Hello and happy new year! I hope you had the opportunity for some rest and relaxation over the holidays. We at the Hub took some much-needed time away to spend with our loved ones and enjoy the season. On my end, that entailed starting - and even finishing - a couple of good books, dusting off a few favorite board games with my teenagers, and trying (unsuccessfully) to play fetch in the snow with my dog, Frida. Speaking of which, that hush of snowfall in the wee, late hours on Christmas was a particularly special treat for us this year. However you spent the season, I hope you are able to return refreshed and ready to work together to increase access and equity in STEM and CTE for our Mid-Valley region in 2022.
To that end, we bring you a variety of opportunities, invitations, resources, requests, and other cool things in this month’s newsletter:
- Please meet our new Fund Development and Industry Relations Manager, Janice Hardy! Janice comes to us with a deep passion for education and opportunity for underrepresented students; she will be working with us to help grow our partnerships and build mission-focused sustainable programs. Read below to learn more about Janice.
- Are you an educator or administrator who has engaged with the Hub? We need your help! Please take a moment to complete our survey to share with the Oregon Department of Education to assess the impact of our work. Thank you!
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Survey for students (educators, please help your students complete the survey)
- Survey for educators
- Survey for administrators
Thanks and be well,
Sarah Whiteside, Director
Mid-Valley STEM-CTE Hub
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Meet our new Fund Development and
Industry Relations Manager
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Janice Hardy is joining our team as MVSCH's new Fund Development and Industry Relations Manager. She enjoys cultivating support to help others achieve their potential and is a proud second generation graduate of OSU. Always committed to making an impact throughout her career in nonprofit and higher education advancement, she looks forward to building industry and grant support as a vehicle to expand our reach regionally.
Janice comes from a family which includes several accomplished scientists and loves watching the world through the eyes of her curious, eight-year-old son. If you catch a Zoom meeting with her, the remote home office may have just been transformed from her son’s electric train repair shop to a STEM-CTE biz hub. In her spare time, she considers herself a ‘food scientist’ when making custom sugar cookies, and is always looking for an excuse to take a walk, explore waterfall trails, and visit the Oregon Coast.
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MVSCH Media: A Step Ahead |
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Have you seen the first episode of our new educational video series, A Step Ahead? We went to visit the Non-Destructive Testing program on the Albany Campus of LBCC. You can visit the show’s page here!
Interested in having your business featured on an episode of A Step Ahead? Contact Kacey Montgomery at montgok@linnbenton.edu.
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MVSCH Media: Closing the Gap |
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We recently released another episode back in December. We featured Devon Chase, Co-owner and Chef of Saint Perpetua Patio in Yachats, Oregon. We discuss their experience opening and running a queer and women-run establishment, creating a safe work environment, as well as her choice to opt-out of culinary school and instead go for on-the-job training.
This month we will also be releasing two episodes of Closing the Gap. On January 10th we will be speaking with Ommidala Pattawong, a Chemistry Instructor at Linn-Benton Community College. Ommidala discusses growing up in Thailand and pursuing a career in chemistry. Then on January 24th, Woodworker and Owner of Highland Woodshop, Ashley Merback will be joining us to talk about the importance of makerspaces.
You can find these episodes and more on our website.
If you are a woman in STEM, or have a career in manufacturing or a skilled trade and would like to talk about your experience, contact Kacey Montgomery at montgok@linnbenton.edu.
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Resources, Events, & Upcoming Opportunities |
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STEM/CTE Community Bulletin Board |
What's happening in your school/business/organization? Send us your news items for the Community Bulletin Board in our monthly newsletter and we'll help you spread the word! We ask that submissions be regional, non-commercial, STEM/CTE germane, and be limited to one sentence and a link. Submissions are due by the third Monday of each month. |
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High School Science for All “Patterns” courses |
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Portland Metro STEM Partnership will be holding numerous virtual trainings for the High School Science for All aka "Patterns" courses (Physics, Chemistry, Biology). Please find those sessions noted below. Join for one session or as many as are of interest to you. Thanks to a STEM Innovation Grant from the Oregon Department of Education, they are able to pay Oregon high school science teachers $50/hour to attend.
Dates are being determined for Chemistry Units 5 & 6, and for Biology Unit 5. They will be scheduling sessions on high leverage instructional strategies and will send out additional information when those dates are set.
Please feel free to share this form with your colleagues and contacts.
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OFRI Natural Resource Educators Virtual Conference, January 12 |
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This virtual conference will focus on the social, economic and ecological aspects of Oregon’s natural resources. The conference will include general and breakout sessions, training for Oregon Envirothon 2022 and networking opportunities.
This conference meets the professional development requirement of the Oregon Department of Education statewide Natural Resources / Forestry Career & Technical Education (CTE) Program of Study.
