Blog Post 5 - What Should a Strong STEMS2 Unit Look Like?

Based on our reading, discuss the following:

1. What should a strong STEMS unit look like?
2. What experiences should students and teachers engaged in?
3. What qualities and characteristics should be present in all STEMS2 units?
4. How long is a unit and how does it allow space and time for experiential learning (field trips, etc.)?

According to Glatthorn (p. 18), a unit is a subset of a course of study and is organized as a set of related learning experiences offered as part of a course of study, usually lasting from one to 3 weeks.  It is also organized around a single overarching concepts.  As I reflect on how my STEMS2 unit should look like, I feel I should narrow my concept to something like "Sustainability Through Wauke Propagation" instead of a broader concept like "Sustainability Through Papa Hana No'eau."

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The planning phases of unit development should include practicing, reviewing, and applying knowledge (Glatthorn, p. 18).  In order for students to be able to incorporate these strategies, there needs to be time for students to be introduced to the new concepts, but should also have time to apply them through experiential learning.  These learning experiences may include field trips, labs, place-based activities, and project-based assignments.  In the Thinking About Curriculum reading, constructivism is a theory of learning based on the principle that learners construct meaning from what they experience; thus, learning is an active, mearning-making process (p. 5). As a result, I feel my STEMS2 unit should be about 3 weeks in order for my students to be able to learn, revisit, and apply the knowledge they are learning through a huaka'i or our place-based project.  

According to the Thinking About Curriculum reading, units should be problem-focused, requiring the student to solve open-ended contextualized problems and to enable the students to have access to research and other knowledge in solving problems (generative knowledge) (p. 5).  All STEMS2 units should pose a question or problem that allows students to conduct research through multiple sources (books, magazines, primary resources, experiences) that allow them to make reason for their solutions.

An important part of a unit should include opportunities for students to spend at least part of their time in group formats, such as cooperative learning and to have students demonstrate learning in an authentic manner (Thinking About Curriculum, p. 5).  All students should be able to work together in small groups in a STEMS2 unit where they are able to collaborate and bounce ideas off of each other and build on the knowledge they build together as a group.  I feel that a STEMS2 unit should have students demonstrate learning an an authentic manner through a deliverable like a final group presentation and/or a finished product that was created by the students that applied the new concepts that they learned in the unit such as a political letter, a blog, a website, a mele (song), an oli (chant), etc. that allows them multiple media to showcase what they learned instead of just a paper test.  According to the Thinking About Curriculum reading, technology should be seen as a way of supporting curriculum objectives rather than as an add-on (p. 7).

A STEMS2 unit should have integrated curriculum, which combiners content from two or more disciplines as a means of increasing student interest and student knowledge (Thinking About Curriculum, p. 6).  Since STEMS2 encompasses, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, social sciences, and sense of place, integration of multiple disciplines in a STEMS2 unit should be required.  The context of what the STEMS2 unit will look like will be developed from the creativity of the teacher, which should be meaningful and responsive to the culture of the students as an individual, as a class, and/or as a school. 
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