WATERVILLE — The STEM Collaborative recently hosted the 2016 Maine STEM Summit. More than 250 participants from education, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations gathered to discuss best practices in STEM education in Maine. The theme of this year’s summit was “Building Bridges: Developing Partnerships to Build Capacity for STEM Education in Maine.”
Brooke Haycock from The Education Trust was one of the keynote speakers. She expressed important education issues such as equity and access through performance. Andrew Sandweiss, a Bangor High School alumni and current Yale University student, spoke about how important STEM education was for him to prepare him for success in college and beyond. Jerry Ellner, the national director of high school development at Universal Technical Institute, shared with the audience his work in career and technical education across the country. Participants were able to also attend a variety of breakout sessions about STEM education in Maine. The participants engaged in dialogue throughout the day regarding the most recent recommendations from the Maine STEM Council.
In the afternoon, the six K-12 teacher finalists for the 2016 STEM Education Innovation Challenge Grant Competition shared their fast pitch presentations. Because of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, five of the finalists were awarded $2,000 to implement their innovative projects, and one finalist was awarded $5,000. Nicole Hewes, a second-grade teacher at Troy Central School, was the grand prize winner of the grant challenge and awarded $5,000 for her school. Her innovative project was entitled “Building Blocks: Using Legos and Minecraft to Teach Computer Coding.” As a result of the grant funding, Hewes will be able to engage her second graders in computer science activities and make computer science activities available to third through fifth graders as well.
The $2,000 grant winners included Rosalee Lamm, Portland High School; Maya Crosby and Ken Stevenson, Lincoln Academy; Christel Driscoll, Franklin Sames and Thomas Fournier, Lincoln Middle School; James Willigar and Sally Allen, Whitefield Elementary School; and Amanda Ripa, Messalonskee Middle School.
About Maine STEM Collaborative
The Maine STEM Collaborative is a statewide unincorporated partnership of over 60 individuals from education, research, business, government, and nonprofit sectors that was formed by the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance in 2007 to help increase the quality of STEM education, student aspirations, and public awareness of STEM education. We work closely with the Maine STEM Council on outreach to promote STEM educational initiatives, and particularly, the Collaborative’s signature statewide event – the Maine STEM Summit – to bring together those involved in these efforts.
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