Computational thinking skills and coding literacy will be critical to our children’s success in the future workforce. Join us to explore how to support the development of precoding skills as preschool children engage in play-based learning experiences. Participants will gain understanding of the need for early exposure to precoding experiences, components and benefits of computational thinking, and ways to embed developmentally appropriate precoding activities into preschool curriculum using everyday materials and without increasing screen time. Attendees will participate in examples of activities and useful handouts will be provided.
In this session we talk about the STEM4Girls program, which is a one-day experience at UMass Dartmouth in which girls in grades 3-8 spend the day on campus engaged in STEM activities and talking to STEM professionals. In this session, we will talk about the design of the program and findings from our surveys. We will talk about the structure of the event, approaches that have worked, building partnerships with faculty from across the University as well as local teachers, enrollment in the program, and the design of activities for the participants. We will include testimonials about what STEM4Girls has meant to different stakeholders ranging from the girls who participate, the volunteer college students and the workshop leaders. Then, we will have open discussion with all participants about creating these experiences elsewhere in the Commonwealth.
Through Tech Apprentice, the Boston Private Industry Council has focused on IT/tech internships as a subset of its overall Youth Summer Employment Program in partnership with the Mayor and the Boston Public Schools for over 10 years. In 2017 the PIC sought to understand how these very early pipeline efforts where impacting the future labor force and how programming and systemic work might evolve to meet the demand for greater scale, preparation and diversity in the tech workforce. This panel presentation and discussion will focus on:
Approaches for employer engagement and relationship cultivation;
More about the Tech Apprentice Signal Success curriculum and its potential for talent outreach, identification, and preparation;
What employers can do to be receptive environments for aspiring technologists;
Increasing student diversity through alignment with career and technical education pathways.
The future of STEM business growth depends on current and future STEM talent, that pipeline of scientists, technicians and engineers with the skills, creativity and perseverance to innovate, and a citizenry that understands fundamental STEM concepts. Business leaders from companies that place high value on STEM competencies in their workforce will discuss the STEM educational programs that they support to inspire and nurture the next generation of researchers and innovators.
Hear from panelists about Santander Bank’s investment of over $1.3 billion in higher-education STEM programs and Intel’s investment of millions in K-12 STEM education. Learn about the successful STEM program developed by the international law firm of Fish & Richardson, in which intellectual property experts guide young innovators through the patent application process, providing full legal services annually to the two most inventive projects by Massachusetts students statewide. Over the last 18 years, the results have been impressive—high school students whose research is helping to cure breast cancer, address the worldwide opioid crisis and aid people suffering from seizures. Together, these companies and programs have helped hundreds of thousands of students to pursue STEM learning and careers.
Learn how your organization or company can create its own business-school partnership that provides STEM-mentored research opportunities for young innovators. Discover funding that is focused on STEM for high-needs communities and disadvantaged students. Moderated by a co-founder of Boston-based Dock Square Equity, topics will include advancing and financing STEM talent in K-20 and beyond, to keep pace with the growing STEM sector.
Get comfortable with the engineering design process in your classroom while allowing students to take the rein with NEED’s “Energy House Challenge” activity. Come try your hand at building an energy house, from the purchasing aspect to installation and efficiency. You’ll be investigating the science behind keeping building occupants healthy and comfortable and our buildings energy efficient. Learn about efficiency, conservation and economic returns by using various materials to insulate a cardboard house and then test its efficiency. An excellent activity in applying engineering principals and problem-solving skills to energy efficiency, while incorporating math with a set budget and cost for materials. Students will be able to describe efficiency and conservation measures for the home and justify why these measures make sense economically. This challenge can be easily differentiated for grades 6-12.
This joint presentation by the Academy of Applied Science and leading invention educators addresses the urgent need for greater diversity among the ranks of leading innovators in the U.S. and partnerships needed between K-12 educators, the higher education community and others to ensure that new learning opportunities are afforded to students in K12 all along the education continuum. Participants will examine invention education as a strategy for attracting more students from underrepresented backgrounds into STEM college/career pathways. The ways educators have structured invention education programs in both formal and informal settings and information about the alignment with state standards will also be shared. We will review a seven week asynchronous online project-based learning pedagogy course preparing educators to begin an invention program. Presenters will discuss strategies used to create partnerships within local communities and beyond to support students’ and teachers’ work. Examples of teachers’ journeys into invention education and what it has meant for students will be explored.
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.
