NATIONAL STEM CONSORTIUM
Kim Law
Cyber Technology Team Lead
STEM Bridge Team
Anne Arundel Community College
What is the National STEM Consortium?
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Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland
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College of Lake County in Illinois
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Clover Park Technical College in Washington State
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Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio
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Florida State College at Jacksonville
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Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana
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Macomb Community College in Michigan
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Northwest Arkansas Community College
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Roane State Community College in Tennessee
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South Seattle Community College in Washington State
What is the Role of the NSC?
Design and deliver Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM) programs that are:
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Nationally portable
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High-quality certificate-level
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Responsive to labor market needs
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Embed contextualized remediation – “STEM Bridge”
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Build a national model for multi-college cooperation
NSC Industries
Composite
Materials
Mechatronics
National
STEM
Consortium
Environmental
Technology
Cyber
Technology
Electric Vehicle
What is the STEM Bridge?
Composites
YElectric Vehicle
Mechatronics
STEM Bridge
Cyber
Environmental
What is the STEM Bridge?
STEM Bridge is a two-part strategy to provide support to
learners in the STEM certificate programs
Part 1: “STEM Readiness” Course
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Embedded contextualized online course
Designed to quickly refresh math, communications and professional
skills.
Part 2: FAST TRACKS: “STEM Foundations” Course
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Modularized set of curriculum “bundles”
Designed to target foundational skills in Math and Workplace
Communications.
Co-Development Partners
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National STEM Consortium – STEM Bridge Team
Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI)
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) –
addresses learner variability through Universal Design
for Learning and accessibility.
Industry partners
STEM Bridge Implementation
FAST TRACKS
STEM
Foundations
Technical Curriculum
STEM Readiness (OLI)
Technical Curriculum
STEM Readiness (OLI)
Lower-Level
Learner Entry
Point
Certificate-Ready
Learner Entry
Point
STEM Readiness Curriculum
Math
-Placement Test
-Arithmetic
-Measuring Systems
-Charts and Graphs
-Basic Algebra
-Triangle Geometry
-Cartesian Plane
15 hours
Critical Thinking
& Workplace
Communication
-Summarizing
-Oral & Written
Communication
-After-Action
Reporting
-Troubleshooting
15 hours
Professional
Skills
-Customer Service
-Confidentiality
-Organizational Skills
-Time Management
-Teamwork
-Resume Writing
-Cover Letters
-Interviewing
15 hours
Contextualized, Scenario-Based Learning
Industry Partners Helped Develop Scenario Based Learning
• Tell a story of a workplace that can be visualized
• Richly model a context for learning
• Provide a step before learning-by-doing
• Help learners problem-solve issues
• Encourage reflection on work practices
Unit 2 - Critical Thinking and Workplace Communications
http://youtu.be/nFMRaG4p8mM
Present introductory story
http://youtu.be/S0OOlThhU90
Present contextualized challenges
STEM Bridge Strategy
STEM Readiness Component is FLEXIBLE and can be
delivered in a variety of ways:
Hybrid format with face to face instruction to support.
• Online only in class or in attached lab.
• Delivered up front in first term or spread across multiple
terms as needed by each team.
• Inserted into key points in the technical curriculum.
• Delivered as credit or (0 credit) credit equivalent modules.
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Adaptability Example
AACC totally re-designed a WIA Youth program
curriculum designed to prepare students for the GED
Test in fall 2013.
The STEM Readiness course served as the foundation of
the re-design.
• 14 of 14 students in the program passed the GED at the
end of the semester! Historic success!
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STEM Readiness Course
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Targets multiple
learning styles
Text description of
diagrams available
Explaining a Concept: Walkthroughs
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Slide show with
audio narration
Captioned for
accessibility
Student Practice: Learn By Doing Activities
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Hints available to
help struggling
students
Immediate feedback
for answers
Multiple problems
per learning objective
to promote concept
mastery
Scaling STEM Readiness
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July 2014: Over 5,700 users across the nation
CMU OLI site
• 10 NSC Community colleges
• High schools
• Middle School
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STEM FAST TRACKS: STEM Foundations
Twenty two short modules focusing on the
development of key skills that are lacking in lower
level learners will be built in the Platform+ system.
Examples:
Identify main idea and supporting ideas and summarize.
• Build a paragraph and write a short essay.
• Prepare and deliver an effective presentation.
• Apply Order of Operations in math
• Explain concept of a variable
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STEM Foundations
To Access STEM Bridge
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www.oli.cmu.edu
STEM Readiness: Course Key: ALL-STEM4
STEM Foundations: Course Key: STEMBASIC1
Disclaimer
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