February is Black History Month: Do you know about........

As we celebrate Black History Month with our students, let us also take time to highlight these hidden STEM figures:

Lewis Howard Latimer

1) Lewis Howard Latimer - Though Thomas Edison is recognized as the inventor of the light bulb, African-American inventor Lewis Latimer played an important role in its development. In 1881, Latimer patented a method for making carbon filaments, allowing light bulbs to burn for hours instead of minutes.

Dr. Jane Cook Wright

2) Dr. Jane Cooke Wright - After earning her medical degree in 1945 from New York Medical College, Dr. Wright went on to do pioneering work in cancer treatment. In 1949, she took a position at Harlem Hospital, where her father was the director of Cancer Research Foundation. After his death in 1952, she took his position at just age 33.

Ray Gilstrap - Electrical Engineer

3) Ray Gilstrap - An electrical engineer at NASA Ames Research Center. He has helped set up an maintain satellite internet services for different scientific expeditions. His work has taken him all over the world, including to an island in the Arctic where he helped with communications at a climate change research station.

Nancy Douyon - Human Factors Engineer

3) Nancy Douyon - A human factors engineer and user experience research program manager at GOOGLE. Among other projects, she works on making Android phones user-friendly, intuitive and adaptive to different users.


Here are some STEM / Black History Month Resources for you and your staff:

a) Build a Light Bulb - Circuits Activity

b) Engineering Activities

c) 28 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month (Scholastic Activities)

d) Black History Month Lessons and Resources (National Education Association)

e) 28 Days of Art Activities for Black History Month (Creative Child)

f) PBS Learning Media Black History Month Resources (PBS)

g) Black History Month Celebration (Crocker Art Museum)
    (Date: February 18, 2018) (Time: 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm)

h) CSUS Black History Month Events (CSUS)

i) U.C. Davis Calendar of Events (U.C. Davis)

j) Famous Black Engineers Throughout History (How Stuff Works)

k) 12 Women Whose Names You Should Know (Refinery 29)

Now let us check-in on Region 3 Expanded Learning Programs and see what STEM / STEAM activities they have been engaging youth in:

Name of Expanded Learning Program Provider: 
Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Twin Rivers Unified School District

School Site: Frontier Elementary School

Grade Level of Activity: 5th and 6th Grade

Number of Students who took part in the activity: 21

Type of Activity: "Inspire Tree"

Learning Outcomes - Students were able to: 

• Work collaboratively to engineer an "Inspire Tree" from scratch using basic office supplies
• Practice SEL themes of Social Awareness and Relationship Skills by writing inspiring statements on a paper leaf for the Inspire Tree
• Construct an art piece, using their creativity and talents; and learn that art can serve a meaningful purpose through which they can express their thoughts and feelings 

For more information on this project please feel free to contact Lily Nedeoglo 

at lily@sccsc.org.

Name of Expanded Learning Program Provider: 

Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Twin Rivers Unified School District

School Site: Madison Elementary

Grade Level of Activity: Grades K-6

Number of students who took part in the activity: 23

Type of Activity: STEAM

Learning Outcomes - Students were able to:

• Create a design for a foosball, football, hockey table
• Problem Solve any issues that arose during the construction process
• Use random materials to create their foosball, football, hockey prototype
• Use the Engineering Design Process to create their foosball, football, hockey table
• Create a functioning foosball, football, hockey table
• Reflect on how they would improve upon their design

For more information on this project please contact Jafahri McCrimon at jafahri@sccsc.org.

Expanded learning students testing their foosball tables.

Expanded learning students testing out their football board game.

Expanded learning students testing out their hockey board game.

Name of Expanded Learning Program Provider: 

Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Twin Rivers Unified School District

School Site: Harmon Johnson Elementary

Grade Level of Activity: Grades 3-6

Type of Activity: STEAM Club

Learning Outcomes - Students were able to:

• Work collaboratively 
• Understand the importance of communication
• Understand that they all have strengths and that they can use these strengths to solve problems
• Understand how to work together while given certain barriers (such as pretending they didn't speak the same language, only being able to use one arm each, etc.)
• Engineer the tallest structure using pipe cleaners

For more information on this activity please feel free to contact Tanya Velasquez at tanya@sccsc.org.

