Northwest Iowa STEM Newsletter

January 2021

Mary Trent

NW Regional STEM Manager

Contact me at mtrent@iowalakes.edu

Northwest Regional Advisory Board Members

Tina Benton,

Sioux City

Ben Bouza,

Hawarden

Derek Brower, Orange City

Beth Bunkers, Primghar

Tyler Hahn,

Cherokee

Kiana Johnson, Primghar

Nancy McDowell, Sheldon

Jordan Menning, Rock Rapids

Faith Miller,

Carroll

Teresa Putnam, Hartley

Andrew Roelfs,

Sioux Center

Mary Skopec,

Spirit Lake

Brenda Welch, Meriden

Mark Zabawa, Spencer

Check out NW STEM Web Site!

https://www.iowalakes.edu/stem/

Northwest STEM Calendar

Stay up-to-date on all Northwest STEM regional opportunities and even a few statewide. Use this calendar to share your STEM events with others.

NW STEM Lending Resources

Check out the STEM lending library for educators and place your order online.

Don't forget to connect with NW STEM on social media as well!

Check us out on Facebook:

@NWSTEM Region

https://www.facebook.com/NWStemRegion/

@NWIowaSTEM

Invite a friend or colleague to sign up for this newsletter:

http://goo.gl/oPZmPP

NW STEM Council would like to wish everyone a safe, healthy, and prosperous new year!

Announcement of 2021 STEM Scale-Up Programs is January 5, 2021!

Be sure to mark your calendars for the unveiling of the 2021-22 STEM Scale-Up Menu tomorrow!

Application period opens January 11 and closes March 5, 2021! This year's menu offers a wide arrange of exciting and new programs sure to fit into your classrooms, after school programs, and educational programs!

Click here for more information

Schedule a virtual presentation of the Scale-Up programs

Customize which programs you'd like to hear about
Ask questions
Get tips on submitting quality applications

Click Here

NW STEM Winter Survival Kits for Monona, Ida, Sac, Calhoun Counties

NW STEM and ISU Extension Offices in Monona, Ida, Sac, and Calhoun counties have partnered to distribute STEM Winter Survival Kits! These kits contain several STEM challenges for upcoming snow days. Every kit is centered on hands-on learning and is sure to bring youth and adults together for fun activities at home during the winter months. We had a great response to the kits with over 700 students registering to receive them!

MOC-Floyd Valley also received kits for their elementary grades TK-5. 690 kits were sent to them as well. We are going to be keeping a lot of kids busy over the holiday break with STEM challenges!

NW STEM Challenge Cards

Are you looking for ideas to keep kids busy at home? Want to challenge your children to explore and create? Check out these challenge cards! Learn how to create balloon speakers, go fishing for ice cubes, or create a straw rocket! There are many activities to explore!

Fill out this form to receive access to NW STEM Challenge Cards. These are challenge cards for students in grades PS-8 grade. Materials needed for these challenges are household items. Upon submission of this form, you will receive access to a Google Folder that houses the challenge cards.

Request for Bids: Iowa e-Learning Central Course Development

(ED-EG344-01)

The Iowa Department of Education is seeking licensed Iowa educators to develop online courses for inclusion in the Iowa e-Learning Central (ILC). The ILC is being developed as a new resource to provide access to courses and tools to support educators as they navigate virtual learning environments and incorporate online instruction.

If you are interested and qualified, please complete the Content Developer Application at the link below. If you know of an interested Iowa educator, please forward this message to them.

Please search https://bidopportunities.iowa.gov/ for bid number ED-EG344-01 or search by Agency: Education.

All proposals must be submitted to OIAS@iowa.gov by 3:30pm on the closing date of the bid. Any questions must also be submitted to this email and will be answered as timely as possible. All educators are invited to keep checking this website for any additional information related to this bid (e.g., addendums, question and answer documents).

All educators must only contact the Issuing Officer, Sara Gillen, for anything related to this bid opportunity. Any contact with any other person could be grounds for disqualification from the bidding process.

In response to the sudden shift from classroom learning to at home learning, the STEM Council has launched Teachable Moment - a collection of lessons and activities that are right at your fingertips and easy to implement at home. Students, parents and educators will find free access to resources from STEM Scale-Up Program providers, direct links to our Pinterest boards and some of our favorite pinned activities, lessons from partners and much more.

Check out Teachable Moment today at www.IowaSTEM.gov/TeachableMoment.

Help spread the word! Share information about Teachable Moment and your experiences with the lessons and activities on our website using #TeachableMoment.

Share your Scale-Up Story with Us!

Were you awarded a Scale-Up Program this year? If so, please share your story and pictures with us! We will share your story in our newsletters and social media. Invite me out to see the Scale-up Program in action!

Email: mtrent@iowalakes.edu

NW STEM Checkout System

NW STEM Checkout system has many great STEM Scale-Up Kits as well as other materials perfect for classrooms, homeschools, libraries, and after school groups! And the best part, everything is FREE!!

We utilize the AEA van system to make deliveries of all our kits. You can keep the kits as long as you need them and simply set them out for the AEA van to pick them up. It's as simple as that!

You can find a complete list of our items and check out form here:

https://www.iowalakes.edu/stem/stem-resources/.