How Does FUSE Work?
FUSE is designed for all students, including those who do not show interest in STEM—yet!
Our choice-based, student-led program creates authentic communities of STEAM learners. We’ll walk you through the research-based design principles and student experiences that can make FUSE a transformative experience for your school.
FUSE STEAM Program Design Principles
Students Choose
Students in FUSE have access to a diverse suite of Challenges. They choose who they work with and whether they work alone or collaboratively. This choice and interest-centered environment helps all students find Challenges to inspire learning and engagement.
Interest-driven Design
FUSE Challenges are designed around student interests in music, design, and pop culture and are embedded with STEAM practices. These interests serve as a hook, motivating students to progress through Challenges and, in the process, discover new STEAM-related interests.
Facilitation
In FUSE, teachers act as facilitators, helping to guide the process of exploration and discovery by encouraging youth to problem solve, take risks, try and try again, be creative, and learn with and from their peers.
Peer Learning
Because students work on Challenges in a different order and at different paces, they develop unique expertise that they share with their peers. Students become leaders, peer mentors, and experts in a variety of STEAM-related tools and practices.
Failure is OK
Traditional school can be a difficult place to experience failure. FUSE creates a collaborative, student-driven learning community where failure is accepted and persistence is celebrated. Students show willingness to persist in solving difficult problems in FUSE.
Testimonials
I’ve seen students who get so easily frustrated be able to handle that failure and bounce back and be able to try again, and again and maybe a dozen times until finally they pull it off. When you exist in a world where failure is an okay thing, that makes success the greatest thing.
What I like about FUSE is you can work alone independently or you can work with your friends. You work together and solve problems.
FUSE creates an environment where every single person has value.
FUSE is such a great fit for the school, and especially the students, because being teenagers at a middle school, it’s developmentally appropriate for them to be able to explore the many different aspects of the FUSE program. You have choice, you have hands on, you have exploration, you have figuring things out on their own, problem solving, real world skills that they’re going to need in college and careers.
FUSE is really fun! It’s practically my favorite subject, because I love using computers, and you can do something with your friends or you can be independent.
I’ve seen students who get so easily frustrated be able to handle that failure and bounce back and be able to try again, and again and maybe a dozen times until finally they pull it off. When you exist in a world where failure is an okay thing, that makes success the greatest thing.
I think the suitability for us is that it’s flexible—the way that it can be disseminated related to time periods and content and structures. You can run FUSE in a computer lab, you can facilitate FUSE on laptops, kids can explore at home. The open-endedness of it, itself, and the open-ended structure of it allows it to be flexible for implementation at the school level and at the district level.
I learned that I love technology, and being creative. I never knew that before – that I would love to mess around with the computer or make stuff or be creative, but now I know that.
FUSE provides those real world-learning opportunities. It definitely integrates the science and engineering practices that standards demand our students are proficient in, and I think it shows students the crosscutting concepts that reach across science and engineering domain, things like patterns, and they’re able to see how solving one problem in one area can translate into all kinds of other areas as well.
My favorite thing about FUSE is the accomplishment and success you feel after you finish a challenge, figure out a problem or find a solution. I just like how great you feel like after you finally figure it out.
How does the FUSE model work within Traditional School?
FUSE is choice-based and assessment-free by design. Schools and districts work it into their curriculum to meet goals for STEAM learning and innovation.
We study what makes a successful school or district-wide adoption, and use what we learn to improve resources for all our schools.
Research on FUSE
Research shows that FUSE enables youth to discover new interests in STEAM and supports the development of 21st-century skills such as persistence, adaptive problem solving, and collaboration. Girls and boys persist through FUSE at consistently high rates and, as noted by students and teachers, learn important skills that transfer to their work in the classroom.
Standards Alignment
FUSE aligns with a variety of standards including NGSS, Common Core, and ISTE. We work closely with teachers and administrators during FUSE trainings to help match the FUSE implementation model to any standards you wish to target.
STEM Career Pathways
While we design Challenges around youth interests, each Challenge is also intentionally connected to engineering, design and technology workplace practices. FUSE lays the groundwork for interest development in STEM, which can lead to further independent exploration, study in high school or college, or career.