STEM Lesson Guideposts (Creating STEM Lessons for Your Curriculum)

Guidance for creating meaningful STEM lessons

STEM Lesson Guideposts presents a clear and actionable approach for teachers and leaders to follow in developing meaningful STEM lessons and units. This companion to the bestselling STEM Lesson Essentials is a practical guide for helping you on your journey of creating integrated, interdisciplinary STEM units.

Where do I begin with STEM?

Educators often ask, “Where do I begin?” when thinking about STEM learning. Inspired by this question, Jo Anne Vasquez, Michael Comer, and Joel Villegas developed the W.H.E.R.E. planning model—five interrelated guideposts that provide structure and guidance for conceiving, creating, and organizing STEM experiences. These key focus areas include:

• What and Why: What needs to be learned and why?
• How: How do I plan to meet this goal?
• Evidence and Evaluate: What evidence of learning will be used and how will I evaluate the final product?
• Rigor and Relevance: How will I provide opportunities that will lead to increased rigor and relevance?
• Excite, Engage, Explore: What activities will excite my students and engage them in the STEM practices?

Guided by this research-based, comprehensive template, you’ll learn to create hands-on, inquiry-focused experiences using your own curriculum and standards. You’ll develop STEM lessons which are not only rigorous but relevant to your students. Filled with guided support and tips for teachers, this book moves from thinking about “what is” STEM to the “how” of constructing impactful STEM lessons and units.