Product Overview

No Lamination Required.
Printed on Premium Thick Plastic and Cut.
This material is ready to start using. No other prep work is needed.

STEM officially stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The acronym STEM is often applied to occupations and positions related to these subjects, such as engineers, doctors, scientists, geologists, or computer programmers. People are said to be “STEM majors” if they study a related subject, such as chemistry, robotics, or genetics. More recently, “STEM” has become popularized as a method of teaching that is being emphasized from the high school level all the way down to early childhood. “STEM education” differs from traditional science and math education in that the method emphasizes process over results. Additionally, STEM education emphasizes the relationships between traditionally distinct subject areas.

Although the acronym STEM is often used, other acronyms are beginning to add more subjects to the mix. For instance, the acronym STEAM adds an “art” to the core STEM concept and is quickly gaining popularity. STEM education was never limited to these subjects in its acronym, however. If you look closely, you will find that these core STEM concepts have connections to history, politics, geometry, language, and so many others.

In this kit our focus and purpose is to emphasize the scientific method and the engineering design process as the two backbones holding up the STEM inquiry and design processes. We will examine how to implement STEM education in your Montessori classroom, and more importantly we will address the need for doing so in the first place.

The way we designed this curriculum was more from the standpoint of it being a "process" rather than a "make and take". It is important for the teacher to have a solid understanding of what it means, and what it takes to implement the concept of STEM in the classroom. With this knowledge it becomes easy for you to apply any number of ideas in a STEM manner. For the student, it is imperative that they understand the scientific method as well as the design process. Therefore, this kit is just as much for the teacher as it is for the student.

The accompanying teacher's notes/manual is carefully designed to give all the necessary information and guidance so that teachers immediately feel comfortable presenting the fundamental concepts.

Includes: