Teachers connect STEM industries and student experience

Cascade K-8 STEM teacher Rebecca Drury with the "best view in Lynnwood"
at the Lynnwood Waste Water Treatment facility at the edge of Puget Sound.

By Marianne Deal Stephens

Nine Shoreline School District teachers are currently participating in two STEM Professional Development programs through the Washington Alliance for Better Schools (WABS).

Shoreline Schools Director of Teaching and Learning Teri Poff and seven teachers described the programs at the November 17 School Board meeting. The STEM programs aim to connect teachers with real-world industries in order to enhance student engagement and ultimately better prepare students for college and careers. “STEM” refers to the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math.

Three teachers in the STEM Externship program were matched with local industries:

• Shelby Bushman, Biology Teacher at Shorecrest High School, with King County Wastewater Treatment; 
• Linda Richard, Math Teacher at Shorecrest High School, with Boeing;
• Rebecca Drury, STEAM Teacher at Cascade K-8, with the City of Lynnwood Traffic Management and Waste Water Treatment divisions. 

The teachers spent eight days on location learning about the industries and then devised problem-based learning experiences for their students.

Shelby Bushman shared her newly acquired knowledge about wastewater treatment with students and altered an existing eco-column project to include more emphasis on the water cycle and give students more flexibility in eco-column design.

Shorecrest Math Teacher Linda Richard in the cockpit.
Photo by Adam Bursell of Boeing

Linda Richard is devising a project based on airline pricing for her math students.

Rebecca Drury plans to draw on her traffic experience with the City of Lynnwood to have her Cascade STEAM students measure the expected and actual speeds of pedestrians crossing the street and so consider whether traffic design adequately addresses real situations.

Linda Richard mentioned that several people she worked with at Boeing emphasized the importance of “soft skills.”

Students need to be able to communicate and work in a team as well as possess factual knowledge. Shoreline Schools Director of Teacher and Learning Teri Poff described how the WABS STEM programs foster critical thinking and other communication skills that figure prominently in the new Common Core State Standards.

Rebecca Drury noted that, despite the current emphasis on higher education, these industries need high school graduates who are well-versed in STEM, and not only workers with college degrees.

Linda Richard with her Boeing Externship colleagues.
Photo courtesy Shoreline Schools.

The WABS STEM Fellows program creates teams of teachers, industry experts, and higher education faculty. Teams meet approximately twice a month through the school year striving to connect real-world issues to the new science and math standards through relevant problem-based learning experiences.

• Einstein Middle School Science Teachers Briahna Attebery and Ellen Smith plan to add a study of artificial heart valves to an existing unit that involves pig heart dissection. The artificial heart valve project will explore engineering and biological considerations through hands-on experiences.
• Shorewood Biology Teachers Alisan Giesy and Theresa McCartney work on a team with Boeing Engineers, a faculty member from Edmonds Community College, and a teacher from another district. Their learning experience will address sustainability in a high-school cafeteria. 
• Another team including Shorewood Chemistry Teachers Dori Nagy and Nicole Koontz is collaborating on a project centered on cell phones. Students will examine what cell phones are made of (primarily rare earth metals and plastics) and create a bioplastic cell phone case.

The STEM Fellows program will conclude with a spring event at the Museum of History and Industry. WABS is a collaborative of eleven local school districts and the University of Washington College of Education.