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STEM teachers and leaders participate in a continuous program of STEM-specific professional learning.

It's not always easy to find STEM-specific professional learning opportunities for an elementary school faculty. Supplemental reading strategies, or math support is readily available, but it requires a far greater effort to find staff development focused on things such as integrating technology and engineering into the course of study. If a STEM program is going to be successful it must start at the top with a school administration that communicates, and then supports a true growth mindset. They must be vigilant and watchful for every potential training opportunity, workshop, conference or newly published resource. It takes a willingness to travel, spend money (from an already tight budget) and have forethought to recruit the type of teachers that already have a predilection for STEM-related ideas, gadgets and activities. In fact, when creating school-wide goals for our ACIP this year, we included a very lofty professional development goal (85 % of staff would attend three sessions of STEM-specific training). But buy-in at the top is only part of the process. Teachers must feed off that growth mindset and be willing to turn around training for colleagues and, more importantly, must have a desire to further advance and further enhance their instructional practices and pedagogy. This is no small task, as many veteran teachers may have to shift or entirely change their educational philosophies, and utilizing new technology can be daunting. We've found that the best way to support our staff is by making professional development a totally inclusive endeavor. All grade levels (including Pre-K), all disciplines (including PE), and all specialists (including self-contained autism units) attend our in-house STEM learning events. Additionally, every teacher is on a rotation schedule to participate in off campus training as it becomes available. It is also important that administrators literally lead the way and undergo the professional learning in conjuncture with, and alongside their staff.

STEM Academy with Discovery Ed

The teachers at UPES participated in a day long professional development session lead by Discovery Ed. The teachers learned not only the research behind the STEM movement in education but also had the opportunity to participate in a variety of hands-on learning experiences they could take and use in their classrooms. Teachers were asked to work collaboratively to build free standing towers, make paper-slides videos, and post to Twitter. Additionally, teachers were engaged in deep conversations about what STEM is and what it looks like in the classroom, as well as, why the STEM initiative is as crucial to curriculum as reading and math are. It is imperative that we as educators prepare our students for an uncertain future and one of the most effective ways that we can do that is by making them STEM literate so that they can not just survive but thrive in their future endeavors.

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Professional Development AMSTI

AMSTI is a state sponsored teaching initiative rooted in the belief that hands-on, inquiry-based learning is at the root of teaching best practices. The teachers at UPES are AMSTI trained in both math and science because we believe that our students learn best from doing, not just seeing. AMSTI professional development provides teachers with not only the training to implement a rigorous curriculum but also the means by which to teach it. Teachers spend several days actively engaged in learning the program and content they will be teaching to students. During these PD sessions they serve as practitioners, taking on the role of the student, to gain a better sense of the learning opportunities each lesson provides. After completing AMSTI training the teacher will receive a "kit" with all the materials and manipulatives needed to teach that specific science unit or math grade band. AMSTI has made hands-on teaching affordable for teachers by providing them with all the tools they need to deliver meaningful and relevant math and science content to young learners. At UPES it is a requirement that all teachers become, and remain, AMSTI certified, and administration routinely schedules faculty rotation for this professional development.

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Code.Org

The teachers at UPES believe in the future of computer science and want to prepare our students for that future. Quite simply we want our students to be able to code. We want them to be able to compete for scholarships and jobs in one of the fastest growing and highest paying careers in the nation. We want our students to not only be able to compete for these jobs but to start the race with an advantage, an advantage that started in their kindergarten classroom when they were five years old learning how to code. Thus, our teachers are actively seeking out computer science professional development opportunities. One training that numerous UPES faculty has attended is Code.org training. Over the last several years we have had teachers from all grade levels as well as the administration attend computer science training sessions with Code.org. During this training our teachers have learned not only the basics of coding and how to implement code.org into the classroom and connect it to other academic disciplines but aslo about the current job market trends for computer science jobs but also the statistics for how underrepresented certain populations are in this field. The teachers who attended this training came back to UPES campus with a determination to close that gap. Through this professional development the teachers at UPES have developed a deeper understanding for the importance of teaching coding and computer science skills starting in Kindergarten.

STEAM by Design

STEAM by Design was a 2-day professional development opportunity hosted by the Talladega County School system that a team of teachers was able to attend. The Steam By Design training focused on the integration of STEAM across the curriculum, including electives. The keynote speaker, author of Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros emphasized the importance of meeting today’s students where they are and equipping them with the tools that are conducive to their technological environment. The breakout sessions included a plethora of pedagogies designed to create student autonomy through integration of new knowledge into Art, project-based learning, technology, and other hands-on activities that empower and challenge students. As a result of the training, I have implemented STEM centers and lessons that challenge my students and is hopefully cultivating a community of forward thinking leaders. Some of our projects have included but are not limited to the following:

Free standing tallest towers challenge: Students had to create rectangular prisms from graph paper, construct the tallest free standing tower, and calculate the total volume of the tower.
Colony Project: The students used google search engine to research assigned colony and create a free choice project. The projects included creating advertisement posters, newspaper articles, raps, scripts, PowerPoint or animated Powtoon, or writing a letter. The students also presented their projects to the class.
Code.org center: The students learn to create computer programs that promote collaboration and develop problem solving skills
Cup Stacking Challenge: This challenge was a series of challenges (timed and untimed) in which the students had to build a single tower, specified base tower, and at times, alternating cup towers. They were asked to predict either the number of cups needed or the height of the structures. The students had to evaluate each structural design and calculate the class central tendencies.

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