OkatieElementary School

ST1.9: STEM teachers and leaders participate in a continuous program of STEM-specific professional learning.

OES STEM educators work to integrate problem-based learning into curricular units. Teacher leaders from each grade level participate in professional development opportunities in STEM-specific training.  These teachers disseminate information learned through regularly scheduled staff meetings.

STEM Trainings:

• Discovery ED STEM Academy
• Project 3M
• Gizmos for Educators
• SC Ed Tech Conference
• Bridging the Science Gap Through Innovative Virtual

Instruction

• How Does Your Learning Garden Grow?
• Technology in the Library:  Coding Apps
•  Marine Debris Workshop through Port Royal Sound
  

Foundation

• Using FOSS K-5:  Science and Engineering Practices in
  

Action

• Introduction to Elementary STEM Teaching and
  

Learning

• Master Naturalist Program
• Summer Institute

Teachers attended the SC Ed Tech Conference to learn more ways to utilize technology in the classroom. After attending the conference, the teachers returned to school and shared what they had learned with the staff. During a staff meeting, they showed teachers how to use the PBS media website to share videos and quizzes with students through Google Classroom.

Throughout the school year, administration and staff worked with district technology coaches on STEM-related trainings. During the Classflow training, teachers learned how to upload PowerPoints and quizzes students could access on their iPads. The results to the quizzes are displayed in real time on the Promethean Board. At the Port Royal Sound Maritime Center Marine Debris training, staff got a firsthand look at how marine debris can affect the local ecosystem overtime.

STEM Forward Flyer	Staff will attend this conference for an intensive focus on enhancing teacher content knowledge through STEM applications of mathematics, science and engineering practices, effective pedagogy, and aligned assessment. Sessions available to those attending include modeling and interactive technology simulations and applications, renewable energy sources and applications in math and science, and EV3 and VEX Robots and robotics, coding, and programing software.
Full Power Point Presentation		Fourth grade teachers shared with staff at a faculty meeting the ways in which they utilize performance assessments in the classroom. The goal of this presentation was to demonstrate ways teachers can maximize the district’s Connect2Learn initiative of 1:1 devices to asses students’ learning without paper and pencil tests.

During the 2016-17 school year, several Okatie Elementary teachers will participate in The Discovery Education STEM-Formation program.  The STEM-Formation program provides a system to deliver professional learning in an intentional and continuous manner.  STEM-Formation members build both their individual human capital as well as their social capital as they work as a team to stretch their own capacity to effectively develop a culture of STEM in their classrooms and schools.  OES STEM-Formation members will form a school-based team and implement strategies learned in professional development, share their learning with their peers, and enrich their schools STEM culture. 

2016-17 STEM Cohort Year 1 Session Descriptions