PA Smart Grant
Welcome
Welcome to the hub of the IU9's PA Smart Advancing Grant. This year we will be working with all of our 14 school districts to help to connect design thinking through STEM challenges and increase students knowledge of the skills that our local manufactures and industry needs.
Program Goals
Increased accessibility to high-quality and innovative STEM learning and CS programming opportunities for ALL students
Increased solutions to remove geographical barriers to ongoing collaboration and STEM programming
Increased opportunities for educators and business and industry leaders to collaborate
Increased efficiency of coordinating regional STEM Challenges
Reduced travel costs and instructional time commitment
Increased teacher and student feelings of self-efficacy and agency
Increased opportunities for students to participate local and regional in STEM related competitions
Increase student awareness of relevant STEM careers
Increase educator understanding of workforce need
Increase parental involvement and support for high-quality STEM learning and programming in rural schools.
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is the basis of how we want students to accomplish the projects that will be shared. It's important for students to understand all aspects of the process to become better problem solvers and creative thinkers. We will heavily focus on the stages of DEFINE and IDEATE to help students understand the importance of planning when they are designing solutions. To learn more about the Design Thinking process check out the Stanford D-School website dedicated to this process.
