Empowering Future Educators: Designing a STEM Lab to Enhance Elementary Teacher Preparation

Abstract

To support beginning teachers in developing practical knowledge and experience with implementing effective STEM lessons, we created a STEM Lab within our university’s elementary teacher education program. The STEM Lab consisted of a lending library of STEM materials and equipment common in many elementary schools. We report on three goals we established to engage teacher candidates with materials from the STEM Lab. Those goals included (1) engaging with STEM materials as learners, (2) practicing teaching with materials to peers, and (3) teaching with materials to elementary students. We describe specific actions we took as teacher educators using the STEM materials to meet these goals and the learning opportunities teacher candidates were afforded as a result. Actions highlighted include facilitating material exploration and instructional rehearsal experiences in methods courses and supporting teacher candidates to teach with the materials within their field placements and informal STEM events. As a result of these actions, teacher candidates were able to deepen their understanding of STEM concepts, develop the instructional practice of questioning, observe student engagement, broaden their perspective of STEM lessons, and interact with families and communities. We conclude by sharing survey results from the 1st year of project implementation, challenges we experienced, and recommendations for other STEM methods instructors on designing future resource lending programs.