Everyday Science: A Middle School STEM Learning Collaborative
Inspire more students to consider STEM (learning opportunities and careers) by intervening early and preventing 'interest' loss.
Problem: Many students lose interest in science and math as they increase in grade level. One of the major factors being quality of curriculum (too much memorization and regurgitation, lack of hands-on, investigative opportunities)
Solution: Get industry to play a big role in shaping what is taught in school. Utilize the expertise and experience of STEM professionals and college students to bring high quality, relevant, real-world, hands-on projects to learning environments.
Impact: Students learn not only the importance of STEM content knowledge in solving/explaining EVERYDAY problems but they gain a confidence and excitement for the subject matter
About You
About You
First Name
Zakiah
Last Name
Pierre
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Everyday Science
Organization Website
Organization Phone
Organization Address
Organization Country
United States, DC, Washington
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
Not registered
How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Everyday Science: A Middle School STEM Learning Collaborative
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Inspire more students to consider STEM (learning opportunities and careers) by intervening early and preventing 'interest' loss.
Problem: Many students lose interest in science and math as they increase in grade level. One of the major factors being quality of curriculum (too much memorization and regurgitation, lack of hands-on, investigative opportunities)
Solution: Get industry to play a big role in shaping what is taught in school. Utilize the expertise and experience of STEM professionals and college students to bring high quality, relevant, real-world, hands-on projects to learning environments.
Impact: Students learn not only the importance of STEM content knowledge in solving/explaining EVERYDAY problems but they gain a confidence and excitement for the subject matter
What are the primary activities of your project?
Hands-on STEM learning modules:
This project will draw on the current idea/model of hands-on learning yet takes it a step further by incorporating collaboration with the entire STEM community. Students will be presented with real-world problems that STEM industry professionals encounter on a daily basis. Those questions will be regularly incorporated into their science, technology, engineering and math lessons on the middle school level. Teachers will receive mentoring and professional development from the collegiate community (professors, graduates and undergraduates), known for its investigative nature to find answers to compelling questions. They will assist teachers in developing modules that incorporate these question into their regular lesson plans with added hands-on learning opportunities for the students. Post conducting the learning module in the classroom, students will submit their ideas for solving the problem, then a STEM professional will either visit the classroom or Skype in to discuss how they use the particular STEM content the students had been learning that week in their daily work solving similar problems. The professionals will also allot time for students to ask questions and to provide feedback to students on their submitted design ideas. Skyping in would offer the opportunity for STEM professionals to bring their workspace into the classroom. In some cases student may even have the opportunity to visit a company to see the work first hand. The type of contact will depend on the STEM organization/professionals' preference and capacity. But at the minimum a Skype session would be conducted to allow students personal interaction time with STEM professionals.
These experiences are intended to excite students about STEM and through investigation, generate lots of questions from both the students and instructor, which can be used to fuel the development of new learning modules(inquiry based learning).
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
People have been discussing the idea of real-world, hands-on learning for a while now. But what's innovative is the idea of bringing this concept that is usually reserved for high school students, as they prepare for college and careers, to the middle school level. The idea is to attract and hook students on STEM well before they have to make decisions about high school courses and college majors. This is also one of the few opportunities where private business, institutions of higher learning and other non-profits partner in bringing the best real-world, hands-on experience into classrooms all over the country. Several organizations offer these types of activities during out-of-school time(ex. FIRST robotics competition, NY Hall of Science Career Ladders, Museum of Science Engineering is Elementary, etc.)but Everyday Science would make this curriculum regularly available to students during normal school hours. Based on a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006, ‘The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts’, more than 80 percent of dropouts surveyed stated that their likelihood of staying in school would have increased if classes had provided opportunities for real-world learning. Many students even called for more experiential learning because they need to see a connection between what they are learning in school and getting a good job. In 2011, this still holds true. Students want better, more relevant curriculum. For STEM, Everyday Science would assure that kids are getting these experiences and getting them early.
