Method
Setting
The middle school in this paper was a large suburban 6th
to 8th grade school in a Midwestern state. There were four
PLTW teachers at the middle school with different subject
backgrounds. Two teachers had mathematics backgrounds,
one a science background, and one a technology education
background. The teacher with a science background taught
science classes for half of her teaching load. The teacher
with the technology education background was the district
coordinator for the PLTW program for the district’s four
middle schools. All students at the school were enrolled in
PLTW classes.
The middle school was implementing an integrated
STEM curriculum, Gateway to Technology, from PLTW.
PLTW is a non-profit organization that seeks to develop
effective interdisciplinary STEM education for middle and
high schools and whose stated goal is to prepare ‘‘students
to be the most innovative and productive leaders in
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
(STEM)’’ (Lock, 2010). In order to accomplish this
‘‘PLTW courses are designed to provide students with
opportunities to understand the scientific process, engineering
problem-solving, and the application of technology;
understand how technological systems work with other
systems; use mathematics knowledge and skills in solving
problems; communicate effectively through reading, writing,
listening and speaking; and work effectively with
others’’ (Brophy et al., 2008, p. 378). PLTW provides a
document that aligns their curriculum to national standards
to support their claims to be an integrated STEM
curriculum. However, a research study that mapped the
Gateway to Technology curriculum to the Minnesota state
mathematics and science standards found the specific
mathematics and science content in the curriculum to be
limited (Stohlmann et al., 2011).
During the 2009–2010 school year two graduate student
fellows collaborated with and helped the PLTW teachers at
the middle school one day a week. This was made possible
by funding from the 3M corporate foundation. The 3M
STEM Education Fellowship Program funds graduate
students to work with schools to help bring known best
30 M. Stohlmann et al. / Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research
practices around STEM integration in K-12 classrooms
through (1) professional development and (2) curriculum
development, implementation, and assessment. The fellows
were former teachers and one was a doctoral student in
science education and the other in mathematics education.
During the school year the fellows mapped the curriculum to
the state standards, provided ideas for curriculum implementation,
assisted in the classrooms, developed supplemental
curriculum materials, helped teachers with
organization, were a resource for any problems or questions,
and conveyed the importance of STEM education.
Other support programs were in place that helped the
planning, organization, and content knowledge of the
teachers. PLTW had a required two-week training session
during the summer, PLTW trainers could be contacted with
questions throughout the school year, and teachers attended
a year-long STEM integration teacher academy that the
middle school had signed up for that included five days of
training and 16 hours of Professional Learning
Communities (PLCs). The PLTW teachers that taught the
same class also talked often to share ideas and keep similar
class pacing.
Data Collection and Analysis
The collection of data in this study involved weekly
researcher field notes, three formal classroom observations
of each teacher using a structured observation protocol, and
weekly informal conversational interviews. The classroom
observations were done at the beginning, the middle, and
towards the end of the school year. The graduate fellows
kept field notes from the weekly informal conversational
interviews and from their work with students in the
classrooms.
Data was analyzed by using the constant comparative
method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Each data source was
coded first using open-coding and then axial-coding to
develop themes. Then the data sources were compared
against each other for themes that were supported across all