STEM

STEM along with critical thinking skills, collaboration, and teamwork are skills that are vital to our state’s and our nation’s workforce and economic development. Out of school time (OST) programs support classroom learning by providing an informal setting for additional, hands on, engaging and innovative activities where students are able to explore, learn, make and question.

Principles of Quality STEM Activities

Celebrate National Engineers Week February 18-24

🚀Engineers Week is a year-round commitment to celebrate how engineers make a difference in our world. Whether you meet with students in-person or virtually, you can spark their interest by talking to them about engineering, doing STEM activities, and sharing your story.✨

Here are 12 Great Ideas for Engineers Week. These quick, easy to implement, and fun activities highlight design process and engineering principles. Materials are easy to find  and encouraged to be used in your afterschool setting.

More activities to celebrate National Engineers Week:

Celebrate Black History Month with Verizon’s Live Career Chat

🚀February 27 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm ET Join STEM Professionals – from analysts to business transformation managers – for a conversation about STEM careers. Programs, classrooms, and students can tune into a live conversation with professionals working globally at Verizon. Register here.

Professional Development Opportunities🚀

ACRES Coaching: Asking Purposeful Questions 

Wednesdays 2/28, 3/13, 4/3 | 1:00 – 3:00 pm EST

Description: Questions begin a path toward discovery, imagination, and STEM exploration. How can we help youth expand and clarify their thinking and develop their reasoning through the questions we ask them? This module is a great way to train staff on how to facilitate STEM learning. Experienced educators also love being part of a cohort as a way to connect with other educators across the country, to learn new lesson plans, and to reflect on practice.  This is our introductory module and a prerequisite to other opportunities. *The expectation is that you will be live at all three sessions and an active member of this coaching cohort. Recordings are not available if you are unable to attend. REGISTER HERE Code: AC347PQ (Coach Becky T)

 

 

South Carolina Technovation Girls

March 14, 2024 | 3:30 pm EST

🚀 Technovation Girls SC is a FREE STEM program to engage girls ages 8-18 in computer science, entrepreneurship and business leadership while emphasizing teamwork and critical thinking skills. Girls are tasked to identify a challenge in their community and then create a mobile app or AI prototype that solves that problem! 

🚀No computer science or coding background? No worries, we have plenty of resources needed to get started! 

🚀REGISTER HERE to join us on Mar. 14 @3:30pm to learn more about how to get your youth involved in this awesome opportunity!

Communicating STEM in Out of School Time Settings

The Noyce Foundation recognizes leaders in all sectors need to have messaging tools to be persuasive advocates for STEM, particularly in out of school time settings.  The video below and the following are robust resources to assist and guide STEM communications more effectively: The Power of Explanation: Reframing STEM and Informal Learning, Telling the STEM Chapter of the Education Core Story: A Communications Toolkit, How to Speak STEM-ish

Key Statistics

 

RESOURCES

LOCAL/STATE RESOURCES

The Condition of STEM Education 2015

STEM Learning Ecosystems: How Cross-Sector Collaboration can advance STEM Learning

South Carolina Coalition for Math & Sciences

 

NATIONAL RESOURCES

Afterschool Tech Toolkit
This free resource from the National AfterSchool Association includes a series of modules, webinars, and hands-on training that will help afterschool professionals and educators plan and prepare to integrate technology into their programs. The toolkit is for those who lead or oversee out-of-school time programming in various settings including schools, community-based organizations, private organizations, churches, libraries, and homeless shelters.

June is National Zoo and Aquarium Month
This month is a good time to explore your local zoo and aquarium. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums provides a collection of links. Many of the websites have educational resources such as videos, wild life facts, lesson plans, and activities.

NCWIT: Enrich PK-8 Computing Education
This is a new resource from the National Center for Women & Information Technology’s (NCWIT). Student influencers such as formal and informal educators and parents are eager to direct students to viable education opportunities in computing. Consider these key points and resources that can be used to integrate computing skills into existing curricula, encourage diverse participation in computing, and/or connect students to informal learning environments that emphasize hands-on experience with technology.

Women in Hardware Video Series
This interview series covers some of the most inspiring women pioneering the hardware industry and promotes gender balance in tech. From groundbreaking entrepreneurs to engineers at the tops of their fields, the series highlights women who are inventing, innovating, and changing hardware for the better.

The Connectory – Find Summer Camps!
The Connectory is the go-to place to find STEM year-round and summer is the peak season. Many girl focused summer STEM opportunities are available. Search by location, dates, area of interest, and age group. Find an opportunity near you.

 

Coding for the Early Years

TechGirlz Sets STEM Outreach Goal: 20K by 2020

STEAM Universe – 3 Ways to Help Students Build Empathy with Technology

Afterschool STEM Hub

Click2Science

EiE: Engineering Adventures (Grades 3th-5th) and Engineering Everywhere (Grades 6th-8th)

Models (The Modeling Designs for Learning Science) 

Noyce Foundation

NBA Math Hoops

NASCAR

Science in Afterschool: literature review