After promoting multiple technology grants for teachers over the past few months, we're back to just our traditional offering. Since it's a new month, we're sharing news of the latest member of the education community to receive our award! Moving outside of the school space, which we sometimes do, we've selected Jolie Pelds as this month's recipient! Jolie is the makerspace manager at the Science Center of Iowa, which is a 50-year-old museum located in Des Moines. There, Jolie helps create unique STEM programming for children—much of which has shifted since the onset of the pandemic.
Like so many educators, Jolie has been challenged to find a creative way to continue STEM programming from a distance. For whatever reason, many of the children and parents aren't yet fully comfortable with returning for in-person programs, so Jolie has adapted the museum's offerings to allow for students to try various STEM activities at home. Jolie and her colleagues have actually been supporting homeschooled students and parents since 2016 with age-appropriate technology workshops and lessons for kids aged 4-14. Essentially, she's made it so that Science Center staff members provide parents with the premise and, from there, they can help facilitate the learning experiences for the kids at home.
Using technology to create STEM learning.
With the pandemic, of course, changing everything last year, much of what Jolie has done became more challenging. So, she turned to grants to help bolster these offerings and enhance the hands-on, take-home portion of the STEM program. She quickly realized she needed to provide more supporting materials for parents with every lesson now being remote. Eventually, Jolie settled on the idea of take-home STEM kits that include all the materials students need to complete each activity. Plus, students would also be able to use them in their free time to help reinforce concepts between lessons. Though it's certainly a creative adaptation, Jolie needed some help to fully bring this vision to life and we're happy to support her with this month's grant.
Though she had the logistics figured out, she needed the STEM tools she'd actually be sending to students' homes. Her grant award will provide those physical learning tools for students to use. Once they have the kits for each lesson, they're able to follow along via a live stream, allowing them to still fully participate virtually. The at-home option also allows students to move at their own pace or revisit the lesson later on. Essentially, Jolie designed this program so that homeschooling parents could feel like they're providing students with robust STEM learning experiences. In fact, having experience as a homeschool parent, herself, Jolie understands how to design engaging and effective learning opportunities.
Getting parents comfortable with STEM.
Jolie also wants to ensure parents feel confident in using unique technology tools at home with their children rather than going about it blindly and hoping for the best. So, she's starting with some simplistic STEAM tools that are perfect for her elementary and middle school students. We'll be sending her some Strawbees STEAM Starter Kits and Strawbees Robotic Inventions for the micro:bit Kits for the program. These Strawbees components will serve as the main piece of each take-home kit. Jolie will also work to add additional materials, like more micro:bit's, to each of them as time goes on. For now, it's the perfect way to combine physical STEAM tools, digital resources, and at-home exploration to ensure everyone is safe and challenged in their learning.
Before sending home the new technology kits, Jolie will administer a parent survey to gauge their comfort levels. Once she has a baseline, she plans to provide additional support if necessary. Ultimately, the goal is ensuring all kids have access to hands-on opportunities and this transparent conversation is a great approach. Since students from up to 100 miles away participate, Jolie is even more inspired to offer relevant opportunities. It's also a bit about equity since many of these students have no other options closer to where they live. And, if that means it's best for them to participate from home, that's fine with Jolie. In her eyes, wherever they learn best is fine with her.
Moving forward with STEM programming.
As her and her colleagues continue to learn more about facilitating this program remotely, we're confident the Strawbees kits and resources will help ease some of the challenges. Since every family has different needs and different set-ups, the versatility the kits provide should be very helpful. Also, Jolie must always consider how homeschooled students typically fall into the category of being underserved. They don't always have access to the in-school STEM programs other students do. For that reason and since the number of homeschooled students has increased so much as a result of the pandemic, bringing the STEM learning to them has become even more important.
We're happy to help Jolie provide support in the form of hands-on learning, technology, and guidance to parents and students who are more comfortable staying at home. Her program is a fantastic display of adaptation and showing a commitment to making sure these students aren't forgotten. We thank Jolie for applying for the Eduporium EdTech grant and congratulate her again on her selection. If you know anyone in the STEM or education community who would benefit from an opportunity like this, we encourage you to forward the application link. The application for the December award is open now and will remain open through Dec. 20. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more.
