Online STEM Integration: Pre-Service Science Teachers in the Director's Chair Dr. Andrea C. Burrows Secondary Science Education, College of Secondary Education The University of Wyoming, Wyoming, USA aburrow1@uwyo.edu Dr. Mike Borowczak Data Scientist/Chief Engineer Erebus Labs, Wyoming, USA mike@erebuslabs.com Abstract: This paper outlines the development, implementation, and assessment of a newly created online college course to teach science laboratory and demonstration skills and techniques to pre-service science teachers. The participants in the class were required, along with more traditional coursework, to create six science content videos (post to YouTube) and critique the videos (using YouDemo.info) of their classmates. The creation, direction, and critique of the videos became the highlight of the course. Overall, the participants reported that the video production allowed them to connect more closely with the science content as well as improve their ability to teach that science content to others. The instructor learned, through an action research study, four major lessons about video productions and critique, which are outlined. Implications for moving towards pre- service science teacher video creation and critique are also discussed. Introduction Teaching is sometimes like directing film, since the instructor usually controls all of the aspects of the material while guiding the attention and behavior of the students. The most effective instructors, working with any grade level K-20, consider differing students’ needs and how to meet them when designing and implementing courses. This article describes how an online college laboratory and demonstration course was developed, implemented, and assessed, and shares the struggles and successes of teaching action skills (e.g. gaining student attention) and techniques (e.g. safety) through personal, online (e.g. YouTube and YouDemo.info) means. This course required guiding pre-service secondary science teachers, referred to as participants for the remainder of the article, to display laboratory and demonstration techniques to each other online as the first step to using the techniques in a science classroom with their future K-12 students. In turn, they adopted the video creation and critique technique, so that their future K-12 students could become the directors of short science films. As Clary and Wandersee (2010) remind us, “A new challenge in science education at the university level is the implementation of effective field components within online courses” (p. 50). Often, instructors strive to offer individualized student instruction and attention to create more effective learning environments (Arends, 2009). One effective learning environment is when pre-service teachers using video move from a didactic perspective of teaching toward a student-centered perspective (Friel and Carboni, 2000). The online field component, or video, of the outlined course was designed to engage the participants to guide their future K-12 students to interact more meaningfully with the science content while showcasing real world applications. STEM Integration What is STEM integration? According to Burrows and Slater (in press) integrated STEM (or iSTEM) is integrated teaching of STEM and non-STEM subjects, interactions among students and teachers, and investigations with holistic and authentic approaches. In this paper the authors show integration of STEM subjects - especially science, technology, and engineering practices - along with the student teacher context, and finally the authentic