Flinn Scientific_January 2025 Main Page
 

Forums

Forums / Elementary Science / STEM in PLCs

Elementary Science

STEM in PLCs

Author Post
Claire Avery Claire Avery 5035 Points

Hello, my name is Claire Avery, and I'm a student at Henderson State University. I will complete my student teaching this coming spring. As an upcoming new teacher, I am very interested in professional learning communities. As I have learned about these in class, it mostly sounds like PLCs are used for reading and writing. How do teachers incorporate STEM in their PLCs? I would love to be prepared to use some ideas shared in this post when I start my first teaching job!
Chandler Njus Chandler Njus 980 Points

Hi Claire,

I am also a preservice teacher, getting ready to student teach in a few semesters. In my Reading Methods course, we have PLC groups that meet every week and complete a task. Even though this focus is on reading solely, I think STEAM could be incorporated somewhat easily. If you are solely a science teacher and working with other teachers, or teach in the general classroom, you could utilize your PLC to create a curriculum, if you happen to not have one, or work on ways in which you could improve the lessons if you happen to have a curriculum. It might also be a great time to see how you could do integrative lessons between subjects and connect to STEAM into them. It could also be a great time to work with teachers who have been teaching the curriculum for awhile and see what has worked and not worked for them. I encourage you to go to or start a STEAM PLC for not just your benefit but all the other science teachers which you may be working. What things do you think you will struggle with teaching STEAM?

I hope things work out well,

Chandler Njus
A M A 660 Points

Hello Claire,
I am also a college student preparing for student teaching. In one of our classes, we have already begun working in PLC groups. This is for a reading in elementary class. In my science methods course we do a lot of readings on our own and then reflect, create questions, and summarize the content. This could be beneficial to work on in a PLC type of group; you could suggest something like this to your professor. You could also contact a local school district to see how PLC and STEM come together. 
Thank you! Best of luck with your future teaching!
Ann Meirick
Post Reply

Forum content is subject to the same rules as NSTA List Serves. Rules and disclaimers