As we build our calendar each year, we bring in stakeholders to help us establish STEM specific SMART goals. Their partnership, perspective, and input is essential in the creation of a viable yearly framework from which we can operate. Our mission is to keep them apprised of progress towards these goals, data related to those goals, and first handedly witness our course of action as we proceed throughout the year. Woodland Forrest has an “open-door” policy, where our stakeholders are regularly invited on campus to participate in classroom activities and school-wide events. We kick off each year with an Open House event for our stakeholders, when we review and analyze the results of the previous year’s STEM goals and outline the adjustments, new strategies, and processes for the year to come. After Open House, part of our process is ensuring we are constantly communicating with our stakeholders. We routinely update them through our various social media platforms, call outs, and daily messages from our teachers, and our school website serves as the hub in which parents can access this information on a holistic level.

Our stakeholders learn about STEM implementation in the same manner our students do, immersively. We invite them to events with the full expectation that they will be active participants in the proceedings. At STEM Night, they build and code robots, create apps, engage in experiments, and create math tools to take home. During our Digital Literacy event, they act out reader’s theater on a greenscreen, author digital books through Book Creator, and explore science concepts through augmented reality with Merge Cubes. DiscoverFest is a little bit different. It is an experience that allows stakeholders to become part of the actual STEM teaching process. At this year’s event AMSTI created an instructional math trail. The art department from a local high school led a cyanotypes experiment, Barnhill Preserve educated our students on exotic animals and the need to protect their environments, and the Community Literacy team led a literacy and writing activity about Earth Day. On a smaller scale, the typical culmination of a thematic unit would entail inviting stakeholders in so that students could showcase their learning through STEM projects.

The pandemic hit us especially hard in the traditional methods for stakeholder involvement. Our campus was closed for a year and a half. To combat this, we hosted virtual classroom visitations, had a stronger social media presence, and supplied our parents with the materials necessary to participate in a virtual STEM event.

Community Engagement

We know that it’s important that our stakeholders, especially our parents, feel informed of, and connected to their child’s STEM learning process, so we are always on the lookout for opportunities to bring them into our classrooms to get an up-close view of the work being done. Digital Literacy Night, Week of Code and this year’s Governor’s App Challenge are some examples of how we involve our parents and community in our STEM mission and efforts. At the Digital Literacy event parents viewed student presentations and portfolios and were guided through available digital platforms and resources to support the STEM learning at home. Week of Code is a great experience for our students and parents to learn together. All of our students, Pre-K through fifth grade are able to write code or run simple programs. During Week of Code our students become the teacher-experts, demonstrating for their parents how to write lines of code, run robots and operate Lego We-Do machinery. Parents also took part in this year’s Governor’s App Challenge by providing preliminary feedback during their child’s development of an application for the contest.

We strive to have a consistent presence on social media to highlight the myriad STEM lessons and projects taking place at WFES. Our partners are accustomed to seeing themselves in our digital space and utilizing the WFES platform as part of their outreach efforts. STEM challenges and ideas for at-home activities are constantly posted to keep our families feeling like part of the learning process. Information about our STEM program is also made readily available to all stakeholders on our school’s web site and at community events such as Open House, Title 1 Information sessions and PTA meetings.