2014 MA STEM Summit Call for Sessions is OPEN!

Are you interested in presenting at the 2014 Massachusetts State STEM Summit?  This year the organizers are pleased to announce the introduction of a Call for Sessions!  Session proposals that are selected for inclusion in the program will supplement those being developed by teams of volunteers currently planning each of the Summit's topical Strands (listed below).


For more information and to submit a proposal click on the following link:
MA Summit 2014 Session Proposal
 
Proposals received in response to the Call will be reviewed by a sub-committee of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, which will submit its recommendations to the program planning teams.
 
Proposals may address any of the Summit’s topical Strands, or other relevant topics and issues.  The Summit's Strands are: Early Education; K-12 Education; 2 Year Higher Education; 4 Year+ Higher Education; Out-of-School Time; Digital Education; Innovation/Entrepreneurship; Career Awareness & Workforce Development; and Research and Practice.
 
Proposals should ideally address one or more of the Goals described in Massachusetts STEM Plan 2.0: Student Interest; Student Achievement; Skilled Educators; Post-Secondary Persistence; and Workforce Alignment.  In planning your session, please note that sessions will be 75 minutes long.

Massachusetts Project Lead The Way Conference

Save the Date

What: Massachusetts Project Lead The Way Conference
When: October 24, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Location: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Salisbury Laboratories, Worcester, MA
Eligibility: The conference is open to all K-12 schools and other interested parties.
Details: Partial funding to support implementing PLTW programs at the middle and high school levels may be available to MA school districts serving diverse, low income populations. The conference details will be available by late September on the WPI website at www.wpi.edu/+pltw. For more information about the Project Lead The Way programs, please visit the PLTW website at www.pltw.org.

This conference is a professional development conference for school counselors, curriculum specialists, principals, teachers, district administrators, and interested business and industry professionals to learn about the Project Lead The Way K-12 Curriculum Programs that integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), providing an opportunity for districts to develop a STEM pathway from kindergarten to grade 12 in order to prepare students for the global economy. These programs are aligned with the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.

PLTW programs are endorsed by the Massachusetts Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, the American Aerospace Industry Association, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, among others.

Science inquiry for out of school time

Online module in Science Inquiry for Out of School Time Professionals

Event: Aspire Institute at Wheelock College - two-week module in science inquiry for out of school time professionals
Date: Monday, August 12th – Friday, August 23rd (total of 12 hours)
Audience: OST teachers, site leaders and curriculum developers
Rate: $89 (1.2 CEUs) or $59 (no CEUs) + $10 registration fee; contact for group rates
Information: Register at www.wheelock.edu/ost. Registration closes Thursday, August 8. See flyer and syllabus for further information.

Through NASA Funding, the Aspire Institute at Wheelock College will be rolling out a two-week online module in Science Inquiry for Out of School Time Professionals. This module will help out of school time teachers, site leaders and curriculum developers better understand how to integrate science inquiry in the out of school time setting and model inquiry through science activities. Students will learn both content and instructional strategies through engaging videos, interactive online discussions with professional peers, and relevant readings and assignments.

Summer professional development for teachers in grades 3-8

Massachusetts Professional Development Institute

Title: Student Conceptions in Physical Science
Date: July 16-19 (Tues.-Fri.) and July 22-24(M-W)
Time: 8:30 am-3:00pm; one afternoon 4-7pm in fall
Location: Worcester State University, Fuller Room, Student Center
Credits: 3 graduate credits from Worcester State College @$100/credit /67.5 PDP’s
Information: Register here, and contact Sandra Mayrand for more information.

This course (intended for grade 3-8 teachers) will focus on identifying and developing students' conceptual thinking about physical science, whether concrete, emerging, or mis-constructed. Participating teachers will see how to support the connection and development of concepts across and within grade spans by actively engaging with colleagues in investigations. They will learn about tools, strategies and approaches to assess students' initial ideas, including possible misconceptions. Course participants will learn how to plan for and support student learning to advance student conceptual thinking in productive ways as they learn science. Multiple resources will be used for effective planning and instruction, including the Massachusetts Science Curriculum Standards, formative assessments, differentiation strategies, models of student work, learning progressions and strand maps. Through this course participating teachers will also deepen their fundamental knowledge in physical science concepts and learn how students’ conceptual thinking develops in: Force and Motion, Properties of Matter, and Energy Transformation.

