100% Increase STEM Business Participation in Classroom and Content Development
90% Increase Educator Use of Inquiry-Based (Case-Based, Socratic) Tools
75% of Educators Will Reuse the Hands-on Curriculum Materials for Future classes
Students Will Achieve at Least 85% Proficiency on Critical Thinking Skills, as Measured by Pre- and Post-testing Using State or ACT Assessments
80% Increase in Awareness and Interest in STEM Careers
90% Increase in Awareness and Interest in STEM Careers Among Girls and Minorities
25% Fortune 100 Companies
25% Arts and Music Organizations
15% Community Nonprofit Organizations
25% of All PIE Partners are Small Businesses with 50 Employees or Less
10% of PIE Partners are Government Agencies
100% of University Partners are Accredited Higher Education Institutions
• Creativity and Innovation
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Information Literacy
• Media Literacy
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy and Digital Literacy
Number of Students Currently Involved in PIE Programs
Students Per PIE Classroom
Universities Working with PIE
Partner Businesses and Organizations
• Teamwork is strongly valued and a team approach to decision-making is expected;
• Students learn that there is no single “correct” solution to real-world STEM problems;
• Failure is part of the process and expected;
• Everyone can engineer;
• Sharing ideas and learning from others is valued;
• Students’ diversity, individuality and uniqueness are recognized and respected;
• Student work is guided by the engineering design process (ask, imagine, plan, create, improve);
• Learning is understood as a lifelong open-ended inquiry;
• Learning is embraced by doing;
• All students can learn and should be provided equal opportunities to learn.
• Teachers and their students work together as active learners
• Ongoing professional development is vital to continuously improving teaching and learning;
• Teachers are both the targets and agents of change;
• Research and development is integral to providing teachers with new opportunities to continuously improve their craft
Many studies suggest whole brain decision-making leads to more effective learning outcomes.
The National Endowment for the Arts reports that, ”at-risk students with high levels of arts engagement achieved better outcomes in academics, college enrollment, civic engagement and participation in professional careers than did their peers with low levels of engagement.”
Studies link arts education to the development of cognitive functions, including skills needed for learning. These skills include the spatial-temporal reasoning used in mathematics, and the awareness of pronunciation and patterns of speech needed to learn to read.
The National Center on Education and the Economy states spatial and artistic learning sparks innovation. Likewise, they state, an effective arts curriculum allows students to excel in role play, collaboration, and resource management. Most importantly, intermingling a STEM and arts curriculum allows students to exercise “connectedness” among different cultures, disciplines and subject area — habits and skills needed in all 21st century global careers.
Including Art in the overall lesson addresses creative problem solving, visualization of broad data elements, and the ability to translate idea generation to creating design concepts.
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) suggests coupling Arts and Design in STEM fields will transform the 21st century “innovation” economy just as science and technology did in the last century.
Twenty-five Percent of PIE Programs Introduce Art and Music into STEM Curriculum
PIE Programs Heighten Technology Literacy by 75 Percent Among Students and Educators
100 Percent of PIE Programs Meet or Exceed State Learning Standards
PIE Programs Increase STEM Career and College Readiness by 52 Percent
PIE research indicates that girls and minorities effectively responded to the experiential learning process, and produced higher rates of academic achievement, career pathway engagement and personal confidence in STEM subject capabilities.
Organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering indicate more effective programs are needed to encourage girls and minorities to enter STEM careers.
1) Feature greater hands-on” activities showcasing real-world problems,
2) Allow STEM role models to enter the K12 urban classroom with experiential “problem solving” curriculum, and
3) Create more specialized and facilitative teaching resources for urban STEM educators.