getSTEM Celebrates One Year Anniversary
Just ask, just offer...it just makes sense. On the one year anniversary of its launch, the motto for www.getSTEM-mn.com makes more sense than ever, as more and more educators and businesses are using getSTEM to connect and match STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) needs in education with available business resources. Since its launch one year ago today, getSTEM has helped make over 150 connections between educators and businesses, providing over 8,000 K-12 students with classroom resources necessary for quality STEM education. Here are a few examples of how getSTEM has helped Minnesota K-12 students:
* One of Liz Dayton's first grade students at Forest Hills Elementary in Eden Prairie, Caiah, was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Since Caiah was mostly restricted to at-home tutoring because of her treatments, Liz thought a laptop would be a wonderful tool for Caiah to keep up with her school work and classmates at home. Unfortunately, the school district was only able to supply a laptop for the remainder of the school year. Liz was then referred to the getSTEM web portal, where she posted a request on the website. The rest is history. Within two days of her posting, MN Computers for Schools responded to Liz's request by donating a laptop to the school district for Caiah. District software programs like Lexia, FastMath and Type to Learn were installed on Caiah's laptop so she was able to keep up with her classmates from home. "This is a great lesson in how we can all be of service," said Liz.
* Ryan Watt, a teacher at Poplar Bridge Elementary School in Bloomington, wanted to build a community within the classroom and help students learn about animals by having classroom pets. He only needed an aquarium to house the pets. In stepped Anne Finch of US Bank in St. Paul, who had been considering selling her aquarium and set of lights. Once she saw Ryan's ASK posting on getSTEM, she says, "I knew I would be much happier giving it to some kids who would learn through it." The 75-gallon aquarium is now being used in the front of the school to house a habitat complete with plants, fish and turtles. Numerous classrooms are caring for the habitat and watching their "pets" grow each day. "This is a great addition to our STEM program. The school is trying to link our curriculums together to make more connections with kids and engage kids through hands-on activities," said Watt.
* "Go Green." We hear this theme almost every day. It's not only a focus for individuals and businesses, but also for schools. Matt Winbigler, an 8th grade science teacher at Cloquet Middle School, hoped to find a business professional who could talk to his class about the importance of conserving energy and strategies for minimizing each student's individual carbon footprint. Mr. Winbigler knew that getSTEM was the perfect vehicle to find a guest speaker for his class. Kim Pearson, founder of New Boundary Technologies in Minneapolis, was the first to answer Mr. Winbigler's request. Mr. Pearson visited Cloquet's 8th grade science class and demonstrated how New Boundary Technologies wrote a computer software program allowing network administrators to control power settings on multiple computers simultaneously. He also demonstrated how to calculate computer energy use when computers are left running compared to when they are powered off. Students learned that a lot of energy and money is wasted when computers are left running! Thanks to Mr. Pearson's presentation, Mr. Winbigler's students were exposed to a great learning opportunity in which the concepts learned in class were applied to the business world.
www.getSTEM-mn.com or "getSTEM," is a web portal designed to connect Minnesota educators with science and technology businesses, in order to better prepare students for post-secondary education programs and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). getSTEM is a partnership between the Minnesota High Tech Association and the Minnesota Department of Education along with sponsoring businesses including: Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, 3M, Inetium, and Ecolab. Teachers may use the website to create postings to ASK for community assistance in having materials donated to their classroom, guest presentations, volunteers for field trips and much more. Local businesses use the website to OFFER their K-12 outreach programs that teachers may incorporate into their classroom. Using getSTEM teachers and businesses just ask, just offer...it just makes sense!
* One of Liz Dayton's first grade students at Forest Hills Elementary in Eden Prairie, Caiah, was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Since Caiah was mostly restricted to at-home tutoring because of her treatments, Liz thought a laptop would be a wonderful tool for Caiah to keep up with her school work and classmates at home. Unfortunately, the school district was only able to supply a laptop for the remainder of the school year. Liz was then referred to the getSTEM web portal, where she posted a request on the website. The rest is history. Within two days of her posting, MN Computers for Schools responded to Liz's request by donating a laptop to the school district for Caiah. District software programs like Lexia, FastMath and Type to Learn were installed on Caiah's laptop so she was able to keep up with her classmates from home. "This is a great lesson in how we can all be of service," said Liz.
* Ryan Watt, a teacher at Poplar Bridge Elementary School in Bloomington, wanted to build a community within the classroom and help students learn about animals by having classroom pets. He only needed an aquarium to house the pets. In stepped Anne Finch of US Bank in St. Paul, who had been considering selling her aquarium and set of lights. Once she saw Ryan's ASK posting on getSTEM, she says, "I knew I would be much happier giving it to some kids who would learn through it." The 75-gallon aquarium is now being used in the front of the school to house a habitat complete with plants, fish and turtles. Numerous classrooms are caring for the habitat and watching their "pets" grow each day. "This is a great addition to our STEM program. The school is trying to link our curriculums together to make more connections with kids and engage kids through hands-on activities," said Watt.
* "Go Green." We hear this theme almost every day. It's not only a focus for individuals and businesses, but also for schools. Matt Winbigler, an 8th grade science teacher at Cloquet Middle School, hoped to find a business professional who could talk to his class about the importance of conserving energy and strategies for minimizing each student's individual carbon footprint. Mr. Winbigler knew that getSTEM was the perfect vehicle to find a guest speaker for his class. Kim Pearson, founder of New Boundary Technologies in Minneapolis, was the first to answer Mr. Winbigler's request. Mr. Pearson visited Cloquet's 8th grade science class and demonstrated how New Boundary Technologies wrote a computer software program allowing network administrators to control power settings on multiple computers simultaneously. He also demonstrated how to calculate computer energy use when computers are left running compared to when they are powered off. Students learned that a lot of energy and money is wasted when computers are left running! Thanks to Mr. Pearson's presentation, Mr. Winbigler's students were exposed to a great learning opportunity in which the concepts learned in class were applied to the business world.
www.getSTEM-mn.com or "getSTEM," is a web portal designed to connect Minnesota educators with science and technology businesses, in order to better prepare students for post-secondary education programs and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). getSTEM is a partnership between the Minnesota High Tech Association and the Minnesota Department of Education along with sponsoring businesses including: Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, 3M, Inetium, and Ecolab. Teachers may use the website to create postings to ASK for community assistance in having materials donated to their classroom, guest presentations, volunteers for field trips and much more. Local businesses use the website to OFFER their K-12 outreach programs that teachers may incorporate into their classroom. Using getSTEM teachers and businesses just ask, just offer...it just makes sense!
02/02/10 11:40 am
Subcategory: Education