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Hello Juneau STEAM community!
We'd like to introduce you to Craig Fox, an AmeriCorps member at JEDC and a key part of the STEM Coalition. Unfortunately, it's an introduction that will be immediately followed by a farewell, as Craig leaves for Pennsylvania next month to begin teaching high school science. Craig's reflections on his year in our community through his "outsider's" lens are illuminating. We’ve excerpted a few that particularly resonate with matters we’ve been pondering. To read the full interview, follow the link to our website. One of the STEM Coalition's goals is to address some of the issues that might keep Craig (and others like him) away; we'd love to be able to welcome him back to Juneau.
What are some things that you've learned in this last year that you might not have learned back in Philadelphia? Community-based education is not something that is commonly talked about in Philly. I am amazed by how much educators integrate the environment into their activities in Juneau. Students seem more engaged when they are talking about things that they have a stronger connection to. It is something I hope to incorporate into my work going forward.
What opportunities do you see that Juneau / the Juneau STEM Coalition could be developing - for educators, families, students and/or community members? What natural synergies would you recommend building upon? I think one of the main struggles is how to get kids who do receive a strong education from K-12 to stay in Juneau and use that education.
From your insider/outsider perspective, what ideas or message would you leave to the STEM Coalition / Juneau? I think it is easy to forget how unique Juneau is when you live here. There are very few places that have so much going on in such a small location. There are large organizations in science, Alaska Native culture, politics, and the environment all located here. I think fully utilizing all the knowledgeable people in the community is the best way for Juneau to have a successful future.
WHAT'S ON DECK IN THE NEWSLETTER:
- Introducing the STEAM Cafe series
- Cool Things We Did at Camp
- Just Happened & Happening Now: Get current
- Calendar & Opportunities
- Curated collection of curricular resources for educators and always-learners
- Last Words: Goodbye to Juneau's elementary school STEAM Specialist
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A CLOSER LOOK AT...
SUMMER CAMPS - What new ideas cropped up?
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Camp is a time to try new things, be a little less structured, default on the side of play. Often, that is the perfect recipe for discovering or developing a brilliant new idea that you'd never have the chance to explore during the school year. Juneau is rich with STEAM camps for all ages -- so what did they uncover? | Auke Bay Laboratories hosted 40 Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program students for a full day of activities. The students attended the Middle School Career Explorations Camp in Juneau during the last week of June. Students toured the Auke Creek Weir, took plankton samples at Auke Rec Beach, toured the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute, and attended a career panel with fisheries scientists to learn more about career and research opportunities at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. | |
TreVaughn Ellis, NOAA Hollings Scholar Summer Intern, and Juliana Cornett, Alaska Sea Grant Fellow, prep plankton nets and sample bottles for students at Auke Rec Beach. Photo Credit: NOAA Fisheries | Sealaska Heritage Institute's High School Summer Academy is complete. Students spent 10 days on UAS Campus working in groups alongside amazing educators and STEM professionals weaving together Indigenous and Western science while earning dual credit. The STEAM Academy is part of a continuum of programs at SHI including paid and for-credit mentorship opportunities during the school year and paid internships in the summer. One camp participant commented that she’s never felt more connected to her culture and passion for marine science. This school year she’ll be matched with a marine science mentor, and next year she plans to return for a co-developed internship at NOAA. | Students working at the intersection of Indigenous and Western science, participating in a seal necropsy alongside elders, local teachers, and NOAA scientists. | |
At Discovery Southeast, kids went to Mendenhall Lake to learn about watersheds. | |
Campers used Legos and robots to learn about gear ratios and kinetic energy. The LEGO Robotics Explore Camp is run by JEDC and sponsored by Coeur Alaska Kensington Mine. | | |
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Q: It’s a beautiful sunny day in early May. How do you get people to come inside to share innovative STEAM projects and create more collaboration?
A: You get people to pre-commit to doing amazing mini-presentations, you have lots of yummy food and flowers from local gardens, you embrace the small, intense audience with focus and gratitude. And, you collect the presenters’ slides and the discussion notes and make them available here to newsletter readers to read when it’s rainy.
