What does it mean to be a STEM learner?

Engage

To think mathematically/scientifically means to think about the problem from a scientific or mathematic point of view. For example, when faced with a problem and try to break down the problem into parts and try to solve them. Setting up Christmas decorations is a good idea. From deciding how to distribute the decorations evenly across a certain space. And which decorations should go up in a specific order for highest efficiency. 

Explore

Fish is Fish story really teaches us that prior knowledge and perception is really important to take in consideration when teaching new ideas. Constructive psychology perspectives is a really good way to explain Fish is Fish story to human learning. The fish has a previous construct of what other people should look like. Thus when the frog was explaining birds and humans the fish based the information of his construct of other animals. Hence the imagined creatures were heavily based off of a body of a fish. Same as Fish, other people all have prior constructs relating to many different topics, when teaching new topics, teachers should take these constructs into consideration in order to make sure the student will fully understand the topic properly.

Ideas about the Seasons 

• Seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis and rotation and the distance of Earth from the sun. Because the sun is a large body of heat, its influence on the Earth's temperature. When the Earth is close to the sun, the weather becomes significantly hotter than when the Earth is further away. Hence when the areas on the Earth is close to the Sun, those areas experience summer and when they are away the areas experience winter. Spring and fall are transition seasons between the two extreme seasons of Winter and Summer. 
• The phases of the moon are caused by the sun's light being reflected off the moon's surface. As the moon rotates around the earth on an axis, the surface of the moon facing the earth is different. Because the moon orbit around itself is faster than earth's rotation the phases of the moon are visible every month. I can not remember what else causes moon phases. 

Harvard Student's Responses

When the top student, based on the teacher, described Earth's orbit as curly I was shocked along with the teacher. I also thought it was a given that students would understand that an orbit would go around in a circle. it surprised me. 

In the season case, the students described the season changed based on distance from the sun which made sense with the idea that the sun expels heat thus the closer something is to the heat source the higher the temperature. The foundation was based on an actual scientific concept. For the moon phase, the students had the correct concept that when the light is blocked by another object, a shadow will be cast. It is also a correct concept that the sun was is the source of light for the moon. Thus most of the explanations make sense from the student. 

Students might have acquired the idea of clouds and phases of the moon from shadows cast around the earth in daily life. Students should also have observed when clouds block the sun during the day, there is an overcast and overall the lighting becomes darker. 

Extend

To "know" is the knowledge that the student holds before engaging in learning. To learn is to reevaluate what they know and to change it to fit the new concepts. Knowing is something that the students believe is correct or a fact. Learning is correcting a misunderstood concept or adding more complex levels to an already known concept.

To be a competent mathematics or science student, one should hold skills to actively engage in learning math and science topics in most level. They should be able to self-evaluate their understanding. When approaching new topics, they should be able to use prior knowledge to further break apart complex topics into easier to understand topics. Being a competent student means, they are able to learn new topics in many different situations. They don't have to have the innate skill with math or science but they should pursue a strong skills in learning.

Learning is the evolution of knowledge. Understanding is clarifying knowledge however learning is building off knowledge and creating new ideas or applications. It is evolving the knowledge so that it can be applied to more situations. It is building the knowledge to become more complex and deep. There is a chance for more applications. Understanding is more like clarifying knowledge.

In order to see what students are thinking, some assessments would be a good measure. But not a simple test but an assessment where students can engage in conversation or draw a picture something more than multiple choice. As a teacher, the importance should be how the student came up with the answer more than if they got the correct answer. This will lead to more success in the long term instead of short-term success on test in school.