Advance Partnerships
Utah STEM Action Center Program Spotlight After receiving a High School STEM Industry Certification grant from the Utah STEM Action Center, Nebo School District is implementing a “Student Teaching Students” model and has seen great success with 80 high school students teaching 900 fifth grade student coding this past school year. Nebo School District implemented the “Students Teaching Students” model by creating a STEM Ambassadors Program where high school students taking Exploring Computer Science classes were chosen by their teachers to visit elementary schools near them and teach coding.
Purpose U.C.A. 63N-12-201
The STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Action Center prioritizes STEM education, with a focus on supporting Utah’s workforce of the future. The program drives research and implementation of STEM education best practices across Utah by coordinating STEMrelated activities, helping to create and support STEM education, facilitating educator access to education tools, connecting education with industry and aligning public STEM education with higher-education STEM activities. In order to advance STEM initiatives, the STEM Action Center Board will use legislative funding to oversee several projects that align with K-16 education, support the Utah State Board of Education and K-12 education and higher education partners. These programs address issues that support outreach, recruitment, advocacy, retention and student achievement. Additionally, the STEM Action Center will align technology and innovation with industry needs and higher education initiatives to ensure development of the future workforce. This will be a safeguard to the state’s economic prosperity by ensuring there is a workforce ready to take on the high-quality and high-paying STEM related careers.
Contact Tamara Goetz, Ph.D. Executive Director 801-538-8867 tgoetz@utah.gov
Key Initiatives The following projects are part of the STEM Action Center’s portfolio, in partnership with the Utah State Office of Education, the Utah System of Higher Education, local education leaders and industry: • Providing innovative approaches to professional learning for K-12 educators • Creating an elementary STEM endorsement • Coordinating a K-16 Computing Initiative grant • Supporting Career and Technical Education programs • Deploying personalized learning math tools in K-12 classrooms • Implementing a standardized STEM School Designation certification for schools • Helping educators and students engage with STEM subjects through hands-on activities • Increasing access to STEM education and careers with the Utah STEM Bus mobile classroom • The STEM Action Center provides several micro-grant opportunities that support student participation in STEM activities and support teachers in the classroom: – Classroom grants provide funding to support new STEM activities for teachers and – Organizations grants that host activities such as robotics and science fairs. • Numerous events were sponsored that included SheTech (a girls tech day hosted by industry) and STEMFest and outreach events, along with various award events that recognized student achievement in STEM
Governor’s Office of Economic Development • 2017 Annual Report • www.business.utah.gov
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