Expanded learning students showing off their tower.

STEM / Expanded Learning and Other Pertinent Articles:

1) The Importance of Collaboration in STEM
    (LIAS Blog Post by Sam Piha January 10, 2018)

2) Education Week STEM Spotlight
    (Education Week January 6, 2018)

3) Most Americans evaluate STEM education as middling compared
    with other developed nations
   (Pew Research Center article by Cary Funk and Kim Parker January 9, 2018)

4) How many Grace Hoppers have been lost from the innovation pipeline?
    (Brookings article by Jay Shambaugh and Becca Portman January 8, 2018)

5) Leveraging the Power of Partnerships to Impact Environmental Education at Scale
    (NTA article by Laura Herszenhorn, Katie Levedahl, and 
     Suzi Taylor January 16, 2018)

6) What Do Asthma, Heart Disease and Cancer Have in Common? 
     Maybe Childhood Trauma
     (NPR Education article by Cory Turner January 23, 2018)

7) America's SchoolsAre "Profoundly Unequal," Says U.S. Civil Rights Commission
    (NPR Education article by Cory Turner January 11, 2018)

8) 5 Things To Know About Screen Time Right Now
   (NPR Education article by Anya Kamenetz January 3, 2018)

9) How One District Cut Student Homelessness by 25 Percent
    (Education Week article by Kerry Wrenick January 10, 2018)

10) Can Afterschool with a Foundation in SEL Help Disrupt the 
      School - to - Prison Pipeline?
      (LIAS Blog Post by Sam Piha January 17, 2018)


STEM / STEAM / DACA / Educational etc.  Resources: 

1) Discover Engineering Website Activities (Grades 2-8)

2) Sci Girls Citizen Science Projects (Grades 6-9)

3) Sci Girls Real World Female Scientist Videos (Grades 6-9)

4) Building Fun: 5 Civil Engineering Activities for the Classroom (Grades 9-12)

5) Hands-on Engineering Activities for Your Classroom (Grades K-12)

6) Take Learning from STEM to STEAM (Grades 2-6)

7) Diversity Lesson Plans and Activities from Around the Web (Grades K-8)

8) Team Building Physical Educational Games (Grades K-8)

9) Resources to Help You Protect Immigrants

10) Guide for Teachers Helping Dreamers

11) The WEL -World of Expanded Learning (Videos)

12) PBS Learning Media Webinars (Free)


STEM / Non-STEM Grants:

1) The Big List of Educational Grants (Updated on January 3, 2018)

2) Bank of The West Grants (Grant Page)

3) Wells Fargo Community Grants (Grants Page)

4) CAN Grants Page (Grants Page)

5) The Impact Foundry (Grants Page)


Professional Learning Sessions / Contest / Conferences / etc.

1) Region 3 Expanded Learning Winter Conference 
    (Date: February 6, 2018) (Fee: Free)

2) STEM Through the Lens of Quality Standards
     (Date: February 26, 2018) (Fee: Free)

3) Solar Schoolhouse Solar Primer (SMUD Workshop)
    (Date: March 10, 2018) (Fee: Free)

4) Abstract Art Exploration (Crocker Art Workshop)
    (Date: March 20, 2018) (Fee: Free)

5) State Parks in Your Classroom (SMUD: Grades K-12)
     (Date: April 4, 2018) (Fee: Free)

6) Expanded Learning Through Improv (B Street Theatre)
    (Date: April 12, 2018) (Fee: Free)


Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM 
events / activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-Williams (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead):
mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist): promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes (SCOE: Project Specialist II: Expanded Learning) mdrewes@scoe.net 
    

Women's History Month: STEM-azing Facts about Ellen Ochoa

March is Women's History Month and as we celebrate the achievements that female STEM pioneers have engineered for us to make our lives easier, we here in Region 3 have decided to highlight the achievements of Ellen Ochoa (a space lover) in this month's Region 3 Blog Post. It also seems fitting that we highlight Ellen Ochoa and her accomplishments as the US enters its fifth decade in Space Exploration and understanding our complex universe.