Computer science (CS) has been a field dominated by White and Asian men, but the educational community is actively seeking to engage and support female, Black and Latino students in rigorous high school computer science and prepare them for CS in college and the workforce. Come see how the College Board-endorsed AP curriculum Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC) is teaching students how to program and how technology impacts society using cross-subject-area projects in a visual programming language and collaborative and student-led class discussions on current events. You will collaboratively explore a hands-on introduction to programming with the Snap! language and learn about the AP Computer Science Principles course, the BJC curriculum, and our ongoing research in urban schools. We’ll answer your questions about implementing this free course, the Snap! programming language, and the equity-focused research project, and leave you inspired to explore the Beauty and Joy of Computing with your students. Participants do not need any experience with programming but should bring an Internet-enabled device.
To realize the significant change we seek in student success trajectories, solutions have to be implemented across a system at scale. However, scale can be difficult to achieve and maintain. Designing, launching, and supporting an initiative at scale brings its own unique challenges and benefits. Can an initiative launched at scale support a system-level model for promoting student engagement and success across an entire Commonwealth? This session highlights the efforts of the STEM Starter Academy Initiative, administrated through the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, to support the STEM pipeline at all 15 of the public community colleges in Massachusetts. Through this work the campuses have built upon existing STEM programming to provide a cohesive set of student supports through the coordination of different offices on campuses and by learning from each other on what is working to impact student retention rates and program completion. This work has spawned several vibrant partnerships, and connected an active and diverse learning community that is deeply committed to inter- and intra-campus collaboration.
During this session we will review key steps in designing for scale, highlighting specific instances of success, challenge, and emergent best practice. Audience members will learn about implementing an initiative at the system level (at scale) through the lens of STEM Starter Academy programming. Key steps in the process of implementing and supporting work at scale will be highlighted during this session, as well as the practices and lessons learned that have helped shape this initiative into a true learning community that can be applied to other regional and state-wide partnerships.
The Commonwealth’s inaugural STEM Week in October highlighted the importance of engaging students at all levels in STEM education, activities, and connections to the state’s workforce. In this session, STEM Week hosts, including educators, industry, and non-profit leaders, discuss strategies for building interest and excitement in STEM subjects, and specifically, how they planned STEM Week activities that galvanized students’ attention and energy. The session will also look ahead to STEM Week in 2019 as participants discuss lessons learned and their ideas on how to make STEM Week successful in the years to come.
The pipeline to prosperity begins with accessing resources your public library offers for free! Students learn better when their learning is supported in the community. STEAM emphasizes collaboration between schools, science organizations, higher education and business to prepare students for STEM jobs. Public libraries are a place where all of these institutions can come together to reach your students and their families. Public libraries have responded to STEAM with a plethora of free materials, kits, robots, programs, clubs, makerspaces and STEAM Centers. Educators for grades K-4 and school librarians will discover innovative resources available at public libraries throughout MA designed to support students, educators, classrooms, out-of-school activities and parent and community involvement. Learn about library resources specifically for K-4 students and for teacher use in the classroom or on a field trip to the library. Find out about library clubs for young coders, Skype programs with NASA, STEAM kits and centers, makerspaces and circulating telescopes. Explore new ways public librarians, school librarians and K-4 educators can form partnerships. MA Library Systems will provide an overview of statewide offerings. Learn about the Needham Free Public Library’s STEAM Center and their partnership with elementary schools, STEAM Professionals and OLIN College of Engineering. There will be a question and answer/discussion session on how educators and public libraries can work together to support parent and community involvement for student motivation and success.
Get ready to have some fun! Filled with “A-HA” moments, this workshop is designed to promote simple science, technology, engineering and mathematics in toddler and preschool settings. Through hands-on exploration with our fun and engaging experiments and activities, participants will take away great ideas and strategies that can easily be incorporated into their classrooms.
North Andover’s Public Library and Elementary Schools have each received grants to expand STEM resources available to students, educators, families, and the greater community. These resources include manipulatives that encourage learning through play and experimentation while developing a coding and engineering mindset. This workshop will give K-12 educators practical advice in creating a partnership between organizations and give educators the opportunity to explore new or deepen existing partnerships with local organizations.
Participants will learn about the collaborative efforts of these seemingly disparate groups and how they have used STEM materials across the curricula. Presenters will bring manipulatives and engage attendees in an interactive demonstration of how STEM materials were incorporated into a lesson on poetry. Examples of effective ways students have demonstrated their learning using STEM tools will also be shared. Attendees will have access to lesson plans to download.
At the conclusion of the session, participants will brainstorm possible partnerships and how they can use these ideas in their own roles. Additionally, they will have hands-on time with manipulatives such as robots, circuits, and building materials.
