National Science Foundation funded state STEM evaluation wraps up

When the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a request for proposals from across the country for states to compete for funds to design an evaluation system for STEM, the STEM Council was just a year into operation and poised to be the laboratory rat for other statewide STEM initiatives.

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Mary Trent

Mary Trent to serve as northwest regional STEM manager

Starting in mid-March, Mary Trent will serve as the northwest regional STEM manager headquartered at Iowa Lakes Community College (ILCC).

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Bringing STEM to the Capitol

Executive branch leaders and state legislators took more than a moment on February 16 to pause from the weighty matters upstairs in the Senate and House chambers to celebrate something they created and continue to generously support—Iowa’s statewide STEM program.

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MVP for Iowa STEM: Kwizera Imani

The Iowa STEM community first met Kwizera Imani as a senior at North High School in Des Moines. He told his story on how STEM changed his life at the 2015 Iowa STEM Summit. In the short time since then, Kwizera became an official member of the STEM Council, leading efforts to bring youth and diversity perspectives to the effort. Now because of this, he is February’s MVP for Iowa STEM.

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STEM Public Awareness

Measuring STEM awareness

The Iowa STEM effort is all about improving student interest and achievement, as well as helping connect those passions to STEM careers in Iowa, in partnership with higher education, PreK-12 schools, business and industry, nonprofits, governmental agencies and more.

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Five ways Iowa’s STEM Scale-Up Program works

Drop in to just about any school across Iowa this week and somebody’s bringing a world-class STEM experience to students through the five-year-old STEM Scale-Up Program initiative of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.

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Local workplaces seeking STEM teacher expertise

If you are a teacher, you have probably wondered how your mathematics or science topics are used behind the walls of the manufacturing plant across town, or what kinds of roof-beam geometry and cement wall chemistry the construction crew uses to build that bridge up north or those new lofts downtown.

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Cindy Dietz, Rockwell Collins

MVP for Iowa STEM: Cindy Dietz and Rockwell Collins

With the help of January’s MVP for Iowa STEM, Rockwell Collins, an aerospace engineering company in Cedar Rapids, Cindy Dietz, its director of external relations, has used her expertise to send Iowa STEM soaring to new heights.

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Highland Elementary students coding in Waterloo

Iowa STEM amped up on Java and other computer science tools

Generation Z is type-cast as technology native—born with iPads in their cribs, raised with smartphones clutched in their grip, educated on digital global blackboards and bathed in WiFi waves connecting their cars, TVs and toasters. They’re accomplished consumers of technology. But how many could design an app, troubleshoot a software bug or critique the pros and cons of crowdsourcing?

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FRC Team in West Delaware County Community School District

Putting STEM first in the FIRST Robotics Competition

You might think it takes an Einstein-like mind to build a robot from scratch—or at least some years studying the craft. Yet, a program offered on the 2016-17 STEM Scale-Up Program menu is making it common for high school students to be the new, young minds behind these innovations. It’s called, “FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).”

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