The Colorado Department of Education

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STEM Sample Curriculum

Initial Samples Released January 31, 2013

Hello STEM educators,

I am proud to present three integrated STEM curriculum samples created by Colorado educators and teachers. Working with facilitators Dr. Karen Johnson (Adams-12), Denise Goldin-dubois (Cherry Creek) and Sherri Dennstedt (Cherry Creek), this past fall, 30+ educators came together to translate science and mathematics standards (and many other content areas including visual arts, and social studies) of the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) to create meaningful, relevant, and integrated curriculum. As resources for districts’ voluntary-use, these curriculum samples offer possible options for sequencing the concepts, skills, and content of the CAS across a course or year. While other content areas’ samples include units that address an entire course or year, the fall workshops for STEM represent a significant first-step in the process of creating similar STEM unit samples across a grade. The unique and integrated nature of STEM, however, required a more intensive process, which resulted in the creation of one sample unit at grades 1, 8, and high school.

The template upon which all of the samples are based derived from research and was designed and refined by Colorado educators to highlight what students should understand, know and be able to do at the end of a given unit or plan of study (detailed description of the curriculum template components). There are some unique aspects to the STEM samples at particular grade levels, which are documented in the bullet points below.

Together, these samples are intended to support districts’ transition to the CAS and the development of standards-based instructional practices. Please click here to share your thoughts regarding these support resources.

Dr. Violeta Garcia
STEM Coordinator

The STEM Samples are based on the Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) whose creation and adoption were legislated by SB 08-212 (CAP4K). The STEM samples’ integration of mathematics and science content standards, alongside history, reading, writing, and communicating standards, reflect their CAS origins. And while the CAS do not currently include technology and engineering, the Career and Technical Education (CTE) content standards (which do include technology and engineering standards) are applicable and relevant for the creation of future STEM samples. To achieve this inclusion, we are convening leaders from all four areas of STEM to produce the next round of STEM samples (one integrated sample at each grade level) which will be available on this website this summer.

Questions?: E-mail the STEM Coordinator

Update February 15, 2013.  In the original posting of the STEM samples, the completion of the sentence structure for the knowledge statements was somewhat confusing. To clarify this section, we have streamlined the knowledge statement to make the samples more accessible and user-friendly.

To learn more about the STEM curriculum samples watch this presentation:

STEM Sample Curriculum Unique Attributes from eNetColorado on Vimeo.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
  • High School

     

  • Middle School
    • Designing a Safer World - 8th Grade
      (Word or PDF)

     

  • Elementary School
    • Classification in our World - 1st Grade
      (Word or PDF)

Unique components in STEM:

  • STEM attributes in the middle column of the first page. This section highlights the attributes and characteristics that give meaning to STEM experiences.
  • A graphic, on each sample, that provides a visual depiction of the model for integration used in that particular sample. Each of these represents one suggested model. There are other models of integration to consider based on local need and expertise integrating curriculum.
  • The Colorado Academic Standards listed on the front (overview) page represent all the standards and grade level expectations addressed in the unit sample that follows.
  • The 8th grade sample also includes Career and Technical Education (CTE) standards that highlight the inclusion of other relevant standards addressed.

For Website support please contact Anna Huffman.