A STEM identity can last a lifetime and help students succeed in their studies, future careers, and life. Her comprehensive STEM program expands employment opportunities in the growing technology field, supports students in building digital literacy skills, and empowers young people to become creators of technology rather than consumers.
Educators face the challenge of engaging students in STEM with limited resources. As the demand for digital skills increases, schools need to develop comprehensive programs to engage diverse learners. STEM education is more than just science and math. It develops skills such as creativity, communication, empathy, and critical thinking, and complements technologies such as generative AI and coding. However, many educators struggle to find effective ways to integrate STEM across the curriculum, engage diverse learners, and connect with real-world challenges.
Building STEM literacy in a large Florida school district
Broward County Public Schools is the sixth largest school district in the United States, serving more than 250,000 students in 326 schools and educational centers in the Fort Lauderdale area. This district serves a diverse student body, and as Broward educators, we are committed to meeting the needs of all students, especially creating skill-building and equitable opportunities for STEM. We place great value on.
In 2013, STEM and Computer Science (STEM+CS) The team provides interdisciplinary K-12 education outside of grade-level core areas such as ELA, math, science, and social studies, and outside of standard Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs for all students. was established to implement STEM programs. Since then, the program has grown over the past decade to reach hundreds of thousands of students and improve opportunities and outcomes across the district.
The following design elements promote success in STEM programming.
- Everyone should have basic STEM literacy. The STEM+CS team develops every opportunity from the perspective of inclusivity and accessibility for all. Equity in access to opportunity is paramount to all efforts within STEM+CS.
- Developing future global innovators requires a district-wide team It is a gathering of facilitators, classroom teachers, and school administrators. The BrowardSTEM team will lead and support you with experience, expertise, and agility in core content standards, STEM implementation, educational technology, and interdisciplinary applied problem-based learning.
- Partner with exemplary resources and organizations We provide engagement tools for every student, with easy entry points, broad accessibility, scalability, and growth potential. For example, we used Minecraft in a classroom a long time ago. minecraft education. We learned through the typical challenges of introducing new technology into education, such as the need to involve IT teams and school administrators before attempting implementation. This initial pilot program provided the foundation for the district’s rapid expansion as interest and need for professional learning grew with easy access to Minecraft Education through Microsoft.
- research is fundamental Maintaining and expanding access to all students. STEM+CS instruction constantly brings new technology into K-12 classrooms. Prior knowledge and best practices for incorporating these new tools into instruction are limited, especially given the challenges of limited class time, teacher expertise, and meeting the needs of all learners. We are engaged in several research-practice partnerships to learn what works and how to overcome barriers to disseminate and scale technology and innovate as needed. I’m here. Forms of research range from informal classroom-based needs assessments and feedback on professional learning to high-level research funded by the National Science Foundation.
- Repeat what works and learn from what doesn’t. Minecraft Education has many early adopters, teachers who have been waiting for an easy way to bring game-based learning into their classrooms using the tools their students already love. Initial training and implementation focused on these teachers providing feedback on tool integration. They will continue to serve as your go-to teachers as Minecraft Education expands to include tools and resources for content instruction in areas such as computer science, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, including coding.
STEM solves local and global problems
Learning connects past experiences to new situations, forming a web of knowledge that becomes stronger through real-world problems and diverse content.
Broward County Public Schools’ STEM education program focuses on STEM literacy, including technological literacy, environmental literacy, and technological literacy. stempathy, which refers to the use of STEM and computer science for social good. The program aims to provide students with diverse opportunities and pathways to become future-ready graduates. This includes: United Nations Sustainable Development Goalscritical thinking skills through coding and robotics, problem-based learning with a focus on authentic citizen science, career skills through application to students’ current interests such as esports and sustainability, and empathy and understanding through design thinking. Future-ready skills for SEL, perseverance and problem-solving technology.
All students must have the tools, voice, and choice to express and own their learning. Minecraft Education has been an important tool in helping Broward Schools reach its goal of building essential skills and integrating STEM in all areas. This platform helps bring STEM+CS to all students by incorporating the following principles: Universal design for learning. This provides students with a familiar environment to create, code, and collaborate while learning through standards-based lessons.
We’ve adopted the advances in computer science offered by Minecraft Education. CSTA-A tailored curriculum that helps educators enhance CS instruction to elementary, middle, and high school students. The program includes STEM quarterly challenges related to public engagement science and service learning, environmental management and applications across all disciplines, as well as applications such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, computer science, security, robotics, and gaming. Also included.
Building contextual understanding: Integrating STEM and computer science across disciplines
Implementation of Broward County Public Schools’ STEM+CS program began with professional development aimed at providing educators with the necessary tools and strategies. These programs include computer science courses, computational thinking integration, code/CS clubs, app challenges, spatial computing, environmental management, robotics, esports, Minecraft Education, SECME/Engineering, Makerspace, PBL Portal. These programs offer students a wide range of opportunities to explore their interests and develop STEM and computer science skills.
The school offers Computer Science 1 and 2 at the entry level, with the goal of integrating computer science into the core content using tools such as Scratch, Code.org, and Minecraft. There are multiple entry points at the middle and high school levels, depending on a student’s previous computer science experience. Students can pursue a variety of career paths based on their interests, with guidance provided to schools and parents to support students through a rigorous program. Many industry certification opportunities are associated with courses.
Through this program, Broward County Public Schools is preparing students to become future-ready graduates equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in a technological future.
Research-practice partnership efforts at Broward Schools are supported by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers #1542842, #2031425, and #2219351. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of her NSF.
