Connecting Teachers to STEM Resources
The Outreach team attended RAIN retreat and SciTech 2021 STEM & Innovation Summit
The Education outreach team presents at the 2021 RAIN retreat
Teaching K-12 science is challenging during the best of times. The remote learning environments of the last year has left many teachers without access to resources for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (short: STEM) lessons that were available to them in the past. Teacher retirements have also brought in quite a few new science teachers that lack the connections of their longer serving colleagues. To connect Arizona science and engineering teachers to mining and mineral resources classroom materials and presentations the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources outreach team actively participates in teacher workshops, conferences, and science fairs. The most recent of these events were the Rural Activation and Innovation Network (RAIN) retreat in Safford and the 2021 STEM & Innovation Summit in Phoenix.
RAIN participants thinking like geoscientists
Rural science educators from all over Arizona recently met at Eastern Arizona College in Safford for the annual RAIN retreat which the outreach team was invited to join by Project Director Kalman Mannis. At the retreat, educators shared strategies for fostering STEM communities in rural settings and connecting those communities to others around the state by creating regional councils with defined goals to organize and structure community programs. The outreach team shared the classroom presentations and resources the minerals outreach program offers, showed how students could prepare for a career in the mineral resources industry, and lead an exercise that invited the participants to look at an unfamiliar rock and “think like a geologist.” Rural STEM educators face a unique set of challenges, education budgets are small and staffing levels are low. The outreach team was excited to introduce the resources it can provide to the retreat participants for them to take back to their communities.
On September 29th the SciTech Institute hosted the 2021 STEM & Innovation Summit at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix. Teachers, administrators, librarians, outreach coordinators, curators, and high school students acting as Chief Science Officers spent a day attending workshops, learning about STEM opportunities, and connecting with each other. At the summit, the outreach team hosted a display table with a representative from the Geoscience department, Professor Marc Sbar. Over 100 teachers and Chief Science Officers stopped by the table to learn about the outreach program and sign up for the outreach newsletter or a plate tectonics talk from Professor Sbar. The outreach team looks forward to following up with the new connections they made to schedule classroom visits during this school year and beyond.
Upcoming educator outreach events include the Arizona Science Teachers Association (ASTA) conference on November 5th. The ASTA conference will bring science teachers from around the state together and the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources outreach team will be there to introduce the mineral resources outreach program. The outreach team is always looking for more opportunities to connect with educators around the state and beyond so it can support students while they learn about the importance of mineral resources.