|
Hello Juneau STEM community!
We are so excited to launch our newsletter. We aim to inform, connect, and inspire folks, with the goal of building meaningful engagement with STEM between and within classrooms and the community.
The name "Curiosity Bridges" is a working title; maybe we can do better? We want to hear your suggestions! In fact, we'd love to hear a lot from you about all sorts of things. For suggestions, comments, and questions, please get in touch with us here.
We look forward to hearing how the newsletter can best serve your needs and interests.
The Newsletter Team at the Juneau STEM Coalition
--The newsletter should hit your mailbox every other month; if we were mistaken in sending it to you, you can unsubscribe at the bottom.
| | | |
This is what we mean by STEM: | |
|
STEM or STEAM?
Does it matter? When, if ever, should there be a distinction? Should we be the Juneau STEAM Coalition? Should we redo our STEM Education Infographic? Join us at the Summit coming up on Monday, May 8 to dig into this and other discussions (see below for more information).
| | |
|  |
You may not be able to come to the Summit on Monday, but you also may have an opinion you'd like to share. We want to hear you and we'd like others to hear you too. Use this link or above QR code to log your response. We'll have a summary of the Summit and your responses in the July edition of the newsletter. | | |
A CLOSER LOOK AT...STEAM Integration | |
|
Through the eight years of the Artful Teaching program, Juneau School District teachers, K-12, have been participating in workshops in which they learn ways to teach art skills in order to deepen children’s understanding in all content areas. This year, more than half of the final projects (submitted by teachers who wanted to get UAS credit) were focused on integrating the arts with STEM content areas.
One such project was in Jennifer Heidersdorf's and Stephenie Harris’s third grade classes where students used stop motion photography to explore and, quite literally, animate their developing understanding of polygons. The week-long series of lessons incorporated developing skills and concepts in math (polygons and categorization), language arts (using storyboards), technology (digital photography), media arts (animation), listening and speaking, and, of course, problem solving.
| |
“We got to learn about how to animate with little shape characters. It was one of the best projects we have ever done. I also learned about symmetry a lot more by doing this project,” said Elsa. Charles said, “We had to work together to problem solve. We kept clicking too fast and our hand would show in the picture. We really had to pay attention after we moved the blocks each time.” | |
|
And, the teachers reflect:
“This was a great way to elevate a math learning target/standard. There were definitely some 'bumps' along the way but we quickly problem-solved to make it all work out. In the future, it would be really helpful to have a reliable iPad stand. The students are really proud of their work and request to watch the videos daily! .…” “This project allowed students to explore, discuss, and create their very own Stop Motion animation fairly quickly.”
| | |
| |
|
Curiosity Unleashed
(February)
| Volunteers from high school FIRST Tech Challenge robotics teams in Juneau gave younger students the chance to drive their robots at this year’s Curiosity Unleashed event. | Curiosity Unleashed is an opportunity for community members and organizations to share their passion for STEAM with elementary-age students district-wide, and it’s an opportunity for schools, teachers, and parents to gain inspiration and local contacts to spark curiosity in ourselves, our kids, and our classrooms. | Straw Towers with Madison Bargas, ADFG | Nearly 600 participants experienced the opportunity to learn and explore in 50 hands-on activities provided by close-to 100 local STEAM specialists and volunteers. Thank you Juneau for helping us put on this event!! | |
JDHS's IGNITE Club brought a few live animals. The axolotl was memorable.
For more photos, head to Facebook.
| | |
Juneau Sea Week
(April-May...for the last 50+ years)
| Scott Vulstek, Research Fisheries Biologist with NOAA Fisheries, explains how scientists at the Auke Bay Fish Weir can count every fish that comes upstream and downstream of Auke Creek - the longest running salmon count started in 1980. Students saw how the scientists collect data and then waded into the creek to collect data themselves on temperature, salinity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. | |
Auke Bay Laboratories Sea Week lessons were designed to build on concepts introduced to students in the classroom.
Activities highlighted current research at Auke Bay Laboratories and included key STEAM skills such as reading, writing, math, arts, and culture. Each activity encouraged students to notice, observe, and explore their environment.
Auke Bay Laboratories participates in Sea Week by connecting NOAA Fisheries scientists and JSD teachers for beach day tide pool explorations and facilitating field trips to the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute and now the Auke Creek Research Station.
