STEM West
Dear STEM West Partners,
We hope this message finds you safe during these incredibly challenging times. As many of you are aware, the recent hurricane has caused widespread flooding and landslides throughout western North Carolina, resulting in devastating losses for our communities. Many of our clients and partners have lost their homes, businesses, and sense of security. The western counties, where we serve, have been deeply impacted by this event.
First and foremost, our thoughts are with each of you as we navigate this crisis together. At STEM West, our mission has always been to support and uplift our community, and this mission has never been more urgent. We understand that many of our partners, have been deeply affected by the damage caused by the storm. The impact on families, infrastructure, and livelihoods is profound, and we are here to help.
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Support Western NC
Our hearts and thoughts are with our colleagues in western NC, along with their students, families, and communities due to the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene. Our western communities face a long road to recovery.
If you want to help, consider donating to these organizations:
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Home Disaster Loans: Loans to homeowners or renters to repair or replace disaster-damaged real estate and personal property, including automobiles.
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Business Physical Disaster Loans: Loans to businesses to repair or replace disaster-damaged property owned by the business, including real estate, inventories, supplies, machinery and equipment. Businesses of any size are eligible. Private, non-profit organizations such as charities, churches, private universities, etc., are also eligible.
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Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL): Working capital loans to help small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture, and most private, non-profit organizations of all sizes meet their ordinary and necessary financial obligations that cannot be met as a direct result of the disaster. These loans are intended to assist through the disaster recovery period
Together with state and federal partners, FEMA is actively supporting Hurricane Helene response efforts. Also provides tips for post-storm safety, state resources, family reunification, and other information. You can apply for assistance in three ways:
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Call 800-621-3362. If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service.
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To Help
Follow the links below for opportunities to volunteer or donate. Financial donations are best. Do not travel to impacted areas without coordinating with local and state officials.
Donations made to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund will go to nonprofits working to meet the immediate needs of storm victims such as food and water, cleaning supplies and other emergency supplies. All of the donations made will go to disaster relief. United Way of North Carolina is the fiscal agent for the fund and will provide grants and reimbursement to nonprofits working in impacted communities.
The North Carolina Community Foundation is encouraging donations to groups that are working to address immediate health, humanitarian and safety needs in western North Carolina. A wide range of groups are supporting that effort, including the American Red Cross, Baptists On Mission, The Salvation Army and United Way of North Carolina.
Contributions will support recovery efforts related to the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.
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Big Thanks to Contributing Partners for STEM Trek!!
STEM Trek is a community event that has been a standing partnership for over seven years between STEM West, the Catawba Science Center (CSC) and the Greater Hickory International Council (GHIC). The CSC has readily provided space for the event, while the GHIC continues to provide funding and volunteers. Other partners include the Pepsi Distribution Center and the NC Science Festival. This NC Science Festival Event has seen families return each year to learn about regional STEM careers and have fun doing science together. After seven years, the planning team wants to develop a similar event for high school students who are just beginning to establish their career pathways. As a result, STEM Trek 2025 will be hosted at the Hickory Metro Center to be able to provide over 50 businesses space to exhibit hands-on activities related to their employment opportunities. This event will cost approximately $50,000 as it is a FREE event for over 6,600 students and the public.
STEM Trek 2025 will be a 2-day event. All businesses/organizations will set up their demonstration tables with hands-on activities on April 15th, 2025. On April 16-17 the 10th graders will be scheduled to tour the Hickory Metro to visit and interact with the regional STEM businesses for approximately 90 minutes. These interactions will focus on learning about STEM careers in the region. These careers will range from high school diplomas/credentials to 2-year and 4-year degrees.
A new addition to the event there will be a community job fair and family engagement time. After students return to school on April 16th, from 3:00-6:00, the event will open to the public for family visits and a job fair. HR representatives will be present at this time to conduct interviews and assist with application completions. Since this event is after school hours, participating businesses will continue to provide activities for children and youth while adults will be interacting with HR personnel to work on applications. Children will readily want to engage with the hands-on activities, having fun learning STEM!
