August 13th through the 15th saw the hustle and bustle of over 250 teachers participating in the 2019 NCESD STEM Summit. The event was held at the Wenatchee Convention Center in downtown Wenatchee. The Summit offered over 100 different STEM related sessions ranging in length from one hour to three hours.
There were twenty-three sessions focused on providing the region’s K-12 science teachers with training in NGSS-aligned instructional materials adopted by NCESD. Teachers experienced hands-on lessons from the Smithsonian kits for K-5th grade as well as learned about the phenomena-based updates to the middle school kits developed by local teachers currently using the curriculum. An overview of the Ambitious Science Teaching framework was provided by Wenatchee School District teacher Graham Stansbery to provide background to the high school science teachers in attendance. Teachers could continue from there to attend the five sessions highlighting the recently developed open educational resource integrated high school curriculum.
High School teachers collaborating to develop a model to explain a plant-based burger
NCESD’s Kate Lindholm presented the Voices of Hope GLAD unit, a unique, climate science focused, open educational resource she developed in collaboration with Dr. Sara Martinez. Kate provided an overview of the unit during lunch to all attendees of the Summit. Attendees could also choose to attend a three hour more detailed session where they were able to experience a few of the activities and strategies making up this unit. The enduring understanding of the unit is that we have individual and collective power to create change related to climate science.
NCESD’s Kate Lindholm sharing the Voices of Hope GLAD Unit
The 2019 NCESD STEM Summit provided an excellent opportunity to highlight the work being done in the region related to climate science.
