Closing Remarks and Future Directions
STEM integration is an innovative way of thinking about
teaching mathematics and science in K-12 that has the
potential to impact education in a positive way. This case
study has provided initial evidence that STEM integration
can be implemented successfully and that teachers believe
that this manner of teaching encourages student learning
and student confidence in mathematics and science courses.
The teachers in this study felt that STEM integration is a
natural way to think about teaching since most real world
problems cross disciplinary boundaries. Each of the three
teachers took STEM integration to be something different.
Nate and Kathy worked together to provide their students
an overall STEM integration experience in a multidisciplinary model. Kathy’s class contained integration of
science concepts with engineering design elements,
whereas Nate’s class was set up as a mathematics lesson
with an engineering context in order to inform the
engineering design in Kathy’s class. Amy took on an
interdisciplinary model for her unit. The objectives for her
unit included concepts from science, mathematics, and
engineering design. The findings of this paper support the
idea that some level of professional development is needed
if STEM integration is to be sustainable.
This study provided a snapshot of one school and three
teachers. Further study on this large-scale teacher professional development program (N 5 78 teachers) on STEM
integration is being conducted. A future research article
will focus on teacher learning and teacher curriculum
development through this program.
Acknowledgements
This work is based in part upon work supported by
the National Science Foundation under Grant Number
H.H. Wang, T.J. Moore, G.H. Roehrig, M.S. Park / Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research 111055382 and by the Region 11 Math And Science Teacher
Partnership (MSTP) 2009–2010 project, which is funded
through Title II, Part B of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. Any opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material
are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the National Science Foundation, ESEA, or
NCLB.