INSTEM Project

Tier I STEM programs include self-guided online modules for students with STEM enrichment activities and affective curriculum and training for teachers on procedures to identify students in underrepresented groups who are eligible for the program and provide differentiated instruction for high-potential students.

The STEM enrichment online modules for Tier I are designed for students to do largely independently after the teachers get the established in the courses. Students can work on the modules at school (e.g. during flex periods, as part of club, or after school) or they can work on them at home. There are five modules in Tier I:

Introduction to Scratch: This introductory activity helps students become familiar with the Scratch interface, including building scripts from blocks and using Scratch to tell a story.

Autonomous Cars: In this course, students use Scratch programming language to understand the logic behind coding and figure out how sensors work.

Game Design: Tier I activities introduce students to game design processes through the Scratch programming language. Students become familiar with how a game can simply be designed, what features are needed in a game (e.g., game stories, characters, rules, dialogues, interaction with the player), and which codes result in which functions.

STEAM Labs: This course shows students how apply the engineering design process to build STEAM machines–chain reaction machines that run on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math concepts, similar to the machines portrayed in the Rube Goldberg cartoons–using everyday objects.

Internet of Things: The Tier I Internet of Things course introduces students to the video sensing feature of Scratch, which uses a camera as a sensor to detect movement and color. Students interact with their sprites through a camera by moving and using colored objects.

Teacher training in Tier I focuses on four parts:

• Relationship-focused teaching methods, which helps teachers take students’ perspectives and connect with their students through positive interactions to improve students’ relationships, motivation, and achievement,
• Differentiation methods for student-focused differentiation strategies that vary in their appeal, challenge, choice, meaningfulness, and self-efficacy
• Methods for identifying students for participation in Tier II courses using teacher and student rating scales, achievement and academic scores, and portfolio collection.
• Scratch training, which will provide an overview of the Scratch interface, instructions on how to create student accounts, and will provide summaries and hands-on training for the Scratch modules used in Tier I.

Tier II includes more advanced student enrichment activities in coding and robotics and training teachers on the Integrated STEM Talent Development Model (INSTEM) curriculum, which brings together social and emotional learning and STEM enrichment activities for the students. Tier II enrichment activities are designed to be led by a teacher in a minimum of 12 hours, typically over the course of 6 weeks; each of the meetings will include at least one activity focusing on social and emotional needs and a STEM enrichment activity.

The STEM enrichment curriculum for Tier II includes the following modules:

Autonomous Cars: In this course, students will explore Arduinos, the CC+ coding language, and solve a coding challenge based on the concept of autonomous cars. Students will learn how to control a car via Bluetooth, ultrasonic distance sensors, or line-tracking infrared sensors.

Game Design: This course teaches students how to develop computational thinking skills, learn the Python programming language, and engage in problem-solving. Students will apply their Python coding skills to design computer games such as Joke Jukebox, Dragon Realm, and Hangman.

Internet of Things: In this course, students will become familiar with real-life applications of the Internet of Things by using a Raspberry Pi and the Python programming language. They will learn how collect data via different sensors and use the Raspberry Pi to communicate with the user (e.g., send email). They will create a security system or a photo booth.

STEAM Labs: Students will apply the engineering design process and principles of physics to build Rube Goldberg machines, which complete simple tasks in overly complicated ways, using everyday objects. They will gain experience with systems thinking and effective collaboration and learn real-world engineering skills and start exploring pathways to careers in engineering.

Cybercrime: In this course, students receive a comprehensive introduction to cyber security. This includes looking at the technical aspects of cyber crime as well as the features of the Internet which make it susceptible to deviant behavior. Students also discuss how to engage in internet safety, which includes avoiding phishing scams, the prevalence and effects of cyberbullying, the need to protect data and the never disappearing nature of the Internet.

Tier II affective curriculum provides students with social-emotional learning opportunities to consider the need for STEM professionals to be aware of how their work might affect individuals, families, and communities. They consider the potential effects of whatever they conceptualize, design, build, experiment with, and problem-solve for.  As their career direction develops, they self-reflect about how they are developing cognitively, socially, emotionally, and with finding direction. The topics within the Tier II affective curriculum are: 

• My Own and Others’ Impressions of Me
• Personal Strengths and Resilience
• Influencers
• Imagining the Future
• A Good-fit Career
• Is a STEM Career in My Future?
• How Social and Emotional Learning Can Support a STEM Career
• Dissecting Stress
• Coping with Stress
• Preparing for More Education
• Skilled Listening Now and in the Future
• Endings