SC STEM Hub Advisory Board Minutes

April 25, 2016

SC STEM Hub Advisory Board Meeting

  1. Members and others present: Derry, Harrington, Madison, Pattison, Pargmann,Peck, Singleton, Volp, Wayne
  2. Member’s absent: Bontrager, Chai, Gittinger, Hensen, Sieck,Wigeland
  3. Guests: Rankin, Jasdorff, Mendez
  4. STEM Overview from Harrington regarding The Business Record. There’s a focus to encourage more women entrepreneur’s in the state. Derry says it relates well with the mentorship and STEM emphasis on women.
  5. Derry went over an April update.
  1. Future-Ready Iowa Summit
    1. Took place of STEM Summit
    2. Highlights: Kids in poverty in China score better than affluent kids in the U.S.; better to have a great teacher in the classroom than to keep class size small; keeping teachers in the profession has more to do with elevating the status of the profession than paying teachers more.
  2. Iowa STEM Teacher Award: Ryan Lensing from Dowling was our awardee. He’s from Dowling and teaches AP Environmental Science. He also runs the Snake Club. Lovely reception.
  3. STEM Town Hall at St. Theresa’s: Each child was holding a sign that had which Scale-Up programs they participated in. Reynolds and Branstad attended. The kids were very excited. After, they had the entire hallway lined with Scale-Ups.
    5. South Tama and Drake Festival updates: The Bill Nye event after was a huge carrot for the Drake Festival. It was helpful to recruit presenters.
  1. Sub-Committee Discussion
  1. Looking for ways to maximize STEM Hub efficiency
  2. Iowa STEM Best model (ex. Hoover High School) will be expanding. We’re not sure what the Hub’s involvement will be.
  3. Pargmann will meet with the SE Board member to help coordinate efforts. They hope to meet with area principals and see how the Hubs can help those schools.
  4. If anyone has ways to manage data in a way that makes it easy to track and report. Use Microsoft Access to gain control of that.
  1. Updates from members
  1. Pargmann—She has been seeing lots of requests for hands-on activities and career speakers. John Deere also started a program that recruits girls and 8th graders.
  2. Wayne—May 14 Girl Scouts/Jewels coding event. Jewels is kicking off a July summer program.
  3. Peck—Working on STEM Festivals for the SC and SE Hubs. Please get any info you would like teachers to receive
  4. Pattison—Hosting a staff STEM meeting. Extension and 4-H emphasis on reaching into diverse communities.
  5. Singleton—Robert Half participated in the Drake festival. There’s a tech convention coming up; perhaps we can set up a booth. She’ll send out dates and links.
  6. Volp—At the kid’s school, they’re working on a garden. May 14 there’s a naturalist event coming up near Coon Rapids called Bio Blitz at White Rock Conservancy. Ages: 8-11, but varies.
  7. Madison—Links has been helping JCA with resources, including STEM. They have an African-American history/inventor presentation ready to share. Met with Ruth Ann Gaines to discuss having an awareness seminar for parents. Focus on the urban population.
  8. Mendez—Iowa STEM Business Innovation Conference is Register here: It will be June 29 at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel.
  1. Sub-committee Work Time: Scale-Up Programming and Communications (Seick/Peck/Wayne/Pattison) RLE and STEM BEST (Henson/Pargmann), STEM Festivals (Volp/Henson/Peck), Communications and Marketing (Madison, Pragmann, Harrington), Business Engagement (Harrington, Henson)
  2. Next Meetings: May 24, 9:30-11:30 at the National Balloon Museum. June 27, 2:30-4:30 location TBD.
  3. Adjournment