ST EM Conference | STEM Q&A
Stem Camp for 1st thru 8th Grade Students
Wheeling High School is a comprehensive high school with a STEM focus. STEM literate graduates are problem solvers, innovators and logical thinkers. Our STEM for ALL focus means that skills related to STEM such as problem solving, teamwork, scientific inquiry, technology and communication are purposely taught and reinforced throughout the curriculum. It means the skills and content delivered throughout has a broader context and facilitates the diagonal movement of students along a career program of study—occupational, technical, and professional—alongside the traditional academic pathway—preparatory, average, honors, and Advanced Placement. Wheeling High School’s STEM for ALL initiative provides a thematic framing for common experiences that incorporates all content areas including the arts, languages and humanities in an interdisciplinary approach, offering students the opportunity to transfer and apply knowledge and skills across the curricular spectrum, rather than solely within isolated disciplines, providing a foundation of knowledge applicable beyond the realm of math and science alone. Awareness of STEM related career fields is emphasized as part of our seminar program and reinforced through counseling with an expectation that all students—special education, at-risk, second language learners, average, and honors—will develop the prerequisite skill set to access career pathways in the new economy. In addition, it means we focus our investment of time and resources to expand student opportunities in career certifications, college partnerships, and technology training as an incentive and competitive advantage in preparing for and accessing post secondary opportunities.
STEM literacy in a knowledge-based economy is "The ability to adapt to and accept changes driven by new technology, work with others (often across borders) to anticipate the multilevel impacts of their actions, communicate complex ideas effectively to a variety of audiences and find measured, yet creative, solutions to the problems which are today unimaginable."
The STEM curriculum provides a strong academic foundation rooted in the knowledge used to solve complex problems. STEM-literate graduates have the ability to import this knowledge across all disciplines, both inside and out of the scientific and technological realms. They can intuitively leverage existing resources to accomplish tasks independently using STEM techniques.
STEM literacy refers to an individual’s ability to apply his or her understanding of how the world works within and across four interrelated domains:
⇒ Scientific Literacy—the ability to use scientific knowledge (in physics, chemistry, biological sciences and earth/space science) and processes to understand the natural world but to participate in decisions that affect it (in three main areas-science in life and health, science in earth and environment and science in technology).
⇒ Technological Literacy – the ability to use, manage understand and assess technology. Students should know how to use new technologies, understand how new technologies are developed and have skills to analyze how new technologies affect us, our nation and the world. Technology is the innovation, change or modification of the natural environment to satisfy perceived human needs and wants.
⇒ Engineering Literacy – the understanding of how technologies are developed via the engineering design process; lessons are project based and integrate multiple subjects, making difficult concepts relevant and tangible to students and tapping into the students’ natural interest in problem solving. Engineering Design is the systematic and creative applications of scientific and math principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes and systems.
⇒ Mathematical Literacy –the ability of students to analyze, reason, and communicate ideas effectively as they pose, formulate, solve and interpret solutions to mathematical problems in a variety of situations.