Guiding+Questions

**SESSION 4 JIGSAW**

 * ==How are we going to ensure that four STEM pillars carry the conversation to their schools/continue when they go home?==
 * ==What structures should an institution put into place to ensure that STEM goals are met? (What does the institutional commitment need to be?)==
 * ==How do we get the training (professional development) in place to create engineering components in courses, or a separate engineering class?==
 * ==How do we motivate our colleagues to get interested in STEM collaboration?==
 * ==How do we create a true STEM dialogue in our institutions?==


 * Possible Topics for Sessions**

CURRICULAR WORK

Inquiry-Based Learning Interdisciplinary Work Setting Curriculum Standards Greening the Curriculum Best Practices
 * What models are at your school for inquiry-based learning?
 * How effective are these models?
 * Are you trying to implement any inquiry-based learning lessons/models in your school? Why/why not?
 * What interdisciplinary projects is your faculty working on?
 * What interdisciplinary projects would you like to see at your school? How would they impact your curriculum?
 * Are there aspects of your school (culture, schedule, etc) that impede interdisciplinary work? Are there aspects that encourage it?
 * Has your school created any curriculum standards for your discipline? Why has/has not your school chosen to create standards?
 * If you have created standards: what standards have you set? what have you based those standards on? how have you implemented and measured these standards? what successes have you had from implementation? what roadblocks have you run into?
 * If you have not created standards: are you thinking about creating a set of standards? what would you base those standards on? what do you see as benefits of standards? do you see detractions from creation standards?
 * What resources have you found that would be helpful for creating standards (state guidelines? ISTE for technology? etc.)?
 * In what ways is your school implementing environmental education into its curriculum? How has it been integrated in your department?
 * How do you see your school trying to implement a “green” curriculum?
 * Should schools attempt to make their curriculum more “green”?
 * What are some of the most innovation lessons that you have prepared?
 * What resources did you need for these lessons?
 * Did you collaborate with any colleagues?
 * What restrictions (time, money, energy) did you have? How would you (if you could) overcome these in the future?

TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

Resources Off-Campus Partnerships Professional Development Laptop Programs Budgets and Funding Measuring Success
 * What resources are you primarily using in your classroom?
 * What textbooks are you using in your courses?
 * What web resources do you find most helpful? What software or freeware is particularly helpful?
 * What hardware are you using? Laptops? Graphing calculators? Digital microscopes?
 * What collaboration tools (wikis, blogs, etc.) are you using?
 * What presentation tools (podcasting, video, etc.) are you using?
 * What subscription-database sources do you find most helpful? Does your school subscribe to them?
 * Are you using any open-courseware to aid your curriculum (MIT’s, Carnegie Mellon’s, etc.)?
 * What resources do you wish you had?
 * What off-campus partnerships or opportunities are you creating for your students? How have you created these partnerships?
 * How are you involving alumnae in your programs?
 * Guest speaker programs?
 * Research-base programs?
 * Internships for credit?
 * With as fast-changing as STEM-related job fields are now, how are you making sure that your faculty is on the cutting-edge of their fields?
 * What are the best professional development opportunities out there?
 * What are some to avoid?
 * Do you have a laptop program at your school? How are you/are you not integrating laptops in your school?
 * What benefits or detractions do you see from having a laptop program?
 * What are the best ways that your school currently integrates laptops? If you are from a non-laptop school: what are the best ways that you are integrating computing technology into your curriculum?
 * Do you find that you need additional funding for your programs, beyond what your school typically budgets?
 * Where are you finding additional sources of funding?
 * Are you finding it difficult to justify the budgets in your department?
 * If you have and Advancement or Alumnae Office on your campus, how have you partnered with them?
 * How should we measure success in an independent school community? How does this relate to our own discipline?
 * What tools are you using for measuring success (curriculum mapping, a skills continuum, surveys of graduates, etc.)?
 * In what ways would it be helpful for us to measure our success better? Are there any detractions from measuring our own success?

PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSIONS


 * What are the best ways to get girls interested in STEM curriculum?
 * What advantages do girls schools have in helping girls get interested in STEM courses? What disadvantages do girls schools have?
 * How do we manage all of the changes that seem to be happening within our fields, in terms of changing or not changing our curriculum to adapt to new research, trends, or ideas?
 * What challenges and/or opportunities do you see from online course opportunities? Or, even, online tutoring or help?
 * How do we change our teaching approaches to reach a new generation (even a new type?) of students?

DREAM SESSIONS

Dream Session I: The Perfect Classroom Dream Session II: Changes to Current Curriculum Dream Session III: The Curriculum of the Future Dream Session IV: NCGS STEM Next Steps NOW WHAT?
 * If you could build the “perfect” classroom for your department, what would it look like and why would it look that way? Assume that money and space are limitless (or at least mostly limitless).
 * If you could scrap your curriculum completely and start afresh, what changes would you make?
 * Start by writing out your current curricular requirements (eg., Algebra Ià Algebra IIà Geometryà Trig, etc.). How and why would you change your current flow? Try as a group to come to a consensus, if you can.
 * How do you envision your curriculum changing over the next 5-10 years? What skills do you think that you will need to integrate? What resources will you need to change the curriculum in the ways that you dream?
 * Where should these discussions go from here? Should we have further discussions? Should the next ThinkTank be more directed? How can we use technology to continue the discussions started here?

Discussion: Where do we go from here?
 * How can we build upon the discussions that have taken place in Nashville?
 * What form should a next gathering take place?
 * When should we next try to meet?