Middle school is the prime time of schooling; students have just had the doors to the world been opened to them with endless exploration quests calling out to their inner voices. It is also the time when they (ideally) start defining the path of their career. This makes middle school years the ideal time to encourage students to take STEM seriously. This is where a successful STEM middle school curriculum comes into the picture. You cannot educate students in STEM with just any curriculum; you need a carefully designed STEM school curriculum. In this article, we’re going to take a look at why STEM in middle school is important and how to design a STEM education curriculum to teach STEM to your students in the most effective way.
STEM and Middle School
Middle school is a time when students start making choices of their own; be it clothes or appearance or career; it is a time when they start thinking for themselves. It is a time when their inner Robert Frost awakens from his slumber and contemplates which road is going to be his “less traveled by” road that is “going to make all the difference”. If the STEM education appeals to them at this point, then they are likely to choose STEM disciplines in high school and even pursue careers in STEM fields.
Another important reason for having an education curriculum for middle school that focuses on STEM disciplines is the learning ability of middle schoolers. As this article mentions, the teenage brain is like a super sponge that can easily absorb all that you put before them; the only catch being that the brain is Simon Cowell and whatever you put before them has to be engaging enough to entrap his attention for more than a minute which is another reason for implementing a STEM school curriculum in middle school classrooms.
This brings us to the next reason — experiential learning. Children LOVE making and breaking things, as we’ve pointed out in our article on how to set up a STEM lab. Therefore learning that involves a hands-on approach is more likely to stick with them rather than that confined to plain black scribbles on a bunch of white papers occasionally accompanied with colorful (sometimes not) pictures.
Implementing STEM in middle school also helps narrow the gender gap as this article points out. If girls are exposed to STEM disciplines at an early age, their brains would be wired for STEM and they would be more likely to pursue a career in a STEM field.
Now that you know WHY STEM education in middle school is important, find out what makes a STEM middle curriculum great and how to design an effective STEM curriculum HERE.
Psst. A little something before you leave!
If you would like to read more about education in the modern world, go check out these blogs as well!
