Our vision is to bring together parents, professionals and teachers for the purpose of providing extracurricular STEM activities in our community in a meaningful way which begins at the earliest grade levels and continues through high school. By establishing a presence within the community and within the school system, we can establish a strong network of adults who are willing to mentor students on a wide range of topics, which augment and enhance the ongoing STEM education within the school and to be the backbone for extracurricular activities.
Many parents are willing to help but don't feel qualified to step forward on STEM activities. The STEM Advisory Council can help educate parents as to how they can best support their students, making involvement accessible and achievable. With some training and well defined needs, the pool of available volunteers for STEM programs will expand making it easier to have well attended and successful programs. The intention of STEM Advisory Council is to be a bidirectional conduit for communication between School Districts and the community on STEM related activities. By forming a single group which spans K thru 12, we can take a broader view in planning activities which will cultivate a natural progression of student skills supporting a trajectory of self determination and identity. By developing graduated STEM activities and competitions, designed to exercise critical thinking skills, We'd like to develop the student's feelings of autonomy, or being in command of their lives, develop their relatedness and ability to form social bonds as well as develop competence through learning new skills and overcoming challenges. One of the best ways to reach these goals is to implement project based learning and competitions. Sometimes referred to as gamification, through the use of points, badges and a leaderboard, we can provided graduated encouragement toward achieving new goals with points, recognition of a students mastery of defined skills through the use of badges, and give context to their progression through public acknowledgment of wins. Names placed on the leaderboard set the standards, raising the bar and showing the way. We'd like to create the cultural space within our community for the kids who love science to see a future, build their excitement and to thrive. The STEM Advisory Council can define the vision, values and goals to produce a unified movement toward a successful STEM community. |
Email: LT[email protected]
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