Future-relevant curriculum for Grades 6-9

Creating Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers

Grades 6-9 STEM Expeditions^®

STEM Expeditions^® are a project-focused, student-directed STEM program for Grades 6-9. Curriculum is delivered in a cloud-based multimedia environment and is accompanied by corresponding hands-on projects and student collaboration. Students track their work in digital logbooks, and teachers have customizable assessment options for measuring student progress and comprehension.

Those are the practicalities, but it’s far more than that. STEM Expeditions are a whole new way to develop future-ready learners. Using an iterative project-based approach rooted in the engineering design process, STEM Expeditions enable students to own their learning, to practice collaboration and creative problem-solving, to test ideas, and to develop a growth-oriented and resilient mind-set that will serve them well for a lifetime – no matter their college or career path. Plus, a recent study by the Friday Institute indicates the STEM Expeditions program helps students achieve statistically significant results on national tests.

Grades 7-9 Career Expeditions

Guided by ACT^® WorkKeys^® and the career practices outlined in the Common Career Technical Core (CCTC) and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21^®), Career Expeditions are designed around national career clusters and provide a greater career focus to a STEM Expeditions experience.

Career Expeditions are delivered using the same technology and instructional method and provide all the same benefits as STEM Expeditions. Although they do not follow the engineering design process, the flexibility of the program allows for a fully customizable and comprehensive solution.

Career Expeditions can stand alone as a career-focused course, be implemented with STEM Expeditions to create a career cluster-focused course, or be implemented as a supplement to an existing career cluster course. The possibilities are endless, and the result is students who are armed with the employability skills needed for success no matter what their path.

Students leave an Expeditions classroom – STEM, Career, or both – with the mind-set and self-management skills needed for college and with the tool set to immediately contribute in the workforce.

Curriculum Titles

STEM Expeditions include 30+ curriculum titles that provide comprehensive hands-on instruction. The blending of teacher-led instruction with collaborative, student-directed activities allows flexibility and a variety of options for implementation.

Career Expeditions include eight titles that explore specific career pathways by completing a variety of hands-on tasks related to careers within the pathway. Students learn valuable employability skills such as self-efficacy, self-regulation, assertiveness, and creative problem-solving.

Each STEM and Career Expedition begins with an Essential Question – a broad, open-ended challenge that requires higher-order thinking and inspires curiosity and inquiry. By the end of the Expedition, students not only can answer the Essential Question – they can justify their thinking and back it up with data collected in hands-on projects.

Schools typically select eight to 16 titles to round out a semester or yearlong course for Grades 6-9.

Standards Alignments

STEM Expeditions are built on national learning standards that focus on higher-order thinking. STEM Expeditions match requirements for Next Generation Science Standards, standards from the International Technology and Engineering Education Association, and Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English language arts.

All assessment questions are linked to a crucial science, math, tech, or engineering standard.

Career Expeditions were developed with a focus on the Common Career Technical Core (CCTC) standards. A variety of non-academic measures or fifth indicator opportunities are incorporated throughout via employability skills.

Every Expedition title lists all focus and supporting standards within each activity in the teacher’s guide, and custom state standards alignment reports are available.

Just as importantly as meeting standards, the student-directed, collaborative learning environment of Expeditions prepares students for college, career, and life.

Assessment

STEM Expeditions and Career Expeditions are complete with formal digital assessments integrated in the cloud-based content management system. The variety and flexibility of the assessments enable teachers to select what works best for their classroom or a particular student.

Teachers can assess student progress and personalize learning in a variety of ways. Available are pretests and posttests, built-in quizzes, and an assessment creation tool that enables teachers to select from questions crowd-sourced from other Expeditions teachers or to create their own.

Assessments include depth-of-knowledge (DOK) levels of two and greater and transferability questions.

Formative and authentic assessments are provided through an Expedition logbook. The logbook provides a detailed account of every planned and executed activity. In STEM Expeditions, it not only serves as proof of learning for students but also teaches the importance of documentation and protection of ideas and research in the engineering and science fields.

Success Stories

Expeditions are the next generation of student-centric, innovative STEM education. We have taken all the feedback and success stories of our successful Modules program to create a more robust standards-focused, flexible program.

STEM and Career Expeditions are making waves across the country, but you don’t have to take our word for it. Here are some of our latest success stories.