How to Plan a STEM Curriculum

Help! I need to plan a year-long STEM class! What should I cover? What is appropriate for each grade level?

We can help! Read below for guidance on a scope and sequence of a STEM class plus resources and examples for planning a STEM curriculum map for elementary and middle school grades.

But first, what is STEM?

STEM transforms classrooms into an exciting world of curiosity, problem-solving, and creativity. Students take ownership of their learning and become actively engaged in the curriculum. Project-based learning is fundamental to STEM along with showing how the scientific method and engineering design process can be applied to everyday life. Students gain a critical understanding of solving problems based on real-world connections. Negative connotations of STEM are removed, which not only encourages more students to pursue STEM careers, but it fosters a population more open to analysis and exploration of the world around us.

Read on for guidance on planning out a STEM curriculum or click for a specific section.

Scope of a STEM Class

What exactly should you put in a STEM curriculum? The answer can vary across schools with some focusing on the Next Generation Science Standards that include engineering practices or following the ISTE technology standards. Here is what we propose are key areas of STEM education.

Engineering: Students apply math and science to solve an engineering problem using technology. Educators should recognize the difference in science and engineering fields - here is a great post about it: Scientific Method vs. Engineering Design Process: Which is used in STEM learning?

So what exactly is engineering about? The recently released Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning provides standards for engineering courses, and we broke it down in our post here: Understanding a Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning. Teaching engineering includes engineering practices such as the engineering design process and the application of engineering knowledge in a way that represents authentic engineering.

Real-World STEM: All STEM challenges should incorporate STEM career connections and present problems based on real-world scenarios. Students then become excited about STEM pathways and are inspired to pursue STEM careers, thus fulfilling an important goal of STEM education. This can be accomplished with career exploration activities, connecting lessons to real-world scenarios, bringing in guest speakers and mentors, studying engineering case studies, and discussing current events. Click here for a post on career classroom activities.

Habits of Mind: All students need to gain critical 21st-century skills to succeed in school and beyond. Examples of these skills include collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, persistence, and conscientiousness. Read here about engineering habits of mind.

 Sequence of a STEM Class

Now that you have an idea of what to teach, what is the best way to organize a STEM class? Let’s dive into the best way to organize lessons across a semester or year-long class.

The following sequence is based on the 3 Stages of STEM that guides students towards building a foundation of STEM skills and confidence in STEM subjects.

Stage 1: Intro to STEM & Icebreakers

From building the tallest tower of index cards to flying a paper airplane, stage one STEM challenges are the most basic activities. These challenges do not have an obvious connection to math and science concepts and at first may seem like superficial activities. However, they are important primary activities that serve to build a foundation of skills in problem solving, teamwork, communication, and grit.

Example Project: In groups of three, build the tallest freestanding tower using only 15 pipe cleaners! Students only have about 10 minutes to complete this activity, and the instructor will periodically change the constraints. For example, two minutes into the challenge, the instructor yells “Your team had an unexpected budget cut, and one of your resources has been depleted. Each team member must now put one arm behind his/her back!". Students then have to adapt and work as a team to keep building. Learn more about the pipe cleaner tower here.

Lesson Planning: Stage 1 is usually shorter activities such as 10 - 20 minute icebreakers or team-building challenges. Longer units can focus on exploring STEM careers and pathways.

Start the year with a mix of stage 1 STEM to build a foundation in the following three areas: teamwork & communication, relationships with your students, and building skills. These activities are typically 10 - 20 minutes long.

• PreK - 2nd Grades: Younger grades will typically stay in stage 1 and progress from icebreakers to more challenging building activities using task cards. Students may struggle with teamwork.

• 3rd - 8th Grades: Focus on relationship-building and teamwork activities to prepare for Stage 2. Return to these activities throughout the year when introducing new teams or if students are needing more practice in teamwork or building skills.

• High School+: All ages can benefit from improved communication and collaboration skills. Focus Stage 1 on teamwork and career exploration activities and skip the quick-build challenges. Under relationships, the spark mission patch may work well depending on your students.

Stage 2: Engineering Design

In stage 2, students apply math and science concepts to problems using the engineering design process. Instead of immediately building, students are systematically guided through a process of brainstorming, design, building, testing, re-design, and sharing their solutions. 

Example Project: A popular activity is the catapult challenge - a great example of this stage! Students apply knowledge of elastic potential energy to design a catapult device to either hit a target or maximize distance. During the testing phase, students analyze catapult designs through graphing results, averaging data, and comparing results of different launch angles.

Stage 2 across the grades:

3rd - 5th Grades: A majority of the year will be spent in this stage. Consider adding technology units (coding or robotics) and at least one project that is showcased at a parent event.

• 6th - 8th Grades: For a full-year program, students should complete several Stage 2 challenges and then move to a more rigorous Stage 3 project.

• High School+: The following lessons are designed for younger students, but they can be adapted to older grades. If teaching engineering at the high school level, we recommend using a more rigorous design process that incorporates iterative testing, applications of scientific knowledge, modeling software, and case studies. Vivify lessons can support an introduction to STEM learning, but they are not intended to replace a rigorous high school level course.

Lesson Planning: Each Stage 2 lesson requires at least 90 minutes of class instruction to fully utilize the engineering design process. Educators with shorter class periods can stretch the sessions over 2 - 3 classes. For older students, educators can implement more in-depth stage 2 lessons that include a research phase in the beginning, exploration and application of science concepts, iterations of testing for improvement, comparing multiple solutions, and a final project showcase.

Stage 3: Competitions & Long term projects

Stage 3 STEM involves long-term projects such as FLL robotics where math and science concepts are applied to solve open-ended problems using the engineering design process. Students should have successfully completed Stage 1 and 2 projects to build a foundation of skills and understanding of the engineering design process. Stage 3 challenges students to dive deeply into a problem, rigorously apply the engineering design process, learn new technology, and present results.

Example Project: Students are challenged with designing a long-term human habitat on Mars to keep humans happy and healthy. Students research the atmosphere of Mars, learn about community planning, and design engineering and mental health solutions. They answer questions like: How will your colony survive a dust storm? How will you entertain colonists for a long mission on Mars? The final product includes a prototype that is presented to STEM professionals for judging.

Lesson Planning: The lesson planning can follow the engineering design process with each step taking days or weeks. Below is an outline or click here to see how we plan our Mars Colony unit.

1. Identify the problem: Learn about the problem and conduct research.

2. Brainstorm Solutions: Conduct market research and develop your own solutions to the problem.

3. Design: Carefully plan out your design. One option is to use design software.

4. Build, Test, Improve: Build a prototype and conduct testing for optimization.

5. Present: Share the final project at a competition or other event.

Low-Prep STEM Units

Want to have a ready to go STEM unit that lays out all three Stages of STEM? Check out Vivify’s STEM units with supply kits!

Scope and Sequence

Want more guidance for planning out a year-long STEM program? Click the buttons below for our FREE scope and sequence for elementary and middle school. We also invite you to join The STEM Space for instant access to Vivify’s growing library of K-8 STEM lessons!