Summer PD in South Dakota Day 2!

We're back again reporting from Platte-Geddes Elementary School for a second day of professional development with teachers coming together to design what Problem Based Learning will look like in their districts.  Teachers from Platte-Geddes, Ethan, Burke, South Central, Gregory, Marty Indian School, Colome, Wessington Springs, Wolsey Wessington, and White Lake worked on designing numerous projects to fit under the topics and problems to build upon the work they began yesterday.  We all had an exciting day as we had an opportunity to hear from South Dakota Secretary of Education Melody Schopp PhD and the support for this innovative work. Today was full of teachers collaborating and brainstorming for possible projects that can take place throughout a full semester that are meaningful to their students and communities.  In addition to the collaborative planning time, teachers also had a chance to attend break out sessions with Jill Weimer PhD from Sanford Research, to hear about great ways to incorporate this wonderful resource into their problem based work.  Over all a productive day with great conversation and lots of ideas flowing around the room.  We're at it again tomorrow!

South Dakota Summer STEM Professional Development

Today, 116 teachers from across South Dakota descended on Platte for the first of four days of STEM teacher professional development.  PAST was joined by staff and facilitators from the MidCentral Educational Cooperative based here in Platte.  We spent the day introducing STEM as a delivery system, the common core standards, and brainstorming the first of several problems, projects and products that will be developed during the next four days.

Teacher's brainstormed projects that focused on topics including community development, communication issues between towns, citizenship, lack of local grocery stores in some towns, revitalizing business and industry, and sustainable farming.  Other schools decided to take on themes that focused on more specific targets including understanding water quality, how to manage our local landfills, community recycling, and how to increase attendance at school arts programs.  Lots of ideas, lots of collaboration and so much more to come tomorrow.

Murals for change

As the 2012 school year winds down, we have a chance to reflect back on our work with students and teachers in implementing problem based learning.  We often get the question what should PBL look like?  The Girls Empowerment Mural(GEM) Program is an example of a possibility of what it can look like.  "It" can look like educators brainstorming together on how we can empower our students.  And, it can look like students coming together to share ideas on how they can become change makers in their community.  When all said and done it can look like the murals pictured where students answered the question "How can you create change, in your home, your, school, and your Linden community?" through art making.  The panels created on recycled boards, were conceived and created by our 5 GEM high school leaders.  They came together once a week to brainstorm ideas and discuss how they would take on such a project.  Along the way they recruited the help of fellow students, educators, and artists.  In the end their concepts ranged from young women combating cyber bullying to creating safe and clean community spaces for all.  The leaders are immortalized in portraits through out the panels, but in reality the ideas are going to live on through the dialogue they inspire.  So as people try to envision how PBL can look, we look forward to designing more solutions that empower our young people to take on meaningful work!  

Linden STEM at COSI

Friday night families and friends from the four STEM elementary schools, Hamilton, Linden, South Mifflin, Windsor, along with Linden McKinley 7-12 STEM Academy enjoyed an evening at COSI celebrating all the student projects from the spring term. From the Hamilton's awesome new garden to Windsor's wonderful penguins, from the hilarious murder holes in the 7th grade castle to Linden's beautiful paper airplane quilt, from South Mifflin's moving PowerPoint presentation to the 10th grade's funmation social studies board game, visitors were agog at the talent of the students. Crowning the one night exhibit was the debut of the GEM murals designed and painted by Linden McKinley art classes. If you missed the spring COSI Linden Nigh mark your calendar now for the February Fall Term Night.

Change the Equation: Vital Signs Forum

The South Dakota Innovation Labs Project sent a team to Washington DC for the Change the Equation: Vital Signs Forum. The team, Dan Guericki, Tiffany Sanderson, Jill Weimer and Annalies Corbin spent the better part of two days learning a lot about STEM around the country. We met lots of people with similar ideas and initiatives in their own states. We are looking forward to watching as Change the Equation moves forward.

Great Lakes Field Station at Kelleys Island

Just experienced an amazing day trip to Kelleys Island with Annalies, Sheli, Nick, Beth, and Megan. My name is Rich Rosen, a board member with PAST Foundation, and a guest blogger for this post on STEM on the Road.

Over the course of the next few years, this small school in the middle of an island on Lake Erie is seeking to transform itself into a field station using the Great Lakes as the learning laboratory for students to explore as part of their high school education. To get started, 3 summer bridge programs are being designed by PAST in conjunction with the Kelleys Island Schools District (KISD), and will be offered to about 60 students across Ohio in June/2012.

Sheli, Megan, Nick plan the locations
 on the Island for Entomology Program.

The Board of KISD has taken a bold step with the upcoming summer bridge programs they are planning with the support of PAST. With what is learned about the island as a field school this summer, the long range plan is to establish a year-round Field School. This offers the potential to add more robust learning environments at the local school for the teachers and students who are year-round residents, as well as a magnet to attract students from other STEM schools in Ohio and elsewhere who would attend the field school for extended periods of time. No other resource like this is available to students or teachers in Ohio or in the US.

Beth (middle) is coordinating the sessions, and she's joined here by graduate students Megan and Nick from The Ohio State University sitting on the banks of the quarry.

Here's Nick at the quarry, one of the sites for
Entomology - Miniature Masters of Human Fate

Geology will be seen close-up as students
see Glacial Grooves and Geological
Mysteries of the last Ice Age

All that remains from an abandoned winery is this beautiful stone wall.
A site that holds some mysteries for the students to explore.

The school is located in the middle of the island. Kelleys Island is off the north coast of Ohio and students will reach the island on a ferry leaving from Marblehead, Ohio.  

I can just imagine the problem based learning (PBL) opportunity that exist in this island community. Stay tuned to see what the students create.


Oh, and a final discovery that Annalies and I found during our drive home! For those who drive up from Columbus to Kelleys this summer, we highly recommend stopping in Norwalk at Sheri's Coffee House - 27 Whittlesay Avenue - for a nice mocha. We met the owner, and the cafe was filled with local after-schoolers hanging out. Maybe some of them are future summer bridge program students at Kelleys in 2012 and beyond. You never know?

STEM and GEM!

Exciting work has been going on at PAST and all of our buildings as we explore what 2012 has to offer. In December we were generously awarded a grant from the Women's Fund of Central Ohio (check out their site and see all of the 2012 projects they support: http://www.womensfundcentralohio.org/) to fund our Girls Empowerment Mural(GEM) Program. This program will have students design and manage a community based mural program within the Linden Area. To kick off our introduction to murals and community based art The Ohio State University Art Education Department generously offered to invite Mural Artist and Educator Olivia Gude to help share her expertise and experience with our teachers and community partners. We came together at the newly renovated Linden McKinley STEM Academy on Saturday February 3, 2012 to explore the space as well as begin possible mural ideas to share with our schools and the Linden community. This was a phenomenal experience as we heard Gude speak to the notion "Teachers who instruct...through collaborative public art projects understand that, while it is true that people are shaped by their environments, it is also true that people have the capacity to alter and change environments, and thus to be reshaped themselves." It was a wonderful day and a great catalyst in brainstorming ways to share with our students that they can be agents of change in their communities through thoughtful creation of space!

Teachers and community members came together to brainstorm and share ideas on beginning our collaborative mural program.