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Reflections from the Summit
- "My main takeaway from the summit was all the interesting ways organizations are incorporating place-based education (such as with Discovery Southeast's programming and NOAA's Sea Week) and local community experts (through SHI's mentorship program and JSD's community science nights) to enhance their programs and connect them with the realities students live with every day.”
- “Wish there had been more time to share out. Networking was awesome. Thought it was a great event; wish there’d been more people.”
- “Even when there aren’t many people, those who show up are the doers. Just seeing E.F. talking with a teacher in Yakutat whom they wouldn’t have worked with otherwise was great. Being in the same room is subtle but valuable.”
- “Successful and helpful.”
- “For me, as an outsider coming in, the perspective about the amount of resources available in the community was useful. The info felt relevant and rushed. If I’d had an option to hear more, I would have…STEAM is much deeper than I ever expected.”
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- “This time of year is tricky for teachers and others. ’”
- “Particularly appreciative of seeing details of JSD STEAM offerings.”
- “Really appreciated all the information, it was great for networking, don’t normally get that info within SHI.”
- “It was intriguing to listen to people’s talks.”
Looking forward to seeing all of you at STEAM Summit 2024!
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Brenda and Amy were on their way to swim at Auke Rec with their visiting brother, when they stopped to watch. Michelle Trifari of NOAA and Lori Polasek, ADFG, are using a theodolite at Auke Rec to track the movement of harbor porpoises to determine the effectiveness of two different types of pingers. If effective, pingers could be used to deter harbor porpoise from fishing gear where they are prone to entanglement.
Want more info? go here: testing the effectiveness of pingers
| How To Eat Your Back Yard (and other local flora). | As a Juneau newbie and enthusiastic plant observer, I was delighted that SHI opened Vivian Yéilk' Mork's Saturday plant workshops to the whole community (not just kids). My visiting mother joined me and my sister for the morning, learning appropriate ways to approach indigenous and invasive species (the first with respect and a view to the future, the second with wild abandon). Brenda stayed for the afternoon, when the group cooked rockfish for deer tongue-leaf-on-plantain tacos. |  | |
Our mother commented that it was enthralling how Vivian could chat instructively for 3 hours, and you always felt you were in a mutually interesting conversation.
Vivian especially enjoyed sitting the group down at the original Auke Village garden, on the beach directly below the totem pole at Auke Rec, to explain how the Tlingit caretake the forest, and harvest from the sunniest side of the beach around to the western side, extending the season for any given plant from a week to six. -- Amy
There is one more Saturday to go.
This pairs well with the on-going Alaska Botany Blitz!
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On The Horizon
Up and Coming
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July 1-15
Alaska Botany Blitz
Location: Everywhere you are!
The purpose of this bioblitz is to record as many observations of plants in Alaska as possible during the first 2 weeks of July.
Sign up here:
AK Botany Blitz Sign Up
To participate in the world-wide citizen scientist program with iNaturalist,
Go here.
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July 8, 9:00 am–2:00 pm
Plant Workshop with Vivian Yéilk' Mork
Morning plant walk followed by processing and other activities for community members. Get on mailing list for the next spring series.
Location: Eagle Beach Shelter
(There will be lilac popsicles!)
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July 10-14
Astronomy Camp: Alaska Reel Adventures “See The Universe,”
Location: Marie Drake Planetarium
For grades 6-12
Click here to learn astronomy basics while exploring the universe using real image data and robotic telescopes.
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July 17, 5:00 - 6:30 PM
Talk and discussion about selective sport fisheries for king salmon: Lessons learned from the Pacific Northwest.
Location: Mendenhall Public Library
For more information, contact Anne Beaudreau or call (206) 543-0113
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Looking For Your flock?
Opportunities Here.
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Database - get invited to lead STEAM activities and collaborate with teachers here.
Work with the STEM Coalition - email us
- Help plan or participate in community STEAM events;
- Come to regular planning meetings of the STEM Coalition (zoom);
- Develop science kits around popular local STEAM activities.
