2018 Issue

47 Building the Future By Hillary Bowler, Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) “Students would rather do this than anything else in class.” S o said Paula Marquez, a fifth grade teacher at High- land Park Elementary in Salt Lake City. Perhaps surprisingly, Marquez was talking about engineering activities using education tools such as Roominate, ZOOB Builderz and Little Bits. Her students were thoroughly excit- ed about building things, an experience made possible by a grant from the Utah STEM Action Center. The STEM Action Center, a program in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) is Utah’s leader in promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through best practices in education. The center works to engage industry and communities to improve student STEM learning experiences. Ultimately, the center hopes to produce a STEM-competitive workforce to ensure Utah’s economic success for coming generations. “STEM education is critical to economic development, as these industries are the fastest growing and produce some of the highest workforce demands,” said Val Hale, execu- tive director of GOED. “But especially exciting is the fact that it’s about the kids. The excitement they feel and the memories they create in these learning experiences will car- ry them through to building careers and successful lives.” Classroom Grants and Computing Initiative make STEM learning possible in Utah schools Marquez wanted to better implement STEM learning—en- gineering, specifically—into curriculum for her students. She wanted her students to be able to explore, be creative and build. With the help of a STEM Action Center Class- room Grant, she was able to purchase the equipment and programming necessary to make that happen. “I provide hands-on experiments in science and math class, but I did not have tools to teach engineering practices,” Marquez said. “I didn’t have tools like the ones that I re- quested [through the grant] to encourage students to plan, create, build and problem solve. Because they’ve had this hands-on opportunity, they now think engineering is the coolest thing ever.” Down south in Washington County is Coral Canyon Elemen- tary, a Title I school. Title I schools receive additional funding for special programs due to a significant population of stu- dents from low income families. The school’s STEM Adven- ture Club has seen swelling enrollment—anywhere from 30 to 45 students attend every Thursday, making the club Coral Canyon’s most popular after school program. Thanks to a new partnership with the Utah State University Extension 4-H Club, and thanks to this support from the Utah STEM Action Center, Coral Canyon will be able to sig- nificantly expand STEM opportunities for its students. Coral Canyon was recently approved for a STEM Action Center K-16 Computing Initiative grant of $99,363, which is to be disbursed in three annual installments. The school plans to put the first grant monies toward the purchase of 22 Lego robotics kits. The school has only five of those kits so far. How to spread STEM learning: the Utah STEM Bus The Classroom Grant program and K-16 Computing Initia- tive are just two of several ways the STEM Action Center supports STEM education in the state. Another recently launched program is the Utah STEM Bus. Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from Andeavor (formerly Tesoro), along with support from several other industry partners, the center was able to create a mobile classroom to travel statewide, especially to underserved schools and communities.