Improving education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has become an urgent priority in light of what is widely viewed as a national failure to engage students in subjects that are both compelling and vital to our future. “The STEM pipeline is leaking all over the place,” says Philip Molebash, director of LMU’s Center for Math and Science Teaching. “Very few high school graduates are selecting STEM majors in college, and we have a thin trickle of qualified people available for the STEM workforce.”
CMAST, which has established a strong track record for preparing and retaining excellent STEM teachers, is tackling the problem head-on. After focusing primarily on transforming math education by giving teachers the research-based tools to make the subject hands-on and engaging, CMAST has become more comprehensive, with a renewed emphasis on science teaching and digital learning. In accord with the new Common Core State Standards and the National Resource Council-inspired Next Generation Science Standards, CMAST is taking a broad view of the nature of science, encompassing not only the physical and life sciences but also social studies.
Attention-Grabbing Partnership
Rather than working primarily with secondary schools, as it was in the past, CMAST is targeting elementary school education through a partnership among LMU, the Los Angeles Unified School District and Playa Vista community that has turned Playa Vista Elementary School into a demonstration site for STEM education. As part of a close collaboration involving LMU faculty and staff, district administrators, PVES educators and parents, and community partners, CMAST is providing professional development to assist PVES teachers in implementing a curriculum that integrates STEM throughout the day.
Housed in a state-of-the-art, environmentally conscious school and located only minutes away from the Ballona Wetlands Discovery Park, PVES is perfectly situated for hands-on urban ecology and inquiry-based outdoor projects. In working with the community to develop a STEM curriculum, CMAST has engaged local businesses as well as LMU’s Center for Urban Resilience, under the leadership of President’s Professor Eric Strauss. The partnership, in conjunction with the LMU Family of Schools initiative, will serve as a model for the development and assessment of successful STEM teaching in the nation’s second-largest school district. “Much of the conversation in STEM education has focused on the secondary level,” says Manny Aceves, SOE assistant dean for strategic partnerships, “but the truth is that many kids lose interest in science by the time they reach middle school, and then it’s an uphill battle. We want to get them excited about STEM from a younger age.”
Preparing Math Teacher-Leaders
CMAST is expanding its successful professional development program to incorporate the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. The Mathematics Leadership Corps, a partnership among the LMU School of Education, Culver City Unified School District, Cotsen Foundation for the ART of TEACHING, Louis L. Borick Foundation and the Leonetti/O’Connell Family Foundation, aims to change schools and districts from within by empowering teachers as leaders in the effort. The MLC seeks to improve teacher leaders’ coaching and mentoring skills and teachers’ instruction and delivery to increase students’ content knowledge, engagement and interest in mathematics.
“This is a true team approach – with the goals of active learning, collaboration, growth-based assessment and mathematical literacy in a culture that embraces mathematical thinking – preparing students to be college- and career-ready in STEM fields,” explains Katharine Clemmer, program director for MLC, which is part of the national 100Kin10 movement to increase the number of STEM teachers.
The Math Leadership Corps and Playa Vista Elementary partnership represent two important initiatives in what Molebash sees as an essential approach to addressing concerns about STEM education. “These are daunting problems, but they can be solved – especially when we can touch every point of the pipeline with a comprehensive approach,” Molebash says. “At LMU, we are uniquely positioned to do that.”
