PV STEMNET Phase II Proposal

I. Description of Network decision-making process to arrive at the proposal focus.

All decisions of the PV STEMNET have been made through a process that is by design democratic and inclusive, and consensus building. All participants have been invited and welcomed to all meetings. All meetings have provided opportunities for all participants to share their ideas, opinions, and expertise. Within several days after each meetings, notes were put on the website for those who were unable to attend. A list serve was established to enhance communication among participants. A series of meetings were held that culminated at the June 11 "STEM Summit" in the decision to focus our Phase II proposal on engineering/pre-engineering. We summarize the meetings in Table I, and then describe in detail the consensus-building process at the June 11^th meeting. Meeting minutes, notes, and PowerPoint presentations are available on the PV STEMNET website: http://umassk12.net/pvnet.

Date	Location	Summary
4/7	BHE Information session	Twenty participants created an email list, agreed to contact other institutions, and agreed to meet on 5/20 at UMass Amherst.
4/20	UMass Amherst	Forty participants developed ideas for the network, its structure, the survey, and website. UMass Amherst selected as lead partner.
4/30		Phase I proposal submitted
5/14	UMass Amherst	Thirty participants discussed survey design, Network structure, and Phase II activities. The group decided to have a small meeting to continue discussion of the Network structure.
5/18	Hampshire Educational Collaborative (HEC)	Small group recommended against the establishment of an executive council. It developed idea of STEM Summit to be held on June 11.
5/24	HEC	Small group discussed implications of May 21 BHE information meeting. Decided to convene a meeting with industry representatives.
6/4	Pioneer Valley Planning Commission	Representatives from PVPC, REBs, RTC, RCC, Baystate Health Systems, and Western Massachusetts Electric Company discussed industry participation in Network.
6/11	Holyoke Community College	STEM Summit (see below)

STEM Summit, June 11, Holyoke Community College

Prior to the STEM Summit, Allan Feldman and Andy Churchill from UMass analyzed the input from the meetings and the survey, as well as "concept papers" developed by participants[1], to identify possible area(s) of focus for Phase II activities. These were made available to all participants, as well as summaries of the concept papers, though the website and list serve.

The STEM Summit began with a panel discussion with Allan Feldman (UMass), Paul Foster (Pioneer Valley Planning Commission/Plan for Progress), Patricia Crosby (Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board) and Brad Sperry (Hampden Regional Employment Board). Andy Churchill presented the findings from the Phase I survey. The presentations and discussion identified the following needs and opportunities:

· There is a "leaky pipeline." We are losing students from STEM at each stage of the educational process, due to lack of teacher knowledge, student engagement, career awareness, and clear connections between educational levels and between education and local jobs.

· Key industries in the region include mechanical, technical, and precision manufacturing occupations. The Regional Competitiveness Council and the REBs identified key industry clusters. These include: financial services; education & knowledge creation; printing & publishing; plastics; hospitality/tourism; metal manufacturing & production technology; forest & paper products; building fixtures, equipment & services; and life sciences—medical devices & biopharmaceuticals. The Valley has a fairly strong manufacturing base, although firms are relatively small—75% of employers are 10 employees or less, with perhaps a dozen in the Valley employing 1,000 or more.

· It is important to develop the STEM skills and knowledge of students who will remain in the region. Many of the students who attend the local colleges leave afterward. It is projected that we will be facing a labor supply shortfall in a decade—we need to make sure all our young people have the educational and interpersonal skills needed to retain and attract businesses. Our workforce is our best economic development asset.

· The online survey identified “developing more engaging STEM curriculum” as the greatest need (76% of respondents chose this[2]), followed by “improving middle school teacher STEM knowledge” (67%), and “having more opportunities for students to learn about STEM careers (57%).

· There are numerous STEM resources and networks in the region, such as innovative 4-year and 2-year college programs, Tech Prep and School to Work partnerships, industry/workforce associations, teacher professional development experts, distance learning network, and manufacturing and technical jobs.

The remainder of the STEM Summit consisted of a discussion of the possible Phase II foci. As a result of the open exchange of ideas, and after some discussion of various options, the group as a whole arrived at the consensus to organize the Phase II proposal around an Engineering/Pre-Engineering focus. The focus was selected for the following reasons:

· Engineering and technology are major components of the Massachusetts Science and Engineering/Technology Curriculum Framework (MADOE, 2001).

· It includes all of the STEM industries identified as priority industries by the RCC and REBs.

· It offers a context for applying math and science skills in hands-on ways, thus potentially making math and science more engaging for more students.

· It provides an opportunity for improving student and teacher career awareness, and for developing career pathway ladders.

