Continuing Educations Units / Teacher In-Service Points

Participants successfully completing a full-day course will receive a Certificate of Completion and 10 in-service points in accordance with criteria and guidelines established by the  Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC)  and with Florida’s Professional Learning Standards and Florida’s Professional Development Review Protocol for member and participating districts under the Professional Learning Components:  STEM Instructional Strategies 2-007-002 &   STEM Integrated Content 1-007-002 .

STEM Instructional Strategies 2-007-002

Educators will learn and apply research-evidenced STEM strategies focused on establishing an environment, suited to STEM practices, where diverse students have opportunities to use STEM content knowledge, synthesize learning across content areas, and apply learning in real world situations. Educators may also learn to select or develop and use high- quality STEM instructional materials, procedures, methodologies, tools, equipment and technologies used in STEM disciplines to improve student outcomes in STEM areas.

SPECIFIC LEARNER OUTCOMES:

Professional educators will:

  1. Learn, develop and implement strategies to recruit underrepresented students into STEM programs.
  2. Examine research-evidenced strategies for establishing a learning environment suited to STEM education that may include, but not be limited to, creating an inclusive classroom, promoting equity, collaborative learning, shifting to student-centered activities, flexibility of the physical environment, resilience when faced with failure, open-ended problem solving, critical thinking skills, and tangible outcomes.
  3. Explore a variety of STEM teaching models that may include, but not be limited to, project-based learning, problem-based learning, models and modeling, argument driven inquiry, engineering design thinking, 5-E model, and levels of inquiry ranging from exploration to open-ended.
  4. Integrate STEM teaching models into the curriculum.
  5. Engage students in analyzing data/results, making sense of results and communicating findings through a variety of formats.
  6. Learn evidence-supported strategies to evaluate or assess collaborative STEM tasks.
  7. Develop classroom tools to evaluate or assess collaborative STEM tasks.
  8. Select and use appropriate STEM tools and equipment, technology, processes, and/or methodologies to support STEM learning.
  9. Learn and use appropriate classroom safety procedures appropriate for STEM tools, processes and procedures.
  10. Learn how to identify and/or develop STEM problem-solving tasks that are relevant and aligned to Florida content standards.
  11. Develop STEM curriculum resource materials that are relevant and aligned to Florida’s content standards, and use them in the classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners.

STEM Integrated Content 1-007-002

Educators will increase their depth of content knowledge across one or more STEM disciplines, understand how student learning develops across the discipline(s), understand how STEM content may be integrated and applied across disciplines, learn the types of misconceptions students may develop, and how to address the misconceptions. Additionally, they may review and learn to use STEM instructional materials and resources to improve student outcomes in STEM areas and appropriate methodologies for assessing STEM content learning.

SPECIFIC LEARNER OUTCOMES:

Professional educators will:

  1. Examine Florida’s content standards across one or more STEM discipline(s) and gain an understanding of how STEM learning progresses across discipline(s) and grades.
  2. Learn how content may be integrated across two or more STEM disciplines.
  3. Enhance content knowledge in a STEM discipline or across multiple STEM disciplines.
  4. Understand the role of misconceptions in the learning process and identify common misconceptions in one or more STEM disciplines.
  5. Develop strategies to help students confront misconceptions and help them reconstruct knowledge based on current models.
  6. Identify, collect and use a variety of sources of data to plan, deliver and assess STEM learning.
  7. Identify and use technology resources, STEM tools, processes, procedures, and other learning activities, aligned to Florida’s content standards across STEM disciplines, to meet specific student needs.
  8. Identify curriculum resource materials, aligned to Florida’s content standards across STEM disciplines, and use them in the classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners.
  9. Develop and implement activities that integrate technology tools and resources into the STEM curriculum.
  10. Develop and implement curriculum resource materials, aligned to Florida’s content standards, that integrate STEM content across two or more STEM disciplines, and use them in the classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners.
  11. Learn about STEM careers, including how STEM disciplines are applied in the careers, preparatory pathways for the careers, and how to access current information about STEM job outlook.
  12. Develop and implement learning activities in which students explore STEM career opportunities.