Hello Jennifer,

I know I want to be part of this project! I am a former classroom teacher who now works with teachers providing professional learning. We are known for partnering with other organizations and sharing many opportunities for thinking like a scientist and engineer and I think teachers would be very ecited about this work if we are able to show them the "why" and how they could do this with a minimal amount of work due to current stress level of many inservice teachers.

I have to say you got me in the very beginning of the video clip because one of the things i was able ot do this year through the Civil Air patrol was "fly a plane" I think this could easily integrated into a Flght unit for grades 4-6 and even above. I think the computer science component to a currenly developed unit would be added value.

I am wondering what challenges have you met through this project? How have you oversome them? What advice would you give to someone considering taking a prject like this on? Where might one start? I have soooo many questions!

Hi Kathy thank you for your response. Absolutely, we struggle with the current stress levels as well in this implementation process but are currently working on resources for teachers to replicate even without the funds of grants. They certainly help for things like STEMersions and field experiences but we have found through the pandemic that there are lots of resources out there that are free and virtual and can easily give students experiences from outside right at their own seats. Some of the challenges we have meet include teacher buy in and turnover as well as whole school implementations when our buildings were partially running through the pandemic. What we learned though was that companies and new resources were developed, implemented and advanced because of the struggles we went through. It also helped that we were looked at as a resource throughout. 

My advise would be very clear goals to start with, administrative buy in and start small-grow big. 

To start I would say with the state standards and where your state (or the states you are working with) want their students to go. Find a process for delivering the curriculum and model' model, model ;-) Our community partners were crucial as well. 

I assume the materials are supplied to classrooms through the grant and it seems like a wonderful opportunity to use the best tool for the learning goals of the unit. You have created such a wealth of knowledge around all these different tools, which that alone could be a great resource. I am wondering if there are goals for scaling up at some point and if this would be affordable to a typical school?

When we finish our grant yes we would like to bring the concepts to each of our other schools. The funds for resources have been great but really it is the ties the teachers have made and their commitments that have pushed us forward. We are in the process of building a resources guide for others to replicate even without the funds. 

Do you have a website where we could access the resource guide when it is ready?

Here is our section of the WPS website: https://www.wps.k12.va.us/Page/11579

We will most certainly be sharing out our resources once they are published. 

Thank you

Jen 

Jennifer,

Thanks for your response.  I LOVE that you include coaches to support your teachers during this learning journey. The 3-step approach to coaching is a great approach to ensure that the teachers are getting the support they need as they implement these concepts in their classrooms.