Manifestation of Integration into Practice: A Single Case Study of an Elementary Science Teacher in Action (Research to Practice)

Farah Faruqi; Khomson Keratithamkul; Gillian Roehrig; Benny Mart Hiwatig; Elizabeth Forde; Nilay Ozturk

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: PCEE Technical Session 5: STEM Teacher Instructional Moves
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41230
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41230
Download Count: 222

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Paper Authors

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Farah Faruqi University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

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Farah Faruqi is a Ph.D. Candidate in the STEM Education program at the University of Minnesota. She earned her bachelor's and master's degree in biological sciences from Pakistan. Her research focuses on integrated STEM learning, teacher practices, and online learning. She is interested in integrated STEM curriculum development, teacher practices, and teacher professional development to support STEM learning.

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Benny Mart Hiwatig is a PhD candidate in the STEM Education program at the University of Minnesota. He earned his bachelor's degree in Secondary Education and took master's coursework in Chemistry Education in the Philippines, where he also taught high school chemistry. He is currently involved in a research project that aims to develop an observation protocol for STEM lessons and relevant training materials that are directed at improving the quality of STEM instruction in K-12 spaces. His primary research interests include assessment of student learning in STEM contexts, exploration of how integrated STEM is enacted in the secondary level (especially in chemistry classes), and assessment and promotion of students' conceptual understanding of chemical concepts.

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Elizabeth Forde

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Nilay Ozturk University of Minnesota

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University of Minnesota

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Abstract

The main goals of integrating engineering into K-12 science classrooms are engaging students in the engineering design process and preparing them to think like real engineers. Since engineers often work with interdisciplinary problems, they need to draw upon skills, knowledge, and ideas from multiple disciplines. Unfortunately, as teachers implement engineering design activities with their students, engineering is often reduced to tinkering without any explicit connection to science and mathematics content. In order to promote meaningful learning, teachers play a critical role in helping students recognize, make, and understand the connections between engineering and other STEM disciplines through reflecting on design choices, making informed design decisions, and analyzing a prototype's performance.

Within K-12 classrooms in the United States, engineering is most commonly integrated into science classrooms through the Next Generation Science Standards, with the most common approaches to integrated STEM generally taking two forms: content and context integration. By contextualizing learning through real-world engineering problems, these integrative STEM approaches have been shown to help students better learn and apply science knowledge. Teachers play a critical role in contextualizing students’ learning and making connections amongst the STEM disciplines visible to students. Since research on the nature of STEM integration is limited, we seek to expand upon this literature base to better understand how elementary teachers incorporate and implement engineering design in their science classrooms.

This single exploratory case study examines an elementary science teacher’s implementation of an integrated STEM unit. The unit features an engineering design challenge (EDC), which calls for students to design an electromagnetic claw for an arcade game, given a set of criteria and constraints from the client. The data includes video recordings of all 13 days of the integrated STEM unit. Memos from the client and student worksheets were used as supporting artifacts. Data analysis involves examining and categorizing what the teacher mentioned into different types of STEM integration.

Our preliminary findings show that the teacher used both content and context integration throughout the unit. She continually reminded students about why they were designing an electromagnetic arm and connecting activities directly to the client’s needs. During problem-scoping lesson, she introduced students to the EDC through a client memo to situate students’ learning, acting as contextual integration that connected the context to their learning. For example,“this is a memo from Claw Game and it's coming to you from people you might hear from. It talks about electromagnet investigation.” Meanwhile, content integration happened when she presented science content to students as an essential knowledge required to develop appropriate design solutions for the client. For example, toward the end of the unit, she utilized evidence-based reasoning activities as avenues for students to use scientific data and concepts they learned from science investigations to inform and justify their design decisions. As more schools and teachers are integrating engineering into their science classrooms, findings from this study will provide valuable perspectives on how integrated STEM can be implemented at the elementary level; thus benefiting both teacher educators and the educational research community.

Citation
Format

Faruqi, F., & Keratithamkul, K., & Roehrig, G., & Hiwatig, B. M., & Forde, E., & Ozturk, N. (2022, August), Manifestation of Integration into Practice: A Single Case Study of an Elementary Science Teacher in Action (Research to Practice) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41230

TY - CPAPER
AB - The main goals of integrating engineering into K-12 science classrooms are engaging students in the engineering design process and preparing them to think like real engineers. Since engineers often work with interdisciplinary problems, they need to draw upon skills, knowledge, and ideas from multiple disciplines. Unfortunately, as teachers implement engineering design activities with their students, engineering is often reduced to tinkering without any explicit connection to science and mathematics content. In order to promote meaningful learning, teachers play a critical role in helping students recognize, make, and understand the connections between engineering and other STEM disciplines through reflecting on design choices, making informed design decisions, and analyzing a prototype's performance.

Within K-12 classrooms in the United States, engineering is most commonly integrated into science classrooms through the Next Generation Science Standards, with the most common approaches to integrated STEM generally taking two forms: content and context integration. By contextualizing learning through real-world engineering problems, these integrative STEM approaches have been shown to help students better learn and apply science knowledge. Teachers play a critical role in contextualizing students’ learning and making connections amongst the STEM disciplines visible to students. Since research on the nature of STEM integration is limited, we seek to expand upon this literature base to better understand how elementary teachers incorporate and implement engineering design in their science classrooms.

This single exploratory case study examines an elementary science teacher’s implementation of an integrated STEM unit. The unit features an engineering design challenge (EDC), which calls for students to design an electromagnetic claw for an arcade game, given a set of criteria and constraints from the client. The data includes video recordings of all 13 days of the integrated STEM unit. Memos from the client and student worksheets were used as supporting artifacts. Data analysis involves examining and categorizing what the teacher mentioned into different types of STEM integration.

Our preliminary findings show that the teacher used both content and context integration throughout the unit. She continually reminded students about why they were designing an electromagnetic arm and connecting activities directly to the client’s needs. During problem-scoping lesson, she introduced students to the EDC through a client memo to situate students’ learning, acting as contextual integration that connected the context to their learning. For example,“this is a memo from Claw Game and it's coming to you from people you might hear from. It talks about electromagnet investigation.” Meanwhile, content integration happened when she presented science content to students as an essential knowledge required to develop appropriate design solutions for the client. For example, toward the end of the unit, she utilized evidence-based reasoning activities as avenues for students to use scientific data and concepts they learned from science investigations to inform and justify their design decisions. As more schools and teachers are integrating engineering into their science classrooms, findings from this study will provide valuable perspectives on how integrated STEM can be implemented at the elementary level; thus benefiting both teacher educators and the educational research community.
AU - Farah Faruqi
AU - Khomson Keratithamkul
AU - Gillian Roehrig
AU - Benny Mart Hiwatig
AU - Elizabeth Forde
AU - Nilay Ozturk
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Manifestation of Integration into Practice: A Single Case Study of an Elementary Science Teacher in Action (Research to Practice)
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41230
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41230
ER -