Teachers taking STEM online courses this week
College of Western Idaho associate professor Dusty Perkins gives STEM educators a tour of the school's experimental showy milkweed garden designed to help in monarch butterfly habitat restoration at the 2018 i-STEM Summer Institutes. STEM teachers will be participating in professional development courses this week through the Idaho STEM Action Center and the Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction's office.
Otto Kitsinger/Idaho STEM Action Center
Educators statewide are convening the next two weeks to learn STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) content and network at the Idaho STEM Action Center's annual i-STEM Summer Institutes.
The professional development workshops were canceled last summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They're being held virtually this year in an expanded partnership with the Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction's office, which is sponsoring 18 of the 29 workshops this year.
Workshops include: Cracking the Code: Computer Science for K-2 and Beyond; Game Design and Virtual Reality in the Classroom with Blocksmith; Paper Circuits and Energy FUNk; Using STREAMpower to Explore Outer Space; Wildlife Conservation in Your Backyard; Cultivating Citizen Scientists in Elementary Grades; and Teaching Mathematics Through Gaming.
North Idaho College is live-streaming workshops today through Thursday.
Teachers can attend any institute this year because the events are virtual. More than 300 are already registered. Participants will receive kits of workshop materials.
STEM Action Center interim executive director Kaitlin Maguire said there's never been a greater need for the i-STEM Summer Institutes.
"Although the delivery is online this year, i-STEM still offers exceptional professional development opportunities that will bring hands-on STEM activities into the classroom," she said. "The curriculum and kits will be especially welcome coming out of a rough year due to the pandemic and will help equip educators with the materials and skills to hit the ground running in the new school year."
The Idaho STEM Action Center was created in 2015 because Idaho citizens are not entering the STEM pipeline fast enough to meet current and future workforce needs. Its goals are to increase equitable access to STEM opportunities, align education and workforce needs and amplify awareness of STEM throughout Idaho.
The organization is working with industry, government, educators and students to develop new resources and support high-quality professional-development opportunities to foster a STEM-educated workforce that ensures Idaho's continued economic prosperity.
Info: www.STEM.idaho.gov