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Zero Barriers Seeks to Remove Barriers to STEM

Ohio Department of Education Joins Smithsonian Initiative to Pilot Frameworks Griffey is the reason why Yujia Ding can work as a scientist. Actually, the 70-pound English Labrador is why she can do anything – safely. The service animal has been trained to support Ding when POTS, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, causes her heart to race, triggering her to pass out and, sometimes, fall down. Griffey breaks her fall and can then help assure that help …

WIR’ED Pairs Students With Businesses

Students Support Businesses to Improve Their Digital Presence In mid-March 2020, NeoSTEM leaders identified a real and immediate problem. Many of the brick-and-mortar businesses in their communities had a limited online presence, and were struggling to operate in the socially distanced and virtual world brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, NeoSTEM developed WIR’ED, a simple, straightforward, and impactful solution to the problems shopkeepers face operating online. WIR’ED teams tech-savvy students with local business …

Teacher Externship Program Gives Educators Unique Opportunity to Develop Relationships With Local Businesses

It’s the big question. What do you want to be when you grow up? For many children, the question is filled with promise. But for those in disadvantaged communities, it often brings only silence. Children in underserved, low-income, and low-resource communities have limited exposure to the ideas, opportunities, and role models from which professional dreams and STEM-focused careers are built. It’s a simple truth. To be it, you must see it. In partnership with community …

Precedent-Setting Collaboration in Dayton Fuels STEM for All

Dayton, Ohio, known to many as Gem City, could well sport another moniker: STEM City. The label, STEM City, has been earned through a precedent-setting collaboration among dozens of partners who have worked together for years to serve learners while also addressing the STEM workforce needs of business and industry. Anchored by key organizations, including DO STEM, the Dayton Regional STEM Center and the Ohio STEM Learning Network, STEM initiatives in Dayton have been well …

Par Excellence STEM Academy Working to Change the Perception of Scientists and Engineers

Newark Public Charter Elementary School Teacher Believes and Lives that STEM is for all By Allison Shardell, PhD, BCSE, SMHS. When you think of scientists, engineers, and those in other STEM careers, what picture do you get in your head? Did you picture a Deaf astronaut? An Autistic animal scientist? An engineer with a learning disability? At Par Excellence STEM Academy, we are trying to change the perception of what a scientist or engineer is. …

Ohio Academy of Science inspiring students, building STEM skills in Ohio

In 2022, Angie McMurry from the Ohio Academy of Science got a chance to work with some students from Northridge, a suburb of Dayton that had been horribly ravaged by tornadoes in 2019. It was another instance for the OAS director of programs to witness the power of believing in students and giving them opportunities to succeed. McMurray was able to connect with students through a STEM entrepreneurship program made possible through a grant from …

Hawkins STEMM Academy piloting Zero Barriers strategies for inclusion in STEM

‘They have an imagination just like any other child’ For Monica Cornell, the work with Zero Barriers team is a welcome affirmation of how she has been teaching the 11 students in her “self-contained” elementary classroom at Hawkins STEMM Academy, a public school, in Toledo. Each of Cornell’s 11 students, who range from second to fifth grade, has some type of learning or intellectual disability and the Zero Barriers framework that focuses on STEM learning …

Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative

STEM Bicycle Club Offers Students STEM Experience & Much More Getting a bike with a bow on it for a special holiday is, of course, magical for children; and the many organizations who do this are to be commended. The Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative takes a different approach. For the last 10 years, through its STEM Bicycle Club program, the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative has been teaching children how to build bicycles, supplying them with …

Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative

STEM Bicycle Club Gave Student Confidence, Skills, Friends, Purpose Albert Einstein compared riding a bike to life: “To keep balanced, you must keep moving forward.” Isaiah Boulware, now 19, was only 12 years-old when he joined the STEM Bicycle Club, an initiative launched by the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative. Boulware’s science teacher at Newport Middle School in Cincinnati thought he might be interested in the Bike Club where students learn how to build, repair and …

Global STEM Academy Focuses Heavily on Agriculture, Bio Sciences, and Food Sciences to Solve Real-World Issues

Learning is Designed to be Relevant, Hands-on and Engaging Joshua Jennings says he was never a good student when he was in school. He remembers staring out windows and wishing he were anywhere except stuck in a classroom. Today, as the superintendent and founding director of the Global Impact Academy in Springfield, Jennings works hard to ensure that the 700 students who attend the independent STEM school have opportunities to be outside of classrooms, free …

Happy students sitting and studying outdoors while talking.

Elida High School Students Use Virtual Reality & Real-Life Entrepreneurship in STEM journeys.

Mark Suter knows hands-on experience, combined with the freedom to “play” engages students in all subjects, especially STEM. At Elida High School, students are using virtual reality (VR), and real-world entrepreneurship, to apply STEM learning in new and rewarding ways. Suter, a computer science teacher at Elida, finds the best way to get students excited about STEM learning is through “trust” and “play” “They’re going to make mistakes, and when they do, there aren’t grade …

Changing Education Is Possible

NORTH RIDGEVILLE – Melissa Durkin, principal of Ranger High Tech Academy and the STEM coordinator for the North Ridgeville high school, recognizes that education is plagued with inertia. “A lot of people don’t think it’s possible to change education,” Durkin said. “I am proof that it is possible.” Durkin’s path from traditional classroom teacher to her current perch as a leader and driver of innovation was paved with questions, persistence, and true stamina. Ranger High …

A Few Words Loom Large: Lessons from a Father

At a school just outside of Columbus, the principal sits at her desk with a sign looming large behind her. The sign reads, “Be Genuine, Be Interesting.” Judy Hoban, the principal of Tree of Life Christian Schools, Polaris, explained that those framed words were the last comments her father made to her. Hoban’s father, John Halford, died in 2014 and for the last eight years, she has worked to live by those words in all …

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