The following is a short summary of key components of STEM education that are also critical to my action research project: “How does technology affect the success of female middle school students on the geometry subset of questions on the IOWA Assessment?”

• Engagement in inquiry is a key feature of STEM education and in my action research project. Through the action research project, my students will be exposed to a variety of games, apps, and other technologies that will help them learn and practice the skills they need to perform better on the mathematics sections of the IOWA Assessment.  Math activities on websites like Mathalicious or Math Snacks invite students to test their mathematical knowledge to solve real world problems or win a game. Students will engage with the content if they have the buy in provided by searching for realistic solutions to something they care about.
• Students who participate in STEM education must develop their skills in logical reasoning. Students need to be able to examine if their solutions are reasonable and know how to troubleshoot problems when they are encountered. In my action research project, students need to know how to solve geometry problems correctly on the IOWA Assessment. There will probably need to be some direct instruction on how to quickly choose the best response from the choices provided, and to know WHY correct answers are correct. Additionally, it is also important to develop the students’ perseverance in tackling problems that require extended reasoning/critical thinking so they can display endurance in solving multi-step problems.
• Collaboration is also an important part of both my research project and STEM education. Although it might seem that my goal of improving students’ scores on the IOWA Assessment is an “everyone for themselves” type of goal, as a teacher I know that my students learn best when they can work together.  In all the tasks we will complete before taking the standardized test, my students will rely on each other for guidance and encouragement as we reach our goal.
• Finally, the development of 21st century skills is an important part of STEM and my action research project. 
  
  
  
  
  
  This group of skills have been determined to be important by educators and businesspeople as we prepare young people for the workforce of the future. 21st century skills include: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity, and social skills.  By using technology like laptops, iPads, Smart Boards, and apps my students will together discover creative solutions to a variety of geometry problems that are based on real world situations.

For those of you who were at the residency in August, pull out the short phone videos you all created and post this in your blog as your "pre-assessment" for this task. (I was not present at residency)