Dawn Asay, a fifth-grade teacher at St. Edmond Catholic School, received the STEM Scale Up award from the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council for the 2017-18 school year.

The council is comprised of leaders in higher education, business, PK-12 educators, and government officials at both state and local levels.

Making STEM Connections is a teaching curriculum supplement developed in conjunction with the Science Center of Iowa and aimed at students in grades one through eight.

Making STEM Connections brings the “Maker Movement” into the classroom. Students explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) principles and 21st Century skills by designing and creating, i.e., making. The program enhances science curricula with hands-on, minds-on applications and allows teachers to develop a maker’s space in their classrooms. It includes teacher training on tool usage and safety, as well as lesson prompts and non-fiction resources.

MSC is both a literal and figurative toolkit that enables students to use a variety of tools for assembling and deconstructing projects and apply principles of the scientific method.

This first project, Ugly Monsters, is a way to practice following directions while being introduced to some of the tools and equipment that will be available to the students.