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Partnerships with our community is a vital piece to our school success. Community leaders have volunteered their time to help create an atmosphere of collaboration with our environment outside of the school. Maple Crest STEM School creates many opportunities for our students to explore career options through resources in and outside of our community. Partnerships are formed through community based outreach by our staff.
4.1 Community Partner Feedback
4.1 Community Partner Feedback
At least three community partners, from different sectors provide feedback on the schools program.
Our community partners give informal feedback when a unit or activity is over. In addition to that we send out a formal surveys so that our partners can help us to enhance out STEM curriculum. This helps our program as a whole.
New Community Partners.pdfThis is a list of most of MCSMS's community partners with how they support our programs. However, these partners also participated in our STEM Plan Survey to help guide our plans and STEM focus, as well as instruction.
Indiana GEAR UP has partnered with us and has had a huge impact on our STEM Focus at Maple Crest, providing insight to our plans throughout the school year, adding additional opportunities for students to experience STEM in authentic ways.
Our partner surveys were completed by experts in at least three different fields to give a varied perspective .
Community STEM feedback.pdfEquitable Education Solutions
Equitable Education Solutions
We have partnered with EES in order to help guide us in our STEM programming efforts. Dr. Mike Langevine has supported in providing STEM guidance in compliance with the STEM Certification goals. A team of his consultants has conducted regular professional development sessions with our staff in order help us focus our cross curriculum planning for two years.
Andy Mark-Community Partner
Andy Mark-Community Partner
Andy provided feedback through the survey requesting we enhance our extra-curricular STEM opportunities for our students to partake in real-world STEM experiences and produce products in a public setting. He also Sponsored our robotic team and worked with our students with troubleshooting and demonstrating real world applications for robotics. Andy Mark is an excellent resource in competitive robotics and even sponsors Valkyrie on the nationally televised show BattleBots.
Duke Energy
Duke Energy
Duke has been a long time partner with Kokomo school district promoting STEM education to all students. While they are heavily involved in providing information and lessons on electricity and renewable energy, they also support our plan by generating ideas of ways they can insert themselves into units, lessons or projects. Duke was able to come to the school to provide over 100 home energy audit kits for our students as well as an in-person “play” that served as the hook for our STEM unit.
4.2 STEM Career Exploration
4.2 STEM Career Exploration
More than 50% of STEM units include career exploration and investigation for a multitude of careers in STEM fields.
All STEM units at Maple Crest Middle School include aspects of career exploration. For example during the Sustainability Unit student look at alternative energy and the engineers that would help design, build and innovate the alternative energy products and resources.
Each grade level utilizes the CREATE2THINK PBL units. Each unit embeds a different STEM career connection within it. This allows students to access 8 different STEM careers per grade level. The career connections involve visual thinking routines to support metacognition and research and exposure to the variety of careers within the field.
These pictures illustrate students exploring such jobs as forensics, city engineering, and mechanical engineering all during different STEM units.
100% of all 6th graders at Maple Crest STEM Middle school participate in a STEM fair. Community members participate and share their expertise in their STEM field with students to show the diversity of STEM Careers.
100% of all 8th graders are enrolled in a College and Career readiness, where they explore a variety of careers.
Our 8th graders also have the ability to go to the Kokomo Area Career Center which opens up the possibilities for more exploration and to receive high school or college credit.
Maple Crest students attend JobSpark event
Maple Crest students attend JobSpark event
Eighth-graders at Maple Crest STEM Middle School spent a day in Indianapolis practicing medical procedures, conducting mock archaeological digs, using flight simulators, and testing advanced manufacturing tools.
For the first time, Maple Crest was invited to participate in the Junior Achievement JobSpark event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. JobSpark aims to help middle school students discover what they want to do after high school. The event was filled with hands-on experiences designed by industry leaders to align with what those industries will need from employees in the near future.
More than 100 industry partners representing eight career clusters participated in the 2018 Job Spark.
These companies included Allison, Eli Lily, Cortiga Agriscience, Weaver Popcorn, Tiny Homes Indy, Hagerman Construction, IUPUI School of Informatics and Computing, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services, Peyton Manning Children's Hospital,
Techpoint Foundation for Youth, and many more.
4.3 Community Engagement
4.3 Community Engagement
Five or more established community partners are actively engaged in the STEM program.
There are multiple community partners actively engaged with Maple Crest STEM Middle school students. Those community partners include Purdue Gear Up, GM Green, Purdue Poly Tech, Howard County Tobacco, SAE Foundation, FCA Foundation (Fiat Chrysler) and Duke Energy.
These are images of students actively engaging with lessons and activities provided from our community partners.
GearUP Partnership for Summer STEM Camp
Panel of local community leaders judge kids' inventions for class project
New Community Partners.pdfThis is a list of some of MCSMS's community partners with how they support our programs.
Water_Sampling_Experience_480p.mp4Grisson Cadet Flight & Civil Air Patrol
Grisson Cadet Flight & Civil Air Patrol
This is a video that was created to distribute at GM Green to illustrate the partnership between the school and how they were using a real world application for learning.
4.4 Extended Learning
4.4 Extended Learning
STEM activities such as robotics and engineering clubs, internships, and apprenticeships are available and accessible by at least 50 percent of students in an on-going basis
Maple Crest STEM Middle School offers opportunities for all students to attend and participate in trips, clubs and robotics competitions.
Maple Crest STEM students extending their learning through Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.
The STEMKATS are a competing robotics club that is extra curricular open to all students.
Serves as documentation of district provided transportation to STEM activities that occur outside the school building. 93% of Maple Crest student population are enrolled in at least 1 STEM related elective class and 72% are enrolled in at least 2 STEM related elective classes. 100% of student have access to after school STEM activities even if they are in need of transportation.
4.5 Equity
4.5 Equity
Provides at least three opportunities /modes to inspire and inform under-represented students about careers in STEM fields.
Maple Crest STEM Middle School offers a multitude of opportunities for students to be introduced to careers in STEM fields as well as inspire our students to continue on a path of continuing education in STEM related fields. These opportunities include, in person field trips, virtual field trips, simulations, guest speakers, career fairs, whole school events, after school clubs, and in class activities. 93% of the student population are enrolled in at least 1 STEM related elective class and 72% are enrolled in at least 2 STEM related elective classes at Maple Crest STEM Middle School.
These images include students at the Junior Achievement Field Trip, the STEM Career Fair, and the GM Green Water Sampling activity. It is important for all of our students to see themselves as capable of succeeding in STEM careers. Our STEM Career Fair offer multiple opportunities for this. The STEM representatives from the different careers are from diverse backgrounds and nationalities. This allows our underrepresented students to be motivated through role models and commonalities. We also set up a a booth to inform students and families about STEM clubs. Our booth highlights students of multiple races and genders through photographs of past students involved with these clubs.
Students involved in various activities, Space Camp, convocations and ZipTrip, through the year to gain knowledge about possible STEM careers. Our contacts with the Space Camp convocations includes a female representative to help motivate and connect to our underrepresented student group of females in STEM.
Within our STEM career guest speakers, a multitude of races and genders were represented to highlight the diversity in the STEM career field. This allowed us to make the experience more meaningful and inspiring to all students.
During STEM classes all students are able to work through real world problems. Students are also taking ownership of their outdoor classroom.
Technology at Maple Crest allows students to learn real time from home during STEM lessons during this national pandemic.
The Slice of STEM is a community outreach that Maple Crest STEM Middle School hosts every year. At this event all students and the community can see what students have been learning as well as what they have accomplished throughout the year. 100% of the student body take part is preparing for this event and all are welcome to this event.
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