Using Integrated, Place-based Watershed Curriculum to Increase Teacher Self-Efficacy with Culturally Relevant STEM

Project CuRRENT addresses the need for incorporating multiple ways of knowing and learning into STEM pedagogy and curriculum through the design and delivery of a two-year professional development (PD) model that engaged elementary teachers in integrated, place-based, and regionally relevant learning focused on the theme of local watersheds. We explore how PD that embeds epistemological pluralism and is connected to local communities and ecology impacts teachers’ self-efficacy with designing and delivering place-based, NGSS-aligned STEM curriculum.