· There is strong interest among Network partners to incorporate more engineering and pre-engineering content into the K-12 curriculum.

· There are a wide variety of initiatives already underway in the region that can be built upon, linked to and enhanced by an Engineering/Pre-Engineering theme. These were identified by the Phase I surveying process.

II. Statement of the need for the project.

The Valley is rich in higher education resources, including the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst), the Cooperating Colleges of Greater Springfield (American International, Baypath, Elms, Holyoke Community, Springfield, Springfield Technical Community, Western New England, and Westfield State colleges), and Greenfield Community College. We also have several active employer associations, including the Regional Technology Corporation, which brings together 110 employers in materials & manufacturing technology, life sciences, and IT & communications. With a top-100 teaching hospital (Baystate Health Systems), Massachusetts’ flagship University campus conducting $100 million per year in sponsored research, and a strong precision and plastics manufacturing base, the Pioneer Valley has a number of STEM resources and potential employment opportunities.

There is also a history of collaboration between K-12 and two-year and four-year colleges, and between educators, scientists, and industry, through such efforts as Tech Prep, School-to-Work, Regional Employment Board career centers, the Pioneer Valley Plan for Progress, the Five College Public School Partnership, and the NSF-funded activities of the UMass-based STEM Ed Institute. While there is still much work to be done, these existing partnerships provide functioning networks through which to build more comprehensive and STEM-focused linkages among PreK-12, higher education, and area employers.

Although the region has these strengths, large numbers of its inhabitants live in urban and rural poverty. K-12 students in schools located in areas of poverty are least likely to receive the education needed to enter the STEM workforce. The Pioneer Valley has two of the school districts that fared worst in the MCAS exams – the Holyoke Public Schools and the Springfield Public Schools. The Holyoke school district has recently been taken over by the State, and the City of Springfield is near bankruptcy. In addition, Franklin County, the northern part of the region, is one of the poorest areas in the state. New jobs are being created to replace those lost years ago when the mills closed, but most of the new industry depends upon a STEM-educated workforce.

Through our Phase I activities we have identified a "leaky STEM pipeline" that has resulted in a mismatch between the region's workforce and employment opportunities in engineering and technical occupations including our precision and plastics manufacturing base. There are also concerns about a “brain drain” that results from our most successful K-12 students moving to other regions for higher education and remaining there, and graduates of the region’s colleges and universities not being able to remain in the region because of the lack of suitable jobs. The result is a "chicken and egg" situation in which there is little growth in STEM related industries because of the mismatch between the workforce and employment opportunities. Therefore, one of the benefits of focusing our Phase II activities on the K-12 pipeline that lead to pre-engineering, engineering, and technical careers is that it strengthens the workforce, which will then spur economic growth.

III. The names of the Network partners involved in the project. Partner institutions include:

IV. Project objectives, stated in measurable terms with outcomes.

The Engineering Awareness/Pathways activities will increase awareness of careers in engineering, technology, and applied science and mathematics among K-12 teachers, guidance counselors and students, including young women and underserved minority students. The Engineering Across the Curriculum activities will also increase awareness of these careers. However, they have two other purposes. One is to support the implementation of the technology, engineering and design standards of the Massachusetts Science and Engineering/Technology Curriculum Framework (MADOE, 2001). The other is to use engineering, technology and design activities to increase students' mathematics skills.

The objectives of these two sets of activities are to:

(1) Increase teachers' and students' knowledge of paths to careers in engineering, technology, and applied mathematics and science;

(2) Increase teachers' knowledge of engineering, science, and mathematics;

(3) Increase teachers' knowledge of the methods of teaching and assessing engineering, science, and mathematics to K-12 students; and

(4) Increase students' learning of engineering, science, and mathematics.

Objective (1) will be measured by keeping track of the number of teachers and students served in the Engineering Awareness activities, and through the use of pre- and post-surveys of knowledge of pathways to careers in engineering, technology, and applied mathematics and science.

Objectives (2) and (3) will be measured by keeping track of the number of teachers served in the Engineering Across the Curriculum Activities, and through the use of pre- and post-tests of content and pedagogical knowledge.

Objective (4) will not be directly measurable during the time frame of this project. However, baseline data will be collected so that if additional funding becomes available we can measure the students' learning.

Estimates of the number of teachers and students served are in section VI of this proposal.

