Preparing to teach STEM in middle school using understanding by design framework: Focus on using CAD in creative arts

This paper will discuss the development of a university course designed to provide the objectives, materials, and methods appropriate for teaching STEM in a middle school in Mississippi. The STEM course consists of ten thematic units. One of the units, Exploring CAD, discusses how to integrate creative arts in the STEM course using CAD and 3-D modeling. Lessons for each unit are designed using the Understanding by Design framework. This is the first time this course is being taught by the author. The next step is to gather student feedback formatively and summatively. Such feedback will be used to inform on future course enhancements for integrating arts in STEM courses. The ultimate goal is to build a repertoire of CAD_ART projects that will shared with the greater STEM community.