studios foster a cross-curricular approach to learning. They rely on the ability of teachers to identify concepts that are challenging to students and actively seek assistance from content experts outside of schools to develop interactive, real-world applications that explain those concepts. In the Learning Studios’ project-based learning environments, classroom teachers of different disciplines within the same school collaborate in teams, work alongside science and engineering professionals from their local community, and create group projects that enable students to work together.

Drawn from the design principles outlined in the National Academies’ report “How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School,” Learning Studios are committed to three key approaches:

• Project-based learning, which improves student motivation, content knowledge, and academic success;
• Professional learning communities of teachers in schools that include time with skilled volunteers in STEM fields; and
• Embedded professional development, which provides teachers with real-time feedback on student learning that they use to improve their teaching effectiveness.

An Example from Maryland

Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland has created STEM Learning Studios for its 9^th grade earth sciences course. Teachers there identified that students were struggling with important concepts in the earth sciences curriculum, particularly around plate tectonics. To address these needs, they sought a different instructional approach, one that combined the strengths of teachers across several disciplines and the expertise of STEM professionals in the community.

The newly-formed team recruited teachers in earth sciences, computer sciences, technical education, and math (Algebra 1). After identifying the specific concepts that students had difficulty mastering, the teachers sought help from local experts. Several scientists and engineers from nearby Goddard Space Flight Center, a NASA research center that specializes in earth and space sciences, volunteered their time. They helped both students and teachers to better grasp the content and actively engage with the material by developing real-world connections between the curriculum and the research/work performed by the scientist or engineer. As a final step, the team co-designed a project-based approach to effectively teach plate tectonics. NASA also supported the NCTAF’s 21^st Century Learning Team initiative through a multi-year grant to translate research into effective learning techniques.

Now in their third year, the NASA Goddard scientists continue to work as part of the team during grant-supported professional development each year. The scientists offer their time, professional resources, enthusiasm, and real-world experience. They work closely with teachers and students to deliver special presentations; provide access to appropriate websites, research, and books; and design innovative instructional materials that integrate coursework across disciplines. For example, when the earth sciences class studied plate tectonics, the computer sciences class designed an interactive game related to earthquakes, which the students in the earth sciences class then used to learn the concepts. At the same time, the technical education class made a “shake table” to simulate movement caused by earthquakes, which also was used in the earth sciences class. And the math class used data that the technical education class gathered when making the “shake table”, analyzed it, and then shared it with the earth sciences class. With this kind of cross-curricular activity, students and teachers in different classes simultaneously participate in a project-based learning community that helps to engage students while teaching both content and skills.

Other schools use a similar approach, but the focus can range across a diverse spectrum of topics, such as reducing the community’s contribution to climate change, identifying the most useful insulation, measuring weather phenomena, and predicting hurricane patterns and destruction.

Measuring Impact

Early results from from STEM Learning Studios’ second full year are encouraging. More than two-thirds of participating teachers report that their students’ skills and attitudes — such as making real-world applications and asking questions that demonstrate understanding —had improved to “a great extent” or to “a modest extent.” In surveys, students revealed their enjoyment of the projects – describing them as “fun,” “challenging,” and “interesting” – and the collaborative group work in particular. Moreover, earth sciences and physics students who participated in the Learning Studios performed slightly better in locally administered multiple-choice assessments and, even more striking, scored significantly higher than their non-participating peers on constructed response items, which require students to apply their knowledge to solve a problem.

Over time, NCTAF intends to implement more benchmarks to guide replication of the STEM Learning Studios. These include metrics for:

1) improvements in student achievement, as measured against clearly defined standards;

2) improvements in teacher effectiveness, as measured by satisfaction reports and based on embedded professional development and coaching from other educators, volunteers, and retired professionals;

3) improvements in volunteers’ impact and experiences, as professionals draw on their skills to improve teaching effectiveness and student learning —especially as they near retirement and seek new roles;

4) sustainability and longevity of Learning Studios in schools, as indicated by teams of digital-age teachers, tech-savvy students, and STEM volunteers; and

5) increased capacity of schools, districts, and industry partners to sustain networks of Learning Studios.

STEM Learning Studios into the Future

Schools and STEM professionalss around the country are replicating models of STEM Learning Studios. Today, in Baltimore, Prince George’s, and Howard Counties, Learning Studios are used in seven middle and high schools to engage students, teachers, and local volunteers from Goddard Space Flight Center and NIH in project-based learning around various topics in the earth and biological sciences. NCTAF Learning Studios is continuously identifying new communities where teacher teams can collaborate with STEM professionals to address students’ learning challenges. So far, they have teamed with a range of federal facilities like NASA centers, NIH, the Sandia National Laboratory near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Naval Academy, as well as industry leaders like Northrop Grumman, to establish more Learning Studios in communities where they are needed to advance student achievement.

In the future, the Learning Studios can incorporate many more STEM and non-STEM disciplines, such as Language Arts and history, into collaborative teams. As this program is brought to scale, the key elements will remain the same regardless of the content matter. First, the school community describes students’ learning challenges. Next, a cross-disciplinary, intra-school teacher team forms that includes teachers who are fully engaged and view themselves as both learners and members of a dynamic team. And third, content experts from business, industry, and other community organizations are recruited to contribute their time and experience. The Learning Studios model allows each community to tap different resources and unique sets of STEM skills for their projects, making this model adaptable, flexible, and engaging to diverse communities around the nation.