New STEM course for middle school educators

Integrating STEM for the Middle School: A Hands-On, Real-World, Practical and Research-informed Approach for Teachers of Grades 6-8

Course: This course is offered by The Hall at Patriot Place Presented by Raytheon in collaboration with Engaging Youth through Engineering (EYETM) and Blue Heron STEM Education. Participants will explore STEM topics and curriculum and instruction issues through rich, engaging middle grades curriculum materials developed through a National Science Foundation award.
Registration/questions: Contact Peg Myers, Education Director, The Hall at Patriot Place

Course Dates:
Session 1: Thursday June 13, 2013 3:45 – 7:15 PM
Sessions 2-6: Monday-Friday August 5-9, 2013 8:45 – 3:00 PM (45-minute lunch break)
Session 7: Tuesday November 12 3:45 -6:30 PM
Session 8: Weekday afternoon/evening, tbd* 3:45-7:15 PM
*Session 8 will be designed to examine student work and other documentation from the classroom implementation of an EYETM middle school module. The date of this last session will be decided in collaboration with course participants during the August session.

Workshop Fee: $500 per DISTRICT. Each district may send 2-6 participants. Ideally, participants will be math-science teacher pairs who teach the same cohort of students. Districts wishing to send additional participants should contact Peg Myers.

Description: Expand your own content knowledge and your professional expertise in a supportive, creative team environment. Explore engineering and technology content and how it fits with real-world challenges as well as current, standards-based mathematics and science content as outlined in the Common Core State Standards, the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics, and the most currently available science standards versions. In addition to hands-on, in-depth integrated STEM experiences that are drawn from nationally recognized exemplar materials, the course will include readings and discussions, visits from STEM field experts, and opportunities to look at student work for insights into STEM pedagogical issues. An implementation project in your classroom will also be included so that you can gain supported practice in integrated STEM experiences. Pending approval, this course will offer an option to earn 3 graduate credits from an accredited post-secondary institution.

Please Note: Additional costs include a materials fee for a comprehensive teacher guide and implementation kit and tuition fee for optional graduate level credit, to be paid to credit-granting institution. (Final course approval is pending.) For information, please contact Peg Myers.

Summer learning opportunities: computing & robots

Put computing in your summer

The Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE) has collected and posted summer learning opportunities for students and teachers to engage more with computing and robots! Note that summer teacher professional development programs may not be full, even if the deadlines have passed, so please contact the organizers if interested.

Summer Camps for Students

• across Massachusetts and beyond
• for middle and high-school students
• web design, robotics, gaming, and more!

Professional Development for Educators

• workshops in June, July & August for teachers
• for middle, high-school, and community college educators
• programming, app development, and more!

The BLOSSOMS Initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BLOSSOMS INITIATIVE OF MIT - ATTEND A WORKSHOP, MAKE A SCIENCE LEARNING VIDEO

MIT BLOSSOMS and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are looking for Massachusetts high school science teachers to participate in the development of new interactive video‐based lessons aligned to new science and technology/engineering standards. These lessons, created here in Massachusetts by individual science teachers or small teams of science teachers, will become valuable educational resources within the Commonwealth and important tools in supporting the transition to new state science standards. Each teacher or teacher team will earn $1,000 as a token of appreciation for the successful completion of one of the ten selected lessons.

Informational Workshops:

• May 20th, 4:00 – 5:30 PM Sturbridge Hotel and Conference Center, Sturbridge
• May 28th, 4:00 – 5:30 PM MIT, Tang Center, Kendall Square, Cambridge
• •May 29th, 4:00 ‐ 5:30 PM West Springfield Clarion Hotel, Springfield

To sign up, receive travel directions for a workshop, or for more general information, contact MIT BLOSSOMS Project Manager Elizabeth Murray at emurray@MIT.EDU.

Read after the jump to learn more!