In addition to the activities that directly serve K-12 teachers and students, PV STEMNET proposes to continue to develop the Network by establishing a PV STEMNET headquarters. The purposes of the headquarters are to

1. Oversee all Network activities;

2. Act as a clearinghouse and information conduit among the Network partners, including the continued development and maintenance of the PV STEMNET website;

3. Convene Network partners for shared learning and dissemination of promising models;

4. Publicize PV STEMNET activities in the media and with legislators and other potential funders; and

5. Work with partners to develop additional sources of funding for STEM education activities.

V. Major activities designed to meet STEM objectives.

The Pioneer Valley Regional PreK-16 STEM Network (PV STEMNET) proposes a set of activities for K-12 teachers and students with a focus on Engineering/Pre-Engineering, including applied mathematics and science. These activities are designed to (1) build awareness of and provide a "pipeline" to careers in engineering, technology, and applied science and mathematics and (2) make STEM learning more engaging across the curriculum. The activities are therefore divided into two types: Engineering Awareness/Pathways and Engineering Across the Curriculum.

Engineering Awareness/Pathways Activities

Engineering pathways mapping project. PV STEMNET Phase I activities identified (1) significant employment opportunities in a variety of engineering/technician areas; (2) a need to develop the skills of students who will stay in the area (not just high achievers who will leave for colleges and employment elsewhere); and (3) a variety of existing engineering/technician education offerings at the four-year and two-year college and comprehensive and vocational high-school levels. However, these needs and opportunities are not well articulated or highly publicized. PV STEMNET’s project manager will develop a working group representing all the above-mentioned educational levels and industry representatives to organize these career and educational options into a set of coherent engineering/technician pathways. This work will include both cataloguing existing programs and resolving transfer issues between high school, community college, and four-year-college institutions. We will then produce a guide to engineering/technician pathways in the Pioneer Valley and distribute it throughout the Network so that parents, guidance counselors, teachers, and students, and especially women and others underrepresented in STEM careers, can understand and make better-informed choices about the opportunities that are available.

Industry internships and research experiences for teachers. To successfully implement the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework (MADOE, 2001) teachers need first-hand experience with science and engineering work. The Regional Technology Corporation (RTC) will develop and coordinate four-week, paid Summer 2005 industry internships in engineering-related firms for 20 teachers from Pioneer Valley middle and high schools. RTC will recruit employer placements and teacher participants, develop a structure for the internships and monitor placements to ensure their mutual benefit for industry and teacher participants, and convene participating teachers at least once during the internship period for reflection on educational lessons from the experience. PV STEMNET will also facilitate the development of Research Experience for Teachers (RET), specific activities that the National Science Foundation (NSF) encourages its scientific research grantees to incorporate in funded projects. There are already several of these types of programs in the region supported by NSF at UMass Amherst and the Five Colleges. The PV STEMNET project manager will encourage other local NSF grantees to apply for RET funds and will coordinate the availability of research opportunities.

Industry internships for students. PV STEMNET will create student internships to increase STEM career awareness among students, especially women and others underrepresented in STEM careers. The Hampden REB has received separate BHE funding for student STEM internships and is working with the RTC to deliver them. In Hampshire and Franklin counties, the F/H REB will provide employer recruitment support for student internships in engineering/technical occupations, in support of school staff and school-to-work personnel. The RTC will also assist the F/H REB in their efforts.

Career fairs. Three career fairs will be held as part of PV STEMNET Phase II activities. One will be coordinated by the Tri-County Tech Prep Consortium; a second by the Tech Prep 21 Consortium; and a third by the UMass Amherst College of Engineering. The UMass fair will focused on the recruitment of minority students into engineering.

Summer camps. Currently two of PV STEMNET's partners offer STEM summer camps. For 15 years, Smith College has offered its Summer Science & Engineering Program (SSEP), a month-long residential enrichment program for high school girls. The program reaches out to a highly diverse population of students, more than 40% of whom are as students of color, and more than half of the participants annually are awarded financial aid based upon their demonstrated need. At UMass, the STEM Ed Institute is partnering with the Town of Amherst recreation department to offer two weeklong SET (science, engineering and technology) day-camps at UMass for 6^th-9^th-graders. Engineering awareness activities are an integral part of this camp, which features UMass faculty, other professionals, K-12 teachers, and counselors trained to work with middle school children. PV STEMNET will approach industry partners for scholarship support for campers. Both camps will match the industry scholarships. Two other day camps will be created as part of this program. One will be located at Springfield College and the other at Greenfield Community College. STEM professors from the colleges will lead middle school students in a series of STEM-related activities for one week during the summer. These activities will be designed to increase the students' awareness of STEM careers in the hope that they will choose challenging science and math-oriented courses in high school.

