Northwest Iowa STEM Newsletter

December 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

Computer Science Week

Share your Events with Us!

Computer Science Week is December 6-10. In the NW Region, you can find some outstanding resources on our website here. You will find example events, lesson plans, and ideas on how to partner with area businesses during these events.

Be sure to share with us your plans and use the official hashtag: #CS4IA on social media!

Prizes will be awarded to those who share their events and lessons with NW STEM!

You can email me at mtrent@iowalakes.edu to enter. Don't miss out!

STEM BEST HD (High Demand)

Visit our website

NW STEM Advisory Board Tours

STEM Best - No Boundaries,

Okoboji Middle School

The NW STEM Advisory Council held their November board meeting on November8, at Okoboji Middle School in Milford. The advisory board was able to join students during their classes and were able to sit down and talk to them about their projects they are working on. We met some really impressive students!

The Okoboji Middle School is a new facility, completed during the 2020-21 school year. Included in the new facility are a Makerspace, an Industrial Tech Makerspace, a Build Your World STEM lab as well as project planning spaces for students. Okoboji CSD was awarded STEM BEST funding to develop a No Boundaries/Middles STEM program, a collaboration between the school district and local partners to identify and develop projects for the betterment of the community.

Okoboji Middle School is the only middle school in Iowa operating a No Boundaries program at that age level. In order to select projects for development, No Boundaries hosted a partner palooza this fall where businesses/partners showcased proposals. The accepted proposals would be the focus of year-long development and implementation by the students.

These projects are being developed by small groups of middle school students in constant communication with their outside partners. Besides space in the new school building, the No Boundaries project also utilizes space off campus in a commercial building.

NW STEM Computer Science

Virtual Coffee

NW STEM held a virtual coffee on November 11, showcasing a plethora of Computer Science resources and ideas for Computer Science Week events. Over 50 attendees heard from some of our NW Computer Science is Elementary Schools and business partners. We focused on how to involve area businesses in our CS Week events.

He re is the link to the recording of the morning, I apologize for starting it late, but we did capture most of it.

Here is the link to the presentation.

Here is the link to share your events with us - Big or small - any and all! We are awarding prizes for those that share! If you need help planning your event, please fill out this form also.

Here is the link to CS Resources on the NW STEM page.

STEM Scale Up Program, CodeJoy, in Action at Hinton!

Hinton Schools received the CodeJoy Computational Thinking in Action with Micro:bit curriculum. CodeJoy’s goal is to help students understand the power of computer science and how things work in the real world by seeing projects come to life.

During the week of November 15-19, students in 5th grade science participated in an introductory week of computer science. Each student has their own microchip which works with their Chromebook. They coded projects, including an electronic nameplate, a rock paper scissors game, and they made their own virtual pet. The 5th graders enjoyed using new technology.

Throughout this school year, students will use this new curriculum to create science projects that demonstrate their understanding of science concepts in Nathan Sexe's class.

NW STEM Virtual Year Long Literature Festival & STEM Challenges

650 students are participating all ready! You can still register and participate in this year long festival! We have met our quota for kits that we can hand out, but you can still participate without the kits. You will have access to the recordings and activities that go along with it as well as a list of supplies you can collect. Most of the items are recyclables or household items. To register to receive access to the festival materials, click below.

Click Here to Register

Storm Lake Elementary's

Family Code Night

The Storm Lake Computer Science is Elementary Team hosted a Family Code Night in conjunction with Northwest Iowa STEM Region Monday, November 15th. Over 150 students and family members worked through a series of coding tasks with increasing difficulty using resources from Code.org.

Students marked success on their individual program cards to keep track. At the end of the evening a drawing was held for Mini Spheros and Micro:bits followed by each student receiving a Northwest Iowa STEM bag, a book & bookmark, a coding activity kit and a snack at the conclusion of the event. It was a fun night that had families wanting to know when the event could be held again.

NW STEM and the Governor's STEM Advisory Council have many FREE resources and amazing programs to offer our K-12 schools as well as our informal partners. Want to hear more about these? Sign up for a in person or virtual professional development session! Presentations can be flexible for the time allowed.

Let's get everyone on board with STEM in NW Iowa!

Click below to request a session.

Request a Session

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 Now OPEN!

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/.