At Madison, we are proud to say we have a wide range of actively engaged STEM community partners. While each community partner’s contribution may look different --from coming in for business presentations on a frequent, continuing basis, to serving on the WCS District STEM Advisory team and providing more frequent program feedback, to providing consistent financial support, to providing direct programming to our students, to serving on our local Madison STEM Advisory Board-- we celebrate and recognize the unique contributions of all of our community partners that help to strengthen our integrated STEM program. Before diving into Elements 4.1 to 4.4, see our chart below for a full list of community partners to see a big-picture overview for how each is actively involved in our Madison STEM program.
4.1 Community Partner Feedback
At Madison, we have a District STEM Strategic Planning Team, a District STEM Advisory Board, and a Madison STEM Advisory Board. Each board consists of eat least three local STEM community partners who are actively engaged in the STEM program, including providing regular feedback on Madison's STEM program. We also solicit feedback from our community partners in the form of a community partner survey. Click the slide show for full explanation and detailed evidence.
4.2 STEM Career Exploration
Two of our district-adopted curriculums, Reveal Math and PLTW, have career resources included with each unit to intentionally introduce STEM careers to students that mirror the accompanying topic. As teachers have planned their PBLs and STEM lessons, they purposefully include careers pertaining to the project to discuss with their class. Madison also has community career experts that come in to speak with students on their particular STEM fields.
4.3 Additional STEM Learning Opportunities
At Madison, 100% of students have access to opportunities such as coding, animal dissections, and field trips. Our school also offers after school clubs such as Girls in STEM, Spring Robotics Showcase, and Chess Club. In the robotics clubs, students are engaged in hands-on experiences learning specifically coding and robotics but also problem solving, decision making, and how to work through challenges. The clubs are offered to more than half of our student body. Our school district also offers a STEM Summer Challenge program where 4th - 6th graders attend a 3 week session taking on 2 separate STEM challenges. Madison is committed to providing students with rich STEM experiences outside the traditional classroom.
4.4 Access and Opportunity to STEM Experiences
Madison Elementary has specifically chosen to develop an action plan to inspire/inform girls in STEM and girl minorities in STEM at Madison Elementary.
Consistent with our action plan to inspire/inform our identified underrepresented student groups, students are provided with the following opportunities/modes to inspire and inform girls and dual-identified girls/minority students about careers in STEM fields:
(1) Extracurricular Opportunities;
(2) Integrated Tier 1 & Tier 2 Opportunities; and
(3) Modeling through visible female representation in STEM careers.
By fostering a supportive and inclusive environment that prioritizes opportunities and representation for girls, there is the potential to close the gender gap and inspire the next generation of female innovators and big problem solvers.