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Oregon Game Challenge - Form a team & compete (6th-12th grade) |
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The Oregon Game Project Challenge is an annual game development competition for teams of middle and high school students. Each year, teams are invited to make a video game exploring the current theme and then bring it to the Main Event to show off to other students and judges.
For 2021-2022, the 15th year of OGPC, the Main Event will be May 14th and the theme is Symbiosis.
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Oregon Science Teacher's Association: Investigating Crayfish + Freshwater Ecosystems (January 19th) |
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Click on the flyer above to access registration & details |
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Professional development opportunity for Preschool Educators |
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As result of a partnership between the Mid-Valley STEM-CTE Hub, Oregon Coast STEM Hub, and Family Connections at LBCC, we are pleased to offer this professional development opportunity for preschool educators in Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties.
Thanks to a STEM Innovation Grant for Early Learning from the Oregon Department of Education, we are able to provide stipends and resource kits for all preschool educators who attend.
For questions and more information, please feel free to contact Chris Singer, Program Coordinator / Mid-Valley STEM-CTE Hub. |
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Lending Library News & Updates |
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New to the Lending Library
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Interested in or currently integrating 3D printing in your class?
MVSCH can help! We are putting together resources, including workshops, curricula, printers on loan, batch printing, and partnerships with LBCC students to support educators and their students as they explore this exciting field. For more information, email Forrest Johnson.
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Coming soon: The MVSCH Making and Prototyping Resource Center!
MVSCH is putting together a collection of tools to help foster and facilitate experiential STE(A)M-CTE education in Linn and Benton counties. We are now looking for volunteers who would like to help us test our 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC routing, vinyl cutting, button making, and heat press machines. Contact Forrest Johnson at johnsof@linnbenton.edu if you are interested.
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Microgrant Recipient Success Stories!! |
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Silverleaf School
"This grant made it possible to upgrade our STEM program, specifically our technology and robotics classes for students in all grades. All of our students, from first grade on, get to begin a meaningful STEM education due to generous support from organizations like Mid-Valley STEM- CTE Hub who believe in the importance of STEM like we do. Thank you for your support!"
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Philomath Youth Activities Club
"Our summer day camp participants had to make the best of the situation with a lot of restrictions this year during our 11-week summer program. This grant enabled us to purchase STEM kits to help engage the youth in learning and fun at the same time. The kits were a huge hit with the children and staff. We would not have been able to make the weekly projects happen without these funds. Thank you."
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Scio Elementary Educator - Roby Reeder
Roby used their grant to purchase some Makey Makey sets for their classroom. "This has been a great tool for teaching students about circuits and letting them discover how to transfer electrical energy."
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West Albany HS Educator - Shea Looper
"Our preschoolers and high school students LOVE the new STEM toys we were able to purchase for our classroom. Preschoolers are constantly exploring and learning new things with the various materials purchased. Our high school students have used various new STEM toys to design creative and hands on learning opportunities for our preschoolers. We are so thankful for this opportunity that has been provided by the STEM-CTE Hub. Thank you!"
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Computer Science Education Week at the Boys & Girls Club! |
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January's Social Media Support |
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Why you should have a Linktree in your social media bios? |
One of the hardest things to do in marketing is to convince a viewer to switch websites. It’s that extra step that no one wants to take. You may have a great campaign, have a great product, or lots of useful information, though very few people will want to copy and paste a URL, or even worse manually type in a new web address. You have to make it as easy as possible for your viewer to take action and go to your website, survey, or YouTube channel.
Many social media platforms allow you to add working links into your posts, but even the juggernaut that is Instagram (this is a really great tool for Instagram) does not make it that easy for you. Even if you do have all the links to your website and more in your posts, you need a central location for your viewers to find all of your links. Besides who knows if they go looking for that survey link and then they see you have a newsletter, and sign up for that, and then they even donate to your food drive. All because you had all of your links in one easy spot and your viewer could explore all you have to offer.
Enter Linktree. Linktree is a service that hosts a spot where you can post links to all the various projects or points of interest. When you create your account, Linktree gives you a URL that you can post in your bio on social media platforms. The Linktree link easily takes viewers to a one-stop-shop list of pages you're trying to promote traffic on. Here is our Linktree you can use as an example.
Not only does Linktree make it easy for your viewers to easily find everything you are working on. Linktree also helps you figure out what is interesting to your viewers and what is not having as much success by offering analytics of the traffic on your Linktree. So at the end of the week we can log in to our Linktree account and see that you received 300 clicks on our YouTube link but your scholarship link only received 100 clicks. You can also instantly change up what’s on your Linktree so your link can stay up-to-date with all your current events.
So, reach out and follow us if you're not already! We'd love to share our work with you and learn more about yours. Send me an email at montgok@linnbenton.edu.
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To keep up on the latest MVSCH news, follow us on our social media networks: |
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