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1-26-16 — STEM Connection Soars with Two Major Grants
an. 26, 2016 ~ Just a few short months into the grant-funded STEM Connection mentoring program, its coordinators have learned they will receive another $19,860 to continue reaching out to middle school girls with unique hands-on science, technology, engineering and math projects.
In spring 2015, a group of six middle and high school teachers was awarded a $10,000 Women's Giving Circle grant from the Olathe Public Schools Foundation to ignite a love for STEM learning in middle school girls from two Title 1 schools. In mid-December, the teachers received word they would receive nearly twice that amount from the Kansas Volunteer Commission STEM Mentoring Initiative Grant.
"We are simply ecstatic about being able to plan for another year of mentoring," STEM Connection staff coordinator Dina Wingfield said. She teaches physics and helps coach robotics at Olathe Northwest High School. Her fellow grant recipients are Olathe North High School science teachers Angela Epps, Laura Fogt and Marsha Skoczek; Indian Trail Middle School pre-engineering and reading teacher Kari Shamet; and Oregon Trail Middle School science teacher Staci Winsor.
"Our goal is to expand to more grades and perhaps another school," Wingfield said. "We will also build an Outreach in a Box kit for others who are interested in doing more STEM outreach. We will be able to purchase more physical materials and, of course, transportation is a huge part."
STEM Connection currently involves a total of 50 sixth-grade girls from Indian Trail and Oregon Trail middle schools. All sixth-grade girls were invited from those schools. Four times per school year, the girls will travel by bus to Olathe Northwest or Olathe North high schools to participate in two-hour sessions with high school, college and adult female mentors in the STEM fields. Mentors include members of the FIRST Robotics, Society of Women Engineers Next, and Medical Club, college students like Samantha Viron who helped brainstorm the STEM Connection, and professional women from Cerner, Honeywell, and Burns & McDonnell.
"Women of all ages have been eager to sign up for STEM Connection," Wingfield said. "It has not been difficult to find women who are wanting to step up and mentor the next generation."
- Martha Nowak, K12 education program coordinator for the Kansas State University Olathe: I taught middle school science for 35 years and witnessed a decline in interest in the STEM careers. According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, there will be 3 million job openings in STEM-related fields by 2018, but there will be a 1 million shortfall to fill these jobs. The National Math and Science Initiative states that 44 percent of high school graduates are ready for college level math, and 36 percent are ready for college level science. I take every opportunity to engage students with highly interactive science and math activities. Being a mentor for these middle school girls, and seeing these high school students interact with them, shows that there is hope to turn the statistics back around.
- Melanie Hiraki and Allison Campbell, STEM Connection high school coordinators: It would have been awesome to have this kind of opportunity when we were in middle school. We think it will definitely have an impact on the amount of girls who enter into STEM fields. We were both on FIRST Robotics Team 1710 and involved in the conversation that inspired STEM Connection. We are really happy about how excited the girls are to do our STEM activities. (In middle school) there wasn't anything that focused primarily on STEM, especially for girls. We had a Science Olympiad team, but it was hard to get into unless you applied your sixth-grade year. This was challenging to get people involved because a lot of sixth-graders didn't know what Science Olympiad was, much less STEM. Now we're both in Aerospace and Engineering and involved in FIRST Robotics. We are both a part of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Next and Melanie is involved in ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering) Mentors.
- Sam Viron, Olathe Northwest graduate and now a structural engineering major and mentor with STEM Connection: I went to Santa Fe Trail, a Title 1 middle school and STEM Connection reaches out to these low-income schools, so I feel a connection to the girls who are involved. Santa Fe Trail has a great STEM support system in place; Amy Hillman and Josh Stock coordinate a successful FIRST Lego League Robotics team and other STEM-oriented clubs. Mrs. Hillman had an incredibly profound impact on my life. With this and my own experiences in mind, we decided to establish relationships with Oregon Trail and Indian Trail. Having this type of support would have had a tremendous impact on me in middle school — the same way we want it to change the lives of the girls involved now. Not only do the relationships make a difference, but the fact that we are providing food and transportation can make it much easier on the families involved. We want to show everyone that a successful career in STEM is achievable for anyone, regardless of gender or socioeconomic status. (At a recent event) the girls had smiles on their faces the whole time we were playing get-to-know-you games with their peers and mentors. At the end of the day, they asked if they could bring a friend next time — exactly the reaction we were hoping for.
STEM Connection also provides a summer trip to Science City, two field trips, and keepsakes like You Go Girl T-shirts, posters and trading cards. All activities support multiple practices identified in state and federal science standards. This year's sixth-grade participants will be invited back next year to participate in more STEM learning and mentoring while the coordinators recruit another 50-100 sixth-graders to begin the three-year program.