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STEM learning is often most engaging when it involves hands-on projects, such as building a robot or a pulley machine. Keeping students engaged in STEM projects while they’re learning remotely is a new challenge to many teachers and school districts — but not to STEM Fuse.
A leader in project-based STEM learning for more than a decade, STEM Fuse offers K-12 schools a wealth of experience and expertise on teaching students remotely — with lessons that introduce science and math elements into other disciplines.
As a recruiter for the Minnesota State College system, Carter Tatge was looking for ways to engage and identify students with STEM proficiency. So he came up with a creative way to capture their attention and sharpen their STEM skills while they were still in high school.
Tatge created a computer game design course that integrated several disciplines, including math, science and engineering. In the process, he became passionate about digital education, driving him to start STEM Fuse in 2009.
A decade later, STEM Fuse offers 32 semester-long K-12 courses in addition to STEM:IT, a library of projects that feature 3D printing, robotics and other STEM topics. They also produce READ:IT, a highly successful reading curriculum for elementary students. STEM Fuse is taught in more than 6,000 schools in all 50 U.S. states and four other countries around the world. They focus on developing standards-aligned STEM content for digital natives and deliver it to schools through their own cloud-based learning management system (LMS).
From the beginning, STEM Fuse has focused on teachers by providing expertise, on-demand support and ongoing professional development training. “We’re here to help teachers integrate technology in their classrooms, whether it’s our curriculum or other software,” says Tatge. “I believe our focus on teachers is the reason we’ve grown.”
When the pandemic began, STEM Fuse ramped up its teacher support programs, providing webinars on how to use remote learning tools such as Webex, Google Classroom and Google Hangouts. “We want to help teachers and school systems figure out how they’re going to teach with these tools going forward.”
When schools purchase a course or project from STEM Fuse, teachers get everything they need to implement it, including a comprehensive how-to guide, digital content for students and any required technical tools. Some robotics courses also include physical kits, and a STEM Fuse app link-up allows students to code and control class robots remotely.
STEM Fuse projects aren’t all focused on science and math, but they all link back in some way. For example, an elementary English lesson on prepositional phrases might have students use Scratch, a visual programming website for kids, so they can design a game based on the topic.
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High-school courses are more comprehensive, spending an entire semester on a particular subject. Teacher guides include step-by-step instructions for each class period, along with standards alignment information. “Some teachers don’t need or want that much guidance, but it’s there for them,” says Tatge. “Regardless of the teacher’s and student’s technical background, we want them to be able to make their way through successfully, with a completed project at the end.”
As K-12 districts face a year of unknowns, Tatge offers several best practices for teaching STEM subjects in today’s digital and remote learning environment:
While fully remote learning is a temporary situation, K-12 education has likely changed forever. “The pandemic has accelerated technology integration in schools, and I think a lot of that is here to stay,” says Tatge. “It’s chaotic right now, but as teachers and students experience the potential of digital learning, I believe down the road it will turn out to be a beneficial shift.”
Learn how to create, present and secure grants for your remote learning technology needs. And discover which Chromebook is best suited for studying at home.