Ellen Lauri Ochoa (born May 10, 1958) is a former astronaut and current Director of the Johnson Space Center. Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go into space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993.

Here are a few other STEM-azing facts about Ellen Ochoa:

1) Ellen Ochoa received a bachelor of science in physics from San Diego State
    University in 1980 and a master of science degree and doctorate in electrical
    engineering from Stanford University in 1981 and 1985, respectively.

2) Ellen Ochoa is a co-inventor on three patents for an optical inspection system, an
    optical object recognition method, and a method for noise removal in images.

3) Ellen Ochoa is a veteran of four space flights, logging more than 950 hours in
    space.

4) Ellen Ochoa's technical assignments have included flight software and computer
    hardware and robotics development, testing and training.

5) Ellen Ochoa was a crew member of STS-96 Discovery (May 27th to June 6, 1999),
    which was a 10-day mission during which the crew performed the first docking to the
    International Space Station.

For more information on Ellen Ochoa and her career, please click here.


Now lets take a closer look at and see how the students in expanded learning program 
have been engaged in STEM activities during the month of February.



Name of Expanded Learning Program Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community 
Service Center

Name of District(s): Sacramento City Unified School District

Name of School Site: Burbank High School 

Grade Level of Activity: 9th and 10th

Number of Students Who Took Part in The Activity: 20 students

Type of Activity: Computer Robotics and Programming (C-STEM Center UC Davis)

Learning Objectives of C-STEM Day:

C-STEM Day is organized to build public awareness and advocate for Integrated Computing and STEM education. The C-STEM Center and our partners organize curriculum-based RoboPlay Competitions in various regions on C-STEM Day at the end of May each year to further engage students in project-based team activities and to showcase their accomplishments and creativity not only in math and engineering, but also in writing, art, music, and film production.

Luther Burbank ASSETs students engaging in C-STEM activities.

For more information on the above STEM activities please contact Linda Vongthongkham at

linda@sccsc.org.


Name of Expanded Learning Program Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community 
Service Center

Name of District(s): Sacramento City Unified School District

Name of School Site: Rosemont High School 

Grade Level of Activity: 9th and 10th

Number of Students Who Took Part in The Activity: 20 students

Type of Activity: First Robotics


Learning Objectives of First Robotics: The mission of First is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting Mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. 

Rosemont HS ASSETs students working on their First Robotics robot.

For more information on the above STEM activities please contact Brandon Alvarez at

brandon@sccsc.org.

STEM / Expanded Learning Program and Other Pertinent Educational Articles:

1) We Must Continue to Invest In After School Programs
    (Carlos Rojas, OC Register, March 5, 2016)

2) Why Students Should Take the Lead in Parent-Teacher Conferences (KQED, 2014)

3) Students Who Learn About Famous Scientists' Struggles Do Better In School 
    (Allison Eck, PBS, March 2,  2016)

4) Why Teaching Poetry is So Important
   (Andrew Simmons, The Atlantic, April 8, 2014)

5) Afterschool Special: Sacramento Youth Learn Food Literacy
    (Annamarie Sysling, Feedstock, March 3, 2016)

6) 5 Words and Phrases That Can Transform Your Work Life
   (Michael Grothaus, Fast Company, March 2, 2016)

7) Arts Integration Allows Students to Engage Abstract Concepts in New Ways
    (KQED, March 1, 2016)

8) State of Summer Learning (National Summer Learning Association)

9) 5 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Unmotivated Students
   (Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy, February 20, 2016)

10) The Wrong Way to Teach Math (Andrew Hacker, NY Times, February 27, 2016)

11) Research Shows Diverse Classrooms Improve Learning For Everyone
      (Anya Kamenetz, KQED, February 29, 2016)

12) How Poor Science Education in Kindergarten Harms Kids
      (Lydia Lum, The Atlantic, February 27, 2015)

