Teaching 21st Century Reasoning Skills through an Authentic Interdisciplinary STEM Research Experience

This session will highlight the work of the Real STEM grant awarded to Dr. Robert Mayes, COE Research Professor and Director of Georgia Southern University’s Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education. Real STEM is an Innovation Fund grant supported by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA). Real STEM is developing partnerships between middle and high schools throughout southeast Georgia, Research Institutes, business/industry, experts in STEM fields, and university STEM faculty in order to develop interdisciplinary STEM scientific research experiences for students. This session will discuss how teachers are using Place-based Education, Problem Based Learning and Understanding by Design pedagogy to design authentic, real-world student experiences that develop 21st Century reasoning skills. Reasoning skills emphasized include: scientific reasoning (experimental design with the scientific method), engineering design, quantitative reasoning, and modeling