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
This idea is still in the development phase but we are looking to hopefully testing a few modules of the curriculum in middle school science classrooms and/or in after-school programs this coming school year, 2011-2012. (See the ‘Concept Presentation’ in the video section for an idea of an example module). Getting these programs in schools with large populations of under-represented groups and girls will be of particular focus to increase their knowledge of and interest in STEM. District of Columbia Public Schools are right in our backyard and is the first place we are looking to partner. Once several modules have been tested, researched for effectiveness and further developed, with proper instructor training, these programs can be scaled into any school’s science, technology, engineering and/or math curriculum.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
The founder,Dr. Pierre, is a scientist by training but a mentor and teacher at heart. She has always wanted others to experience the excitement about a subject just as she had. Zakiah is a true STEM junkie and has been for most of her life. She was the kid who tried to piece back a click pen when all the pieces had fallen apart or lost its click (we’ve all been there). It was not enough to just say something IS, she wanted to know the details of How and Why. These questions combined with many life experiences inspired Zakiah to pursue and earn both a BS in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Chemistry. She has practiced in the field but has spent much of her time mentoring and showing future generations all the ‘cool’ things STEM has to offer. The comments that usually get her going, which are way too common are “I hate chemistry” and/or “Math is just not my thing”. She has made it her mission to show the world that chemistry is not only 'AMAZING' but its in everything around you and math is important enough to embrace.
Over the years, Zakiah’s love for everything STEM has evolved. She intends to spark that same excitement in our future generations and hopes it inspires them to consider additional STEM learning opportunities and potentially seek a STEM career. In addition to developing this idea, Zakiah is regularly involved in the community promoting STEM. She volunteers during science fairs, advocates for K-12 STEM Ed, gives talks to students about STEM (her journey/experiences) and was one of the creators of a ‘Science Day Camp for Girls’ (ages 12-18).
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
This project is still in development phase.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Fewer than 100
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
101- 1,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Within three years, we intending to get Everyday Science into 10 middle schools across DC, MD and VA; reaching over 600 students (avg. 3 classes/school and 20 students/class).
Year 1: We will start with 1 school (3 classes). While identifying private business and college & university partners, we will draw on our personal STEM experiences to develop modules that coincide with middle school science curriculum. In parallel, we will work with a designer to develop an online platform. We will identify college graduate students interested in studying effective teaching methods to evaluate the effectiveness of our real-world, hands-on methods and its ability to inspire curiosity in students and help retain content knowledge. Year 2: We will use the research to develop the program and expand.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
This project will require a collaborative effort. Private businesses, higher learning institutions, schools, teachers and students will all need to be equally invested in the success of this project. Therefore a huge barrier would be if any part of the collaboration was unresponsive to request for assistance. This can be mitigated somewhat by having all parties sign a contract to agree to a length of time for which they will actively participate in the program. Another barrier is assuring that classrooms are equipped with the supplies needed to perform quality hands-on projects. Private businesses are always looking for ways to invest in STEM education, it will be our responsibility at Everyday Science to convince them that investing in a classroom, school, and/or district for this specific program is a great investment. The third-party, graduate-level research/evaluation we intend to conduct on program's effectiveness will help add validity to this argument.
Tell us about your partnerships
Partnerships have not been finalized yet.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
Less than $1,000
Explain your selections
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We intend to strengthen this project through developing strong partnerships with private businesses, colleges and universities. These organization will offer great insight into best practices for operating, sustaining and scaling (when appropriate) an effective STEM-specific program.
Partnerships and Accountability
Please tell us more about how your partnership was formed and how it functions. What specific role does each partner play? What unique resources does each partner bring to the initiative?
N/A
How are you building in accountability for students' successful STEM learning outcomes? Please provide a summary and examples.
Students will still be expected to take exams in math and science. Through hands-on learning the desired outcome is that these experiences will help them better retain the content knowledge. This will also help the students better understand the concepts. This is thought to translate into better performance on exams (standardized or otherwise). Even just the simple fact that students will be able to better piece together how learning about a STEM subject like magnets and understanding how they work, would be useful in becoming a food quality engineer (using magnets to assure no metal pieces end up in our food) would represent success.
Needs
Investment, Innovation/Ideas, Mentorship.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add needs that may not be listed.
We are looking for investment into this program as well as help with developing best practices in order to sustain the program through mentoring. Innovative ideas are always welcome as the student projects will always be being updated.
Offers
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add offers that may not be listed.
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 | 94 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
| 94 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre said: Thank you Cameo for the question. I really needed this because although I have the idea in my mind I need to explicitly say/add the ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 94 weeks ago Cameo Brown said: It is so important for middle schools students to receive an engaging STEM education. I understand that STEM professionals will help in ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 96 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
| 97 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre said: Thank you for taking the time to look through my entry. I want to assure that I have a thorough entry, so I welcome feedback. Please ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 97 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
| 97 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
| 97 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
| 98 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
| 99 weeks ago Zakiah Pierre updated this Competition Entry. |