13) Acting Ed. Secretary John B. King says he's a believer in after school
      (Jillian Luchner, Afterschool Alliance, February 25, 2016)

14) Understanding Gender Identity in Young People (LIAS Blog March 2016)



STEM (and other interdisciplinary core content) Activities / Videos / Websites:

1) Teach girls bravery, not perfection (TED Talk Video)

2) Elementary teacher creates "Gentleman's Club" to teach students life lessons
    (The Southern Weekend Video)

3) Sacramento Teen Wins CA Poetry Out Loud Competition (NPR Podcast)

4) How to Create a Culture of Trust (ALEX Kajitani Video)

5) Monroe Howard, SCUSD and Summer Learning (Sacramento and Co. Video)

6) 5 Books Guaranteed to Make Kids Love Science (Science Friday Book List)

7) PBL in the Arts Resource Guide (Education Closet- Free Resource)

8) Measurement - Monster Math Mix Up (Pinterest Resource)

9) Anti-Racism Activity: The Sneetches (Teaching Tolerance Activity)

10) Sci Girls STEM Activities (PBS Activities)

11) Great Video Resources for Teaching Math (Edutopia)

12) 10 Simple Interactive Whiteboard Tricks (Scholastic)

13) Resources for Filmmaking in the Classroom (Edutopia Resources)



STEM / Educational Grants:

1) National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM): Enhancing Student 
    Mathematics Learning Through the Use of Tools and Technology  
    ($3,000 grants are available)
    (Deadline: May 6, 2016)

2) Math Moves U: Math Hero Award (Math hero receives a $2,500 grant and school 
    receives a matching award) (Deadline: Applications open Spring of 2016)

3) Youth Service America (Grant Database) (Currently no grants available at 
    this time, but a great site to add to your "History" bar. )

4) Best Satellite Providers: Technology Grants for Educators 
    17 Resources for Future Proof Kids

    (Deadline: Varies by Grant Opportunity)

5) California Regional Environmental Education Community (Grant Database)

6) The Big List of Educational Grants and Resources (Edutopia List of Grants)

    (This webpage has been updated since January and offers new grants)

STEM / Misc. Professional Development / Contest / Events:

1) Enter the Cypher: Hip Hop Education Series - A three session workshop

    series focused around the best practices to empower Expanded Learning 

    Practitioners to use Hip Hop as an engaging and exciting tool within their 

    program. Presented by the Low End Theory Collaborative

    (Dates: March 15, and April 12) 

    (Fee: $22.00 per session)

2)  Energenius: Out of School Time Pilot Program Session II

    (Free) (March 23, 2016)

3) Santa Clara County Office of Education's 1st STEAM Conference

    ($150 per participant) (April 22, 2016)

4) CA STEM Symposium 2016 (October 9-11, 2016: Fee: $285 per participant 

     before April 30, 2016)

Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM events/activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-Williams (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead):
mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist): promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes (SCOE: Project Specialist II: After School) mdrewes@scoe.net

     

Region 3's Expanded Learning Programs Love STEM

Outlier: STEM School Study (S3)

Outlier is excited to release the first round of foundlings from the STEM School Study (S3). These findings include the 8 Elements of inclusive STEM high schools, an interactive Roadmap of the path to STEM school success and updated Infographic that explores how STEM schools enact the 8 Elements on a daily basis.

Read further at University of Chicago's Outlier.

Navigating the Future of Afterschool Science

SRI's Afterschool Science Networks (ASN) study provides new insights and empirical findings regarding the offering of science learning opportunities at scale. Four meetings of after school and informal science stakeholders were held in March and April 2014 to discuss the ASN findings generated from 5 years of research (see research summary on page 12). These stakeholders helped SRI Education researchers generate a vision of science in after school settings, as well as recommendations for strengthening the field. This document presents this vision of powerful after school science and provides a set of recommendations to support after school settings at scale.

