ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews the integrated approach using grade 3-5 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Road Map. The STEM Road Map for grades 3-5 is anchored in the five STEM themes: Cause and Effect, Innovation and Progress, The Represented World, Sustainable Systems, and Optimizing the Human Experience. Before mapping out an integrated approach to learning STEM, it is important to consider what students have learned and experienced prior to entering third grade. The topics for third grade include the following: weather, transportation, motion, ecosystems, and environmental science. Using what they learned in third grade about weather, the interaction between forces, and changes within an ecosystem, fourth grade students now apply their newly acquired knowledge to explore the properties of waves and energy transfer, the effects of weathering, and the role of renewable energy within sustainable systems. This chapter presented the STEM Road Map for grades 3-5 as an approach that engages upper-elementary students in authentic, team-based problems across content areas.
