Trellis Legacy

Trellis’ Core Teaching Practices

Use STEM content knowledge strategically

When STEM teachers plan for their students to engage with important STEM ideas, they use a variety of highly effective teaching strategies to include:

  • Offering detailed, relatable explanations 
  • Developing models, analogies, and examples 
  • Recognizing and responding to common patterns in student thinking
  • Connecting multiple representations to one another

The development of these instructional practices takes time and Trellis scholars were supported to become proficient in these strategies over the course of four years.

Common patterns will arise in student thinking throughout units and classroom work. Tactics such as naming models, arguments, and ideas as typical or common, validating the expression of different ideas, and anticipating and validating the myriad of ways to make sense of, solve, explain, and justify ideas can help you learn how to quickly identify them and respond.

Connections are key in STEM learning. Connect multiple representations to one another and demonstrate those connections to your students by:

  • Restating or summarizing student ideas, as appropriate
  • Posing questions, puzzling events, tasks, and activities that have multiple entry points
  • Demonstrating a genuine curiosity in the presentation of new ideas

Evidence Checklists for Impactful Engagement in STEM Classrooms

Consult our Mentor Handbook and Evidence Checklists for resources to guide your teaching and students’ understanding of detailed, relatable explanations in Year 0, all the way up to recognizing patterns and connecting multiple representations together in Year 3-4.

year 1-2

Offer detailed, relatable explanations

Develop models, analogies, and examples

year 3+

Recognize and respond to common patterns in student thinking

Connect multiple representations to one another

Using STEM content strategically to hit core standards and student understanding

Understanding or visualizing complex STEM topics can be a challenge for many students. Trellis teachers share ways they have found to deepen learning learning on topics, like variables in computer science or quadratics in mathematics, in an in an easily digestible way. Video transcript