Biomimicry as an Authentic Anchor: Giving Teachers the Tools to Adapt an Interdisciplinary Middle School Curriculum

Integrating STEM subjects in middle school is beneficial for student learning and can help prepare students for the STEM workplace. This project builds capacity for middle school teachers to enact and adapt integrated STEM curriculum units with their students. The units will focus on biomimicry—examining structures and functions found in nature and applying these to solve human problems, which combines science, engineering, and technology. The use of biology as a basis for engineering design and problem-solving authentically mirrors current practice of professional engineers and roboticists. The project enables teachers to design activities that are personally authentic to their students by supporting teachers to examine their students' assets, needs, and interests and center these during unit design. The project's modular curriculum approach provides multiple points of entry for teachers and students in different disciplines and allows teachers to choose the level of technological complexity they are comfortable enacting. Providing teachers with the tools to enact integrated STEM instruction supports learning through their engagement with the cross-cutting concept of structure-function analysis, as well as key practices in science, engineering, and computing as described in the Next Generation Science Standards.

This project is developing a professional development model that supports teachers first to plan and adapt curriculum materials that are cohesive and modular, and then to effectively use the materials to enact integrated science and engineering lessons that are professionally and personally authentic to their students. The researchers expect that over time, the professional development will increase the level of technology that teachers are comfortable integrating. The project works with 20 teachers and approximately 1000 students at school sites in Indiana, Maine, and Massachusetts. This project employs a mixed-methods research design to build new knowledge in the fields of science, engineering, and computing education by: (1) identifying the skills and resources that impact middle school teachers' planning for integrated STEM instruction; (2) characterizing how a situated and modular approach to materials design and professional development supports teachers' design and instructional choices over time; and (3) documenting how the curriculum features of cohesion across disciplines and authentic learning experiences impact student learning of content and practices in science, engineering, and computational thinking, including the overarching concept of structure-function analysis.