Based on input from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers across Maryland and initial funding from AT&T, the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education (MBRT) announced plans last week to build the STEMnet Teachers Hub. The network will be a one-stop-shop for STEM teachers to find the resources, support, and professional connections they need to strengthen STEM teaching and learning statewide.
Phase One of the online tool, a joint project with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), will launch during the 2010-11 school year. The STEMnet Teachers Hub will feature three components identified by teachers as "most needed and favored," including a Resource Clearinghouse through which teachers will have online access to STEM curriculum, lesson plans, webinars, tutorials, classroom-ready experiments, and professional development; a System-Wide STEM Connections portal that will enable teachers to link with STEM educators across Maryland at all levels and with private-sector STEM professionals to share knowledge and resources; and the Specialists in the Classroom compenent that will offer teachers a roster of STEM practitioners from federal agencies, industry, and higher education who are available to visit their classrooms, augment curriculum-based learning, and inform and inspire students about real-world STEM work.
"Strengthening Maryland's STEM advantage means giving teachers all of the support they need to provide students with strong STEM knowledge and skills," says MBRT Executive Director June Streckfus. "It's a place where teachers can make connections and access resources. We think that as a result of that innovation will really flourish."
Plans for the network included in the state's "Race to the Top" application for federal education funding, received high marks, says Strecfus. A major contribution from AT&T as well as support from Citi, Northrop Grumman, IBM, and MSDE have made the creation of the network possible.
According to Streckfus, the concept for STEMnet originated with Gov. Martin O'Malley's STEM Task Force. In 2009, the Task Force offered seven recommendations for securing Maryland's future as a global leader in STEM-based education, research, and economic development. The final recommendation was to "create Maryland's STEM Innovation Network to make STEM resources available to all."
As a first step in making that network a reality, MBRT made creating a support hub for teachers its first priority. MBRT conducted focus groups and an online survey in spring 2010 to gain detailed input from STEM teachers throughout the state.
Based on the results of that market research, MBRT identified and then ranked 11 proposed initiatives to reflect the explicitly stated needs of Maryland STEM teachers. Phase One of STEMnet includes implementation of the three initiatives teachers identified as most important. "These initiatives represent the core imperative driving the first stage of Maryland's statewide STEM Innovation Network, the STEMnet Teachers Hub," says Streckfus.
Additional initiatives recommended by STEM teachers will be phased in over the next few years with support from stakeholders throughout Maryland whose shared interest in advancing STEM teaching and achievement will transform the state's ability to compete successfully on the international stage.
"We're starting with teachers, but it will support students and parents. Eventually, [one idea] is for it to support research in STEM across the state and to encourage people to enter that field. So we're looking at a major electronic system that will really promote STEM education in Maryland," she says.
Source: June Streckfus, MBRT
Writer: Walaika Haskins