A year after Taylor Wheeler resigned from her teaching job to focus on raising her children, a former mentor called to discuss a new opportunity. She was writing STEM curricula for a company called STEMscopes, and thought she would be a great candidate for the same position. It was a no brainer for Wheeler—she could continue to stay home with her children, while influencing the way STEM is taught in the classroom.
Topics: math, teacher writers
We’ve all heard the expression “practice makes perfect.” Rote math drills, however, have proven to be an ineffective method of practicing math. One-size-fits-all approaches to teaching and practicing math just don’t work. So, we created a math curriculum that can be adapted to any learning style, in any classroom.
Topics: math, equity, Academic Language, Computation Fluency, Parent/Student Content Support
When the STEMscopes math team came together to design our curriculum, we set out to solve a problem that has always haunted math teachers: knowledge transfer. Every teacher has seen students ace a worksheet and then freeze when they see a non-routine problem or a routine problem in a new context. The sad truth is that many students enter adulthood incapable of applying their math skills in daily life. It’s these students we hoped to reach with our curriculum elements.
Topics: math, real world connection, Conceptual Understanding, number sense, CRA approach
When her school district adopted STEMscopes Science in 2016, Alicia Chiasson knew there was something special about it. A 6th-grade math and science teacher with 27 years of experience, Chiasson loved how each scope (lesson) is rooted in inquiry. She was so happy with the results in her classroom that she decided to join the STEMscopes team as a curriculum writer in January 2018.
Topics: math, teacher writers
As teachers, it is easy for us to get caught up in the solution to a math problem and focus simply on that. But for our students, there needs to be more to it than that.
Topics: math, math chats
