One particularly useful aspect of this program was protocol training with an embedded focus on engaging focal students through hands-on, meaningful work. Teachers came away with immediately applicable tools and resources which, in my classes, did result in significantly more engagement among students who had previously felt alienated from science. 

Welcome to our page! We're so glad you're here. We are a team of faculty, students, and teachers. We have co-developed this project over the past three years and really enjoy learning from each other to focus on better meeting our students' needs. 

Please consider the following discussion prompts: 

• What does STEM equity look like in your work?
• If the approach described here helps you think about practices to try out in your own work, please describe them.
• What aspects of this work are you interested in learning more about?

Check out some of our padlets. See the attached link. You can search for other padlets through my name. Summer 2019 Institute Please comment if you have any questions or feedback on the padlets.

We are grateful for the expertise of classroom teachers for testing and verifying approaches that truly enhance engagement, skills, and knowledge for their students.  Teachers really value the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other, adapting shared experiences to enrich their own unique classroom interactions.  Dr. Richard Wagner, Project co-PI

Very interesting. Have you collected any data that may show the program's impact on student attitude towards STEM or their willingness to go college and major in STEM?

Hi Janelle, It's great to learn more about your project! Thanks for sharing the link to the Padlets - Can you share more about how you've used that tool to support the cohorts of teachers participating in the project? Is it primarily used during the PD workshops, or do teachers continue to contribute additional resources to the padlets as they implement the program in their classrooms? It seems like it could be a useful tool for helping to maintain community among participants as well as to share useful resources and best practices. My organization is preparing to shift our K-12 STEM programs to a remote format for this summer and we're planning to use Padlet as one of our online tools. I would love to hear more about what's worked well for you in the course of your project. 

Hi Stacey, thanks for asking about the Padlets. They are used during the PD and then as a planning resource for teachers once they're back in their classrooms. I agree with you about its potential to maintain community; our strategies for that have been regularly scheduled workshops, online water coolers, and newsletters. The teachers have talked about how they benefit by connecting with teachers from other grade levels and districts, and both preservice and inservice teachers have expressed how much they appreciate connecting with each other. 

Hi Sasha,

What a great question! As a teacher who has really benefited from this program, I can share my experience. I've gone back to the Padlets frequently for resources both from the original training and from documents others post in their comments.

The Padlets also an excellent communication tool as I bring the PD back to share with my head of school and then develop programming and local teacher training around many of the ideas and resources. So they also live in this sense.

This is a very great framework for bridging the gap between colleges and teachers to create STEM career pathways for students! This is something I see as an application in our county.

Did the NSF grant support stipends for teachers to participate in the workshops and summer field experiences? We all know how overworked our teachers are! How were you able to encourage them to take the extra time for this kind of professional development outside of the classroom?

YES!  Our team recognizes teachers as the professionals that they are and they are always compensated for their time!  We provided stipends for teachers participation in ALL of these activities.  

Hi Sarah, to echo Dawn's response, we were super grateful to have the funding for teacher stipends. We also wrote subsistence into our budget so we could provide nice lunches during full day sessions. Teachers are absolutely overworked and they really appreciated those small gestures. We also did polling to figure out the best days and times to offer half day workshops. Our group preferred Saturday mornings from 9-12. 

Hi Sasha and Stacy,

I am a teacher who has participated in this program for a few years and the I use the Padlets on a regular basis to plan Science activities and units in my class. It is so helpful to have one central place to access this information. I can easily go back and find the exact resource I need. 

This is fabulous work! What sticks out to me as being important is (1)the experiences teachers that increases their confidence to provide similar experiences in their classroom, and (2)the inclusion of undergraduates to begin building professional relationships with other educators.

The opportunity for the college students to speak at the teacher workshops and to mentor the young students in science was quite empowering for them! It gave them more confidence and they could really  see themselves as scientists through that experience!

Wow, this project does a wonderful job of combining teacher training, real world issues, PBL, and technology that supports instruction. I'll be looking at the Padlet resources, thank you for sharing them!

My team provided training to pre-service and in-service teachers related to watersheds (and I agree that stipends and meals during training are a must to appreciate their time and effort). Our teachers did have increased confidence and understanding of the topic while in training, but struggled more than they anticipated when back in the classroom. We are looking into how to support teachers in a more sustained way so they don't flounder at those critical moments.

