Texas Mathematics Teacher Fall/Winter 2021 - 6

What Makes the " M " in STEM?
Considerations When Analyzing a STEM Curriculum for Mathematics
Melissa Donham
The Study
In this study, the mathematics components in a course in
a high school STEM curriculum were analyzed. This study
considered the following questions:
1. In what ways does the high school STEM curriculum
align to state high school mathematics standards in
Texas?
In recent years, there has been a push to promote Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
education in schools around the country. This type of
education hopes to spark students' interest in STEM fields
to ultimately increase the number of students who pursue
these careers in the future (Stohlmann, 2018). There are
many potential benefits of STEM education for students.
Through projects and real-world applications, students
are able to develop critical thinking and problem-solving
skills (National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics
[NCSM] & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
[NCTM], 2018; Stohlmann et al., 2012). The applications
in STEM education give context for the mathematics
students are learning, which deepens understanding
(Kelley & Knowles, 2016). This type of learning allows
students to make connections between disciplines, as well
as experience problems and situations STEM professionals
may face in their jobs (Capraro et al., 2013). STEM
education is especially important in Texas as the state is
expected to have the nation's second-highest percentage
of future STEM job opportunities (Educate Texas, 2018).
Although there are many potential benefits of STEM
education, there are concerns about the mathematics
being implemented in different STEM curricula. First,
mathematics may only be used as a tool to serve the other
disciplines of science, technology, and engineering (NCSM
& NCTM, 2018; Walker, 2017). This is often done through
including mathematics related to data analysis and
measurement. When the mathematics is integrated this
way, the ability to make powerful connections between
ideas and disciplines may be limited. This leads to
another concern that although there may be mathematics
included in the curricula, it is not necessarily grade-level
appropriate (Walker, 2017). High school mathematics is
a difficult discipline to integrate due to the higher-level
concepts, so although a STEM curriculum is designed
for high school students, the mathematics content
included may be at a lower level. Thus, there is a concern
that STEM education may not increase mathematical
achievement for students because they are not applying
their knowledge and deepening their understanding of
grade-level content. These concerns led me to conduct a
study that analyzed the mathematics content in a high
school STEM curriculum. The curriculum selected is a
national STEM curriculum used widely in Texas. The
course applies mathematics and science concepts to
engineering topics through hands-on activities. This
curriculum was selected because of its popularity and
usage in Texas as well as nationally.
6 | Fall/Winter 2021
2. What percentage of the alignment has high school
mathematics as the primary focus and what
percentage has it as a secondary focus?
Methods
For this study, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
(TEKS) (Texas Education Agency [TEA], 2014) were used
as the standards for middle and high school mathematics.
Middle school mathematics included sixth, seventh, and
eighth grades in this study. High school mathematics
included Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Precalculus.
The mathematical process standards were not included
in this analysis because they are the same for each
grade level. While they were addressed throughout the
curriculum, this study was looking at the alignment of
mathematics topics to specific grade levels and courses in
the TEKS.
To answer the first research question, each activity in the
course curriculum was identified for the mathematics
topics that were included. These topics were then
mapped to the TEKS to identify the grade level or course
that included that topic. The data were organized in a
spreadsheet with the middle school and high school TEKS
listed in the rows and the course activity numbers in the
columns. Once the mathematics topics in each activity
were identified and mapped to the corresponding TEKS,
the total number of middle school and the total number
of high school TEKS included in the curriculum were
found. The high school topics included in the curriculum
and the frequency each standard was addressed were also
identified.
For the second research question, the standards
included were analyzed to determine if the high school
mathematics topics were the primary or secondary focus
of the activity. To be considered the primary focus, the
high school mathematics had to be the main focus of the
activity. There may have been a science or engineering
component in the activity, but the mathematics still
played a significant role. High school mathematics topics
were considered a secondary focus if they were a minor
piece that assisted in accomplishing the main focus of the
activity. These topics were ultimately there to support
the learning of science, engineering, or technology
concepts in the activity. The last aspect analyzed were the
mathematical skills and concepts developed or applied
in the course curriculum. Skills are the basic procedures
and factual knowledge that students learn in mathematics
(Wathall, 2016).
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