What Is a Project-Based STEM Environment?

Research on how people learn has shown that the types of settings most conducive for learning are those that are student-, knowledge-, and community-centered and use formative assessment to support learning (NRC, 2000). A project-based environment incorporates all these features, which when implemented with effective design and instruction could create an ideal space for creativity, understanding, and scholarship. But how does a project-based milieu allow all students the opportunity to learn specific content goals required of a course or a district curriculum? This book provides insight into innovative ways to design a project-based educational setting within a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) classroom that ensures opportunity for students to learn specific content goals of the course, while simultaneously becoming “experts” of their own research topics.