Read Navigating the Future of Afterschool Science: Afterschool Science Networks Study Recommendations


Next Generation Science Standards: Considerations for Curricula, Assessments, Preparation, and Implementation

Recent debates over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have brought national attention to the issue of standards in schools. While more than 40 states and territories work to implement the CCSS, others are reconsidering and reviewing their standards.

This brief provides an overview of the NGSS, discusses issues for their policymakers to consider with regard to those standards, and presents examples from states considering or implementing the NGSS. Questions to consider and recommendations appear at the end of the document.

Read further here.

NGSS: Things to Know for February 2015

1) Standard of the Month: 1-ESS1-1: Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to
    describe patterns that can be predicted. For a more in-depth look at this NGSS
    performance expectation and to search for others read more here.

2) In late January, the Boston Museum of Science's National Center for Technological
    Literacy brought together key stakeholders from nearly 30 organizations and
    institutions across the country to work together to advance PK-12 engineering                                            
    education nationwide. Read more about it here.

3) Engineers Week: an annual event which brings together dozens of engineering
    societies, educational organizations, businesses, and more, will be held from
    February 22-28, 2015 Read more about it here.

4) Academy Scope is a visualization of all reports that are available on the National
    Academies Press website (including the Framework and NGSS), allowing you to
    browse through the reports of the National Academies by topic area and see
    relationships between titles.

5) Interested in learning more about why crosscutting concepts are included in the
    NGSS? Read this short report from the Smithsonian Science Education Center.

6) NGSS performance expectations should be bundled for the purposes of both
    instruction and assessment. As described in the 2014 NRC report,
    Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards, the NGSS
    PEs are not intended to be assessed discretely or one-at-a-time. Instruction building
    toward a bundle of related PEs simultaneously will help students build a more coherent
    understanding of phenomena, and will also save a lot of instructional time.


And now to shine the spot light on the real STEM Stars of Region 3!!! Let's take a look at some of the STEM learning activities that our expanded learning program practitioners have engaged the children of Region 3 in recently:


Name of Out-of-School-Time Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Sacramento City Unified School District

School Site: Woodbine Elementary

Grade Level of Activity: 2nd Grade

Number of Students Who Took Part in the Activity: 19

Type of Activity: Water Pollution

Learning Outcomes - Students will:

• learn about the importance of keeping the Earth clean by observing and learning how polluted water affects plants

ASES students adding food coloring to represent pollution in a water source.

ASES frontline practitioner engaging students in conversation about water pollution.

ASES students observing how water pollution can affect plants.

For more information on this activity please contact Yee Ying Vang at Yee-Ying-Vang@scusd.edu.


Name of Out-of-School-Time Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Sacramento City Unified School District

School Site: Martin Luther King Jr. K-8 School

Grade Level of Activity: 6th through 8th

Number of Students Who Took Part in the Activity: 100+

Type of Activity: Field Trip to Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art and Humanities

On this field trip: MLK Jr. K-8 Middle School students incorporated their social emotional learning skills while navigating through a pitch black obstacle course. Students also had to work together to solve science equations and figure out the science behind the exhibits. 

ASES students discovered that color light exists behind white light.

ASES students learn how to conduct electricity.

For more information on this activity please contact Josh Yang at josh@sccsc.org.

Name of Out-of-School-Time Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Twin Rivers Unified School District

School Site: Foothill Oaks Elementary

Grade Level of Activity: 2nd thru 4th Grade

Number of Students Who Took Part in the Activity: 20

Type of Activity: Tangram Puzzles

The Learning Behind The Activity: Students were able to:

RAFT-Tangram Puzzles

• Investigate equivalency using a tangram and compare pieces to the whole
• Learn that a Tangram consists of seven pieces; 2 large right isosceles triangles, 1 medium right isosceles triangle, 2 small right isosceles triangles, 1 small square, and 1 parallelogram
• Learn that each piece is called a "tan"
• Learn that in Chinese "Tangram" means "the seven boards of cunning"
• Learn how each tan relates to the other 6 tans
• Learn about relationships between parts and the whole, and to equivalency in decimal, percent, and fractional forms

ASES students working on their tangram puzzles.

