STEM Learning Design

🔬📚 Enhancing Active Learning for PreK-12 Students

Welcome to STEM Learning Design, where we envision a future of engaged and empowered learners! Our mission is to enhance active learning and engagement for students, creating programs that bring relevance and coherence to every aspect of education.

💡 All-Inclusive Education

While we specialize in STEM programming, our commitment to active engagement benefits all aspects of education. From curriculum and instruction to learning spaces and policy, we optimize conditions for active learning across educational systems.

🏫 Our Experience

Our experienced team at STEM Learning Design excels in various areas, including:

✅ School Redesign
✅ Learning Space Design
✅ Educational Program Design
✅ Educator Development
✅ Curriculum and Instruction
✅ Learning Standards
✅ Education Policy

👨‍🏫 Meet Our Founder: Jake Foster

Meet Jake Foster, the driving force behind STEM Learning Design. With a rich background in education, Jake's prior work at the MA Department of Education focused on improving educational systems for active learning, especially in STEM. He's been part of the Next Generation Science Standards writing team and has actively implemented Coalition of Essential Schools principles and strategies. Jake's expertise also extends to teacher education, having taught high school physical and earth sciences and coached middle school educators on project-based learning and technology integration.

🚀 Join the Journey at https://stemlearningdesign.com/

With a passion for innovation and active learning, we're on a mission to shape the future of education. Together, let's create transformative learning experiences that empower students to thrive! Learn more on our website at https://stemlearningdesign.com/

Supporting faculty, students and community partners to understand and effectively use a newly designed or constructed school. The objective of educational commissioning is to provide all occupants with the necessary knowledge and pedagogies to use the school facility – including learning spaces and equipment – as optimally as possible for teaching and learning. Educational commissioning ideally involves professional development before, during, and after construction of new learning spaces.

The most important factors to successful educational planning are time and stakeholder engagement. Planning ideally starts early in the design process, even before an architect team arrives to begin design of a school building. The focus of educational planning is on student learning, pedagogy, and curriculum, which then informs the design of learning spaces to enable those. Working in partnership with a school community to envision innovation in educational programming involves a lot of listening and collaborative work. Listening to local needs, understanding school and community culture, and identifying opportunities in the context of global needs are key areas for collaboration. Working with educators to implement design thinking in their current spaces enables them to imagine different pedagogies, ways to engage students in active learning, and learning space needs. Enabling collaborative work among community and school members is critical to informing innovation and implementation of a school’s educational program in an updated building.

The process typically starts with a review of a school’s existing STEM programming and facilities. We then engage in collaborative conversations with community stakeholders, school faculty, and students about future goals, needs, and opportunities. This leads to engaging stakeholders in a visioning process, using examples of a variety of STEM programs, learning spaces, and activities to illustrate a variety of possibilities for the future. We then propose potential options that respond to community input and facilitate discussion to define a specific plan for the school. This results in articulating STEM program goals, key strategies, and learning space needs that will drive innovation in the school’s STEM program.