This event could not take place without support from our local community partners. Google is the lead sponsor for STEM Trek 2025. Corning Incorporated and GKN have also stepped up to the plate to provide funding towards the NC Science Festival Event.
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Coding and Mobile App Grants Awarded to Catawba County Schools and Yancey County Schools
The Coding and Mobile App Development Grant program, launched in 2017 with funding from the North Carolina General Assembly, supports partnerships with local businesses to help schools develop computer science, coding and mobile app development programs for middle and high school students.
The grants, which range in size from $13,000 to $80,000 this year, are used by districts and schools to obtain equipment, purchase digital materials and cover the costs associated with teacher professional development to build capacity in coding, computer science and mobile application development initiatives.
Catawba County Schools and Yancey County Schools received the grant in partnership with STEM West.
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Engineering Mindset
One of the primary goals of engineering education is to promote development of an engineering mindset. An engineering mindset refers to the values, attitudes, and thinking skills associated with engineering. Engineers solve problems using systematic, iterative processes. The technologies (objects, systems, or processes) they design address the needs and desires of people, animals, society, and the environment. Engineers shape the world we live in. The clean water, toothbrushes, traffic pattern, smart phones, stain-resistant materials, and electric vehicles we use have all been developed by engineers. Though the products of engineering are diverse, engineers approach their work using a common set of engineering practices. High-quality engineering experiences that engage youth in these practices help them develop and strengthen an engineering mindset.
Million Girls Moonshot is highlighting 10 engineering practices. An overview of each follows. Subsequent briefs will explore each one individually. These practices are also more fully described in educational research articles
(Cunningham, 2018; Cunningham & Kelly, 2017).
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References
Cunningham, C. M. (2018). Engineering in elementary STEM education: Curriculum design, instruction, learning, and assessment. New York, NY: Teacher College Press.
Cunningham, C. M., & Kelly, G. K. (2017). Epistemic practices of engineering in education. Science Education.101, 486–505. |
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“Building” Literacy Presented at
K-5 Engineering Conference
STEM West was honored to present “Building” Literacy at the K-5 Engineering Conference in Raleigh on April 25th. Dr. Carol Moore, Founder and CEO of STEM West, and Mia Johnson, Lead Instructional Coach Coordinator of Catawba County Schools, shared lessons learned through the pilot program.
“Building” Literacy was designed by Moore & Johnson to integrate engineering and coding with literacy strategies and text. The funding that provided the LEGO Spike Essentials and professional development was graciously funded by Google, Dogwood Health Trust, and Duke Energy Foundation grants.
The presentation was well received by a full room of K-5 STEM teachers from across North Carolina as participants engaged with sample lessons.
A few quotes from implementing teachers:
–Another important aspect for me was that the students experience success with the Lego builds. When their robots worked, the excitement on their faces was just awesome. I think the kits give students who may struggle academically a chance to shine in a different, but related, area, and I feel like that is really important for these kids.
–My students and I LOVE using this integrated approach to literacy. They were all engaged and eager to learn more.
–My kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED these lessons. I did a variety of builds from the SPIKE kits. For my younger kids, I would find a story that would relate to the build they were going to do, and they would have to use context clues and text analysis to figure out what their build was going. They would ask to go back to past of the story and compare how their build looked to what we read, for my upper kids, I was able to group them to do research on some non fiction texts that related to different builds an activities. They were also very excited to share with their classroom teachers what they built and the text connection to why the build it.
–The Lego Spike kits were a fantastic addition to my STEM classroom. Each day, students were excited to go on the next “adventure” with the children from Spike Town. Students were 100% engaged in the process, eager to share/improve/change their builds. In addition, students learned about different modes of transportation around the world and games and activities to which they had little (or no) previous exposure. Also, “including” Daniel as a character who needs adaptive equipment to access the games/machines promotes social acceptance and diversity. As a new STEM teacher, this was my first opportunity to implement coding in my classroom. I am grateful! |
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| Watch for more STEM opportunities in the STEM West Newsletter! |
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