Did you observe a similar phenomenon with your participants, or no? If not, do you think there was something specific about the design of your program that ensured teachers had sufficient tools, knowledge and confidence to teach the topics in their classrooms? 

As one of the undergraduate college students that participates, it has been an incredible experience learning how to apply field sessions with the teachers and students. They always say the best way to learn is when you teach somebody else, and being able to get this experience under my belt has really helped with my comprehension of material! The questions that the students ask makes you look at a project in a different light. They're attitude and willingness to learn have been non-stop impressive since I have been helping with this program. I always felt that I would have went into science sooner if I had outlets such as this within my school system when I was younger. I am just very happy to be apart of this, and I hope that I can inspire a young mind to follow the path of STEM!

Thank you to everyone who has made this program possible! As one of the undergraduate college students, it is such an honor to be able to participate in something so important. We engage in classroom and field STEM activities with K-12 students and teachers. We have helped while classes are midway through their own research; as well as taught classes new concepts to utilize in their experiments. Each time the experience is so inspiring! Witnessing the confidence and excitement of the students being able to command their own projects, while seeing the pride reflected in their teachers is really quite special. I was absolutely blown away by all of the student presenters at the Multi Globe Research Showcase in February 2020. Giving students the tools to work with STEM at a young age is visibly empowering for them. This provides resources for youth to think ahead about their futures while interacting with college level STEM researchers. The importance of doing hands-on STEM activities with peers not only engages the students more in what they are currently doing, but they then ask questions about what its like doing these things at a college level, thus envisioning themselves in their own future involving STEM. Being able to share the opportunities a STEM career has given myself to these leaders of tomorrow has been so fun and rewarding, and I am so grateful to participate in the work we do!

DeeDee you hit the nail on the head. And both of those very key pieces emerged during the project.

Great to hear from Brittany and Lexii. As I reflect on the project, I am truly amazed at the intellectual and career growth of our undergraduate and post-bac research assistants.  Roseanne, Yoko, Becca, Jerry, Tyler and many others have made lasting contributions to our teacher participants. I’m not sure how we have been so lucky.  

Janelle- I was so happy to see your project in this video showcase.  Way to go!  I really love all your group has accomplished.  Very impressive!  

One last thought as a teacher who has benefited from this program: it is still paying dividends even during distance learning.

My 5th grade students needed to pivot from their end of year symposium, but this delay has let them chose a protocol related to their research question and create a training slideshow for next year's crew. Many of them are including, and building upon, techniques learned directly from the undergraduate students during their watershed training- as well as training I received from this program and passed on to them. (One focal student is actually tackling building a benthic macroinvertebrate library for our stretch of the local watershed, which stems from a presenter at the recent showcase.)

These slideshows will be printed into training manuals, which we will use in classes or if students check out equipment for distance learning. They are incredibly engaged.

You may have noticed a thread about “focal students.” This is a strengths-based approach we use with teachers during professional development. We ask them to think about a few specific students who have been less engaged in STEM...students with less self efficacy, English learners, shy students, students with IEPs, kids who don’t want to “look smart,” etc. At the end of each hands-on segment, we ask teachers to reflect on how the activity would have gone with their focal students, and if anything would need to be modified. Teachers often realize that focal students benefit the MOST from engaging hands-on learning, though they typically have the least access to it. We have lots of data from teachers on how this practice has been transformative for them in terms of STEM equity

Our emphasis on “focal students” has evolved from a reflection at the end of a workshop to more frequent contemplation and sharing.  As teachers use this lens for curriculum planning and implementation more frequently, the lens becomes a permanent fixture. STEM equity then evolves from a desire to intentional adaptation and finally to routine reflexivepractice. 

I would add that the emphasis on Focal students has made me think about that as I am developing lessons and content for students.  It is difficult for me not to consider the adaptations as I work.  I think the idea of equity was always on my mind but it is now in the forefront.  I believe equity is an important element of STEAM because of the nature of the work that can be attainable for all learning styles and needs.

As a member of this team, I have benefited from being a participant observer during the PD in Denver every year. This opportunity was a way for me to see and experience how a particular strategy (participant observer, focal students, Dawn's students presenting as a panel and Padlet particularly) could be helpful in my own work. I was changed by this experience. I was able to collaborate with my colleagues and incredible teachers. It was truly a team or group experience where we were all learning from each other.