To improve student literacy in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, a STEM program was established in an elementary school in a southeastern state. The problem addressed in this study was that it was unknown how teachers were implementing the STEM framework within their classrooms within a school district in South Carolina.…

The number of elementary STEM schools has increased in the years following the 2010 President's Council of Advisors in Science and Technology's call for the expansion of STEM schools at the elementary level. With scant research beyond their initial year of operation, this qualitative study sought to gain insight into the perceptions and concerns…

Despite its significant role in every level of education, the definition of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics movement, or STEM, has remained elusive, becoming so vaporous as to provide little meaning. As education organizations navigate the STEM institution, they must collectively make sense of its norms, goals, and practices.…

The sentiment that creativity is the most important skill needed to solve the problems that we face is repeated by different business and industry leaders around the world (Bronson & Merryman, 2010; NEA, n.d.; Nussbaum et al., 2005; Sammio, 2017). The call for creativity has been amplified in response to the problems and obstacles caused by…

Many colleges and universities take a "weeding out the weak" approach to teaching STEM, despite substantial literature that emphasizes the values and effectiveness of various other approaches. Introductory, foundational, STEM courses which are often taken by students during their first and second years of college, have been shown to…

There exists a gap in the literature that discusses the issue of those who teach STEM degree courses who have not been given appropriate training to effectively integrate and implement analytical problem-solving skills (APSS) within their curriculum. At the center of this research is the need for effective training of implementing analytical…

The problem addressed in this qualitative descriptive study was that despite the evidence illustrating the significance of STEAM curriculum in students' academic and career success, there was still a considerable degree of uncertainty regarding what challenges were faced by P-8 schoolteachers and what support may be required to facilitate the…

The implementation of course-based STEM research experiences in high school would greatly expand access to high-level research, thus providing more students with the type of integrated learning recommended by organizations such as the National Science Board and the National Academy of Science. While there is ample literature on the success of…

Many stakeholders emphasize the importance of diverse populations' participation in the sciences, though the motivations for this vary. Some reference an economic standpoint by emphasizing the importance of either recruiting more science workers to compete in a global economy, or of individual financial success for people from historically…

The purpose of this research study was to examine the perceptions of STEM teachers on the factors contributing to successful STEM education in a Title I school district. A sample of educators who earned their degree in STEM fields and teach STEM related coursework in their district were interviewed and observed. The educators were interviewed to…

This study investigated teachers' perception of building-level authentic leadership and its effect on teachers' perception of change. A survey comprised of a pre-STEAM questionnaire, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ), and Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) sent through Qualtrics was used to collected data and was analyzed using…

To increase equity and inclusion for underserved and excluded Indigenous students, we must make efforts to mitigate the unique barriers they face. As their knowledge systems have been historically excluded and erased in Western science, we begin by reviewing the literature on the inclusion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in biology…

There are many reasons students fail to achieve in STEM related fields post high school. For example, students may spend too much time receiving teacher centered lessons that focus primarily on vocabulary building and concept recognition. These lessons may not necessarily promote understanding or encourage students to learn other skills than…

In this Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP), I focus on how to create an elementary-level STEM program. Improving STEM education is a priority for the economic health of the United States. Preparing college and secondary students to enter advanced coursework falls on K-8 teachers to build foundational skills and interest in STEM fields. Yet,…

Teachers play one of the most pivotal roles in successful student outcomes (Hattie, 2013; Kincheloe, Slattery, & Steinberg, 2000; Meijer, Geijsel, Kuijpers, Boei, & Vrieling, 2016). A major challenge for teachers is that education is a career that is forever changing and requires education professionals to be lifelong learners for a…