Transcending disciplines: engaging college students in interdisciplinary research, integrated STEM, and partnerships

An authentic, interdisciplinary, research and problem-based integrated science, technology, engineering,and mathematics (STEM) project may be ideal for encouraging scientific inquiry and developing teamworkamong undergraduate students, but it also presents challenges. The authors describe how twointerdisciplinary teams (n=6) of undergraduate college students built integrated STEM projects in aresearch based internship setting, and then collaboratively brought the project to fruition to includedesigning lessons and activities shared with K-12 students in a classroom setting. Each three personundergraduate team consisted of two STEM majors and one Education major. The Education majors area special focus for this study. Interviews, field observations, and lesson plan artifacts collected from theundergraduate college students were analyzed according to authenticity factors, the authentic scientificinquiry instrument, and an integrated STEM instrument. The authors highlight areas of strength andweakness for both teams and explore how preservice teachers contributed to integrated STEM productsand lessons. Teacher educators might apply recommendations for teacher preparation and professionaldevelopment when facilitating authentic scientific inquiry and integrated STEM topics with both STEMand non-STEM educators. Undergraduate college students were challenged to fully integrate the STEMdisciplines, transitions between them, and the spaces between them where multiple disciplines existed. Bydescribing the challenges of integrating the spaces between STEM, the authors offer a description of theundergraduate college students’ experiences in an effort to expand the common message beyond a flatapproach of try this activity because it works, to a more robust message of try this type of engagementand purposefully organize for maximum resultsPeer Reviewe