How Iowa is bringing STEM to new minds

Sarah Derry

Iowa View contributor

A group of third and fourth grade girls attend a STEM camp at Simpson College on Nov. 4. The event was hosted by Simpson and AAUW and was designed to help get girls interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math related career fields.

While it may be apple orchard and pumpkin spice season in Iowa, it’s also STEM festival season.

Just recently at a festival in Centerville, I watched students engage in richer and deeper reflections after coming face-to-face with science, technology, engineering and mathematics organizations than I have ever witnessed before.

And families spending a Saturday afternoon extracting DNA, filtering river water, and programming robots together isn’t an anomaly; it is an example of the growth of STEM awareness and education in our state.

There has been an evolution to the understanding of STEM in Iowa over the last five years, evident in the classroom and in our workforce.

In the beginning of October, the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council released its 2016-17 Iowa STEM Evaluation Report, highlighting evaluative data for their last year of programs and initiatives. Providing a quality STEM education and keeping Iowa’s students competitive with peers around the world are just a couple of the Council’s priorities through these programs.

As the regional manager of the South-Central STEM region, I help others connect the dots among businesses, educators, nonprofits, parents and students in the STEM network, providing resources and opportunities that support education and the STEM career pathway. I’ve seen the concept of STEM-integrated education be digested by our educators, and trickle down to other community members and stakeholders. The annual evaluation report gives a tangible idea of this "evolution of understanding:" nine out of 10 Iowans believe STEM education should be a priority in their local school districts.

When I was a teacher, I used the Freyer model to help students learn vocabulary. To use the tool, students would define a word, draw a picture of it, give examples and give non-examples. The Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council’s programs, such as Scale-Up, provide examples of what STEM learning looks like. It’s interdisciplinary and full of real-world context. Once people understand the concept of STEM, we can begin to broaden their definition.

I met with some education administrators in Corydon this summer who initially told me that they “didn’t really do STEM” in their school district. But when I pushed further and asked about what programs they did do, they described rich STEM opportunities for their students: working with businesses in the community and tying their experience from outside the classroom into methods and concepts back inside the classroom. STEM isn’t just holding a beaker of fluid up to the light, or solving an algebraic equation; STEM is an integrated approach to learning.

Now that the bridge of understanding has been built, we are in a great position for continued progress. While nine out of 10 Iowans believe STEM education should be a priority, only five out of 10 Iowans think it actually is. There are disparities that we can address in empowering parents to be better advocates for their students in STEM, enriching opportunities that already exist, and most important to me and my regional advisory board, using the data we have from our consortium of researchers at Iowa State’s RISE (Research Institute for Studies in Education), University of Iowa’s Iowa Testing Program and UNI’s Center for Social and Behavioral Research to set our priorities.

For a complete look at the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council’s 2016-2017 Iowa STEM Evaluation Report, go to iowastem.gov/iowa-stem-evaluation.

In January, we will be hosting STEM activities as a part of Iowa’s largest African-American cultural celebration, “I’ll Make Me a World in Iowa” Education Day. When we partner to blend STEM into community events, it’s an opportunity to reach families that may not have been seeking out STEM information directly. These are the next steps for STEM education in Iowa, inviting new minds to join us as we walk across that bridge. The future of our workforce and our state depends on it.

Sarah Derry, Ph.D., is the South Central Regional STEM Manager of the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council and is based at Drake University.