Launching STEM with Staff

   STEM is new at my school so half of the teachers here had no idea what STEM meant...at least until today!  I didn't really even know either until a few months ago.  The more I learned, the more I really believed in what it can accomplish.  I gave the staff an introductory lesson on STEM so they would have a better idea of exactly what it is and what their students are doing when they come to specials.
    I made a brochure that tells what STEM is all about and why its coming to schools.  

    I explained to teachers that STEM helps our students learn 21st century skills while enabling them to prepare for STEM jobs.  STEM is a fast growing field and their are jobs available...just not enough qualified workers to fill them.  STEM will help make our students marketable!  

    I also told them that just because its a project, does not mean its STEM.  You can ask yourself these questions to judge whether a lesson is STEM or not: 

¶Does it engage students in the engineering design process?

¶Do students address a real-world problem?

¶Do they work in teams to solve this problem?

¶Are there multiple possible solutions?

¶Do students get to explore and come up with ideas on their own, without being spoon-fed?

   

    Then teachers tried to make a tower from 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 foot of tape, and 1 foot of string, to support a large marshmallow at the top.  I thought there would be grumbles about this project, but everyone excitedly dove right in!  A picture of our teachers completing the project:

   You know there is a prezi to go along with this presentation to teachers!