THE STEM CENTER

UNLEASHING OUR INNER CREATIVITY IS LIKE SO MANY THINGS WE TRY, THE MORE WE PRACTICE THE EASIER IT GETS - Tom and David Kelley authors of Creative Confidence

If you have checked an item out from the STEM Center, please be mindful that we will need to have it back at the STEM Center for an end of the year inventory check. We are in need of all items to be returned asap.

To return items, please write To: STEM Center From (insert your name and building here)

It can then be sent through School Dude. Your custodian can help you with a School Dude ticket.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

On May 7th, staff, students, families and community members all headed out to Lawrence Tech University in Southfield to support our finalists in the economics and entrepreneur learning experience. We had a combined total of roughly 80 people RSVP, AND OVER 200 SHOWED UP FOR THE EVENT!!!

The winning team was from Wildwood with their new prototype "Hair 2 Go"

The runner up was an individual entrepreneur from Hicks, with their product "Hornet's Cafe"

It was amazing to watch these students give their pitches to a panel of 6 judges and an audience of over 200 people! Everyone had great success that evening!!

Thank you also to all the staff that went out there to support our students. It did not go unnoticed.

We believe our role is to empower kids to make an impact on the world around them and fully believe in themselves. - John Spencer and A.J. Juliani

So far we have heard from 3 classrooms across the district ( 2 in the elementary, 1 in high school), that were chosen by the DNR to participate in the Salmon In The Classroom project based learning unit. We are so excited to see where this goes and how much we will all learn from this!!! Stay tuned in the fall to hear more!

Congratulations to Jennifer Steen (John Glenn), Jennifer Jacobs ( Graham), and Melissa Mattison (Schweitzer) 🤩

The STEM Center Big Green Garden is starting to produce. So far staff (including myself) have harvested enough for 10 large salads! Different varieties of lettuce, collard greens, and radishes have been harvested, while the green beans are still starting to sprout. Learning as we go, I have left one of the radishes and one of the collard greens in the planters because they started to bloom. Once they have started to bloom they taste more bitter, so it is now part of a garden inquiry investigation. Will those 2 plants go to seed? Will we have more plants grow and produce food for us? Only time and observations will tell!!!

Do you have a recipe you would like to share with the STEM Center? Please email it (with or without a picture) and it can be shared on the STEM Center Smore next year. The plan is to make and share out how to best use the harvest. I would love to have more and more collaboration with the Big Green Garden!!!! I made a side salad and others made smoothies, what do you suggest?

On July 12th, from 5-8 at the Leanna Hicks Public Library, author Veronica Wilkerson-Johnson will be hosting a book signing in her hometown. She reached out to the STEM Center and requested Wayne-Westland students that would be willing to display their STEM work at her event.

We can not wait to see our students take pride in their work at an event like this. If you have a student or students with a project or a poster of their work for display, please reach out to me asap.

Karen Dickelman dickelmank@wwcsd.net

MICHIGAN GIRLS FUTURE FLIGHT CHALLENGE Grades 4-8

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hjAukBZ6680ASi2PnKs5JilkhS_mxyc0Od1Qwxi2Rms/edit?usp=sharing

CT in the D

Join us at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) on June 18th and immersive yourself in strategies for helping your students solve problems creatively using computational thinking. Project Tomorrow will help facilitate the morning session as we take a deep dive into computational thinking and how you can integrate it into your curriculum. In the afternoon, DIA staff will take us on a learning walk throughout the DIA and connect computational thinking to art. Our day will conclude with a hands-on learning activity.

Register Here

Cultivate Creativity in Nature

Join us at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge on August 6th to explore new ways to engage students with nature and learn in unexpected places. It will be a day filled with hands on learning activities.

Register Here

We are excited to share that the first PBL cohort will be starting in the fall of the 24-25 school year. This was an optional opportunity to learn about more applicable and hands on ways of learning in the classroom while covering an array of standards simultaneously. (No Silo Theory) 35 educators in our district will be on this journey together! We are so excited to see where this leads us!

The STEM Center wanted to lift a few passages from the book "Empower" by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani. This book is a very easy and quick read and is extremely powerful!

*Conversations end with "this is why we are doing this project. I want you to be able to learn because you have a purpose for learning beyond a grade.

*Here's the thing: We aren't going to argue about all the things we'd like to change about school but don't have control over. Instead, we are going to focus on the areas we have control and influence over as teachers, instructional coaches, or school leaders.

*Question: Would you rather have disengaged, compliance-driven students take a test (M-Step/ACT) or an empowered maker and designer take the test?

* In the past, my students didn't own the learning. It was a content delivery system. I worked tirelessly to create content that would be meaningful, fun and challenging. When students seemed disinterested, I would try and dress it up with more humor or pop culture. But in the end, it was always MY CONTENT and I was always the person delivering it. Here's what I mean:

I chose the resources

I chose the content

I asked the questions

I wrote the instructions

I managed the project progress

I chose the tasks

I wrote the objectives

I picked the standards

I decided the format

I determined whether or not the work was any good.

In other words, I chose everything ahead of time.

So I pivoted: I knew that I still had to teach specific content. We had standards and curriculum maps. But I quickly realized that a curriculum map is just that- A MAP. Maps should inspire possibilities rather than limit options. Find those hidden opportunities on that map!

Contact us today on how we can best serve you and your students!

Email: thestemcenter@wwcsd.net

In District Website: https://sites.google.com/wwcsd.net/stem-center/home

Website: https://www.wwcsd.net/schools/educational-programs/stem-center/
Location: 36105 Marquette Street, Westland, MI, USA
Phone: 734-419-2447