October 2019 Iowa STEM News

October 2019

Monthly News

IN THIS ISSUE

Collaboration Between Schools and Businesses Grow

Council Helps Make Mathematics a Magnet to STEM

Spotlight on Regional STEM Hub Institutions

STEM and the Arts

UPCOMING EVENTS

November 10, 2019 - 1:00 p.m.

STEM & the Arts Festival

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November 12, 2019 - 10:00 a.m.

Northwest Regional STEM Advisory Board Meeting

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November 14, 2019 - 11:00 a.m.

Southeast Regional STEM Advisory Board Meeting

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November 14, 2019 - 2:00 p.m.

South Central Regional STEM Advisory Board Meeting

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November 21, 2019 - 1:00 p.m.

Northeast Regional STEM Advisory Board Meeting

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Collaboration Between Schools and Businesses Grow

Davenport West High School is a past STEM BEST Program awardee focused on expanding student internships for students wanting to pursue engineering careers. They were able to use the award towards the purchase of a Haas CNC Mill in 2015 and expand its Advanced Manufacturing program with the purchase of a Haas CNC lathe in 2017.

Iowa’s STEM imperative continues to grow with the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council welcoming 13 new models to the STEM BEST ( Businesses Engaging Students and Teachers ) Program, which brings the total to 63 since the STEM BEST Program launched in 2014.

The STEM Best Program supports school-business partnerships that allow teachers and industry professionals to work side-by-side on curriculum and projects that give students actual workplace experience and an understanding of the opportunities and required skills for careers in STEM fields. STEM BEST has also laid the groundwork for other successful statewide initiatives such as Future Ready Iowa’s Work-Based Learning Clearinghouse.

The STEM Council Executive Committee voted unanimously to award 13 new or expanded partnerships up to $25,000 each. Proposed applicants bring a total of 79 partnerships to the STEM BEST Program with an array of project fields ranging from Health Sciences to Computer Science and Computational Thinking to Precision Agriculture.

Participating employer partners contribute to a dollar-for-dollar match with some going above and beyond the cost-share requirement. The awards can be used for the curriculum development and coordination, educator training and development in workplace-classroom integration and preparing the work-based learning environment.

The 2019 STEM BEST Program awardees are:

BCLUW Community School District in the North Central STEM Region
Bondurant-Farrar Community School District in the South Central STEM Region
Cedar Rapids Community School District in the Southeast STEM Region
Clarinda Community School District in the Southwest STEM Region
Clear Lake Community School District in the North Central STEM Region
Griswold Community School District in the Southwest STEM Region
Jesup Community School District in the Northeast STEM Region
MMCRU Community School District in the Northwest STEM Region
New Hampton Community School District in the Northeast STEM Region
Saint Albert Catholic Schools in the Southwest STEM Region
Stanton Community School District in the Southwest STEM Region
Waterloo Community School District in the Northeast STEM Region
West Des Moines Community School District in the South Central STEM Region

Visit www.IowaSTEM.gov/STEMBEST for more information on the STEM BEST Program and the 63 partners.

Council Helps Make Mathematics a Magnet to STEM

Differentiated Math Centers is one of three mathematics Scale-Up Programs awarded to educators for implementation during the 2019-2020 academic year.

The Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council sought out top mathematics education programs last summer and selected three to help support educators in making mathematics a magnet to STEM study and careers. The programs are now being delivered to nearly 700 Iowa educators for the 2019-2020 academic year. An additional investment made during the legislative session supported the special mathematics menu, which is expected to impact more than 19,000 students during the upcoming school year.

The new programs are Bootstrap: Data Science, Desmos Middle School Math and Differentiated Math Centers. Educators will take part in trainings for the awarded programs, followed by implementation in the classroom during the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year.

Results from the annual Iowa STEM evaluation report show students who participated in the STEM Scale-Up Program score higher on the Iowa Assessments in National Percentile Rank by an average of two points in mathematics compared to all students statewide.

A complete list of 2019-2020 STEM Scale-Up Program awards can be found at www.IowaSTEM.gov/Scale-Up .

Spotlight on Regional STEM Hub Institutions

Leaders from the six STEM Hub Institutions recently gathered at Drake University to discuss goals and best practices for further advancement of STEM education across Iowa.

Leaders from each of Iowa’s six Regional STEM Hub institutions were recently convened for the first time in the STEM Council’s history by the Council’s operations team, hosted at Drake University. Topics of conversation included an assessment of processes and progress, mechanics of the partnership, goal-setting and best practices sharing. Accumold President and CEO and STEM Council co-chair Roger Hargens joined the convening to share appreciation for the role of the Hub Institutions in the framework of the STEM Council and participate in the discussion.

STEM Hub Institutions play a vital role in accomplishing the goals and ambitions of the STEM Council. Each Hub Institution provides support for the Regional STEM Manager, engages in meaningful STEM partnerships, contributes to system-wide STEM support and provides a cost-matching commitment.

The six Hub Institutions were established through a competitive proposal process in 2011. They operate on five-year agreements that have since been renewed based on exemplary performances. The six institutional partnerships are:

Iowa Lakes Community College located in the Northwest STEM Region
Iowa State University located in the North Central STEM Region
University of Northern Iowa located in the Northeast STEM Region
Southwestern Community College located in the Southwest STEM Region
Drake University located in the South Central STEM Region
The University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College located in the Southeast STEM Region

All Iowa STEM advocates and champions owe a debt of gratitude to our six Regional STEM Hubs for their generous, ongoing contributions. For more information about the STEM Council and its structure, visit www.IowaSTEM.gov .

STEM and the Arts

The integration of Arts and STEM education was evident at the 2019 STEM Day at the Fair. Fairgoers had the opportunity to experience hands-on activities through this exhibit provided by Iowa Public Television, among many others.

A STEM Council working group was established years ago to pave the way for enriched integration of Arts and STEM and provide enhanced learning experiences and economic opportunities for Iowans. The STEM and Arts Working Group produced recommendations which were adopted in 2017 and led to the introduction of the STEM Seal of Approval for Arts and Culture integration, integration of Arts criteria in the STEM Scale-Up Program rubric and promotion of Arts, Culture and STEM integration exemplars through Council resources.

The STEM Council’s operations team met recently with the co-chairs of the STEM and Arts Working Group – Leon Kuehner, Iowa Alliance for Art Education Executive Director, and Steve Triplett, University of Iowa College of Education Clinical Instructor and Program Coordinator – to brainstorm ways by which the Arts and Humanities and other essential disciplines that may lie outside of the acronym STEM remain essential to well-rounded and productive graduates of Iowa’s educational system. Resulting from the discussion, a document was produced to outline specific ways educators across disciplines, specifically the Arts, are included in the STEM Council’s suite of solutions, including:

Each year there are programs from the STEM Scale-Up Program menu that fit nicely into arts curriculum, ranging from building robots and wind turbines to virtual reality and coding.

Teams of educators and business partners provide learning experiences driven by business and industry needs, a rigorous, relevant and dynamic STEM curriculum and authentic partnerships through the STEM BEST Program. Art principles can be applied to future career connections through design and other creative avenues.

STEM Day at the Iowa State Fair provides a great opportunity to demonstrate the connection between STEM and arts principles through droppable-1572552519128hands-on exhibits from dozens of organizations across the state and dynamic STEM state acts.

Family STEM festivals are hosted in each STEM region as a free and engaging educational experience for youth and their families that connect STEM and arts through hands-on activities.

Contact the Iowa STEM Operations Center by phone at (319) 273-2959

or by email at info@IowaSTEM.gov.