Dynamic project-based STEM curriculum model for a small humanities high school

Reforming STEM education has been an urgent national call for both educational and economic reasons. For Eleanor Roosevelt High School, a small humanities high school in New York City, implementing a large-scale, school-wide STEM education is almost an unattainable goal due to limited STEM resources. However, we have developed a novel, dynamic project-based STEM curriculum model in the past five years. This model will provide students with in-depth exposure to computer science and engineering, broad and rigid training of innovative engineering problem solving, and independent research experience with challenging real-world problems. The curriculum has been vertically integrated over grades to create a cohesive learning experience and to maximize learning outcomes. It can dynamically evolve over time to reflect cutting-edge advancements in the STEM field. One of the most challenging steps in developing the STEM curriculum model is the creation of the ‘Research & Development’ layer of the model. Fortunately, the NSF-founded Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation-Research Experience and Mentoring (EFRI-REM) summer program at The City College of New York provides inspirations and insights to these problems. Though this model has been developed in a small humanities high school, it can easily be scaled up or down for schools of various sizes and adopted by schools of different context and resource levels. We have further proposed a new STEM research paradigm for college-high school collaboration, dramatically accelerating the renew rate of high school STEM curriculum.