Saturday Explorations in Science and Engineering. PV STEMNET will offer a program in Springfield for middle and high school students, to be located at Western New England College (WNECO). There will be six Saturday sessions that would offer a mix of presentation, hands-on activities, lab work and visits to labs and facilities. Each Saturday would be devoted to one of the following fields (and their interrelations): math, physics, chemistry, bio, mechanical and electrical engineering, and bioengineering. There will be an awards ceremony at the final session open to parents, teachers, and community member, with a high-profile guest speaker from industry.

Engineering Education Conference. To further raise the profile of engineering/technical opportunities in the Valley, PV STEMNET proposes to hold a spring 2005 engineering education conference, bringing together educators and industry representatives. The conference will present the work of the Engineering Pathways Mapping Project described above, as well as the full range of teacher, student, and industry activities represented in this proposal. Major goals will include generating media attention, raising awareness of engineering/technology opportunities among school administrators, guidance counselors, and teachers, and disseminating curriculum, professional development, and pathways/awareness models.

Engineering Across the Curriculum

Summer content and pedagogy institutes and school-year follow-up. The PV STEMNET proposes the development and implementation of three content and pedagogy workshops for K-12 teachers. One workshop will be for teachers in grades 4-8, and the two others for high school teachers. The workshops will draw as much as possible upon existing curriculum materials for teaching engineering at those levels. An important source will be the TeachEngineering project, funded by the National Science Foundation. Teachers will be instructed using materials that they will later teach with so that they will gain both familiarity with the curriculum materials and the necessary depth of understanding to use them successfully in their classrooms. PV STEMNET proposes to have at least three follow-up sessions for each workshop during the 2005-06 academic year to improve teacher learning and curriculum implementation (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999). The follow-up sessions will be supported through in-kind support from the partnering colleges.

The institute for teachers in grades 4-8 will be jointly coordinated by the Westfield State College Center for Teacher Education and Research (CENTER) and the Hampshire Educational Collaborative. It will include: a) teacher learning of major math concepts through engineering applications; b) learning activities that link mathematics to STEM careers; c) the integration of educational technology into the curriculum; and d) the implementation of practices that will raise student mathematics scores on the MCAS. The institute builds on a model of facilitated collaborative inquiry in which teachers analyze the MCAS math scores of their students and look for patterns of understanding and/or lack of understanding on specific math concepts.

The institute for high school teachers coordinated by the engineering programs Smith College will focus on "engineering across the curriculum." The institute will be for teachers of all school subjects and is based upon the idea that engineers must consider the impact of their professional actions on society. For example, engineers developing genetically modified food must consider the ethical, political, and economic aspects of their decisions in the context of a diverse and complex global community. In this way engineering can be a tool for contextual learning across the entire curriculum. The UMass institute will focus on the incorporation of engineering curriculum materials into the traditional high school mathematics and science courses. This is important because high school science teachers find it difficult to incorporate new subject matter, such as engineering and technology, into their already crowded curricula. This institute will provide them with ways to do so.

Academic-year seminars for teachers. PV STEMNET also proposes to include two sets of academic-year seminars for teachers: Saturday Science and Engineering Seminars (SSES) and bimonthly STEM Education seminars. For the past several years the UMass College of Engineering and the UMass STEM Education Institute, with the support of the Raytheon Corporation, have co-sponsored a series of Saturday STEM seminars for teachers. PV STEMNET proposes to expand the scope of the seminars to reach more teachers within the region, and to draw upon the resources of the region's institutions of higher education and industries. The STEM Education Institute has also sponsored a series of bi-monthly Tuesday afternoon seminars for teachers and STEM college and university faculty. Again the intent is to expand these to reach more of the region's K-12 teachers and to draw upon the Network's partners. Although these seminars focus primarily on content, curriculum, and pedagogy, they will also serve to increase teachers' awareness of careers in engineering, technology, and applied science and mathematics.

Pre-Engineering Distance Learning Consortium. PV STEMNET proposes to utilize an existing videoconferencing distance-learning network to pilot a partnership between high schools offering a Pre-Engineering curriculum to students considering a career in Engineering. The partnership will build upon the Western Massachusetts Distance Learning Network (learning.collaborative.org), which currently links 18 school districts. PV STEMNET will fund the cost of implementing one course from the Project Lead the Way (PTLW) curriculum in three participating WMDLN high schools (a total of $45,000), through an RFP process coordinated by the PV STEMNET project manager. The availability of the distance learning component and a common curriculum will allow participating high schools to share courses and offer professional development and training to teachers from a number of schools simultaneously. In addition, PV STEMNET will also explore the possibility of enabling local high schools to access the UMass Online distance-learning platform to offer UMass online STEM courses to motivated high school students.

