Teaching for Tomorrow: Science Literacy in The Classroom

Abstract

Looking towards the future, what STEM skills will be most important for students? Going beyond memorization and recitation of scientific facts, how do we get students to fully engage in science and engineering design practices (as defined in the Next Generation Science Standards) and to improve their science literacy? The answers to these questions are at the heart of the “Learning by Making” (LbyM) experience. LbyM is an innovative, integrated year-long curriculum that includes skill building units that teach coding and how to build simple electronic circuits. Using a simple browser-based interface, LbyM students are able to easily write code, control LED lights and acquire and analyze sensor data within the overarching theme of energy and matter. Rather than being siloed in pre-engineering courses, these important STEM skills are developed within the context of a physical science class. By engaging in phenomena-based explorations, LbyM develops students’ self-efficacy, and ability to work in teams to gather environmental data relevant to their communities and critical to the future of our planet.

Keywords::

• Curriculum and instruction
• STEM-C
• web app
• coding
• TurtleLogo
• 9th grade STEM
• NGSS

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hannah Hellman

Hannah Hellman (ORCID: 0000-0003-4419-1489) graduated from Sonoma State University’s English M.A. program in 2023. Her thesis, titled “Breaking the Binary,” examines Virginia Woolf’s experiences with and questions regarding gender roles and norms in fiction and biography, as well as Vita Sackville-West’s feelings of gender dysphoria throughout her life and as they are expressed in the 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography. When she is not working as a Communications Specialist and Editor for the NASA partner organization EdEon at Sonoma State University, Hannah can be found writing critically about her favorite books or playing video games.

Laura Peticolas

Dr. Laura Peticolas (ORCID: 0000-0002-4438-3504) is the Associate Director of EdEon STEM Learning at Sonoma State University (SSU), where she manages multiple grant-funded science education initiatives. Over the past five years, Dr. Peticolas has been involved in developing Coding, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (CSTEM) learning materials for teens, undergraduates, and the public with funding from NASA, NSF and the US Department of Education. EdEon STEM Learning excels at K-12 teacher training, curriculum development, and the development of interactive web activities for students that teach math and science. Dr. Peticolas leads the professional learning events and community for teachers teaching EdEon’s year-long integrated ninth grade CSTEM curriculum, branded as Learning by Making (LbyM). LbyM is currently funded by the Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program. Prior to working at Sonoma State University, Dr. Peticolas was a Senior Fellow at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), a research laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). She led the education efforts at SSL for 9 years, after eight years of researching what causes aurora on Earth and Mars and supporting rural teachers using magnetometers to teach space science in high school science courses.

Lynn Cominsky

Professor Lynn Cominsky (ORCID: 0000-0003-2073-1065) is an award-winning physicist who grew up in the snows of Buffalo, NY. When she discovered she could get paid for studying black holes, she went to graduate school in physics at MIT. After receiving her PhD in 1981, she moved to California, where she has been on the faculty at Sonoma State University for over 35 years, chairing the Department of Physics and Astronomy for 15 years until 2019. Cominsky is an author on over 225 research papers in refereed journals, and the Principal or Co-Investigator on over $35 million of grants to SSU. Her individual awards include the 2016 Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the 2016 Wang Family Excellence Award from the California State University and the 2017 Frank J. Malina Education Medal from the International Astronautical Federation. Cominsky is the director and founder of SSU’s EdEon STEM Learning, which is involved in programs that build rocket payloads and CubeSats as well as developing and testing STEM curricula and other educational materials for NASA, NSF and the US Department of Education. Cominsky leads Learning by Making (LbyM), which began in 2013 with a grant from ED’s Investing in Innovation program.