May 2023

Iowa Afterschool Alliance News

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (AAPI Heritage Month). Our country owes a lot of our success to many hardworking, innovative AAPI computer scientists, engineers, and other STEM professionals. Check out asianpacificheritage.gov for resources for educators this month.

Summer STEM AmeriCorps Applications Open 

Know someone interested in working with a summer learning program? Summer STEM AmeriCorps applications are now open. The Summer STEM AmeriCorps members will help build capacity of summer programs by developing and facilitating new, high-quality activities that promote increased social, emotional, math, science, and reading proficiency. Members are placed in summer learning programs across the state and serve from the end of May through the end of August. STEM AmeriCorps members receive $4,000 in stipends for living expenses over the summer and a $1,300 education award that can go toward qualifying loans or current educational expenses upon completion of their term of service. Please contact Elva Griffin at egriffin@sppg.com for questions or more information.

STEM Opportunities

For more opportunities from Million Girls Moonshot,

please visit the STEM for Iowa website.

Celebrate spring with 26 free science and engineering activities for enriching hands-on STEM related to spring weather, flowers, plants, and more! Click here to learn more!

Looking for activities on environmental science for your students? Check out this list of dozens of activities on climate change with descriptions, age level, and everything you need to know. Read more here.

Policy Update

The first session of the 90^th General Assembly concluded the afternoon of May 4^th. Overall feelings about the success of the legislative session are split by political party. Democrats from both the House and the Senate say this session will be remembered as divisive and that there were many opportunities missed to support Iowans by raising wages and making Iowa more welcoming to new residents. Governor Reynolds released a statement at the close of session: “Iowa’s national profile is rising, and Americans are taking notice as states around the country are looking to Iowa as a beacon for freedom and opportunity. This year's historic legislative session saw transformational education reform that kicked off a national school choice revolution, a consequential alignment of state government, much-needed property tax relief, and stability for our health care system across the state. Iowans will be able to look back upon our promises and know we delivered for them. Our state is on a new path, one that was forged by our hard-working people, has their families at the forefront, and is a place where everyone has the freedom to flourish.”

The following are a few of the Governor’s priorities that were passed this session that affect school-aged youth.

• HF 68: This is the school choice bill that provides families with vouchers towards the cost of attending private schools.
• SF 496: This bill prohibits the instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in all school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools for youth in grades K-6. The bill also makes changes to student health screenings and library programs.
• SF 391: This bill eliminates the requirement of a Comprehensive School Improvement Plan and replaces it with a report that meets the requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act that is submitted to the Iowa Department of Education. The bill also changes the requirements for librarians employed by a school district; it sets provisions for how many hours of instruction may occur virtually per school year; allows for a school district to enter into an agreement with a local community college to provide certain courses; allows a teacher to teach two or more sequential units of one subject area in the same classroom at the same time to students in grades 9-12; removes the requirement to teach students about acquired immune deficiency syndrome and HPV in health class for all grades; adds a requirement to teach career readiness and career opportunities to students in grades 7-8; lowers the foreign language requirement from four units to two; and makes alterations to physical education requirements.
• SF 192: Increases State funding for public education.
• SF 560: Increases funding for iJag (Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates). This funding will be used to establish 15 new programs across the state.
• HF 604: Established a process for school district employees to follow when there is a threat of violence, or an incident of violence occurs involving a student.

Grant Opportunities

Applications open for Project EDGE Social-Emotional Curriculum Testers!

Project EDGE (Engagement and Development for Girls through Engineering) is testing and evaluating an OST curriculum engaging youth- grades 6-8 that integrates engineering activities and social-emotional development for youth with the goal of developing STEM identity and an Engineering Mindset. Read about the benefits to educators and youth, and requirements for participation here. $1,000 Stipend for program participation.

Applications due May 31, 2023.

Inclusion Spotlight

Dr. Nina Niu Sanford is an attending radiation oncologist who cares for cancer patients receiving radiation therapy as part of their treatment plan. Nina describes radiation therapy as both an art and a science – it involves an understanding of math and physics on how radiation causes injury to the cancer cell on a molecular level, as well as the ability to think three dimensionally to design radiation plans that maximally target the cancer while sparing normal tissue. She’s currently a radiation oncologist at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX where she’s involved in a combination of hands on patient care and cutting-edge clinical research with the goal of improving outcomes for generations of patients to come.

Hear her story here.

Wallace Foundation Resources

Millions of urban children and teens lack access to afterschool programs that provide rich opportunities for growth, learning and fun. One possible solution is to coordinate the work of programs, government agencies, private funders and others involved in afterschool programs—that is, build an afterschool system that is greater than the sum of its parts. Key components of afterschool systems include efforts to improve program quality and collection of data to inform decision-making.

​​Browse reports and other resources the Wallace Foundation provides for insights into making high-quality afterschool programming more readily available to urban young people.

Out of School Time Professional Development Center

The Out of School Time Professional Development Center provides Out of School Time training to OST professionals. The classes provide in-depth curriculum and certificates. If you or your staff are interested in signing up for courses visit the Out-of-School Time website. Check out the entire course catalog here. 

Great Content on Y4Y!

You 4 Youth is a free online professional development site that is designed to support 21CCLC program staff but is a valuable tool for any afterschool professional looking to build their skills! Recently, Y4Y has rolled out a whole module on literacy. Click here to register.

Iowa Child Care Training Registry

Find professional development for school-age programming on the State of Iowa Child Care Training Registry on topics ranging from health and safety to developmentally appropriate programming. Find out more online.

National Afterschool Association PD Resources

NAA provides afterschool professionals with resources to stay up-to-date on the latest topics in afterschool and summer learning. Find out more on their website here. 

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