For more information on this activity please contact Sarah Heidel at sarah@sccsc.org.


Name of Out-of-School-Time Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community 
Service Center

Name of School District: Sacramento City Unified School District

Name of School Site: John F. Kennedy High School

Grade Level of Activities: 9-12th Grade

Number of Students who took part in the STEM activities: 20

Type of Activity: Field Trip to California Academy of Sciences

On this field trip the students: 

• Learned that the Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing millions of specimen.
• Learned that the Academy offers a multi-biome aquarium, state of the art planetarium, natural history museum, and a four story rainforest - all under one roof.
• Learned that the Academy is home to an estimated 40,000 live animals
• Learned about some of these animals and the role that they play in their ecosystems and the importance of protecting them.
• Learned about cosmology and how our universe is infinite.

ASSETs student taking in one of the biomes that they observed at the Academy of Sciences.

ASSETs students observing a biome.

For information on this field trip please contact Choua Yang at choua@sccsc.org.


Name of Out-of-School-Time Provider: Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center

Name of District: Sacramento City Unified School District

School Site: C.K. McClatchy High School

Grade Level of Activity: 9 - 12th Grade

Number of Students Who Took Part in the Activity: 20

Type of Activity: Constructed a community garden.

Students, staff, and volunteers: Thanks to student volunteers, Scott from Lowe’s, the CKM Garden Club, ASB, HealthCorps, and ASSETs among others, what was once just an idea came to fruition with the breaking of grounds for the garden on Monday January 12. Students and volunteers helped dig the holes for posts, mix concrete for the posts, install the fencing, and unloaded and laid out the cinder block planter boxes. The vegetable compost mix was purchased and delivered from Hastie’s
Capitol Sand & Gravel. Students and volunteers spent two hours on Friday January 16 after school filling the new cinder block planter boxes with the mix.
Students will start planting in the Spring.

ASSETs Garden Crew.

ASSETs crew create a garden.

For more information on this activity please contact Teng Xiong at tent@sccsc.org.

Name of District(s): Wheatland School District, Yuba City Unified School District,

Grass Valley School District, Marysville Joint Unified School District

Grade Level of Activity: 2nd thru 8th Grade

Number of Expanded Learning Program Practitioners Who Took                                                    

Part in the Activity: 35

Type of Activity: Maker Tub Mobile Kits (4 hands on activities)

Practitioners were able to:

• Learn about how to take one activity and turn it into a Project Based Learning Activity
• Learn about criteria and constraints during a die cut challenge
• Learn how to work collaboratively on a task
• Take part in a learning activity that hit all five principles of LIAS
• Learn how to engineer a tower that could support a toy animal
• Learn about squishy circuits and about creating a series
• Learn about Physics; Potential vs. Kinetic Energy
• How to encourage academic register into a learning activity

Expanded Learning Practitioners engineer a tower that can support a toy animal.

Expanded Learning Program Practitioners learn about squishy circuits.

Expanded Learning Program Practitioners learn about Potential vs. Kinetic energy.

For more information on this training please contact Phil Romig at promig@scoe.net or Mark Drewes at mdrewes@scoe.net.

STEM and Other Expanded Learning Program Practitioner Pertinent Educational Articles

1) California Districts to Pilot Next Generation Science Standards Professional Development 
    (The Journal)

2) Consistency, collaboration needed for effective implementation of science teaching                              
    standards (Homeland Security News Wire)

3) How I Plan to Eat an Elephant Named NGSS by Taylor Sullivan

4) Next Generation Science Standards: Jump Right In by Jennifer McGranahan

5) Girls Get Good Grades But Still Need Help. As for Boys …. SOS! (NPR)

6) Grief in The Classroom: "Saying Nothing Says A Lot" (NPR)

7) Meet The Classroom Of The Future (NPR)

8) What the Heck Is Project-Based Learning? (Edutopia)

9) 3 Strategies to Improve Student Writing Instantly (Edutopia)

10) The Art of Managing Middle School Students (Edutopia)

