Teachers get hands-on with i-STEM activities

COEUR d'ALENE - Lynda Ehrsam smiled after crawling out of STARLAB, an inflatable, portable planetarium set up Tuesday in a meeting room on the North Idaho College campus.

"This is giving us some really good, new ideas for science in our classrooms," said the Ramsey Elementary School fifth-grade teacher.

Ehrsam is one of more than 100 Idaho K-12 educators attending the first i-STEM (Idaho Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) summer institute taking place at NIC this week. A similar event is being held simultaneously at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.

i-STEM is a statewide effort by the State Department of Education, Idaho Division of Professional-Technical Education, educators and businesses to support K-12 science, technology, engineering and math education in the state.

The teachers at the institute participated in a variety of hands-on activities Tuesday, some directed by NASA, Discovery Center of Idaho and Boise State University.

The educators completed activities they can bring to their students. They baked cookies in a solar oven, built wind turbines and used microscopes to study the human body at the cellular level.

In addition to Ehrsam, seven other Ramsey Elementary School teachers are attending the institute at NIC, which is funded though grants and provided at no expense to the teachers or their school districts.

Ramsey became the Coeur d'Alene School District's latest magnet school during the last school year, with a focus on science.

Ehrsam has already seen how integrating science and inquiry-based learning into the regular curriculum gets kids excited about science and school.

In the past, when she asked her pupils what they would like to be when they grow up, the replies were usually things like athlete, fireman and nurse.

"This year, at least half of the kids said something science-related, and that's after just one year. Imagine what it will be like after five years as a science magnet," Ehrsam said.

She said it's exciting for her, as a teacher.

Ehrsam also sees how the inquiry-based learning that goes along with STEM education is effective.

"The kids really do ask the big questions. They get the answers, and it sticks," Ehrsam said.

"STEM are in every part of our lives, our jobs and our future," said Melinda Hamilton, the director of education programs for Idaho National Laboratory, one of a growing number of education, government and business partners participating in the i-STEM initiative.

The i-STEM initiative strives to increase awareness of learning resources, and make them easily accessible to teachers throughout the state.

"Many are existing programs teachers didn't even know existed," Hamilton said.

NIC is being established as an i-STEM center, said Gail Ballard, the college's education instructor.

"We will be a portal for i-STEM, with a lending library," Ballard said.

The STARLAB portable planetarium, owned by the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, will be at NIC available for schools to borrow.