This year we added a fifth grade field trip to the Auke Creek Research Station where NOAA Fisheries scientists guided students through a series of hands-on activities.
For more stories about Sea Week, go to these Juneau Empire stories:
| |
|
On The Horizon
Up and Coming
| |
May 8, 5:30-7:30pm
State of STE(A)M Summit @JDHS Yadaa.at Kale Commons
| |
May 11, 12, 16
Sea Week Middle School program
May 22
Sea Week Beach Days
Summer, TBD
Adult STEM event
The year is wrapping up....more events next August.
| |
|
Looking For Your Pack?
Opportunities Here.
|
-
Sea Week welcomes your attendance - contact Stori Oates: email or phone.
-
Assist with "STEAM @ Sayéik," May 18 - contact Catherine Schleck
-
Database - get invited to lead STEAM activities and collaborate with teachers here.
-
Work with the STEM Coalition - email us
- Plan summer adult STEAM event;
- Help plan or participate in community STEAM events next year;
- Come to regular planning meetings of the STEM Coalition (zoom);
- Develop science kits around popular local STEAM activities.
Any questions, contact us
| |
|
RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE TO HAVE
Summer Camp Edition
| |
IS SUMMER ever COMING? Yes, SUMMER is COMING! | |
RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE TO GIVE | |
If you are excited by what you see here and would like to support STEAM in Juneau, we'd love to have a conversation so we can match your interest with our needs. A current concern is $200 for a canvas banner of our STEM infographic and an Ipad stand for the class in the article above. Funds in any amount toward those goals would be wonderful! We have big dreams and smaller dreams, from potting soil to a STEAM specialist salary..... Let's talk. Email us! | |
|
In 2017, JSD rewrote its science curriculum and wanted more community collaboration. Becca Soza and Brenda Taylor stepped into the fray, forming the Juneau STEM Coalition. It now has a planning group of eightish, and has hosted or assisted with numerous events this year.
| |
|
|
Dear Juneau,
When Becca and I launched the Juneau STEM Coalition around six years ago, we were directly responding to what we’d heard from both teachers and STEAM experts: if only we knew who’s out there, wanting to collaborate, we’d do such great things. So we found lots of others to join us and one of our first goals - and completed projects - was a Juneau STEM Database, set up for teachers to search for STEAM experts to work with. Fast forward to a few days ago, when we were chatting with a teacher who does lots of STEAM activities in their classroom.
We asked them how we could better support JSD teachers in integrating STEAM - especially in collaboration with community experts - into classrooms. The teacher said it would be “helpful to have a list of people who’d be willing to come into the classroom, that’s accessible to all teachers.” Hmm…. That list does exist, but it has not come close to meeting the dreams we had for it - where it’d magically be the impetus for amazing partnerships in the classrooms or even on all teachers’ dashboards.
I think several of us have had similar experiences: we work hard to develop amazing resources and then we struggle to figure out how to bridge that big gap between creation and actual use. There are groups in town who have put together a few pieces of that puzzle: Artful Teaching, SHI’s Opening the Box, Ocean Guardians to name a few. How can we learn from each other?
It is our great hope that this newsletter will be another puzzle piece. At this point, it’s very much a real-life STEAM design problem: How can we collectively facilitate communication among teachers, community experts, education organizations, and families?
Please approach this first issue as a first draft. How can we use this newsletter to connect the STEAM education community so that we all know about the existing resources and it’s easy and fruitful to use them?
- What resources do you have that you wish our community knew about? What resources do you wish you had?
- Do you know STEAM experts interested in collaborating whom we could highlight here?
- What questions and issues can we discuss?
- What collaborations are you looking for?
Looking forward to the process and the results,
Brenda Taylor
| |
|
Congratulations on scrolling all the way to the bottom!
Here is a cool bookmark. To access a downloadable/printable version, go HERE
| |
The Juneau STEM Coalition is an independent consortium of individuals and organizations. We are very grateful for and dependent on the personnel, administrative and occasional financial collaboration and support of other Juneau businesses, nonprofits, and other institutions. In this last school year, JSD has made our event venues possible, NOAA provided foldscopes, JEDC provided technological support for the website and this newsletter; AELP provided food for Curiosity Unleashed, and SHI has supported teacher participation in events. | | | | | | |
