The STEM-Innovation and Design (STEM-ID) courses, provide students with what is, in effect, a 5th core subject focused on hands-on engineering that requires that students actively engage with foundational math and science content and practices. The courses promote STEM learning by engaging students in project-based inquiry lessons that emphasize collecting, visualizing, interpreting, and communicating authentic and compelling data. In the process, the lessons introduce students to advanced manufacturing tools such as computer aided design (CAD) and 3D printing, incorporate engineering concepts such as pneumatics, robotics and aeronautics, and increase student awareness of STEM career paths.
Research Support
The published AMP-IT-UP research has demonstrated unequivocally that these applied engineering experiences, when implemented in a low-risk, non-high-stakes-tested connections-class environment, lead to increased engagement and positively impact academic achievement in science and math and persistence in STEM. Research also demonstrated that across grade levels and schools, students were able to transfer knowledge between their engineering course and their core mathematics and science courses.
Read the research results here.
