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Nathaniel BrinleeEnglish 102 – HonorsDr. Shannon Carter9-30-09Project STEEM: An Inspiration to AspireAccording to Project STEEM’s official websitehttp://orgs.tamu-commerce.edu/steem/default.asp, the university received $1,500,000 fromthe Greater Texas Foundation to promote interest and learning in the areasof Science, Technology, Engineering, Education & Math. The grant fundedtwo projects starting in 2007: Infinity Institute and X-TEEMS Academy.Unfortunately, the grant could only support three years of the program, sothis is the final year (Brinlee). The official website declares in a sort of thesis statement for thepurpose of the program that “it is known that math and science test scoresof students across the US have remained low and essentially unchanged forthe past 10 years. Ineffective teaching methods and low student interest(

very reflective of Yancey’s research

), especially within the Science, Technology, Engineering, Education, and Math (STEEM) disciplines,contribute to the low scores of US students. In this project, teachers’ andstudents’ interests andattitudes towards STEEMdisciplines will betransformed, and theeffects of these changeswill be determined in avariety of ways. Byexposing math and scienceinstructors to differentteaching methods andhaving them implementthese methods, and at thesame time spark theinterest of studentsthrough various activities,the low scores and students’ attitude can be transformed.” This is the basisof my own historical research; I will look into the literacies of math andscience and how they have developed throughout the years. I will alsoexplore how Project STEEM has influenced the literacy of the studentsinvolved. The website continues: “Math and science teachers and students from6th through 12th grades will be selected from ten rural and financiallydisadvantaged school districts. The teachers will be exposed to various

project-based learning approaches under the supervision of TAMU-Commerceprofessors. The students will be involved in various activities (some of highintensity) that are designed to spark interests in the STEEM disciplines; theyinclude: in-class lectures, dry and wet lab experiments, and science-basedteam building activities. The effects of these activities on the achievement of students at different levels will be determined. In addition, a group of twenty-six high achieving high school students from east Texas rural andfinancially disadvantaged schools will participate in an intense summerscience program and their interest in science monitored over a 3-yearperiod. Activities includeinstruction in STEEM areas,with an emphasis onbiomathematics, byuniversity professors andgraduate teaching assistants. The students will be involvedin various laboratoryexercises, science-basedteam building activities, andfield trips to industrial labs,including Texas Instruments(Dallas), and Tyco Industries,and university research labs, including, The University of Texas at Dallas,and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. It is believed thatearly and extended exposure of students to these types of activities can alsochange their interests and attitudes towards STEEM disciplines.” While thisstates the focus and procedure of Project STEEM, it also provides me withsome select groups to focus on in my research. The website finishes its statement saying that “Project STEEM’s impacton teachers, students, and higher education faculty over its three-yearperiod will be evaluated. Evidence of the impact from the varioustransforming activities will be collected via appropriate surveys, interviews,and observation data. The attitudes and interest of teachers and studentstoward the STEEM disciplines will be measured by administering pre and postsurveys. A control group of teachers and students will be selected andsurveyed. All student participants will be tracked over the three-year periodto monitor and measure college matriculation rates, future academicperformance, and elected major field of study and career choices. Testscores, including the ACT and SAT, and all grade point averages, especiallyin the science and math related courses, will be tracked as well to determinethe effectiveness of Project STEEM’s strategies. The results from thisresearch will be used to develop and implement programs for teacher andstudents, so that the desired results of increased interest and productivity of students in the STEEM disciplines will be improved and exported to similar

environments. Our research will be disseminatedthrough publications in science education journalsand presented at conferences. Regular reports willdescribe the evaluation efforts and results to datewhile a summative report will be issued to describethe overall impact of the project on participants.”Keeping this in mind, I hope that I could visit thedirector of Project STEEM, Dr. Kerri O’Connor, andask for some of these statistics and studies. To join either of the programs, studentsmerely had to complete an application providingproof of high aspirations with personal information,such as educational and family background and testscores from the SAT, ACT, and TAKS. They also hadto compose an essay expressing their desire to joinand how they believed their participation would benefit them. The selectionof students pertained primarily to providing the students of lessereducational opportunity a chance to experience new fields of math andscience. The students are not selected based on how much they alreadyknow, but rather their potential and desire to learn; therefore anybody whotruly wants to learn cancome and learn theliteracies of math andscience from ProjectSTEEM. Becoming literatein this knowledge canspark interest in somestudents, thus helping toguide them to theirpersonal field of study.In the InfinityInstitute, the studentshad the opportunity tolearn many differentaspects of science, evenincluding the practical application of medical procedures such as CPR. Tolearn the procedure, the students watched a demonstration and were givenwritten instructions to follow as they then practiced the technique. Thisexample of literacy and connection is exactly how Resnick defines basicUseful Literacy: “the use of written texts to mediate action in the world… onemust relate each proposition in the text to a specific set of physical objects,

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Project STEEM: An Inspiration to Aspire

A writing assignment for my college English class. One of many papers composed in my research of Project STEEM. Visit my blog for more information: http://natebrinlee1.wo...... (More)

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