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Mi-STAR – STEMworks

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Mi-STAR is motivated by a vision for the future of STEM education in which science is taught and learned as an integrated body of knowledge that can be applied to address relevant real-world problems. Mi-STAR Curriculum: Mi-STAR’s curriculum is designed to empower teachers to provide high quality STEM experiences to students. Each unit in the curriculum is built around a problem-based “unit challenge.” Every unit challenge is related to one or more of the 21st-century grand challenges identified by the National Academy of Engineering and other professional science/engineering societies (e.g., energy, water, sustainability, health). Each unit challenge is also designed to focus on a question that is relevant to young people and their families. Each unit in the Mi-STAR middle school curriculum addresses multiple Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) performance expectations (PEs). The lessons within each unit and the units that comprise the curriculum scaffold students’ mastery of all three dimensions of the PEs (that is, the science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts). Every unit in the curriculum includes multiple opportunities for multi-dimensional classroom-based assessment that gauge students’ mastery of each of the three dimensions of the PEs. Multi-dimensional items are also included in pre- and post-assessments for each unit. The items on the pre/post assessments are designed to measure student growth and to provide students with opportunities to practice responding to questions that are similar in content and format to what they will encounter on high-stakes tests. Mi-STAR Professional Learning: Mi-STAR’s professional learning program is uniquely suited to empowering STEM teachers because it provides scalable opportunities for intensive in-depth learning that is augmented by long-term sustained interaction with Mi-STAR staff, experienced professional learning facilitators, and other teachers who are using Mi-STAR. It emphasizes strategies designed to help teachers implement Mi-STAR’s curriculum in an effective, student-centered way. Mi-STAR’s scalable train-the-trainer model for professional learning also provides a framework for teachers to grow as leaders. The professional learning program begins with an online training that introduces the basics of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), including the nature of the performance expectations and their component science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. The concepts of credible evidence of mastery and multidimensional assessment are also addressed. Further, the online program introduces teachers to best-practice pedagogy that supports student-centered, teacher-facilitated learning. Following the online introduction to NGSS-aligned teaching and learning, teachers engage in face-to-face experiential sessions that give them the opportunity to interact with trained facilitators (the Mi-STAR Professional Learning Facilitators) and their teacher-colleagues as they work through issues related to classroom-based implementation of the curriculum and associated pedagogy. Assessment of student learning is also addressed using samples of Mi-STAR embedded assessments and associated scoring rubrics.

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