11) Summer Learning: Accelerating Student Success (NASBE Report)

12) Curriculum and Professional Development for OST Science Education (NIOST)

13) Federal Agencies Collaborate to Improve After-School Science, Technology,                                  
      Engineering and Math (STEM) Education (U.S. Department of Education)

14) Blocks, Play, Screen Time, And The Infant Mind  (NPR)


STEM (and other Integrated Core Content) Activities/Videos/Websites/Podcast

1) Bored ….. And Brilliant? A Challenge to Disconnect From Your Phone (Podcast)

2) Economists Say Millennials Should Consider Careers In Trades (Podcast) 

3) "Maker Space" Allows Kids To Innovate, Learn In The Hospital (Podcast)

4) By Dimming Its Lights, Museum Opens Doors for Kids with Autism (Podcast)

5) Tech Program Helps Put Latinos On A Path To Silicon Valley (Podcast)

6) The Catapult Project: Integrated Math Science Activity (Video)

7) Coding for Kids Revisited: Elementary (Resources)

8) Design Squad STEM Building Activities (Resources)

9) Science Friday Lessons and Activities (Resources)

10) 40 Reflection Questions (Resource)   

11) Resources for Learning About Empathy on Valentine's Day (Resources) 

12) 10 Creative activities for when your day doesn't go exactly how you planned
       (Resources) 

13) Engineering Adventures: Sky's the Limit (Lessons)

14) Green 360 Offers Programs with Pathways to Green Careers (Resources)


STEM Grants:

1) P.E. Equipment Grants:
     Deadline: March 1, 2015     

     Batters Up USA
     Free baseball and softball equipment for local organizations serving youngsters up to 
     age 13.

2) Environmental Education Local Grants Program:

    Deadline: March 6, 2015

    The purpose of the Environmental Education Local Grants Program is to support 
    locally focused environmental education projects that increase public awareness 
    and knowledge about environmental issues and provide the skills that participants 
    in its funded projects need to make informed environmental decisions and take 
    responsible actions toward the environment. 30 grants will be awarded. 3 each from 
    the EPA's 10 Regional Offices. Maximum award per grant is roughly $91,000. 

3) Grant Wrangler: STEM Grant Database:(Grants available for Grades K-12)

4) Grant Wrangler: Health & PE Grants and Resources 

5) Colocation America: STEM Innovation Grant

     Deadline: March 27, 2015

     Apply now for Colocation America's STEM Innovation Grant, which provides funding 
     to nonprofit charitable organizations in order to foster youth engagement in STEM        
     learning, especially for underrepresented groups in the field such as females and
     minority students. Selected programs will be awarded up to $7,500 to support
     purchasing materials, staff stipends, field trips, and resources.

6) CREEC Grant Database

STEM Professional Development / Misc. / Events / Contest

1) G.O. Network Mixer - Cultural Relevancy: Expanding Your Cultural Reach

     (Free) (February 18, 2015) 

2) SMUD: Chemical Reactions (Grades 5-12) (Free) (February 19, 2015)

3) PEAK Student Energy Actions Teacher Training
    (Free) (February 21, 2015)

4) SMUD: Project WET (Grades 4-12) (Free) (March 7, 2015)

5) SCOE: Project WET (Grades 4-12) (Free) March 3 Day 1 and March 10 Day 2)

6) California STEM Summit 2015 (L.A. March 16 and 17, 2015)

7) SMUD: Chemical Reactions (Grades 5-12) (Free) (March 19, 2015)

8) SMUD: Energy and Me!! (Grades Pre K- 3) (Free) (March 21, 2015)

9) A Garden in Every School Symposium

    ($60) (March 14 15, 2015)

Thanks again for all that you do in the field. Please keep us posted about STEM events/activities in your area. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Monica Gonzalez-Williams (SCOE: Region 3: After School Regional Lead):
mgonzalez@scoe.net

Phil Romig: (SCOE: Science Curriculum Specialist): promig@scoe.net

Mark Drewes: (SCOE: Project Specialist II: After School): mdrewes@scoe.net