TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Independent School District celebrated National STEM Day with an out of this world celebration that brought together students, staff, families, and community partners from across the district for “To STEMfinity and Beyond,” an event that highlighted STEM related opportunities in TISD Wednesday night (November 8).
The event was held at Kennedy-Powell Elementary School, the district’s STEM Academy, and featured thirty activity stations hosted by more than sixty student and staff volunteers from across TISD. With a name like “To STEMfinity and Beyond,” the event naturally featured space related projects like bottle rockets and galaxy-themed projects, but there were also a variety of other content areas such as robotics and coding and make and take stations that allowed families to create their own STEM related projects. There was also one hallway devoted to showcasing student created STEM projects from schools throughout Temple ISD. Temple High School’s Cyber Cats cybersecurity team and Catalyst Games club were also on hand to highlight student created video games and cybersecurity competitions. The main focus of the evening may have been on science, technology. engineering and math, but participating teachers are also hopeful that families and students learned more about the connections between STEM, literacy, and other educational opportunities.
“STEM is so much more than only science, technology, engineering and math; it can be experienced in all subject areas,” Kayla DeBacker, STEM Lab Teacher at Kennedy-Powell Elementary said. “STEM provides critical thinking and problem-solving skills that span to real-life experiences. Through these hands-on learning lessons, students walk away with tools and unique opportunities that STEM to life-long skills.”
The event also featured community partners Meta, Temple College, and the Civil Air Patrol. Meta has donated money and resources to assist Temple ISD in expanding its STEM programs and Temple College also partnered with the district on a summer STEM camp earlier this year. Participants could try out flight simulators, Oculus virtual reality goggles, VEX Robotics, or even gaze at the stars through telescopes provide by school astronomy clubs.
“Temple ISD has been blessed to partner with Meta to provide students with STEM resources to enrich learning,” Kennedy-Powell Elementary Principal Jill Owen said. “We are using National STEM Day as an opportunity to showcase these resources and provide families with opportunities to explore them together at this event. Kennedy-Powell has worked with teachers from across the district to provide fun and engaging space-themed projects for families to choose from and do together.”
Wednesday’s event was also an extension of the “Spring Into STEM” event TISD sponsored in back in April. The spring event was more staff driven, while Wednesday’s showcase involved more student led activities and stations. The reinforcement of STEM learning across campuses provides an opportunity to increase emphasis on STEM and inspire the design and implementation of high-quality and future-ready learning experiences fundamental to TISD’s goals. The district’s master plan for expanding its STEM program includes a five-year schedule of initiatives incorporating all TISD campuses.
“Temple ISD’s STEM initiative strives to support student achievement, build and sustain community connections, and facilitate opportunities for students to solve real-world problems to prepare for future career opportunities,” Ashley Jones, director of digital learning for Temple ISD said. “TISD’s National STEM Day showcase celebrates our students’ work internalizing the Engineering Design Process and connecting it to real-world issues and experiences. This event is also a collaboration of teachers and staff from across the district, as well as educational partners that have provided opportunities to enhance STEM programs in the district.”