PV STEMNET proposes to augment the videoconferencing activities with a working seminar on teaching with the "Project Lead the Way" pre-engineering curriculum. The PLTW working seminars will be for those either teaching using the curriculum or contemplate doing so. The focus will be on the issues that teachers face in implementing the curriculum in their classrooms and schools, and the seminars will build upon the expertise of experienced PLTW teachers. This model of professional development through teachers learning collaborative with other teachers was supported by research summarized in the National Research Council publication, How People Learn (Bransford et al., 1999). Faculty from the region's engineering programs (UMass, Smith College, Western New England College, and Greenfield, Holyoke and Springfield Technical Community Colleges will assist with the working seminars.

PV STEMNET Headquarters Activities

It is clear to the PV STEMNET partners that if the Network is to continue beyond the first year of BHE funding it must have an infrastructure. PV STEMNET HQ will include a half-time PV STEMNET project manager who will oversee all Network activities, with particular responsibility for the Engineering Pathways Mapping Project, career fairs, the engineering education conference, and the Project Lead the Way activities with support and oversight by the principal investigator, UMass professor Allan Feldman. PV STEMNET HQ will also serve as the information hub of the Network. In addition to organizing and facilitating Network-wide meetings as needed, HQ will maintain the Network's website and be responsible for publications, video documentation of activities, and publicity for the Network's activities, especially with the media and the legislature. The information hub activities will draw upon the resources of the STEM Ed Institute such as UMassK12.net, in addition to BHE funds.

One of the most important roles of HQ will be to work with partners to develop additional funding for STEM education activities. Through Dr. Feldman, HQ will draw upon the resources of the UMass Amherst Center for Learning, Teaching and School Change. The Center will help Network partners identify possible funding sources and provide assistance for the writing of grant proposals.

VI. Description of the target population.

Teachers and students from all the partner districts will participate in PV STEMNET activities. Below are our estimates of the numbers of participants, ethnicity, and income level for each activity:

· Engineering pathways mapping project: The guide produced will be distributed to all guidance counselors in the Pioneer Valley and college advisors. An abridged version will be handed out at career fairs. The full guide will be on the PV STEMNET website.

· Industry internships and research experiences for teachers: Twenty teachers will participate in internships and 10 in RETs. At least half the teachers will be women. Preference will be given to teachers from rural and urban poverty areas. On the average each teacher will teach 100 students per year.

· Industry internships for students: 100 pre-engineering internships for students will be created. At least half will be for students from rural and urban poverty areas, targeting female students and other underrepresented groups.

· Career fairs: The three career fairs will attract 500 students each. The UMass fair will target minority students.

· Summer camps: Twenty-five campers from Springfield at the Springfield College site. Twenty-five campers from Franklin County at the GCC site. Four low-income scholarships each at the Smith and UMass sites.

· Saturday Explorations in Science and Engineering: 50 middle school and 50 high school students from the Springfield area, with the majority being from groups underrepresented in STEM careers.

· Engineering Education Conference: At least 200 attendees from the region's schools, colleges, universities, industries, and museums.

· Summer content and pedagogy institutes and school-year follow-up: Twenty middle school and 20 high school teachers. At least half of the teachers will be from rural and urban poverty areas. At least half of the teachers will be women or from other underrepresented groups. On the average each teacher will teach 100 students per year.

· Academic-year seminars for teachers: At least 35 teachers at each Saturday seminar. Teachers from areas of urban and rural poverty will be recruited to attend. At least 15 teachers at each Tuesday seminar. On the average each teacher will teach 100 students per year.

· Pre-Engineering Distance Learning Consortium: Three school districts will be involved in the consortium, serving at least 300 students.

VII. Timetable indicating implementation and completion dates.

Activity	Implementation date	Completion date
Engineering pathways mapping project	8/16/04	5/30/04
Industry internships and research experiences for teachers	7/5/05	7/29/05
Industry internships for students	2/1/05	6/30/05
Career fairs	8/16/04	6/30/05
Summer camps	7/5/05	9/15/05
Saturday Explorations in Science and Engineering	9/1/04	6/30/05
Engineering Education Conference	8/16/04	6/30/05
Summer content and pedagogy institutes	7/5/05	7/29/05
Academic-year seminars for teachers	9/1/04	6/30/05
Pre-Engineering Distance Learning Consortium	8/16/04	6/30/05

VIII. Transferability of the proposed projects.

All of the proposed activities are transferable within our region and to other regions. This is because of the overall design of the program. By using a thematic approach that combines small projects into a larger whole, it allows us to try out different models for improving the pipeline. Those that are successful, as determined by the evaluation, can be easily duplicated because of their low cost.

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (1999). How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

MADOE. (2001). Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework. Malden, MA: Massachusetts Department of Education.

[2] Respondents could choose more than one option.

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