Creating an Atmosphere for STEM Literacy in the Rural South Through Student-Collected Weather Data

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper is an examination of a teacher professional development program in northeast Louisiana, that provided 30 teachers and their students with the technology, skills, and content knowledge to collect data and explore weather trends. Data were collected from both continuous monitoring weather stations and simple school-based weather stations to better understand core disciplinary ideas connecting Life and Earth sciences. Using a curricular model that combines experiential and place-based educational approaches to create a rich and relevant atmosphere for STEM learning, the goal of the program was to empower teachers and their students to engage in ongoing data collection analysis that could contribute to greater understanding and ownership of the environment at the local and regional level. The program team used a mixed-methodological approach that examined implementation at the site level and student impact. Analysis of teacher and student surveys, teacher interviews and classroom observation data suggest that the level of implementation of the program related directly to the ways in which students were using the weather data to develop STEM literacy. In particular, making meaning out of the data by studying patterns, interpreting the numbers, and comparing with long-term data from other sites seemed to drive critical thinking and STEM literacy in those classrooms that fully implemented the program. Findings also suggest that the project has the potential to address the unique needs of traditionally underserved students in the rural south, most notably, those students in high-needs rural settings that rely on an agrarian economy.