Supporting STEM Education in K-12 Schools Through Physical Education

Summer Team Impact Project
Supporting STEM Education in K-12 Schools Through Physical Education

Undergraduate Research Assistants : Kara Wright, Chelsea Flores, Elaine Borresen, Mia Wilborne, Abby Kokkinakis & Safaa Yosufzai

Abstract :
Our goal for this Summer Team Impact Project is to present a unit plan and activities for physical education instruction while integrating STEM content. Our hope is that this integration can also pique interest in activities for those who may not usually be as engaged during PE. In the literature review we discovered that teachers require detailed guidelines on how to include STEM, newly updated resources and more. Students require real world applications and connections to the STEM content. Research assistants were paired up to create three unit plans focusing on different grade levels. Using Virginia Standards of Learning, we sought to combine relevant science topics for K-12 students with games to develop their basketball, pickleball and softball skills. This plan is flexible, for teachers to use this unit plan in its entirety, or as they see fit. A basketball unit plan was composed for grade 5, highlighting the scientific method, phases of matter and more. A pickleball unit plan was composed for grade 7, highlighting environmental science, solar systems, ecosystems and more. A softball unit plan was composed for grade 9, highlighting physical science, physics, biomechanics and more. Undergraduate students analyzed interviews of current PE teachers to determine themes and barriers to integrating STEM. Some of the main barriers or concerns addressed in these interviews were shortage of time available to teachers, lack of knowledge or confidence in STEM topics and creativity in integrating the STEM knowledge. Each unit plan consists of lead-up games, activities, ancillary materials and more.

• [collectively] Hi!
• My name is Kaye, and I am a Physical Education major.
• My name is Chelsea, and I’m a Physical Education major.
• My name is Lainey, and I’m a Nursing major.
• I’m Mia, and I’m a Chemistry major.
• I’m Safa, and I’m currently a Community Health major.
• I’m Abby, and I’m an Environmental Science major.
• So, the purpose of our research is to integrate STEM concepts into K through 12 physical education. So, we’re using basketball for fifth grade, pickleball for seventh grade, and softball for ninth grade.
• So, we used the first few weeks of our research to do a literature review, where we found a lot of PE teachers had trouble integrating STEM concepts into their PE classes, for they didn’t want to lose movement time, and they didn’t necessarily know how. So we are creating unit plans to show them how and give examples.
• During our literature review, we found out that many countries who have integrated STEM into PE classes have used creative methods and new activities. But, there’s not been any form of integration of STEM into PE in the United States. So, our research and lesson plans will help other states, as well as other counties in Virginia.
• Fifth grade focused on basketball, and scientific method, and phases of matter.
• Grade seven focused on pickleball. And, our SOLs were mainly around Life Science so we were able to integrate environmental science, environmental harm, solar systems, predator and prey, natural selection in our pickleball activities.
• Ninth grade had softball, where we focused on physical science, biomechanics, and physics.
• In order to get teachers’ perspective on STEM and integration in physical education, our team had the opportunity to interview about nine teachers who taught middle school or elementary. The interviews took about two weeks to complete, and here are some of the findings.
• So, there are some challenges to integration, from being able to condense the STEM topic to overcoming the perception of what STEM in PE entails. So, these are some of the concerns that teachers expressed.
• So, some teachers were comfortable with STEM integration in PE to some extent, and some of them had already done so. But, most of them mentioned that they needed further guidance in order to successfully integrate STEM in PE lessons.
• Some teachers mentioned that not every physical education class is standard on the amount of time, so the lack of time was a major concern around teachers.
• Other barriers to integration was that some teachers felt that integrating STEM into their curriculum is mainly them learning the new technology. And, also, dealing with the county’s bureaucracy, and how much freedom they would have in order to integrate STEM into their PE lessons. So, some of them were concerned about the county’s bureaucracy, mainly.
• The creativity of managing- in bridging the gap. PE teachers touched on methods that could help student engagement in PE, and also expressed hope for enhancement of lessons that STEM integration can bring.
• Ranking STEM areas. Each teacher had a unique perspective about how difficult it was to integrate science, technology, and engineering, and mathematics. But, almost all of them seemed to agree that engineering would be the most challenging to integrate in PE lessons.
• The standards of learning. So, teachers emphasized that it’s important for them to incorporate SOLs into lessons, and sort of keep the validity of the program.
• [collectively] Thank you OSCAR for letting us be a part of this project.