February 2021
Students are well on their way to engaging in STEM for the second semester! Students are engaging in learning focusing on inquiry through questioning, use of sense-making through observations and writing in notebooks, and academic discourse through academic language development. In addition to our STEM units we are seeing students “think like a scientist” through inquiry across the content areas. Below are a few examples of STEM unit student materials to support PreK and Kinder. In addition, we are looking forward to seeing grade 1 Unit Watch Out, grade 2 Unit Playground/Landscape Materials, grade 3 Unit Surviving Tracy Winds, grade 4 Unit Crashes and Collisions, and grade 5 Unit Save the Species.
STEM Update from Dr. Brian Stephens, TUSD Superintendent
I am very pleased with our work on STEM in grades K-5. The feedback that I have received from principals has been encouraging as we are seeing students excited about STEM. I had the opportunity to watch a video of a second grade student who had taken his remote control car and dressed it up as a squirrel and then put seeds on the back of the “squirrel” and showed as it drove around his backyard how animals can assist with the spreading of seeds. The student was so excited with his work. This has been one of the highlights of the year for me. I am looking forward to seeing the creation of STEM units in grades 6-12 by some of our talented teachers. We know that STEM is the future for good paying jobs for our students so the work we are doing is so very important. STEM should not be something that we do but rather it should become part of our DNA as a district.