Northwest Iowa STEM Newsletter

July 2022

Mary Trent

NW Regional STEM Manager

Contact me at mtrent@iowalakes.edu

Northwest Regional Advisory Board Members

Tina Benton,

Sioux City

Ben Bouza,

Hawarden

Beth Bunkers, Primghar

Tyler Hahn,

Cherokee

Lex Jacobson,

Ida

Kiana Johnson, Primghar

Jordan Menning, Rock Rapids

Faith Miller,

Carroll

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

2022-23 STEM Scale-up Awardees

We are excited to announce that we have awarded 301 educators in the NW with STEM Scale-Up Programs. 19,622 youth will be participating in these programs in the upcoming school year. Awarded Educators will participate in professional development sessions this summer. Here is a link to all the organizations and schools that were awarded. We have an exciting Scale-Up year ahead of us!

Computer Science is Elementary Updates

The 13 schools involved with the Computer Science is Elementary group have completed their 3 year project. The schools were asked to provide a Blueprint of their programs so other schools that are beginning to create their Compute Science Curriculums would have a wonderful resource to use. The Blueprints contain the program's professional development, standards connections, community engagement, business partnerships, budgets, and computer science scope and sequence for grades K-5.

To see these blueprints, please click here.

Also, a new project has been launched, Computer Science is Elementary Mentorship Program. The Computer Science is Elementary (CS is E) Project Schools Mentors will provide guidance and support to other elementary schools across the state that are creating and implementing their Computer Science plans for their district in line with the Department of Education legislative requirements. We hope this mentorship help schools to will meet the Iowa Department of Education legislative requirements with high engagement and fidelity. NW STEM Regional Manager, Mary Trent and NW AEA Consultant, Erin Chute will manage the mentors. More exciting information will be coming soon for your school to take advantage of this service!

Storytime STEM Packs in Action at the Child Development Center in Hawarden

The 1^st 2 photos are the results of the building your own house for the bears & deciding what materials to use where and how to make it water resistant. We did this activity back in February and the kids enjoyed building, testing their theories about ‘water proof” and trying to rethink the problem if it didn’t work. The other 2 photos are from March when we built our Leprechaun traps. Again, we brought in some concepts about planning what materials to use, how we could ‘trap’ the leprechaun so he wouldn’t escape, and used trial & error with many materials until they felt they had a ‘fool proof trap”! Of course, that little leprechaun eluded us again, but we won’t give up. Hope these will help you in some way to so that STEM Storytime packs are fabulous!!!!!

"The Hawarden CDC class had many fantastic experiences this year with the Storytime STEM packs! The Construction Site and Kate Tames the Wind books we used closely together to explain construction and then to pose problems to solve with construction. We ourselves had also purchased a STEM kit from Lakeshore about building a bridge to allow the 3 Billy Goats Gruff to cross without breaking and it had to be taller than the troll. We used that as our extension to scaffold more learning along with reviewing the books. Our children constructed houses with the materials and experimented with water to see which houses could withstand rain. Some had to redo their houses using problem solving and different materials. The children conversed about how the materials did or didn't work under water. They shared ideas and thoughts about how to construct their houses. The sharing of ideas, helping each other, and conversations about how and what worked and why was a joy to my heart to hear!!!!

One boy in our room took this one step further. He used paper cups to make a pyramid and then ran a car into it to make it fall. He got the 2^nd pyramid built, but had 2 cups together in the bottom row, which made it a bit off balance. He rolled the car and it fell. The 3^rd time he did 2 cups at a time & repeated the pyramid. It also fell down. The final time was joyous to watch! He did 3 cups at a time. This time the car barely moved the cups. He moved back for more momentum with the same result. He looked quizzically at me. I asked him, "What? It didn't fall? I wonder what will make it collapse? " Then he looked at me smiling and said, " I have an idea." He went and got a car that was a bit bigger, moved back a bit further and really pushed the car. This time it has gone down and he said, "It collapsed." I asked him why he thought it went down now and not before. He replied, " More cups is stronger. I needed a bigger car and more speed!" For this 1^st year Hispanic boy to figure this out and explain to me how, what and why - I have been just in awe!

The children also quickly figured out how to code the Bee Bots with the Earth Day pack! They helped their friends how had problems. My assistant had brought these activities to the class. I came in after a while and I didn't know how to make them work, so the children showed me! How wonderful! My younger ones who were 3 were able to understand position words with the "Secret Life of Squirrels". I even learned something I DIDN'T KNOW about bees with the "Bee Dance" kit. After we did that activity, the children now understand why we keep asking them not to pick all the dandelions in the playground or why we don't try to kill the bees.

I am very excited for the upcoming STEM programs we were awarded for fall. Also, we used some of our extra funds this May, to replace items to go with our Lights & Shadows STEM pack from 2 years ago!!!!! Love these programs and I will continue to apply for them as long as I continue to teach!"

Sue Miller

Child Development Center

Hawarden, Iowa

Congratulations

NW STEM BEST Awardees!

Congratulations to MOC-Floyd Valley Elementary and High School, Storm Lake Early Elementary, Sioux Center High School for receiving the 2022 STEM BEST Award! We look forward to hearing about your new partnerships and projects.

STEM Offers Educator Scholarships

The Executive Committee of the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council determined that two supports for STEM educators are needed in order to maintain the high quality and essential role of STEM education throughout the state:

Incentive for practicing STEM professionals to career transition to teaching.
Support for in-service STEM teachers to update their skills and knowledge in the fast-moving fields of STEM.

For STEM professionals seeking support to career-transition to teaching, access the RAPIL scholarship here:

STEM Pro -> STEM Teacher

For in-service STEM teachers seeking support to enroll in a course to update skills and knowledge, access the STEM-LIfT scholarship here:

STEM Teacher -> STEM "LIfT" Teacher

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 is Closed

for the summer

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 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/.