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January 2023
Monthly News
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IN THIS ISSUE
Letter from Executive Director
Thirteen STEM Programs Selected to Scale in Iowa
Thirty-Seven School Districts to Join STEM BEST Community
Teacher Externships Connect Classroom Learning to Careers
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UPCOMING EVENTS
February 8, 2023 - 10:00 a.m.
STEM Day at the Capitol
February 24, 2023 - 10:00 a.m.
Northeast Regional STEM Advisory Board Meeting
More information
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Thank you for your support of STEM education!
We look forward to a new year of inspiring even more young Iowans in
STEM innovation and skills for the future.
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Letter from Executive Director | |
Iowa youth gain awareness and excitement for STEM through STEM Day at the Iowa State Fair, among other events and programs led by the STEM Council each year. | |
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Dear Iowa STEM Community,
The Governor’s STEM Advisory Council is in for reincarnation. After eleven years of leading-edge K-12 programming, a web of educational innovation has been woven across Iowa. From Sheldon to Keokuk, Stanton to Cresco, and all points in between, nearly every one of Iowa’s 328 public school districts has been STEMified. Libraries too. Daycares. Homeschools and private schools. All told, over a million youth and thousands of teachers have been inspired by the promise and purpose wrapped in a strong STEM education.
What evidence has accumulated around participating in STEM? Higher scores on Iowa’s statewide mathematics and science tests. Reading too, with nonwhite learner gains closing achievement gaps. Greater interest among young Iowans to pursue classes and careers in high-demand STEM fields. Doubled post-secondary enrollments in community college and university STEM majors. Deeper ties between schools and workplaces. Increased student interest in living and working in Iowa after graduation. And a whopping 95 percent of Iowans unified around making STEM a priority in their local school districts.
Yet, we have more work to do. Not all children and educators have taken advantage of STEM opportunities. Not all businesses and communities have joined in. Far from it. Thus, it is with great potential that we prepare to align more tightly with the Iowa Department of Education. As part of Governor Reynolds’ goal of more efficient and effective state government, numerous agency re-alignments have been studied for enactment through legislation, STEM is one of them. The Governor’s STEM Advisory Council is proposed to be moved into a new Office of Innovation at the Department of Education. There, our innovation impact both within the administrative system as well as across the education landscape of the state, is expected to expand considerably. We expect to sustain the high-quality portfolio of services currently offered by maintaining the structures and personnel that make Iowa STEM so effective. Our reincarnation will be July 1, 2023, and we’ll keep our leaders, clients, constituents and friends updated on progress through this newsletter.
Please communicate any questions, concerns or advice to me at Weld@IowaSTEM.org.
In service to you and our Council’s co-chairs Governor Reynolds and Diane Young, alongside your network team,
Jeff Weld, executive director
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Thirteen STEM Programs Selected to Scale in Iowa | |
Students from the Clarinda School District demonstrate how they make computer science come to life with STEM Scale-Up Program Storytime STEM-packs. | |
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Educator applications have opened for the STEM Scale-Up Program which provides access to exemplary STEM educational opportunities for students throughout the state. These programs are some of the top in the nation and offer a diverse range of STEM activities to nearly 100,000 students each year. The application period closes on February 28, 2023, at 6 p.m.
Thirteen programs, six of them home-grown in Iowa, were selected from 65 proposals for the 2023-2024 STEM Scale-Up Program menu based on the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council’s strategic priorities, including agricultural science, computational thinking, early learning, ecology and energy education, mathematics, STEM and arts integration, STEM careers, integration into existing curriculum and transdisciplinary learning. These priorities were selected to provide Iowa students with educational opportunities that emphasize the necessary skills needed for the future workforce. Students who participate in the STEM Scale-Up Program have historically performed better on statewide tests compared to students who do not participate. These students also have an increased interest in STEM subjects and careers.
