Texas STEM Education Toolkit: Implementation Tools

The STEM Instructional Planning Guide (PDF) equips educators with best practices for creating curricular units, lessons, and activities. It streamlines the curriculum development process and fosters student knowledge and skills through inquiry-based integrated units that culminate in an engineering design challenge. The templates can be tailored to the needs and abilities of students.

Integration Strategies (PDF) encourages viewing STEM as a cohesive entity that blends disciplines, emphasizing interconnections rather than divisions. Integration encompasses various collaborative approaches, each with distinct structures but a shared goal of linking concepts and skills across fields. This tool offers a comprehensive guide, clarifying definitions, and illustrates integration methods and strategies.

Use the Integration Planning Graphic Organizer (PDF) to aid in crafting integrated learning experiences in STEM. Complete the organizer by identifying the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)-aligned content and fluency skills relevant to the lesson, unit, or project.

The STEM Teaching and Learning Progressions (PDF) tool is designed to guide instruction towards integrated education at organizational, school, or classroom levels. This involves a planned and extended implementation process. Skills are honed over time, starting as early as pre-kindergarten, and continuing through high school, shaped by instructional decisions. This tool offers educators an outline for scaffolding experiences, from the initial stages to more advanced application.

These STEM one-pagers are designed to clarify essential concepts in STEM education. They serve as a valuable tool for conveying the engineering  components of the science TEKS to students, educators, and the broader community:

• Engineering Design Process (PDF)
• Engineering Design Components and Evaluation Process (PDF)
• Recurring Themes and Concepts (PDF)
• Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning (CER) (PDF)

The STEM Curricular Activity Reflection for Teachers (PDF) tool helps educators evaluate and enhance integrated curricular activities. It emphasizes the importance of reflection in the design process to refine and improve future iterations. This tool supports informing instructional choices and teaching practices. It offers guidance for individual or team reflections post-STEM activity implementation, with questions and a template to facilitate discussions on planning, instruction, assessments, and student learning outcomes.

The STEM Walk-Through Observational Tool (PDF) offers immediate, qualitative guidance for evaluators to provide constructive feedback to instructors during activity observations. It includes key observation points that align with the STEM Instructional Planning Guide (PDF). This tool serves as an informal formative assessment for personalized coaching, feedback, and for documenting and assessing program goals and outcomes.

The PK–20 STEM Education Fidelity of Implementation Rubric (PDF) is a tool designed for those overseeing the implementation of programs. It’s an analytical rubric that corresponds with the high-quality indicators of the PK–20 STEM Framework, distinguishing the various phases of a program’s maturity. Users will fill out a scorecard post-rubric to pinpoint strengths and growth areas for the program. This rubric is also useful for collecting initial data, assessing program effectiveness, and conducting annual reviews to gauge progress towards set objectives.

Shifting to integrated education within organizations, schools, or classrooms requires a comprehensive, long-term strategy. STEM skills are nurtured from pre-kindergarten through high school with strategic educational choices. The STEM Teaching and Learning Progressions (PDF) tool outlines how educators can build these experiences, progressing from basic to advanced levels of implementation.

Mastery in content areas is crucial for integrated education, which also encompasses skills vital for career preparedness and workforce development. The STEM Skills Fluency Rubric (PDF) tool outlines essential skills, offers a rubric for various developmental stages, and provides classroom examples to illustrate skill application.

These sample statements can be used to create customized surveys at the local level to assess teacher, student, and family interest in STEM education. Copy and paste statements into the survey tool of choice. The statements have been grouped for convenience and are designed to be used with a Likert Scale:

• STEM Program Teacher Survey Sample Questions (PDF)
• STEM Program Student Survey Questions (PDF)
• STEM Program Family Survey Sample Questions (PDF)