ASAP INTEGRATED STEM PROGRAM BUILDS STEM CAPACITY THROUGH EARTH SCIENCE

Proficiency in math and science for middle school students in southern and central Florida were below the national average. The economic region is the 5^th poorest and the number of degrees per person was in the bottom 10% in the US. In general there are poor people in need of higher education. The Helios Foundation funded the ASAP (Accelerated STEM Academic Pipeline) program, which provides 12 graduate credits in integrated STEM education for middle school teachers. The program is designed to meet the standards for the Next Generation of Learners and Common Core. We needed additional strategies for dealing with a 30% increase in the number of ESL students. In addition to intense treatment of pedagogical content knowledge for math and science we applied best practices for building literacy in English, Math, and Science.

The school system was changing the grade in which Earth science was taught and many teachers were not prepared for the change. The program focuses on content proficiency in math and Earth science in the first course. The second course integrates Inquiry and Problem Based Learning while teaching strategies for integrating math and science. The third course is aimed at literacy in language, science, and math. The final course is an intense application of integrating math, science, and literacy with engineering technology and robotics and explores how to use them to teach math and science. The program produces teachers who are more proficient in math and science and process the skills needed to build literacy in English as well. Each participant receives a certificate in integrated STEM education through the University of South Florida.

Our efforts are now extending beyond our initial expectations. Two of the participating schools are implementing their own STEM programs initiated by participants of the ASAP program who have conducted professional development in STEM for their school.