A team of trained reviewers considered evidence of effect, scalability, diversity impact, cost-benefit ratio, sustainability, Iowa Core alignment and more when selecting final programs. The following programs were selected to be offered to Iowa preK-12 educators (in and out of school) for the 2023-2024 academic year:
- Codelicious
- Daily Math Fluency Centers
- Discover Drones
- Innovate-IT
- Ioponics
- Iowa Leadership in Engineering Design
- Positive Physics and Chemistry
- Python for the BBC micro:bit
- STEM Cart: K-12+ Schoolwide STEM Solution
- STEM Innovator
- Storytime STEM-packs: STEM + Computer Science
- Tiny Techies
- WaterWorks: Engineering and Investigating the Properties of Water
STEM Scale-Up Program recipients will be selected based on need, and announced in April. Visit www.iowastem.org/scale-up-application for more information or to apply.
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Thirty-Seven School Districts to Join STEM BEST Community | |
Students from the Linn-Mar Venture Academics, a STEM BEST Program, gain non-traditional, project-based learning experiences in job sectors that are in high demand. | |
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Thirty-seven Iowa school districts will join or expand offerings in the STEM BEST® (Businesses Engaging Students and Teachers) Program to provide students with real workplace experiences. Since STEM BEST launched in 2014, 155 partnerships have been created or expanded to help introduce students to businesses and career opportunities in Iowa, while also gaining high-demand skills.
This application was focused on teachers and industry professionals working side-by-side to develop STEM BEST Programs that foster opportunities for growth in high demand (STEM BEST + HD) skills such as teamwork, problem-solving and communication. The STEM Council’s STEM BEST Program drives school-business partnerships to connect mathematics and science class with experiential learning opportunities and emphasize high-demand skills for the workplace. The Council’s investment of professional and financial investment support curriculum development and coordination, educator training and development in workplace-classroom integration and preparing work-based learning environments.
“The STEM Council is driven to connect schools and workplaces for the benefit of both youth and employers, and the STEM BEST Program is a signature vehicle for that goal,” said Jeff Weld, executive director of the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council. “This latest expansion approaches a tipping point where career-linked learning is becoming the norm rather than the exception in preparing students for future Iowa careers.”
To be considered for a STEM BEST + HD award, applicants were required to submit a comprehensive proposal that incorporates rigorous and relevant STEM curriculum, includes valuable partnerships with community businesses or organizations, aligns with STEM goals, addresses sustainability of the model program and evaluates the program’s effectiveness.
For a list of all STEM BEST Program models and more information on the STEM BEST Program, please visit www.iowastem.org/STEMBEST.
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Teacher Externships Connect Classroom Learning to Careers | |
Blake Fehringer, Le Mars High School Skills and Technical Sciences Teacher, took part in a STEM Teacher Externship experience at Interstates where he worked on programming a grain bin to receive, dry and load product. | |
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Iowa's educators have considerable influence in equipping tomorrow's workforce with skills that connect classroom concepts to authentic career experience. To help STEM teachers gain insights on skills and knowledge valued at work, the STEM Council offers a rigorous summer workplace experience. Through the Iowa STEM Teacher Externships Program, teachers are matched with a local workplaces for six weeks to assist with projects and needs in the teacher’s subject-area of expertise.
A recent program webinar for Iowa workplaces highlighted employer experiences with summer STEM Teacher Externs. The panel included Andrew Roelfs, Interstates Training and Development Manager; Christina Schauer, MercyOne-Dubuque Director of Clinical and Professional Development; and Grace Swanson, Accumold Vice President of Human Capital. They shared why their organization got involved in the program, what it was like having a teacher onsite, the value of hosting a teacher and recommendations to other Iowa businesses for hosting a teacher extern in the future.
“Within Interstates, we hire a lot of folks with a STEM background. We realized that we need to play both the short-term game – how do we continue to fill our funnel, but as important, or even more important, how do we continue to get more people interested in those types of careers long-term,” said Roelfs. “[STEM Teacher Externships] ties the curriculum to the qualifications we are looking for.”
The STEM Council’s Teacher Externships Program has placed more than 700 Teacher Externs with more than 200 Iowa workplaces, building long-lasting partnerships. These experiences support the local workforce by providing teachers with experiences directly linking work skills to classroom content and 21st Century Skills.
For more information on the STEM Teacher Externships Program, visit www.iowastem.org/externships.
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Contact the Iowa STEM Operations Center by phone at (319) 273-2959
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