Think of your STEM journey as a highway. When you’re driving along you see those marker signs on the side of the road. These guideposts can provide direction and key information just when you need it. This is how authors Jo Anne Vasquez, Michael Comer and Joel Villegas describe how their work in STEM Lesson Guideposts is designed. They say their guideposts provide direction and key information at critical times when planning a STEM journey.  

We recently talked with Jo Ann and Michael, and started our conversation on the misconceptions about what STEM actually is?

See below for a full transcript of our conversation:

Jo Anne:    I think the biggest misconception is the fact that they think that all four disciplines have to be in there, but STEM is actually an integrated interdisciplinary way of teaching, and with that, what it does is give the students to apply what they're learning. I think that's the big, I don't want to say selling point, but the reason that STEM has ___ in the field with teachers who start to put their foot in the water and say "Oh, I'm going to integrate my math and science" or "I'm going to put some literature in," but it's all about application. I think the biggest misconception is that you're not going to teach the content, you're just going to do all the, you know, fun projects and problems and do all of that. You still have to teach the content.

Michael:    One of the other aspects of the misconceptions are is the idea that just because I do robotics or I do coding, that I'm doing STEM, and it's not necessarily the integration of pulling the other disciplines together. Those are great activities to do. Those are great projects to do, but I think helping students to be able to see a connection to how I can apply this and how am I pulling in what other disciplines or what other fields I'm studying at the time is part of the STEM movement.

Brett:    Your first book, STEM Lesson Essentials, came out in 2013 and has been incredibly popular. Have there been changes in STEM expectations since then?

Michael:    Oh, I think the changes in the expectations come to more classroom teachers are beginning to look at what STEM is and look around to see that the emphasis on STEM instruction is permeating into their classroom, and so they're beginning to think "Well, how can I do this?" and "Where do I begin?" I think when the first book came out, it was more about "Well, what is STEM?" and at the district level, supervisors were talking about it. There was a lot of talk on the national stage about STEM education. It's now filtered down to where teachers are, and teachers are beginning to say "Okay. Well, what is this, and how can I do it, and how will it help my students?"

Jo Anne:    I think it also provides an opportunity for teachers to have dialog with other teachers and to say "What is … ," because everybody seems to be jumping on the STEM bandwagon. We see that. In STEM Lesson Essentials, we tried to, or we did lay out, I think very clearly and articulately, about what is STEM, the levels of STEM, so it is the what of STEM. We try to demystifize  it, and so the teachers would say "Oh, I can't be a STEM teacher, because I don't do this or I don't do that." Well, yes you can. If you're teaching first grade, and you're planting those plants, and you're measuring them, and you're graphing them and charting them, you're using math.