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Community, post-secondary, business/industry partners and/or families actively support and are engaged with teachers and students in the STEM program.

We jokingly refer to our lobby as Grand Central Station due to the volume of volunteers and visitors that pass through our doors on a daily basis. Despite the logistical calisthenics necessary to pull this off we know that we're very fortunate to have such a high level of community interest in our program, and we take advantage of it at every opportunity. UPES currently has more than thirty active partnerships with local businesses and professionals, as well as an ever-growing population of involved parents. This pool of adults is an invaluable resource, bringing a much needed, additional level of expertise to a teacher's typical classroom instruction, showcasing exactly where the concepts and ideas being covered translate into applicable real-world skills. Just as importantly, these people serve as role models for our aspiring "stemmers", becoming people they can look up to, emulate and seek out for assistance with projects.

Our proximity to the University of Alabama has been incredibly fortuitous. What began with a few simple classroom visits from a curious engineering professor has blossomed into several ongoing partnerships with multiple UA colleges, including the Computer Science, Psychology, IT and Art Departments. It's the best possible win-win situation. College students can fulfill their community outreach requirements and we get the necessary extra hands and minds that push our projects and activities to the next level. UA had so many requests to volunteer that a "STEM Team" was formed to organize the students into teaching groups, and they come each week to our campus to perform lessons or help with individual projects.

We also routinely host local businesses and professionals for STEM career talks, wherein groups such as Alabama Power, BF Goodrich or Mercedes come in for show and tell, Q&A sessions. This year we held an interactive career fair for our students, with representatives from such fields as architecture, engineering, manufacturing, banking and real estate, so that students could speak with STEM practitioners and make that connection between their daily instruction and future career paths.

STEM ALABAMA

STEM Alabama is a partnership that we have had at University Place for the past five years. It started with a small group of STEM majors from the University of Alabama wanting to make a difference in young learners by creating STEM learning experiences for elementary school students. Now the group has over 40 volunteers who come to UPES on a weekly basis to provide STEM enrichment lessons. These lessons are always taught in collaboration with the classroom teachers and used to extend the learning taking place in the classroom. STEM Alabama has tackled a variety of lesson topics ranging from teaching the most basic scientific skills of the scientific process to more advanced robotics lessons. However, each lesson requires students to formulate hypothesis, observe, collect data, draw conclusions and figure out a way to enhance or better the experimental outcome. One memorable unit that our students have the opportunity to participate in each year is on simple machines. STEM Alabama and our teachers collaborate to create a truly integrated and meaningful learning unit for our students. STEM Alabama helps students understand the mechanics and purpose of each simple machine by building models and then connecting all the individual pieces to have students design and build a Rube Goldberg machine. Our teachers are further able to connect this unit to other instruction in the classroom by teaching about simple machines used in the garden, using a lever for balancing equations in math, and by having students close read informational texts. STEM Alabama has made an extremely positive impact on our students. They have helped students grow an interest in STEM fields and the desire to persevere in their learning and critical thinking skills.

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STEM Careers at UPES

UPES held a Career Fair for Grades PreK-5th on November 16, 2018. Over 32 different careers were represented on this day. At this event, students were allowed to meet and interact with various professionals from many different STEM Careers. This opportunity enabled us to enhance the STEM educational experience by providing them opportunities to engage in hands-on STEM activities, explore STEM careers and learn about real-world applications of STEM. During the fair, students were encouraged to participate with STEM Career professionals such as: science lab manager, civil engineer, chemist, audiologist, logistics, computer support specialists, bank manager, construction foremen, meteorologist, dental technicians, architects, and more. These professionals are from our local community, a point that we wanted to drive home with our students, that STEM careers were happening all around them, every day.

Professional Visits

Another way we expose our students to STEM professionals and STEM careers is by hosting visits from local businesses. Alabama Power, RDR Robotics, BF Goodrich, Ellis Architects, WAR Construction, The Cypress Inn, and local meteorologist, James Spann, have all come to our campus to put on STEM-specific demonstrations for our students. For example, when our fourth graders were delving into a unit on electricity and circuits, we asked Alabama Power to drop by and "spark" up the lessons with exhibits that showcased conductivity. Students practiced building circuits and were able to watch electrical arcs pass through, or be diverted, by various objects. BF Goodrich visited when our fifth grade was building remote control race cars to highlight just how "the rubber hits the road". Students learned about friction, composite materials and how to account for variables (such as weather and track conditions) when deciding on tire specifications for their cars. We asked Cypress Inn to come because we wanted to emphasize the level of science and math that occurs in the preparation and cooking of our food. Cypress brought their portable kitchen truck and literally "turned up the heat". Students practiced measuring, counting and estimating skills as they budgeted, weighed and allotted portions for their classmates. They were even allowed to help with the baking and sauteing, which is a great example of chemical versus physical change. All of these experiences were incredibly successful because students could readily see the "adult" version of their classroom project(s) being applied to a familiar setting or scenario. These professional visits enhance our existing instruction and activities and bring a level of expertise and authenticity to the learning experience that would otherwise be impossible in an elementary school setting.

Parent Partners

For any school initiative to be successful it requires that all stakeholders not only believe in the mission and vision, but also are committed to being part of the change and putting in the time to make it a reality. One way that we make this happen at UPES is by having a partnership with our parents. Our parents are eager to be active in increasing STEM learning experiences for our students both at school and at home. Our teachers and staff go out of their way to make our parents feel welcome and valued at school. We are constantly inviting parents to come share their work experience and STEM knowledge with our kids, participate in parent visitation days where they can actively engage in STEM learning experiences with their child at school, and by hosting an annual STEM family night where students and their parents come to school and engage in STEM learning experiences held at each grade level. The PTLA (Parent-Teacher Leadership Academy) team at UPES has set the goal of creating ways to increase the STEM learning opportunities at home by creating the program "My Pact." This program will ultimately be a pact, or contract, between parent and student where the parent agrees to sponsor the child each nine weeks to complete a STEM project at home. STEM skills are critical to future successes and our parent partners share this vision.

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