- Get involved with STEAM Cafe
Any questions, contact us
The next newsletter will be in early September. Please tell us what you'd like to hear about and send notices of what's on the horizon in the STEAM world.
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RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE TO HAVE | |
Local curricular resources -- including a few that bring the outdoors right into your living room. | |
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Haa Shuká Tundatáani
represents a way of learning and understanding that connects us as people with the histories that have formed us, the knowledge we share today, and the world delivered by our future selves for future generations. This Indigenous framework seeks to heal.
GHI Curriculum Atlas
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Alaska Wildlife Curriculum
is designed for teachers of K-12 students who wish to open their classroom doors and windows to the natural world. Students learn ecological principles that lead to continued conservation of Alaska's wildlife and wild lands.
Dept Fish and Game
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JuneauNature
is the natural-and-cultural history site for Discovery Southeast, best known as the team of naturalists bringing nature to Juneau schools since 1989. Less well known is our 40 years of original field research, our longtime service as bridge between educational and scientific communities, and our natural-&-cultural history archives.
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Education and Outreach
Education plays a vital role in fish and wildlife conservation. Whether you are a hunter, angler, teacher, parent, or an aspiring outdoors person, we have resources to help.
Dept Fish and Game
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Bob Armstrong's
Nature Alaska
Bob Armstrong has written about and photographed nature in Alaska since 1960. Besides the books he's written, he has a treasure trove of resources on his website.
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Hank Lentfer's Website
(of amazing delights!)
Hank's website has sounds, films, and inspiration to keep anyone glued to their computer for hours. Perfect for the nature-curious and for classrooms.
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Encounters North
Join co-producers Richard Nelson and Liz McKenzie for an intimate exploration of the wild North.
30-minute radio programs bringing the listener up close and informed on Alaska's cornucopia of nature.
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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. Funds in any amount toward those goals would be wonderful! We have big dreams and smaller dreams, from potting soil, to an iPad stand to a STEAM specialist salary..... Let's talk. Email us! | |
Celebrating Susan's birthday and being grateful for Craig and Susan's time with us. | |
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Dear STEAM enthusiasts,
So much of the ups and downs of STEAM education depends on money and specific individuals ....
-- NOAA Fisheries has been able to fund a full-time local Education Coordinator for two years now, and, with Stori as Education Coordinator, has raised the quality and quantity of NOAA interactions with Juneau youth.
-- JEDC has been hosting STEM AmeriCorps members off and on for several years. 2022-2023 was the first year that that individual - Craig - was so pivotally involved in Coalition work, specifically through the co-creation of the "What's Going On in This Alaska Graph?" project. This upcoming school year, though, it’s doubtful that there will be a STEM AmeriCorps member match in Juneau.
-- JSD has funded an elementary STEAM Specialist for the past two years, but, due to inadequate state funding, cannot continue funding. As the JSD Elementary STEAM coordinator for 2022-23, Susan passionately supported teachers across the district with planning, supplies, and modeling lessons. She was a creative and effective liaison between JSD and the STEM Coalition. (For more on the history of this position, click here.)
Juneau and the STEM Coalition will greatly feel the absence of Susan and Craig both as wonderful people and for the roles they have fulfilled in our STEAM community. We are bracing for the impact of the loss of the JSD STEAM Specialist position and trying to figure out how we all, as an organization and broader STEAM community, might step into some of some of the more direct teacher support that the position provided. We’re also looking for volunteer(s) to continue the WGOITAG project. We look forward to new faces and will continue to petition for reliable, sufficient funding.
Please let us know if you’d like to be involved in this or other issues through time, funding or other resources and join us in thanking Craig and Susan for their devotion to STEAM in Juneau.
As Craig noted, Juneau is exceptional in its community resources and passionate citizenry. We are so grateful to be a part of it!
Happy Summer,
The Juneau STEM Coalition
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Congratulations on scrolling all the way to the bottom!
Here is one of Hank Lentfer's films featuring the sapsucker -- and all those who come to feast behind them.
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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. | | | |
We loved this photo from Discovery Southeast, and thought you would too. We're constantly amazed by what young children imagine, design and build with time and space. | |
Next issue: Early September | | | | |
