Pre-Service Teachers

Museum Partnership a Collaboration Highlight

Spring 2023. Pre-service teachers in early childhood and elementary STEM courses partnered with Hands-On Discovery Center and Gray Fossil site to link up their curriculum development projects to exhibits and state science standards. Pre-service teachers showcased their project ideas to over 100 educators attending the NE TN STEM Innovation Hub's regional meeting.

Click Here to view the Blog post

Check out our publication from Oct 2024, posted on the electronic journal, "Dimensions," published by the Association of Science and Technology Centers.

"A Science Center as a Connector: 8 Tips to Start your Own Collaboration with Higher Education"

An Early Childhood-Elementary STEM Collaboration

Faculty in Early Childhood Education Department (ECED), elementary faculty in the Curriculum and Instruction (CUAI) department, teachers at University School at ETSU, and teachers in the NE TN region have been collaborating since 2017 to develop and implement an innovative model of pre-service teacher preparation in STEM education.

The collaboration covers grades Pre-K through 3rd grade for ECED and K-5th grade for CUAI's elementary education program.

Features of the Model

Faculty and teacher candidates collaborate with local teachers PK-5th grade
Faculty work across departments
Teacher candidates create integrated STEM learning plans
Teacher candidates learn through microteaching experiences
Project focused on authentic problems of practice
All collaborators have professional publishing and presenting opportunities (for example, see Worms are Dancing Paper)

Features of Activity Plans

Integrated STEM projects
Science focal standard from TN State Science Standards (2016)
Guided by the 5Es model of science teaching
Either a 2-week integrated Unit Plan or an Interactive Notebook for K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade.

Eagle Cam Project
Click here to read more about our ETSU Eagle Cam collaboration project

Click here to read our Worms paper.

Impacts of Our Approach

Journal article published (Dec 2022) on impacts of participation in Early-Elementary STEM Collaboration on pre-service teachers.

click here

View and download past activity plans

Open Educational Resource (OER) Book Published

Teaching Early & Elementary STEM

OER Textbook

Free to use and edit for educational purposes
Features examples of pre-service teacher projects
Authored by Early-Elementary STEM Collaboration faculty and students
Introduction features section by David Harker on the why of science education

Publications

*pre-service teacher co-authors
** in-service teacher co-authors

OER Textbook

Lange, A.A., Robertson, L., Price, J., & Craven, A.* (2021). Teaching Early & Elementary STEM. OER Textbook. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-oer/8/

Practitioner Articles

Runnels (Fellers), M.,* Lange, A. A., & Doran, E.,** (2025). Playful and Creative Investigations to Explore Bird Bone Misconceptions in Second Grade. Science and Children.
Robertson, L., Lange, A. A., Price, J., Lowery, A.,** Lester, L.,** Tian, Q.*, & Nivens, R., (2023). Making Stone Soup: A Collaborative Approach to Integrated STEM. Science and Children.
Lange, A. A., Atkins, E.*, Tian, Q.*, Bullen, K.**, & Lodien, L.** (2023). I need to make it taller! Engineering to solve wind challenges in preschool. Teaching Young Children.
Kaczor, A., Robertson, L., Price, J., Lester, L., and Nivens, R. (2022). Making Sense of Apparent Brightness: An integrated approach for fifth graders. Science and Children. November/December.
Clevenger, C.,** Lange, A. A., & Schock, E.**(2022). Moon, Math, and Literacy: Interdisciplinary Connections through a Space Science Study in Preschool. Science and Children.
Lange, A. A., St. Lawrence, S.**, Robertson, L., Pretivera, A.*, & Armstead, J.* (2022). "The next weighs as much as a fridge!”: Supporting pre-service teachers in STEM through an eagle-focused, multifaceted preschool collaboration. Childcare Exchange. 44(3), 78-83.
Phillips, E.,* Doran, E.,** Robertson, L., & Nivens, R. A. (2021). Flower Pictographs: Mathematics and Life Science. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK–12.
Lange, A., Rice, E.,* Howe, N.,** & Tian, Q.* (2021). A Light Challenge: First Graders Engineer an Obstacle Course with Flashlights, Jan/Feb. Science and Children.
Lange, A. A., Atkins, E.*, Tian, Q.*, Bullen, K.,** & Lodien, L.** (in press). I need to make it taller! Engineering to solve wind challenges in preschool. Teaching Young Children.
Robertson, L., Lange, A. A., Price, J., Lowery, A.,** Lester, L.,** Tian, Q.*, & Nivens, R., (in press). Making Stone Soup: A Collaborative Approach to Integrated STEM. Science and Children.
Lange, A. A., Lodien, D.,** & Lowe, A.* (2019). The worms are dancing! An integrated learning experience with preschoolers. Science and Children. Apr/May, 41-45.
Robertson, L., Dunlap, E.,* Nivens, R., & Barnett, K.** (2019). Sailing Into Integration: Planning and implementing integrated 5E learning cycles. Science and Children, 57(1), 61-67.

Journal Articles, Peer-Reviewed

Lange, A.A., Robertson, L., Tian, Q., Nivens, R., & Price J. (2022). The effects of an early childhood-elementary teacher preparation program in STEM on pre-service teachers. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education.
Robertson, L., Nivens, R., & Lange, A. A. (2020). Tackling Integrated STEM in Elementary Education: A Collaborative Approach. International Association of Laboratory Schools.

Conference Presentations

Lange, A.A., Robertson, L., & Hare, A.* (2020). Impacts of, and reflections on a collaborative approach to pre-service STEM education. Roundtable presented at the NAECTE annual fall conference, Nov 4, virtual.
Lange, A.A., Robertson, L., Howe, N.,** Sexton, A.,* & Barnett, K.,** (2018). Collaborating to teach science to K-3rd grade students using the new Tennessee state science standards. Workshop session at the ETSU Annual Early Childhood Conference, July 14, Kingsport, TN.
Robertson, L., Nivens, R. A., Lange, A., & Price, J. (2020). Innovative collaboration for curriculum integration. Poster presentation at the 14th Annual TN STEM Education Research Conference. February 16, Cookeville, TN.
Lange, A.A., Robertson, L., Nivens, R., Price, J., Doran, R.,** Casteel, S.,* Salyers, E.,* Rambo, K.,* Rice, E.,* & Tian, Q.* (2019). Creating authentic, integrated STEM learning projects for early childhood teachers using the Tennessee state science standards. Workshop session at the ETSU Annual Early Childhood Conference, July 13, Kingsport, TN.
Lange, A.A., Meier, L., Tian, Q.,* Clevenger, C.,** Murphy, R.,** & Schock, E.* (2019). To the Moon and Back: Exploring Space Science with Preschoolers. Workshop session at the ETSU Annual Early Childhood Conference, July 13, Kingsport, TN.

In Preparation

The impacts of participation in an integrated STEM course on pre-service teachers' curricular role identity and pedagogical content knowledge

Read our paper about our Light Obstacle Course project with 1st grade. Erin Rice talks with 1st graders about their physical science and light engineering project, 2019.

Tackling Integrated STEM in Elementary Education: A Collaborative Approach
Robertson, Nivens, & Lange
Spring 2020

STEM Collab team visiting Dollywood in 2025 with pre-service teachers in early childhood and elementary programs to help create a new STEM Workbook.

Professionalization Opportunities

Zoom screen shot of our NAECTE conference presentation focusing on our collaboration and on Alyssa Hare's project, an ETSU early childhood student. Nov, 2020.