Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are critical drivers in a globally competitive, knowledge-based economy. Quality STEM education prepares all students to graduate with flexible and adaptable competence in mathematics, science and technology, and the ability to design and communicate solutions to real problems with confidence, ingenuity, and thoughtfulness. A focus on STEM learning requires a shift in how students are educated, with an emphasis on deeper understanding, critical thinking, and applications instead of siloed content built around memorization of facts and procedures.
RTI’s STEM services include targeted STEM content, schoolwide STEM practices, developing and managing STEM partnerships, and STEM Consulting Services.
Targeted STEM Content:
Building strong foundations for STEM literacy includes “access to high-quality, lifelong STEM learning for all Americans” and “a basic understanding and comfort with STEM and STEM-enabled technology” . Opportunities to explore STEM allow students to shape their interest in the STEM disciplines while gaining skills that are applicable in both STEM and non-STEM settings.
Schoolwide STEM Practices:
Institutionalizing a shared instructional framework represents a systemic and sustainable approach to instructional growth. High-quality science experiences support the development of executive functioning skills, particularly the ability to revise predictions based on observations, sense making, and individual risk taking in learning.
STEM Partnerships:
“Why do I need to know this” is a question teachers frequently hear, and STEM content teachers are not immune to this request. To answer this question, teachers can situate learning within real-world experiences and authentic examples. Creating partnerships with the local STEM community is a powerful strategy for supporting teachers and students to see the relevance and importance of STEM education and pathways.
STEM Consulting Services:
The design and implementation of a multi-faceted, comprehensive STEM program in a school requires a strong strategy involving self-assessment, planning, and implementation. If a school is pursuing STEM recognition, the process must begin with an honest self-assessment of current strengths and opportunities for growth, strong plans for how to maintain areas of strength and build on those opportunities for growth, and careful implementation of elements that have been designed.
Project Examples
RTI partners with innovative schools, districts, states, and organizations to address education challenges. Here we highlight two of those partnerships.
STARward STEM, A Transformative STEM Enrichment Project Leveraging Transdisciplinary PBL
With support from the United States Department of Defense, RTI is facilitating STARward STEM, a transformative STEM enrichment project leveraging transdisciplinary PBL. STARward STEM promotes curricula that dissolve boundaries between conventional academic disciplines and organizes teaching and learning around the construction of meaning in the context of real-world problems (IBE-UNESCO, 2020). The project annually impacts a targeted subset of more than 4,622 K–12 students and 303 educators in Cumberland County Schools in North Carolina.
Millbrook Magnet Elementary School And Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School ‘Environmental Connections’ Framework
Millbrook Magnet Elementary School and Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School ‘Environmental Connections’ framework
STEM Experts
Our Education Services team is led by former teachers, principals, administrators, policy experts, and strategists who have the practical experience to translate ideas into action.
Rebecca Stanley
Education Consultant
Center for Education Services
Rebecca Stanley is an Education Consultant with experience as a classroom teacher, researcher, professional development creator, and instructional coach. Dr...
Expert in STEM Education
Expert in Teaching and Learning
Marquis Mason
Education Consultant
Center for Education Services
Dr. Marquis Mason has over 12 years of experience in education as a teacher, instructional coach, and researcher. Marquis has led and supported special...
Expert in STEM Education
Urban Education
