TRANSFORMING CURRICULA TO REFLECT NEW IT LITERACIES FOR 21ST CENTURY STEM CAREERS

摘要

We report on an assessment-driven realignment of PRISM (http://www.rose-prism.org), a free, web-delivered "window" on digital resources for Indiana middle school teachers of science, mathematics, (pre)-engineering, and technology (STEM). The project is hosted at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Opened in September 2003, with funding from the Lilly Endowment, PRISM (Portal Resources for Indiana Science and Mathematics) was recently selected by T.H.E. (Journal of Technology Horizons in Education) as one of the top 15 educational innovators for K-12 in the nation. Clearly we are not alone in using the concept of an Internet portal to provide resources for teachers. Simultaneous with PRISM's development over the last three years, other collections (many of them highly eclectic and predominately text-based) have appeared, and several have garnered national attention. Some include indices that correlate resources to specific state or national academic standards. Most improve convenience and accessibility by at least an order of magnitude over conventional Internet searches. Our purpose here is to recount how program assessment and lessons learned over three years of fielding the portal have helped us to identify PRISM's core competencies for transforming middle school STEM teaching and learning.