Precious Listana, Trellis Scholar:

In general, using STEM content knowledge strategically, I think, for me was, “How do you bring these abstract concepts in a way that young students can play around with physically, or connected with items that they see in the day-to-day?” For example, with teaching web design, which was a class that I taught to ninth and 10th graders, I would have certain concepts that were intangible conceptually, and I would try to challenge myself to think of it in physical sense.

Lizzy Dutton, Trellis Scholar:

Ninth grade students learn about linear equations, and towards the end of the year, they might learn about quadratics, but that’s also an 11th grade algebra II concept, for the most part. And so, when I taught students about lines, I had an understanding of, that while learning about lines is important, the way that you learn about lines can either help you or hinder you when you get to quadratics later on, depending on how you learn about it.
And so, I would try to structure the teaching in a way that wasn’t just teaching them the quick formula, for example, to get slope, but a deeper understanding of, for example, what an X and Y coordinate pair means on a graph.

Neal Donahoe, Trellis Mentor:

With my mentee, we would practice STEM content knowledge strategically by looking at the concept, trying to figure out what proceeding concepts students should have learned to help them build up to this point, and where this concept will be used in further math and science classes instead of just looking at this concept as a one-off thing that they’re doing in the algebra course or the geometry course that we’re currently in. Trying to look at it more holistically of why they need this, when did they first start learning this, and what prior connections can they make and how this will be used in the future, so that way they have an idea of where they’re going to go with this and why it may be needed.