January 2024

Newsletter

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Jeff Beneke
Northeast Regional STEM Manager


319-273-7397




In this newsletter:




  • Requesting Exhibitors for the Cedar Valley Family STEM Festival




  • Pre-K Educators May Apply for STEM Scale-Up Programs starting January 8







Upcoming Events



January 8

Scale-Up Application opens




February 28

Scale-Up Application Deadline




March 19

Cedar Valley Family STEM Festival

(UNI-Dome in

Cedar Falls)




March 20-23

FIRST Iowa Regional

(UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls)




April 1

Iowa Classrooms + Workplaces Summit




April 18

Dubuque Area Family STEM Festival




Have an event

coming up?



Submit it here!



Northeast Region

of the Iowa

Governor's STEM Advisory Council



Advisory Board



Bev Berns

Keystone AEA



Sue Burrack

Waldorf University



Lisa Chizek

Iowa State

University



Kendra Crooks

Chickasaw County Extension and Outreach



Larry Escalada

University of

Northern Iowa



Heather Fransen

RSM, LLP



Seth Harms

West Delaware

High School



Doreen Hayek

University of

Northern Iowa



Jeff Jacobs

TDS Automation



Marla Loecke

IowaWorks



Jeanette Moore-Loggins

(Retired)



Allison Plunkett

John Deere



Anderson Sainci

City of Dubuque




Requesting Exhibitors for the Cedar Valley Family STEM Festival



Exhibitor registration is open for the Cedar Valley Family STEM Festival.


The Festival will be held on Tuesday, March 19 from 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.


Who is invited to exhibit?

  • Business and Industry
  • Higher education
  • Community non-profit groups
  • Organizations providing STEM education


What are we looking for?

  • Fun and free hands-on activities
  • Conducting an experiment
  • Playing a game
  • Participating in an interactive demonstration
  • Refer to examples for your organization


To learn more,

https://neiowastem.com/cedar-valley-family-stem-festival

PreK-12 Educators May Apply for

STEM Scale-Up Programs

Starting January 8

The Iowa STEM Advisory Council selects some of the state and nation's high-quality programs and offers them to Iowa PreK-12 educators through the STEM Scale-Up Program. Each year, the STEM Council equips thousands of educators with STEM programs that inspire nearly 100,000 youth.



PreK-12 educators from the following organizations may apply?

  • Public and private PreK-12 schools
  • Childcare centers
  • County conservation offices
  • Libraries
  • County extension offices
  • Home school associations
  • Other formal and informal youth organizations who deliver STEM education programming for PreK-12 youth.

This year, the STEM Council will be utilizing a new application platform at www.iowagrants.gov. To help traffic flow for new registrants;

Create a user account TODAY through

IowaGrants.gov



Creating an account


It may take up to

72 hours to activate your account.



NOTE: If you already have an account through iowagrants.gov there is no need to do it again.



Each Program Provider will be hosting at least one 20-30 minute informational webinar for educators to learn about their respective program. The Scale-Up Program menu for the 2024-2025 academic year includes the following fourteen programs:



All About Balance

Watch your children become more curious and engaged as they actively explore the role of balance within the world of objects, and with their own bodies.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Artificial Intelligence

AI for K-12 Educators is a professional development series that provides educators with a high-level understanding of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) impact our society.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Blackbird Code

A collection of online curricula that teaches math or science through the lens of coding. Students write real, text-based programs which bring to life the core concepts they are learning.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Derivita Math

Platform maximizes the impact of your current math curriculum and increases student engagement in math.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Exploring and Connecting to Iowa’s Agriculture

Exploring and Connecting to Iowa’s Agriculture is a two-day professional development workshop that engages educators with agriculture professionals and classroom curriculum.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



FUSE Studio

FUSE creates onramps to deeper STEAM engagement and encourages STEAM exploration through an innovative, challenge-based approach and studio-like environment.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Investigating Everyday Phenomena

A program designed to captivate young minds while demystifying real-world phenomena. 



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Making Innovative STEM Connections

This lesson design framework focuses around the idea that making and tinkering are ways to engage student’s minds and build conceptual understanding around academic content.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;

  • January 23 @ 1:00 pm Register (PW: 387966)
  • January 25 @ 4:30 pm Register (PW: 607407)



Positive Physics, Chemistry, Physical Science, Biology, Environmental Science & Engineering

An engaging, online lesson and problem bank. The site was designed to be accessible to students on any level from basic to AP.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Robo Wunderkind STEM Program

Offers easy-to-use building blocks and a series of age-appropriate coding apps that develop computational thinking skills and spark a curiosity for STEAM in young learners.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Spatial Vis: The First Step in Design for Engineering and Technology

A tool to teach freehand sketching and improve students’ spatial skills.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Storytime STEM-packs: STEM + Computer Science

Incorporate age-appropriate STEM+C concepts into children’s programming. Children collaboratively explain phenomena or solve the problem, thereby making sense of the STEM concept.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Teachley Math

Enhances K-5 core math curricula by building students’ conceptual understanding, fluency, and problem-solving skills across addition, subtraction, place value/base ten, multiplication, fractions, and measurement/data.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;



Turing Tumble

A revolutionary STEM game that teaches how computers work at a fundamental level. Students build marble-powered, mechanical computers to solve a series of structured logic puzzles using their own hands instead of a screen.



Informational webinar(s) will be hosted on;




Timeline:

  • January 8 - Application opens
  • February 28 - Application closes
  • April 8 - Awardees notified
  • July 1, 2024 thru May 31, 2025 - Implementation



Please contact Jeff Beneke at jeff.beneke@uni.edu or 319-273-7397 if you have any questions about the programs or the application process.



Visit https://iowastem.org/Scale-Up-Application for further information.

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