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From 2014.igem.org

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The Shortfalls of STEM Education in Texas

Of all the subjects, STEM arguably suffers the most from a lack of funding and resources. STEM education generally requires a higher level of education and expertise on part of teachers. Many science classes are lab based or may require specialized equipment and facilities. Despite these hurdles, a solid foundation in science is only becoming more vital in today’s society. All of our diverse interviewees agreed on this point.

We chose to work primarily with low income, high risk students in Northeast Dallas through local non-profit Dallas Community Lighthouse. According to the Texas Education Agency, public school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area have the largest share of schools rated ‘academically unacceptable’ in the state of Texas. These schools also tend to have the lowest scores in state science and math benchmark tests.

Curriculum Design Goals

We had several main goals in mind in developing our curriculum. We wanted to give the students a chance to explore cutting edge topics that are rarely taught at even the best schools. By teaching what we loved and knew best—bioengineering and biology— we hoped that we could pass on some of our passion.

Secondly, we wanted to create a lesson that could be easily reproduced without extensive knowledge or resources, so that teachers who may not spend all day in a lab could teach the same lesson with success.

Finally, we wanted the lesson to be applicable and engaging—to leave a lasting impact. We knew that each of the students would have a different level of proficiency and interest in the topics we wanted to teach. Often, in poorer school districts, there is a great deal more socioeconomic, ideological and cultural diversity amongst student backgrounds. A standardized, one-size-fits-all curriculum can often leave these students behind.

Curriculum

Though we had a list of concepts we expected each student to understand, we left much of our lesson open to the students to determine. We taught hands-on, lab based lessons and made sure to allot a large fraction of the class time towards encouraging discussion and answering questions. According to Master Teacher Jim McConnell, it can make all the difference if teachers are able to relate a concept to a student’s everyday life. This can be especially true for at-risk schools.