Within the K-12 school, we are always looking for ways to engage our families and our community. STEAM activities and events are a great way to bring our families and community members into our schools. By working with the community through local grants and donations, Mary E. Stapleton Elementary has hosted a completely free event that provides hands on activities and experiences in the areas of STEAM. These activities spark interest in our students in the areas of STEAM outside of school. They make connections with the materials they see and use at the event with jobs and interests that they have outside of school. This session will allow us to share our planning processes for a successful event that can be hosted at your school with examples of activities we have done and materials we have purchased that are now available for our classroom teachers to use throughout the school year. We will begin by sharing our planning process and documents that have been used in planning and promoting the event with exit surveys and feedback from families. We will then move to an open exploration where attendees of the session will have the opportunity to try some of the activities for themselves and ask questions about the event. We will share our beginning planning for next year’s event and some of the resources/vendors we have purchased items from or may be purchasing from in the future.
